# Manaheim's Ultimate Guide to Night Photography



## manaheim

In an act of ultimate concession, I post this here... (if you don't know what that means, don't ask) 
I have mentioned a number of times about how I tend to shoot and re-shoot images until I feel I have gotten them right. What's more is I have mentioned I tend to be a bit of a night photography addict. I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences here, and perhaps even make it a bit of a night photography guide.

*NOTE: *This is an _evolutionary _lesson process. In other words, you are not only going to get the tips, but you're going to see my utter failures as I personally went through this process of learning. The only photo I really consider acceptable in this whole thread is the last one. The rest are painful. 

Now the main subject of this particular disseration will be my quest to obtain a good Boston skyline... however, I have taken a great many night photography images leading up to even the first skyline picture I took, and with each of these came a different special lesson.

*Lesson 0 : A Word (or more) on Composition
*Keep in mind that the rest of this article focuses _entirely_ on technical aspects of getting a night shot, but there is one key element which you must keep in mind all the time... it's still a photograph, it's still art, and therefore composition is still the most important thing. People often times get so excited that they nailed the technical parts that they consider a poorly composed shot a masterpiece. Don't fall into this trap.

Keep in mind the elements you have to play with in night photography. Obviously, dramatic light is a big part of it, but try to think about how to stitch the elements of a scene together in a way that works artistically. Sometimes thinking of the picture as more of an abstract painters canvas is a good way to approach it.

Beyond that, consider that some subjects simply don't work at all artistically for night photography. Accepting that a subject is poor is an important step when growing as a night photographer.

Ok, onto the easier stuff. 

*Lesson 1 : Get a Tripod
*Night photography tends to be about taking longer than usual exposures (often 30 seconds and sometimes up to hours), and that means you are going to need a *tripod*. It is possible to use other stabilization methods, like setting your camera on a railing, or even on a sturdy unmoving bag of some kind, but a *tripod* is going to be relatively key. Fortunately I figured this one out before I tried to take any pictures so I don't have any examples of real boner shots with no tripod, but if you'd like to see the effect, go outside at night near a traffic light and take a 2 second exposure while moving the camera, and you'll see what I mean.  

*Lesson 2 : I Can't seeeee you!!* 
When you are taking a relatively long exposure, you can actually step directly into the line of the camera's view, and even move around with relatively no chance of the camera actually "seeing" you... just so long as no part of you happens to be close to as bright as the object that is illuminated enough for the camera to see and/or you don't stand in the same source of light for as long as the camera would need to expose it.

For example, we traced this Audi S4 using cycalume light sticks and an LED keychain light by walking in front of the car and moving the light around with our hand. I probably crossed in front of this car no less than 5 times. 







This gives you all kinds of fun possibilities, light creating floating heads behind tombstones and such. Good times, good times. 

Here is an example where a PART of me was visible when taking the shot, because the sparkler was so bright and beautifully illuminated my pasty white legs.






*Lesson 3 : Flash
*For the most part, flash is not worth your time. Many of your subjects will be too far off for the flash to do any good. That being said, there may be times when you want to spot illuminate a particular part of the frame or give a bit of a fill light to the foreground with a dark city skyline in the background or something. Just understand that the flash is going to be very powerful and can easily screw up a shot, so be careful with it.

Sometimes the results can be disastrous:






Which brings us to our next lesson, which is...

*Lesson 4 : Don't Make Embarrassing Poses and Faces if You're Not Totally sure the Flash is Off
*Need I say more?






Eh? Eh?  

*Lesson 5 : Shoot RAW, Shoot RAW, Shoot RAW
*I cannot stress this enough. Did I mention shoot RAW? Shoot RAW.
When you are shooting in the night the colors of the light sources that will be in your shot will tend to vary significantly. If you happen to be shooting with an incandescant street lamp nearby, guess what? You're going to have one heck of a yellow shot on your hands.






This is a non-issue if you happen to be shooting RAW as you can simply swing the color balance the other way with no loss of image quality. HOWEVER... if you shoot a JPEG, the camera is going to decide (upon recording) that "Hey! He didn't need all those extra colors and stuff, so I'm just going to toss all that detailed information (and detail) into the trash!" If the information isn't there, you will never be able to recover it.

Shoot RAW, shoot RAW, shoot RAW!

*Lesson 6 : Manual Focus
*Your camera needs light to be able to focus properly, and more of it than you would generally expect. What's more is that focusing aids light bulbs and laser grids will only be useful within a certain range. This will leave your camera blind and guessing in a lot of situations. If you look again at the shot above, you will see it is kind of out of focus (in addition to being hideously yellow)... this is because at the time I tried to focus on something my camera COULD see and then move the camera and take the shot. Needless to say, it didn't work. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to simply try to manually focus the thing, but... oops.

