10 Tips For Better Night Photography

The secrets to getting great shots at night are revealed

By Rob Sheppard, Photography by Rob Sheppard

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10 Tips For Better Night Photography

Night photography is one of those aspects of photography that always gets attention. People love to see night scenes—that mysterious mix of ambient light and city lights. The challenge is to compose them well. Night photos used to be difficult to capture with film (though film still shines for super-long night exposures) because of exposure problems. Night exposures can be hard enough to deal with anyway, but in addition, film had something called reciprocity failure. This meant that film lost sensitivity with long exposures.

You always had to compensate for this reciprocity failure by increasing exposure by two, three or even four times the expected exposure from a meter reading. You’d end up doing 10-second, 20-second and 40-second bracketed shots, and even then, hope for the best.

Digital changes all that. Reciprocity failure is no longer an issue. Plus, you can now use your histogram and LCD review to be sure you’re getting the photo you expect. Exposure is still a challenge because of the high contrast of night, but it’s now more manageable.

Digital cameras actually make night photography a lot of fun. You can experiment with color by changing white balance, trying different exposures, adding flash and so on, then see the results instantly on the LCD. Let’s look at 10 tips to make your night photography more effective.

1. Start With Auto Exposure
Most digital cameras can handle bright night scenes that have a lot of lights, such as a city street or a lit building. The challenge, though, is that the bright lights and large areas of black may (or may not) over-influence your meter—this can be hard to predict. It’s worth starting with the auto exposure, then making adjustments to it after seeing how conditions are affecting your exposure. Check your histogram.

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