Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

The shutter speeds are related to each other in a

very important way. Each time you double the

shutter speed, you let in exactly twice as much

light, and each time you halve the shutter speed,

you let in exactly half as much light. Night and

low-light photography uses both extremes when

it comes to picking shutter speeds. Many times,

fast shutter speeds are needed to freeze the action,

while at other times, very long shutter speeds are

needed to gather as much light as possible.

to capturing light trails because instead of freezing
the subject in one place, you capture the move-
ment of the subject. Take, for example, Figure
2-6, where the 25-second shutter speed allowed
the fireworks to render as solid lines of light
instead of just points of light.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO

The nightly fireworks display

from SeaWorld in San Diego

makes it easy to photograph

fireworks every night, not just

at special events, and shooting

them at the water’s edge cre-

ated the reflections seen here.

Taken at 25 seconds, f/16, and

IS0 200.

2-6

Your camera may have a setting for

long exposure noise reduction.

While it is useful when taking long exposures, it does

mean that you have to wait between photos. So it is

not great when shooting fireworks or other events

where you don’t or can’t wait between photos.

note