*Lesson 7 : Use a Remote Shutter Release
*Most cameras will support the use of a remote method of releasing the shutter. This is to say that you will be able to take the picture without physically touching the camera. Why? Because when you touch a camera (even on a tripod) it will shake. Now one alternative to this is to set a self-timer for 10-20 seconds before it releases the shutter, but this is *really* annoying, significantly slows down your process, *and* still runs the risk of causing your camera to shake. It really doesn't take much. By and large the remote release is the way to go.

*Lesson 8 : Expose to the Right
*(keeping in mind that we know you are shooting RAW, shooting RAW, shooting RAW)...
When shooting night photography it is very _very_ imporant to expose to the right... what this means is to slightly over-expose your image (thus shifting the resulting histogram "to the right"). This is critical because it will be sure to capture the details of all elements in your frame _including those elements that are in shadow_. You can then back the exposure down slightly to give the desired visual effect.

If you do _not_ do this, you will actually wind up with very dark portions of your frame that will look strange and dead in a picture. When you try to bring the picture up, you will find that you simply didn't capture the detail at all... in other words, that part of the image simply wasn't there. And you will wind up with a result very similar to my first attempt at a skyline:






Ouch. (And the scary thing was I thought this was amazing at the time.)  Horrid.

*Lesson 9: Manual Focus... to Infinity
*If you are shooting anything of any distance away, not only will you need to focus, but you will also need to manually focus to Infinity on your lens. Note that most lenses have a focus point of infinity actually marked on the lens and this is generally where you will expect the lens to be when you take your shot. The idea here is that if your lens focused properly, it would likely select this anyway... however, since your lens is fighting against the dark it may fail to focus and will wind up coming just short of where it needs to be. 
Be aware, however, that some lenses are mismarked, or may have sloppy focusing rings. You want to check AHEAD to be sure you have a true infinity marked on your lens and re-mark it if necessary. This brings us to our next lesson...

*Lesson 10 : Bring a Flashlight!
*You seriously need to make sure you have at least one flashlight and some spare batteries on hand. First of all, you'll be crawling around in the dark and this will be a safety element for you. Second of all, this will help you when you need to manually focus to infinity in the dark or make other changes to your camera settings.

*Lesson 11 : Check Your Pictures in the Field
*Be sure to check your image upon capture. Look at your histogram. Do you think you have it pushed to the right without going too far? How about that focus? Zoom in to 100% and examine the edges to make sure they're straight and true.

*Lesson 12 : Creating that Star Effect
*Ever noticed how some night pictures have a beautiful star around the bright light sources? Ever wonder how? Well, there are a few ways. One is to use a star filter, which is a nice trick since it allows you to select any aperture you like and take advantage of your lenses sweet spot. Another is to use a Photoshop filters (cheater!), and the last (and my preferred method) is to let your lens do the work for you.

Most lenses will create a star around bright light sources right around F8-F11. This is where the blades of the lens "pinch" down on the light, causing the light to refract and bend around the blades, creating the desired effect. Note that different lenses will have different results. The Sigma 10-20mm does a very admirable job as shown here:






Also notice that in this shot we have quite a bit more detail in the buildings because we exposed to the right. Still could be better though. This was trial 2 for this shot.

Here's 100% crop:






If you want absolutely insane star formations the typical 50mm 1.8 is the mac-daddy, and also happens to be crazy sharp, as seen here:






Keep in mind the cost of stopping down. Light refraction around the blades of the lens will happen everywhere, and your lens may not be at peak sharpness at F8-11. This is a matter of compromises. If you opt for this route, try to balance the strengths of your lens with the need for this effect.

Ok, so now using all of these methods, we come to my trial 3 for this skyline:






Hoo boy are we getting close. More detail in those buildings, the focus is looking pretty crisp, the stars are pretty good, etc. Still, though, I feel like I could do more.

*Lesson 14 : The Twillight Hour
*Every day for somewhere around 30-60 minutes is twillight. Twillight can be the most spectacular time of the day to take pictures because you get such dramatic lighting. What's more is that you can get what appear to be "true nighttime" pictures with wonderful amounts of detail because the subjects are still partially illuminated. All you need to do is back the light down a bit in post processing and away you go.

This particular shot (my most recent) was in the very last 10 minutes or so before it became TRULY dark. It is my trial 4 and my current "best".






_*Now is where we start to get into the hard-core stuff...
*_Do you have to do this stuff? Well... no... but every extra thing you do adds a couple points of technical value to your shot. If you want to really kill it... do these.
*Lesson 15 : Mirror Lock-Up
*Most cameras have the ability to lock the shutter in the "out of the way" position before taking the shot. This will marginally reduce camera shake to help you have an even steadier camera and thus a clearer sharper picture. (I did this in Trial 4)

*Lesson 16 : Avoid Windy Days
*While tripods are generally sturdy and heavy enough to not be overly affected by wind, certainly a total absence of wind is best. Also removing your camera strap is sometimes a good idea since the sucker will act as a bit of a sail in extreme conditions. This was (I believe) one problem with my Trial 4.

