essential skills: digital photography in available light
Night photography
One of the best times to take night photographs is not in the middle of the night but at dusk,
before the sky has lost all of its light. The remaining light at this time of day helps to delineate the
buildings and trees from the night sky.
Night photography is often seen as a technically demanding exercise. With a little extra equipment
and a little knowledge however the pitfalls can easily be avoided. Use a tripod to brace the
camera, a cable release to release the shutter (optional if using the self timer) and a fl ashlight to
set controls of the camera. Raising the ISO and the use of very long exposures (over 1 second)
can present ‘noise’ problems for prosumer cameras using smaller CCD sensors and some of the
budget DSLRs.
Using the camera’s meter and histogram to calculate exposure
Set the camera to manual exposure mode. Frame part of the scene where the artifi cial lights will
not overly infl uence the meter (avoid lights directed towards the camera and/or in the centre of the
frame). If the reading is off the meter’s scale try opening the aperture (‘stopping up’) or extending
the shutter speed to establish a reading. Review the preliminary exposures using the camera’s LCD
screen and histogram. Bracket several exposures using the shutter speed. This will allow you to
merge separate exposures using Photoshop’s merge to HDR feature if the contrast exceeds the
latitude or dynamic range of the sensor.
ACTIVITY 7
Create an image at an urban location during the twilight hour. Bracket your exposures.
Create an image where the twilight delineates the buildings and trees from the night sky.
Discuss your technique and the resulting communication.Michael Wennrich