An Introduction to Night Photography. By Alister Benn

Transcription

1 An Introduction to Night Photography By Alister Benn

2 INTRODUCTION Have you ever looked at a photograph taken at night and been simply blown away by the beauty of it: the colours, the clarity, the surreal interaction of our familiar landscape with the vastness of space that surrounds us? Have you ever said to yourself - I wish I could take images like that? Well, you ve found the right place. In this introductory ebook, it is my intention to share the essential techniques to help you get started and make your own exceptional images of the world around you - In the Dark... I have taught people to do this from China to Nepal and from Spain to Switzerland, and never once has the person failed to amaze themselves with the results possible once they follow some straightforward and easy to learn techniques. After a generic introduction of what Available Night Light is, we ll look at the essential equipment required, then move on to how to focus, compose and expose. Then, with worked examples, look at the three main starting blocks of night photography and set you some initial challenges. If you are new to Night Photography, it can really help to take your time with stages and progress through them as you gain experience and confidence. HAVE FUN, and be safe. Alister Benn 2011 Available Light Images The Author at 5000m on his way to Mt Kailash on the Tibetan Plateau. Available Light Images Ltd represents the Photography & Writing of Alister Benn and Juanli Sun. Tours, Workshops, ebooks & Videos - All images and text by Alister Benn. Please do not copy and distribute this product. If you want to use this ebook for students in a Tutorial/Workshop, a separate copy should be purchased for each student. Contact Alister with any inquiries - alister@availablelightimages.com Available Light Images.com Page 2

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 - Available Night Light What is Available Light? Light Pollution Moonlight Light Painting 2 - Equipment 3 - Focusing, Composing & Exposing Focusing Composing Exposing 4 - Detailed Examples - The Bag of Tools Introduction Bright Nights - Stars as points The 500 Rule Infinity Focus Bright Nights - Short Star Trails High ISO Test Shot Less moon - Long Star Trails 5 - Summary What next? Page Interactive Menu - click on a topic or page number to jump Space is BIG... The 7000m peak in Tibet gives a sense of scale. f2.8 ISO 24mm Page 3

4 Midnight Banff NP, Alberta, Canada f6.3 ISO 100 This was my very first night shot, the beginning of my passion. I had no idea what I was doing and there are plenty of mistakes, But it was a start... Page 4

5 Part 1 - Available Night Light Run to light from shadow Sun gives me no rest Promise offered in the east Broken in the west Chase the sun around the world I want to look at life In the Available Light These are the words that spin through my mind on any walk in the mountains, by sparkling rivers or under the dappled kisses of an ancient forest. Whether I have a camera in my hand or not, I feel light, I think about light and I love available light. GOLDEN RULE 1 Night Photography and Daytime Photography are very similar, it all about the available light. What is Available Light? All photographs need some light for you to take them. Open the shutter with the lens cap on for as long as you want, and there will be a black frame waiting for you at the end. At night, our main light source, the sun, is hidden; we re on the dark side of the earth. But there are varying degrees of dark, and here are some of the main factors involved. LIGHT POLLUTION MOONLIGHT LIGHT PAINTING Moon & Castle Lake Geneva, Switzerland 17mm ISO 200 Available Light, moon, twilight and floodlights. Page 5

6 1: Light Pollution - This is what purists call the light from cities, towns or any man made light source. It s not always a bad thing. If you are in the middle of London or New York and you look up on a clear night, you will see a few stars. These are the brightest of the stars visible with the naked eye. The further you get from any man made lights, and the higher you get, the more stars you will see. Not all stars are the same brightness, and you see the fainter ones only on the darkest nights far from human settlement or industry. GOLDEN RULE 2 Throw away any preconceptions about what is right or wrong in photography - If you love the end result and viewers do too, its a success. Start by pleasing yourself! I have a more relaxed attitude to light pollution than some, and if, for some reason I can t avoid it, and feel I have a good composition, man made lights will not prevent me from trying to get a good image. Be warned however, if you want dark skies without any man made pollution, you will have to get a long way from the nearest towns and cities. The bigger the metropolis, the further away from it you need to get. There are many variables such as humidity, altitude and weather that will determine how far away from human habitation you need to be, but be prepared to travel quite a way. Up to 150 miles (240Km) from a major metropolitan area of 1 million plus and even 25 miles (40Km) from a smaller town. In Bed With the Enemy Asturias, Spain 15mm ISO 640 Light Pollution isn t always a bad thing... Page 6