*Lesson 17 : Sandbag It!
*While truly truly extreme, you can place sandbags on the legs of your tripod to help steady it. Many tripods also have rings so you can attach a sandbag to them. I haven't tried this trick yet. 

*Lesson 18 : Multi-Shot Stitch
*This actually applies to more than night photography... but if you have a particular lens you want to use which is not wide enough to get your shot, or your particular lens is stronger when more zoomed in (and therefore would not get your shot), take multiple overlapping shots of the same subject (turning the camera on the tripod as you do) and then use Photoshop or other tools to stitch them together.

Ummm... Ok, I think that's it. Did I miss anything? 

Hope this is helpful.


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## GeorgieGirl

Helpful indeed! Thank You!!!


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## Robin Usagani

*ULTIMATE THREAD NEEDS ULTIMATE RESPONSE.  NICE JOB!*


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## Robin Usagani

I would add, use live view and manual focus instead of just saying to use manual focus.


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## manaheim

Schwettylens said:


> I would add, use live view and manual focus.



I actually hate live view, personally... oh and manual focus is in there.  #6. 

Thanks for the ultimate response.


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## Robin Usagani

Yeah, I know you put the manual focus.  You replied too soon lol.  Really?  I could never just manual focus with my eyes on night photography.  I have to use live view and sometimes even zoom in the live view while i focus.


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## Robin Usagani

Suggestion to add on #18.

When you stitch, you dont have to use LANDSCAPE orientation.  You could use portrait orientation so you will have more pixels vertically as well.  I personally use vertical orientation more on stitched images.


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## manaheim

hehe... _Generally_ I find that I'm shooting stuff that's far enough away that I can focus to infinity, and occasionally hyperfocus it a touch.  If something is closer, I'll either let AF take it (if it has enough light to get it right), or I'll take a shot and zoom into 100% and check it and adjust accordingly.


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## tirediron

Excellent post!  :thumbup:


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## PhotoTish

Brilliant!  Your act of ultimate concession is much appreciated.  Thanks :thumbup:


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## Compaq

The night vision is sort of essential in night photography, and so using a red lighted flashlight will damage the vision less than "normal" white light. Just a though.

And about the guide :hail:


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## c.cloudwalker

Very good thread but if it is to be the Ultimate Guide, here is another technique that, although I never used it for night photography, rather for no light photography such as in caves, could easily be used for some types of night photography.

So anyway, having no light at all, I used a powerful flashlight to focus with, a smaller one to mess with the camera without blinding myself and then a single fash unit. Depending on the size of the "room" I would be shooting, and what I was going for image wise, I would pop the flash from one to 12-15 times or whatever was needed with the camera in B mode.

Cheers.


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## snowbear

Fantastic job - thank you.
I have a question on #15 - shouldn't it be lock the mirror, instead of shutter?


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## manaheim

Good ideas, Compaq and cloud.

Snowbear... GOOD CATCH.  I totally missed that.  I'll fix it later.

Thanks to everyone for the comments.


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## iresq

Although every shot is unique, could you share your settings just so we can get sense for how you captured?  Thanks.


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## D-B-J

I would also suggest shooting some HDR's of the location.  Even if you don't make an HDR from the three, five, seven, or nine images, it is still nice to have the bracketed photo's in case only single point has hugely blown highlights.  Having bracketed, you will be able to mask in the un-blown photo, thus rendering your photo even better. Still, great list Manaheim!


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## manaheim

iresq said:
			
		

> Although every shot is unique, could you share your settings just so we can get sense for how you captured?  Thanks.



They are probably on the iexif info on each, but generally I shoot at f8ish or around 30 seconds. Iso 200.


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## WesternGuy

Thanks manaheim for a most valuable post.  Great info for those of us who have wondered how to even start in Night Photography. :thumbup:

Cheers,

WesternGuy


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## Garbz

One thing to mention is that the camera shake due to shutter slap has a very limited useful effect. Usually it's shutterspeeds between 1/4 and 1/30th as the camera  shake only lasts 50-100ms. So if you're taking a 9 second exposure the shutterlockup function won't change a thing.


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## iresq

Garbz said:


> One thing to mention is that the camera shake due to shutter slap has a very limited *useful* effect. Usually it's shutterspeeds between 1/4 and 1/30th as the camera  shake only lasts 50-100ms. So if you're taking a 9 second exposure the shutterlockup function won't change a thing.



Useful effect?  Can you explain or did you use the wrong word?


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## manaheim

Oh, I hadn't considered that, Garbz... good point.

Though... is it NO effect, or effectively so little as to be none?  If the latter, and going for perfection, even that hairs breath of extra slick sharpness seems like it wouldn't hurt.


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## bratkinson

Many, many thanks for sharing your techniques for outstanding results at night!  I can't wait to get out there and expose some pixels!


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## Beast95

Very very helpful. I actually found this entertaining to read  thanks for sharing!


