Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

Remember to visit http://www.pwassignments.com after you complete the assignment and

share your favorite photo! It’s a community of enthusiastic photographers and a great

place to view what other readers have created. You can also post comments and read

encouraging suggestions and feedback.

Assignment

Use a very long shutter speed to capture a night scene

Preparation is key to getting great photos when capturing long exposures at night, which is
exactly what you need to do to complete this assignment. One of the most important parts of
this preparation is getting the right location and composition before it’s too dark. That way, you
can see where you are setting up the tripod as well as what will be in your scene. At times you
will have to visualize what the scene will be like after the sun has set. For this image I wanted to
capture the clouds over the ocean with the lit up pier in the background. I used a 118-second
exposure at f/10 and ISO 200 to get the look I wanted. The clouds are slightly blurred showing
the movement during the 118 second exposure.

There are some basic guidelines that apply to all landscape photography, not just photos that are
taken in low light or at night:

■   Make sure you have a subject. Just taking a photo at night doesn’t make it great, so make

sure that there is a clear subject.

■   Consider the sky, even at night. Most of the time, a clear sky is a boring sky. When you have

a bland, boring sky, change the focus of the image and make the foreground the focus by
placing the horizon line one-third down from the top of the frame.

■   Change the point of view. This could mean getting lower and shooting across the scene or

getting a different vantage point and shooting down on the scene.

■   Shoot using the RAW file type. Using the RAW file type makes it easier to correct any

unwanted colorcasts in postproduction.