7 2: Moonlight - Next to the sun, the moon is the next brightest object in the sky, but every day of the month is different, and going out when there is no moon will give you very different results from when it is a full moon. And of course, the whole range in between. GOLDEN RULE 3 There is more to successful images than luck - planning when to be out goes a long way towards it. It is fair to say that there is no more important factor in Night Photography than the Moon. A full understanding of its phases, locations of rising and setting, how high it gets in the sky (zenith) etc, are all vital in planning and executing successful night images. Moonlight can, in some ways, also be categorized as Light Pollution, as it affects how many stars will be picked up by the camera sensor. The light get s scattered by the atmosphere, and the bigger the moon, the less stars you will see. Moonlight is your best friend when you want lots of foreground details, and your worst enemy when you want to capture billions of stars. In addition to examining the effects of the moon on star and landscape photographs, we will also look at images that contain the moon in them, as a subject. Dhaulagiri from Poon Hill Nepal 24mm ISO 320 Not quite enough DOF, but the moonlight was magnificent. Page 7

8 3: Light Painting - This is now a very popular technique where you use a flashlight or any other light source to paint in light where you may need it, particularly in the foreground. Helping to balance exposures. The idea behind the technique is that you use a head torch, or flash to add light where you need it, and there is a big difference between getting it right and getting it wrong. On a super dark night, setting off flashes to flash the foreground will rarely look natural or balanced - it helps if there is some natural light for your foreground, and you use fill light to help it along. In many ways, the situations where you think it will be most easy, can prove the most difficult. I prefer to aim for a subtle effect, where there can be some doubt even if Light painting was used at all. Of course, they are your images, and you can do what you like, and painting with light opens doors to limitless creativity and expression, with many Night Specialists making a living doing little else but this technique. This can be considered an Advanced Technique, and is not covered in this ebook. Painted Fire Asturias, Spain 3 exposures blended in Photoshop. The foreground light painted with my head torch and the white balance changed to match the rest of the scene. Page 8

9 Into Thin Air Ama Dablam, Everest, Nepal 17 f4 ISO 400 At nearly 5000m everything slows down, the light is perfect, the moon is high. Heaven for night photographers. Page 9

10 Part 2 - Equipment This guide has been written for people using a DSLR with a BULB shooting mode. I taught a female trekker on Everest to do night shots with her point and shoot balanced on a stone wall - but let s make life easy for ourselves... Chances are if you own a DSLR you already have 90% of the tools required to take brilliant night images. Here is a list of the essential items that I will refer to throughout this guide. 1: A DSLR with BULB mode and a CF card! - Yes, I have arrived to shoot on occasion without a CF card (once without a camera) - always check your gear before you leave home! 8: Head torch with spare battery, or backup flashlight - These are essential items for security reasons first and foremost. You may walk up a track from the trail head in late evening light, finding your way back in the dark is not always straightforward. 9: Warm clothes, food and a hot drink - Even in the desert it can get damned cold in the middle of the night. SURVIVAL and SAFETY are vitally important. Mobile Phone. 10: Some company - Many people can spend a night out on their own, others cannot. Having someone along helps with companionship and security. Someone you like is a bonus :-) 2: A lens - Sounds obvious, but think about what type of lens you want to have with you. Any focal length can work - but I would say is a typical range. Wider Aperture lenses like f2.8 and wider are best, but f4- f5.6 lenses are fine too. 3: Sturdy Tripod - Exposures of 30 seconds through to 2-3 hours are common in low light. Even Zen monks cannot stay still for that long. Windy nights are tough on night photography - a sturdy tripod, out the wind is best for sharp images. 4: Remote Cable Release - Essential kit, the ones with a timer are the most versatile. 5: Mirror Lock-up - Not essential, but can help to reduce vibration and increase sharpness. Remember to click the release twice. 6: At least one fully charged battery - Night photography, especially on a cold night can be tough on batteries. Start with a full one. 7: Flash-shoe bubble level - It can be very difficult to level your camera at night. Remote cable releases with built in timers. Pretty much essential for Moderate to Advanced Night Photography. Page 10

11 Solid Air Asturias Coast, Spain f5 ISO 200 Night Photography is not all about the stars, with a bright moon, the whole world can become an abstract. Page 11