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## davesnothere11

Thanks for the tips. 
I didn't realize you could do the star patterns around the lights naturally as such.


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## BZSPhotography

Thanks a lot for this, really helpful


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## Garbz

iresq said:


> Useful effect?  Can you explain or did you use the wrong word?



Wrong word. Camera Slap has a very limited time range where it can affect your photos would be the correct way of saying it. 



manaheim said:


> Though... is it NO effect, or effectively so little as to be none?  If the latter, and going for perfection, even that hairs breath of extra slick sharpness seems like it wouldn't hurt.



Depends on the photo and the duration. If you have bright point sources then you could effectively still have slight problems down to the 1 second range. But you can judge exactly hhow much of an effect this would have on your photo by trying to take a photo with all settings the same except with a 1/5th shutter speed. See how much light is effectively contributed to your final image. 

Also remember that if you have bright points, the longer the exposure the more the bright points tend to bleed out of their point of origin, so even if you do get a few bright spots at 1/5th shutter speed, they would unlikely appear to be any different with mirror lockup engaged vs disengaged at 2 or 3 seconds. 

To visualise what I'm doing a horrible job of explaining: Think of a photo of the moon at 1/100th shutter speed, ISO 100, f/8. It is likely to be a smooth sphere. If you misfocus slightly it can blur the moon by a pixel or so and it would be noticeable. Yet take a 1 second photo of the moon and it turns into this bright nova with absolutely zero definition. A slight blur of a few pixels makes no difference as the object has no edge. Effectively even when going for perfect sharpness if the exposure in the seconds range then the mirror slap won't have any relevant effect.


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## manaheim

Garbz... I love you man.


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## anth_333

Wow Great post. 
You can also use a flashlight to light up different parts of a subject while taking a long exposure. .


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## hopdaddy

Trader......lol  .. Awesome post Chris .  hope to see more


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## Garbz

manaheim said:


> Garbz... I love you man.



:love: This will have to do in lew of a humping a leg smiley.


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## DiskoJoe

manaheim said:


> Ummm... Ok, I think that's it. Did I miss anything?
> 
> Hope this is helpful.



Use a trigger or auto timer for the triggerless. Very key to prevent unwanted shake from user error.


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## brush

Thanks for posting this, love it.  2 questions for ya if you don't mind...

1) You mention exposing to the right. Any chance you could post a screenshot of the histogram curve and an unprocessed shot we should be aiming for? My best shots I've gotten so far are still what I would consider "to the left" in that the spikes of my histogram are still more toward black than white. Since reading this I have seen a huge improvement over the images I was originally shooting that hits a spike very near pure black, but it's nowhere near what I assumed you meant when you said "to the right." Mine peak a bit before halfway, if I expose so the peaks are right of the halfway point, the highs are so blown out the image is a throwaway. 

*edit* I looked at the histogram of your last shot of the skyline (which by the way is GORGEOUS) and it's peaking the way I talk about mine...not COMPLETELY black, but pretty far to the left. Did I misunderstand what you're saying? I tried metering to between +1 & +2 & found that I get very good results, so is that the "to the right" you were talking about & I'm just overthinking things?

2) Because I'm lame & don't have a remote, and don't want to buy a cheap remote since what I really want is one that has a timer for bulb so I can do some REALLY long exposures, I don't have a remote. So what I do instead is use the 2 second timer to minimize camera shake. Does that work in a pinch or do I need to stop being weird about the 6 bucks a remote trigger would cost me?


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## manaheim

Garbz said:


> manaheim said:
> 
> 
> 
> Garbz... I love you man.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> :love: This will have to do in lew of a humping a leg smiley.
Click to expand...






DiskoJoe said:


> manaheim said:
> 
> 
> 
> Ummm... Ok, I think that's it. Did I miss anything?
> 
> Hope this is helpful.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Use a trigger or auto timer for the triggerless. Very key to prevent unwanted shake from user error.
Click to expand...


Ummm... I have that one listed?   Go back and read again! 



brush said:


> Thanks for posting this, love it. 2 questions for ya if you don't mind...
> 
> 1) You mention exposing to the right. Any chance you could post a screenshot of the histogram curve and an unprocessed shot we should be aiming for? My best shots I've gotten so far are still what I would consider "to the left" in that the spikes of my histogram are still more toward black than white. Since reading this I have seen a huge improvement over the images I was originally shooting that hits a spike very near pure black, but it's nowhere near what I assumed you meant when you said "to the right." Mine peak a bit before halfway, if I expose so the peaks are right of the halfway point, the highs are so blown out the image is a throwaway.
> 
> *edit* I looked at the histogram of your last shot of the skyline (which by the way is GORGEOUS) and it's peaking the way I talk about mine...not COMPLETELY black, but pretty far to the left. Did I misunderstand what you're saying? I tried metering to between +1 & +2 & found that I get very good results, so is that the "to the right" you were talking about & I'm just overthinking things?
> 
> 2) Because I'm lame & don't have a remote, and don't want to buy a cheap remote since what I really want is one that has a timer for bulb so I can do some REALLY long exposures, I don't have a remote. So what I do instead is use the 2 second timer to minimize camera shake. Does that work in a pinch or do I need to stop being weird about the 6 bucks a remote trigger would cost me?



