Night photos are considered to be among the most difficult to take. To take them well, you need the right features in your camera and some skills as a photographer. Learn some important tips to help you take good night photos.
Low light is a challenge for any photographer and equipment. Whether with a modern DSLR, a digital compact camera, or a smartphone, the photographer needs to make certain adjustments to make a successful night shot. When shooting at night, it is easy to have noise, blur, and lack of sharpness in your photos. You can read about what you should know when photographing at night below.
Nowadays, the most commonly used digital camera is the one built into your smartphone, so this is the point we will focus on first.
Most cameras in modern smartphones come with manual settings. These allow you to adjust the camera to the non-standard outdoor conditions in which you take the photo. If your smartphone has manual settings like night mode and Pro + RAW, it means you can experiment with taking photos at night.
This is the easiest way to take better photos at night. Therefore, if your smartphone has it, it is definitely worth trying out this feature. It comes with some advantages that will definitely be appreciated by those who prefer not to experiment too much with camera settings.
Both a DSLR and a smartphone camera share some basic manual settings that affect the quality of the photos you take. If you want to take better pictures at night, you definitely need to pay attention to these parameters.
When taking night photos, the problem is the scarcity of light. Therefore, to remedy this, we need to set a longer exposure time, or exposure duration, in the camera. The greater the value of this parameter, the brighter the picture will be.
This is another important parameter when taking pictures at night – it can significantly affect the quality of the picture. Setting a high value for this parameter can help you take better pictures at night. Keep in mind, however, that this is not the case with every piece of equipment. Some digital cameras do not handle high ISO sensitivity well. The most common problem that can occur when using high sensitivity is noise.
To take a good picture at night, it will certainly help to immobilize the camera on a stable surface. Hand-held pictures taken at night may work well with the night mode turned on, but if you have higher requirements for the image, it is definitely worth equipping yourself with a tripod, a mount or a support.
A stable base and immobilization of the camera will allow us to keep the photo in focus and expose it well. Having one of the above tools, after setting a longer exposure mode, we do not have to worry about blurring in the picture.
When taking pictures at night, it is definitely worth it to set this parameter manually. It concerns the hue of colors appearing in the picture (contrary to what you might think, it is not only white, but in the case of this color it is most visible). By adjusting the white balance (WB) we can correct unnatural color casts in the photo. This can be caused by the light of a light bulb, for example.
main photo: unsplash.com/Paolo NicolelloHire