12 Part 3 - Focusing, Composing & Exposing These are the three things that most people see as the hard part of night photography - they re not, although if you want to make things difficult you can, but you don t have to. Focusing a camera at night Few people truly value how much experience plays in successful photography. Once you have done something once or twice, it gets easier. Once you have done something a hundred times, it becomes second nature. GOLDEN RULE 4 Give yourselves realistic goals and objectives as you learn night photography, don t expect to be an expert after your first attempt. Typical things I use are The Moon, a distant house or source of light, a flashlight held by someone else for you ay 5-10m away. The moon and distant light sources are effectively Infinity Focus, which is fine if you don t have anything too close to the lens in the composition. Most often, I use the flashlight method, because I can use that for Hyper focal Distance focusing, giving me maximum depth of field at my selected aperture. A time comes in all landscape photographers lives when you have to study hyper focal distance, what it means and how to use it. Now is not that time :-) Google it. NOTE - Many people who write about night photography advocate manual focusing. I do not believe modern auto focus lenses are suited to this, and it relies to some extent on being able to see what you re focusing on. AF on a flashlight - it works every time. You only have two things to think about - How dark is it? How close is the nearest object in the frame you want to be sharp? Beginners - Make it easy for yourself until you get used to it. Start out on nights at or near full moon. Things are just so much easier when you can see what you re doing. Don t try to take shots where you want very close foreground details sharp. Try more broad landscapes first. I always use the AF (Auto Focus) on my camera, but you need to give your camera something very bright to focus on. Available Light f7.1 ISO 112mm Focus with longer lenses becomes more critical as depth of field reduces Page 12

13 Composing at night Composition is a vital component of successful images, by day, or by night. Your image should have a Subject - and the same rules, conventions and guidelines apply. Please do not believe that just because the shot is at night that it is instantly amazing. Take time to fine-tune your compositions as you would during the day. GOLDEN RULE 5 Check your composition with a short, high ISO exposure BEFORE you commit to opening the shutter for an hour. 30 seconds at 6400 ISO can tell you many things - if it is level, exposed, well-composed, things you were unaware of in the frame that ruin the composition etc The biggest struggle we face is getting enough depth of field at night. Taking a traditional landscape image with a close foreground receding into the distance is a challenge at night, and is reserved for the more Advanced material later on. As you take your first shots at night, make your life as easy as possible and take wider images with less depth of field - you will be happier with the results and be encouraged by them. There is no substitute for familiarity with an area, knowing where you are, understanding the location and it s compositions. Places where I am familiar with, allows me to wait for specific conditions to take specific shots. Moon phases, tides, seasons, all things you just have to wait for, and dream. Between Sun & Moon Asturias, Spain f14 ISO 22mm 2 exposures blended in Photoshop. This image was taken over an hour after sunset, the light can linger a very long time. Page 13

14 Exposing at night Digital cameras have opened up night photography for everyone, the histogram tells you instantly if your shot is too underexposed - overexposure is less of a problem. It is easy to underexpose night shots - in the darkness, with your eyes pupils wide open, the light from your preview on the back of your camera glows in the darkness, looking perfect. All too often, when you get it back to your computer, you can find it is, in fact, seriously underexposed. GOLDEN RULE 6 The light meter in your camera does not work at night, ignore it. Use the histogram! Problems with Underexposure The main one is NOISE - as you increase the exposure in the RAW file, noise comes up in the shadows, and basically ruins your shot. Night shots, by definition, contain lots of shadows. The Solution - Shoot when there is more light - go out on nights with at least SOME moon. On a totally black night a one hour exposure will give you lots of great star trails, but NO foreground detail (assuming there is no artificial light). If you double that, and do 2 hours. The star trails will be twice as long, and you will still have NO foreground detail. As you would expect from ONE STOP increase in exposure. GOLDEN RULE 7 Moonbow & the Dragon Lijiang, Yunnan, China f2.8 ISO 80mm The setting moon produces a wild rainbow at 3000m in the eastern Himalaya. Exposure is all about working with the Available Light. The best nights for night photography are when the moon is in the middle of its phase; First quarter, through full to the third quarter. If you want to shoot in the Dark Half of the month, you need to learn about light painting and/or image stacking. Page 14

15 The Twilight Zone Asturias Coast, Spain 3 images manually blended Night Photography starts after the sun sets, long exposures during these twilight hours can produce dramatic lighting effects. Page 15