1> So on the image you saw, the FINAL image histogram is more to the left, but the key is that when I TAKE the image, I expose it to the right and then back it down.  You can ONLY do this, however, if you shoot RAW... but RAW is also key to this process.  The reason why this works is if you expose to the left you lose a lot of very key detail in the darker parts of the image, and you cannot "brighten them up", because the data simply isn't there.  However when you expose to the right ("overexpose slightly"), the detail is all there and you simply dial it down to choose what detail you want less evident in the image.

2> Yes, the two second timer thing works fine, though I do more like 10 when I stupidly forget my remote.  A basic remote is MAYBE $50.  You should just pick one up.  Especially when you're new to this and you'll need a lot of shots to get things right, that extra 10 seconds per shot can get kind of annoying.

Does that help?


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## manaheim

btw, brush, I'd love to see some before and after shots from you.  Post 'em here!


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## Rosy

wow...this is amazing.  thank you soooo very much for sharing


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## brush

manaheim said:


> btw, brush, I'd love to see some before and after shots from you.  Post 'em here!



Sure! Hopefully we end up documenting my improvement instead of proof that I'm a lost cause!  

My favorite dark shot before seeing your tips: 30 sec exposure at f/3.5 ISO 100. Shot was under exposed and brightened in post. 



IMG_4946 by Bill Rush, on Flickr

Where I currently am: Shot about 10 min after sunset, 1.6 sec at f/4.0 ISO 100. Exposure was just about what you see now, but white balance was way to cool (shot at 3200, tweaked in post to 7350). My biggest complaint with the shot is how soft it is...but I'm pretty sure that softness is the epic winds that were bringing in those awesome clouds. There's also quite a bit of noise for using such a low ISO...not sure what the deal is with that.



IMG_9232 by Bill Rush, on Flickr

I was going to stay and keep shooting until complete darkness, so I could see how the changing light from sunset to nightfall unfolds, BUT I learned another very valuable lesson that night...don't trust a tripod in high winds. I should be able to go back out & try shooting more in a week or so...when my lens comes back from the repair shop.


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## manaheim

Sweet!  And you're welcome, Rosy!


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## brush

manaheim said:


> 1> So on the image you saw, the FINAL image histogram is more to the left, but the key is that when I TAKE the image, I expose it to the right and then back it down.



Any chance you could post a capture of the unprocessed RAW file to give me an idea of just how over exposed it should really be before processing? Am I right in thinking the exposure is part of why my shot is so noisy (particularly in the clouds) in spite of the low ISO?


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## jwbryson1

You spot metered on number 4.  What did you spot meter off of?  The building?


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## gazzzie

night photography is my favourite and this guide showed me a couple of things I didn't know  

NICE ONE!


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## brush

Hey Manaheim, I think I'm getting closer...your thoughts on this attempt?




IMG_9710 copy by Bill Rush, on Flickr

I shot this at f/8.0 ISO 200 for 20 sec, which exposed it a bit to  the right like you suggested. Then in post I knocked the exposure down  by -.4, bumped the recovery & blacks, and although it was  significantly more in focus than the last one straight out of the  camera, I also applied a high pass filter to it for a little extra  clarity.

Personally I'm thinking waiting for the sky to be a bit darker would be a good move, and tonight was too overcast with boring clouds, those do nothing for the scene & just take away from the blues in the sky. I'm gettin' closer though.


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## manaheim

brush said:


> Hey Manaheim, I think I'm getting closer...your thoughts on this attempt?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_9710 copy by Bill Rush, on Flickr
> 
> I shot this at f/8.0 ISO 200 for 20 sec, which exposed it a bit to  the right like you suggested. Then in post I knocked the exposure down  by -.4, bumped the recovery & blacks, and although it was  significantly more in focus than the last one straight out of the  camera, I also applied a high pass filter to it for a little extra  clarity.
> 
> Personally I'm thinking waiting for the sky to be a bit darker would be a good move, and tonight was too overcast with boring clouds, those do nothing for the scene & just take away from the blues in the sky. I'm gettin' closer though.




Shoot... I didnt' see you had posted again.  That's definitely getting much better, though theres some weirdness to it... something in the quality of the sky.  Might just be because it's way more underexposed than the rest.  I think you actually might try to shoot for a brighter sky rather than a darker one as it might equalize things abit.


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## PropilotBW

Awesome tips and pics.  Can't wait to get some shots of my own.