16 Part 4 - Detailed Examples - The Bag of Tools Introduction Photography is an expressive language, it is about telling stories, sharing emotions and communicating with others. The vast majority of Photography is techniques, the rest of your own creativity and feelings. All of these techniques can be learned, and everyone starts off as a beginner. You can work a lot of this out by trial and error, your own thinking and experimentation. The pages that follow are intended to get you on your way - firstly, by showing some of the things that are possible to do at night, and secondly, to provide you a bouncing board for your own work, much of which will be an inspiration to me too. The sharing of ideas, techniques and expression helps everyone. Techniques can be split into three sets - EASY MODERATE ADVANCED In this introductory ebook I will cover some of the essential, easy steps to get you started. If you have never tried night photography before, you will benefit from starting with the easier things first, graduating to the moderate and advanced techniques when you have gained some experience and confidence. Night Photography is a little harder than during the day, make your life easy by starting on well-lit nights, or in areas where there is some light pollution. Starting with a 4 hour stacked star trail with a light-painted foreground may lead to disappointment or no fingernails. :-) Mt Rundle, Banff NP. Canada f5 ISO 105mm Nearly Full Moon An example of a shot possible through learning the techniques in this introductory ebook; lots of moonlight, and an iconic location. Page 16

17 Bright Night - Stars as Points The first thing beginners want to do is take images of swirling star trails over a striking landscape - and that s great, we ll get to that very quickly. To start with, you should familiarise yourself with single exposures of landscapes with stars in them. The advantage of this as a learning tool is this... They don t take long - rarely more than 30 seconds. Learning and Experience Targets - Composing* Understanding Exposure* The 500 Rule Using Infinity Focus If you don t know what one or more of those Targets is, that is why we re starting at the beginning. Those marked with * we covered already. Suggested Exercise. Wait until around full moon (a day or two before or after is fine). The brighter conditions will help you to find your way around, focus and compose. Go somewhere you are already familiar with - no need to have an adventure tonight. Find a wide view composition, no near foreground. Stars as Points of Light The earth rotates, making the stars appear to move around the poles. They are not moving, we are. And to make sure they stay as points you need to know what is on the next page! AMA DABLAM Everest Region, Nepal f2.8 ISO 70mm 3 nights before Full Moon There is a tiny amount of movement in these star trails, but barely noticeable. Page 17

18 Bright Night - Stars as Points The 500 Rule Because of this rotation, the longer you keep the shutter open, the more the stars are going to appear to move, looking like smears, or streaks in your image, instead of nice sharp points. Your tolerance to this phenomenon is up to you and the final output medium. In a 600px web post, you wont see streaks as easily as on a 60 framed print. The Rule is this... Max Shutter Speed (TV) = 500/focal length 100mm -TV = 5 seconds 50mm - TV = 10 seconds 24mm - TV = seconds 16mm - TV = seconds It is obvious from this that the wider your lens, the longer you can keep the shutter open and still have sharp, pointy stars. On a bright moonlit night you should have no problem taking images in under 30 seconds that have lots of landscape detail and some of the brighter stars shining in the sky. Start with your 500 rule as a guide and adjust your ISO to get a good looking Histogram. Having it somewhat left of centre is not a problem, but make sure you re not going too dark Pages 15 & 16 show two examples using this technique. MEILI Tibetan Border, Yunnan, China f2.8 ISO 34mm As you can see, snow is much more reflective than dark forest. Other surfaces like surf and white sand are equally friendly to night photographers. Dark surfaces are more challenging, but lend themselves to silhouettes. INFINITY FOCUS Both shots in this section were taken using the easiest method of focus. 1 - Decide on your composition and fix your focal length 2 - Turn ON AF - point centre sensor at the moon and focus 3 - Turn OFF AF 4 - Re-compose, making sure you don t touch the focus ring. 5 - You are now ready to take your shot. Page 18

19 Mt Rundle, Banff NP, Alberta 3.2 f4.5 ISO 350 Infinity Focus on moon Page 19

20 Bright Night - Short Star Trails Learning and Experience Targets - Longer focal lengths Stars in Compositions High ISO Test Shot Long Exposure Noise Reduction On bright nights with lots of moonlight, the number of visible stars if very much reduced, particularly in the direction of the moon. If you shoot with the moon at your back however, you will still pick up nice star numbers. The biggest problem is overexposing the landscape, looking like the shot was taken during the day. Using a single exposure on a bright night, it is not possible to take long star trails. (For this you have to using Stacking). Simple equation - Short Exposure Time = Short Star Trails The Solution - you use a longer focal length. Simply magnifying the scene makes the stars appear to move further. The shot on the right was just 10 minutes long, and already at a focal length of 78mm the trails are a respectable length. Stars in Compositions Composition is one of the core components of successful images. A well thought out composition of an interesting graphic subject will engage most peoples attention. The human eye looks for order, shapes, patterns, relationships and balance. As soon as you start taking longer star trails, you are adding a hugely significant compositional element to your frame. Yading NP, Sichuan, China f5.6 ISO 78mm On a bright night, snow lights up beautifully. You will not see this when you compose the image. Page 20