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## photogod88

manaheim said:
			
		

> In an act of ultimate concession, I post this here... (if you don't know what that means, don't ask)
> I have mentioned a number of times about how I tend to shoot and re-shoot images until I feel I have gotten them right. What's more is I have mentioned I tend to be a bit of a night photography addict. I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences here, and perhaps even make it a bit of a night photography guide.
> 
> NOTE: This is an evolutionary lesson process.  In other words, you are not only going to get the tips, but you're going to see my utter failures as I personally went through this process of learning.  The only photo I really consider acceptable in this whole thread is the last one.  The rest are painful.
> 
> Now the main subject of this particular disseration will be my quest to obtain a good Boston skyline... however, I have taken a great many night photography images leading up to even the first skyline picture I took, and with each of these came a different special lesson.
> 
> Lesson 0 : A Word (or more) on Composition
> Keep in mind that the rest of this article focuses entirely on technical aspects of getting a night shot, but there is one key element which you must keep in mind all the time... it's still a photograph, it's still art, and therefore composition is still the most important thing. People often times get so excited that they nailed the technical parts that they consider a poorly composed shot a masterpiece. Don't fall into this trap.
> 
> Keep in mind the elements you have to play with in night photography. Obviously, dramatic light is a big part of it, but try to think about how to stitch the elements of a scene together in a way that works artistically. Sometimes thinking of the picture as more of an abstract painters canvas is a good way to approach it.
> 
> Beyond that, consider that some subjects simply don't work at all artistically for night photography. Accepting that a subject is poor is an important step when growing as a night photographer.
> 
> Ok, onto the easier stuff.
> 
> Lesson 1 : Get a Tripod
> Night photography tends to be about taking longer than usual exposures (often 30 seconds and sometimes up to hours), and that means you are going to need a tripod. It is possible to use other stabilization methods, like setting your camera on a railing, or even on a sturdy unmoving bag of some kind, but a tripod is going to be relatively key. Fortunately I figured this one out before I tried to take any pictures so I don't have any examples of real boner shots with no tripod, but if you'd like to see the effect, go outside at night near a traffic light and take a 2 second exposure while moving the camera, and you'll see what I mean.
> 
> Lesson 2 : I Can't seeeee you!!
> When you are taking a relatively long exposure, you can actually step directly into the line of the camera's view, and even move around with relatively no chance of the camera actually "seeing" you... just so long as no part of you happens to be close to as bright as the object that is illuminated enough for the camera to see and/or you don't stand in the same source of light for as long as the camera would need to expose it.
> 
> For example, we traced this Audi S4 using cycalume light sticks and an LED keychain light by walking in front of the car and moving the light around with our hand. I probably crossed in front of this car no less than 5 times.
> 
> This gives you all kinds of fun possibilities, light creating floating heads behind tombstones and such. Good times, good times.
> 
> Here is an example where a PART of me was visible when taking the shot, because the sparkler was so bright and beautifully illuminated my pasty white legs.
> 
> Lesson 3 : Flash
> For the most part, flash is not worth your time. Many of your subjects will be too far off for the flash to do any good. That being said, there may be times when you want to spot illuminate a particular part of the frame or give a bit of a fill light to the foreground with a dark city skyline in the background or something. Just understand that the flash is going to be very powerful and can easily screw up a shot, so be careful with it.
> 
> Sometimes the results can be disastrous:
> 
> Which brings us to our next lesson, which is...
> 
> Lesson 4 : Don't Make Embarrassing Poses and Faces if You're Not Totally sure the Flash is Off
> Need I say more?
> 
> Eh? Eh?
> 
> Lesson 5 : Shoot RAW, Shoot RAW, Shoot RAW
> I cannot stress this enough. Did I mention shoot RAW? Shoot RAW.
> When you are shooting in the night the colors of the light sources that will be in your shot will tend to vary significantly. If you happen to be shooting with an incandescant street lamp nearby, guess what? You're going to have one heck of a yellow shot on your hands.
> 
> This is a non-issue if you happen to be shooting RAW as you can simply swing the color balance the other way with no loss of image quality. HOWEVER... if you shoot a JPEG, the camera is going to decide (upon recording) that "Hey! He didn't need all those extra colors and stuff, so I'm just going to toss all that detailed information (and detail) into the trash!" If the information isn't there, you will never be able to recover it.
> 
> Shoot RAW, shoot RAW, shoot RAW!
> 
> Lesson 6 : Manual Focus
> Your camera needs light to be able to focus properly, and more of it than you would generally expect. What's more is that focusing aids light bulbs and laser grids will only be useful within a certain range. This will leave your camera blind and guessing in a lot of situations. If you look again at the shot above, you will see it is kind of out of focus (in addition to being hideously yellow)... this is because at the time I tried to focus on something my camera COULD see and then move the camera and take the shot. Needless to say, it didn't work. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to simply try to manually focus the thing, but... oops.
> 
> Lesson 7 : Use a Remote Shutter Release
> Most cameras will support the use of a remote method of releasing the shutter. This is to say that you will be able to take the picture without physically touching the camera. Why? Because when you touch a camera (even on a tripod) it will shake. Now one alternative to this is to set a self-timer for 10-20 seconds before it releases the shutter, but this is *really* annoying, significantly slows down your process, *and* still runs the risk of causing your camera to shake. It really doesn't take much. By and large the remote release is the way to go.
> 
> Lesson 8 : Expose to the Right
> (keeping in mind that we know you are shooting RAW, shooting RAW, shooting RAW)...
> When shooting night photography it is very very imporant to expose to the right... what this means is to slightly over-expose your image (thus shifting the resulting histogram "to the right"). This is critical because it will be sure to capture the details of all elements in your frame including those elements that are in shadow. You can then back the exposure down slightly to give the desired visual effect.
> 
> If you do not do this, you will actually wind up with very dark portions of your frame that will look strange and dead in a picture. When you try to bring the picture up, you will find that you simply didn't capture the detail at all... in other words, that part of the image simply wasn't there. And you will wind up with a result very similar to my first attempt at a skyline:
> 
> Ouch. (And the scary thing was I thought this was amazing at the time.)  Horrid.
> 
> Lesson 9: Manual Focus... to Infinity
> If you are shooting anything of any distance away, not only will you need to focus, but you will also need to manually focus to Infinity on your lens. Note that most lenses have a focus point of infinity actually marked on the lens and this is generally where you will expect the lens to be when you take your shot. The idea here is that if your lens focused properly, it would likely select this anyway... however, since your lens is fighting against the dark it may fail to focus and will wind up coming just short of where it needs to be.
> Be aware, however, that some lenses are mismarked, or may have sloppy focusing rings. You want to check AHEAD to be sure you have a true infinity marked on your lens and re-mark it if necessary. This brings us to our next lesson...
> 
> Lesson 10 : Bring a Flashlight!
> You seriously need to make sure you have at least one flashlight and some spare batteries on hand. First of all, you'll be crawling around in the dark and this will be a safety element for you. Second of all, this will help you when you need to manually focus to infinity in the dark or make other changes to your camera settings.
> 
> Lesson 11 : Check Your Pictures in the Field
> Be sure to check your image upon capture. Look at your histogram. Do you think you have it pushed to the right without going too far? How about that focus? Zoom in to 100% and examine the edges to make sure they're straight and true.
> 
> Lesson 12 : Creating that Star Effect
> Ever noticed how some night pictures have a beautiful star around the bright light sources? Ever wonder how? Well, there are a few ways. One is to use a star filter, which is a nice trick since it allows you to select any aperture you like and take advantage of your lenses sweet spot. Another is to use a Photoshop filters (cheater!), and the last (and my preferred method) is to let your lens do the work for you.
> 
> Most lenses will create a star around bright light sources right around F8-F11. This is where the blades of the lens "pinch" down on the light, causing the light to refract and bend around the blades, creating the desired effect. Note that different lenses will have different results. The Sigma 10-20mm does a very admirable job as shown here:
> 
> Also notice that in this shot we have quite a bit more detail in the buildings because we exposed to the right. Still could be better though. This was trial 2 for this shot.
> 
> Here's 100% crop:
> 
> If you want absolutely insane star formations the typical 50mm 1.8 is the mac-daddy, and also happens to be crazy sharp, as seen here:
> 
> Keep in mind the cost of stopping down. Light refraction around the blades of the lens will happen everywhere, and your lens may not be at peak sharpness at F8-11. This is a matter of compromises. If you opt for this route, try to balance the strengths of your lens with the need for this effect.
> 
> Ok, so now using all of these methods, we come to my trial 3 for this skyline:
> 
> Hoo boy are we getting close. More detail in those buildings, the focus is looking pretty crisp, the stars are pretty good, etc. Still, though, I feel like I could do more.
> 
> Lesson 14 : The Twillight Hour
> Every day for somewhere around 30-60 minutes is twillight. Twillight can be the most spectacular time of the day to take pictures because you get such dramatic lighting. What's more is that you can get what appear to be "true nighttime" pictures with wonderful amounts of detail because the subjects are still partially illuminated. All you need to do is back the light down a bit in post processing and away you go.
> 
> This particular shot (my most recent) was in the very last 10 minutes or so before it became TRULY dark. It is my trial 4 and my current "best".
> 
> Now is where we start to get into the hard-core stuff...
> Do you have to do this stuff? Well... no... but every extra thing you do adds a couple points of technical value to your shot. If you want to really kill it... do these.
> Lesson 15 : Lock Up the Shutter
> Most cameras have the ability to lock the shutter in the "out of the way" position before taking the shot. This will marginally reduce camera shake to help you have an even steadier camera and thus a clearer sharper picture. (I did this in Trial 4)
> 
> Lesson 16 : Avoid Windy Days
> While tripods are generally sturdy and heavy enough to not be overly affected by wind, certainly a total absence of wind is best. Also removing your camera strap is sometimes a good idea since the sucker will act as a bit of a sail in extreme conditions. This was (I believe) one problem with my Trial 4.
> 
> Lesson 17 : Sandbag It!
> While truly truly extreme, you can place sandbags on the legs of your tripod to help steady it. Many tripods also have rings so you can attach a sandbag to them. I haven't tried this trick yet.
> 
> Lesson 18 : Multi-Shot Stitch
> This actually applies to more than night photography... but if you have a particular lens you want to use which is not wide enough to get your shot, or your particular lens is stronger when more zoomed in (and therefore would not get your shot), take multiple overlapping shots of the same subject (turning the camera on the tripod as you do) and then use Photoshop or other tools to stitch them together.
> 
> Ummm... Ok, I think that's it. Did I miss anything?
> 
> Hope this is helpful.