21 Bright Night - Short Star Trails This is less significant in short trails, but now is the time to get used to the concept that you are introducing something new into the mix. What is a High ISO Test Shot? As soon as you are thinking about opening the shutter for 10 minutes or more, you are going to invest a lot of time into your images. On a cold night, waiting 10 minutes, then another 10 minutes for the Long Exposure Noise Reduction to take effect is a long time if your shot is dreadfully underexposed. You have just wasted 20 minutes. You have only 3 variables to worry about, and they are all linear and connected. What to do - GOLDEN RULE 8 Be aware of the how your star trails are going to interact with your composition. You have to use your imagination. APERTURE SHUTTER SPEED ISO Focus at infinity, point the camera on your tripod in the general direction you intend to shoot. Set the aperture at f4 and an ISO of about Open the shutter for 30 seconds and review the preview and the histogram. If it is still too dark, try ISO6400 and see how that looks. Focus - check for sharpness and your depth of field. Exposure - You now have a benchmark to work from Composition - Check your composition in 30 seconds! ISO 6400 = 1 ISO 100 If your ISO 6400 frame is well-exposed, you know you can shoot for an hour and the shot will be fine. If it is sharp and well-composed you re virtually guarantee a decent shot after your 2 hour wait. Long Exposure Noise Reduction Should you use it, yes or no? Sadly, there is no definite answer. Cameras vary in their ability to handle noise, some will deal with an hour with no problems, others will show a lot of noise in 10 minutes. Mostly, these days, I do not use it. Programs like Lightroom 3 and Adobe Camera RAW can handle noise very well. If you expose your images well, the noise will be reduced, as the biggest cause of digital noise is underexposure. If you do use it, you have to be aware that your camera is out of action for the DOUBLE the duration of the exposure. Solution - Have a backup body. While one is processing the dark frame reduction, you can shoot with the other one. :-) Now, we can move on to the swirly star trails... This achieves a number of very valuable results for you, that you can then use to plan the rest of your shoot. Page 21

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23 Less Moon - Long Star Trails This genre probably represents what most photographers think of when we mention star trails. For me, things get interesting in this area at shutter speeds of around an hour. The image of page 22 was taken in 1 f4 ISO 14m The Long Exposure check list - Camera with BULB mode and a CF card Fully charged battery Cable release Sturdy Tripod An Interesting Composition Between a Quarter and a Half Moon (not full for this) Use Infinity Focus on the moon Recompose and do a HIGH ISO test Shot Work out your exposure time at a wider aperture and lower ISO Check Sharpness and Composition Set the camera in BULB mode at chosen aperture Make sure it is LEVEL If you can close the eye-piece DO SO, if not, cover it with a cloth Check AF is OFF If Mirror lock up is ON, make sure you press the shutter TWICE Lock the shutter open with your CABLE RELEASE keep your eye on your watch. Don t be afraid to leave the shutter open longer than you estimated. Over-exposure at night with less than half a moon is rare. Stand around watching the stars, think about Life, the Universe & Everything. Keep warm, drink coffee, chocolate etc, read a book, listen to music, phone a friend. And that s the start... Summary Part of the joy and occasional frustration of night photography is the unpredictably. Among such variables as the size of the moon, it s altitude over the horizon, the amount of cloud cover, proximity to a man made light source; be that a city, factory, or even a busy road, humidity, altitude and temperature, ALL affect the exposure of your images. To give any guidelines to me seems futile. After a few nights out, you ll get a feel for how your camera copes where you are - how long the batteries last, how much noise your sensor generates, and just as importantly, how you cope. Get yourself prepared, have a plan, take a some company and enjoy the Art of Available Night Light. Where to go from here? This is only the start of Night Photography techniques - as conditions get tougher, with less available light, more challenging compositions, or even worse, too much available light! The techniques required to take wild images become more complex. Seeing the Unseen - How to Photograph Landscapes at Night. Published in March 2012, this e-book is the complete guide to night photography. Delving into the subject in far greater detail and covering a wealth of techniques and inspirational images. Visit for more details. Page 23

24 Photography Tours & Workshops Each year Alister Benn offers a very limited number of Photography Tours & Workshops. With typically 2-4 participants, their aim is to provide truly focused learning opportunities in some fabulous locations. ICELAND SCOTLAND SPAIN TIBET Check the website for current locations and availability Page 24

25 ebook & Video by Alister Benn Since writing this Introduction to NIght Photography all those years ago, Alister Benn has written extensively on a number of topics relating to photography. Check out all the available titles at the website, along with some recommendations for excellent products by other world-renowned photographers. Page 25

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