Thanks I appreciate this a lot and look forward to your critiques of my work when I post here


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## Photographiend

manaheim said:


> *Lesson 4 : Don't Make Embarrassing Poses and Faces if You're Not Totally sure the Flash is Off
> *Need I say more?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Eh? Eh?



Haha... this is hilarious... Though my brain is now struggling to digest the new information that you are not female...


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## manaheim

Well, 1, yes that totally is extremely funny...

2... no, I'm not female.

3... that's actually not me in the picture.


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## runnah

manaheim said:


> Well, 1, yes that totally is extremely funny...
> 
> 2... no, I'm not female.
> 
> 3... that's actually not me in the picture.



Only one of these statements is true.


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## manaheim

hahah... wow... what an alarming proposition.


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## Photographiend

Haha... Nice. 

Stunning final product in that tutorial BTW.


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## manaheim

Photographiend said:


> Haha... Nice.
> 
> Stunning final product in that tutorial BTW.



Thank you!


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## ToorboCharge

This is a wonderful how to guide, thanks for sharing your information!


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## MiFleur

Just saw this post, really interesting, I have never tried night photos, this makes me want to try.


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## manaheim

ToorboCharge said:


> This is a wonderful how to guide, thanks for sharing your information!



You're welcome!



MiFleur said:


> Just saw this post, really interesting, I have never tried night photos, this makes me want to try.



Dooooo it.  It's a lot if fun and really opens up a whole new world.


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## jtnord

Great guide! Thank you! I havent tried the "expose to the right" technique, something new to think about. Also didnt know all that about the star effect.

Im also surprised that there is no mention of HDR in the OP. It rather easily allows you to over come a lot of the issues with static night photography. Shooting RAW is so important, multiply that by 3, 5, 7. You can edit it so it appears as simply a very good single exposure. It doesnt have to be overcooked.


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## dutcheagle

manaheim said:


> *Lesson 15 : Lock Up the Shutter
> *Most cameras have the ability to lock the shutter in the "out of the way" position before taking the shot. This will marginally reduce camera shake to help you have an even steadier camera and thus a clearer sharper picture. (I did this in Trial 4)



I assume this should read *Lesson 15: Lock up the mirror*

Very nice tutorial, will follow these lessons as soon the weather is nice again.


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## manaheim

jtnord said:


> Great guide! Thank you! I havent tried the "expose to the right" technique, something new to think about. Also didnt know all that about the star effect.
> 
> Im also surprised that there is no mention of HDR in the OP. It rather easily allows you to over come a lot of the issues with static night photography. Shooting RAW is so important, multiply that by 3, 5, 7. You can edit it so it appears as simply a very good single exposure. It doesnt have to be overcooked.



meh... I'm not a huge HDR guy, and when I've done the HDR with night photography i've had odd results... so either I haven't quite figured it out, or HDR for night photography is icky.   Not sure which.



dutcheagle said:


> manaheim said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *Lesson 15 : Lock Up the Shutter
> *Most cameras have the ability to lock the shutter in the "out of the way" position before taking the shot. This will marginally reduce camera shake to help you have an even steadier camera and thus a clearer sharper picture. (I did this in Trial 4)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I assume this should read *Lesson 15: Lock up the mirror*
> 
> Very nice tutorial, will follow these lessons as soon the weather is nice again.
Click to expand...


Oh yeah... whoops.  I'll fix that.  Thanks!


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## gsgary

Heres my guide, at night leave your camera at home and go to the pub


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## manaheim

gsgary said:


> Heres my guide, at night leave your camera at home and go to the pub



Lol.


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## Dikkie

manaheim said:


> *Lesson 4 : Don't Make Embarrassing Poses and Faces if You're Not Totally sure the Flash is Off
> *Need I say more?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Eh? Eh?


Pictures like these push tutorials to a whole new level.

Thanks for sharing.

My favorite is the twilight zone. Once I got the basics, I always shot  just at night whenever it suited me... but now my focus lies on the blue hour. It's mostly a rush to get to the right location on the right time, and then you have only a few minutes for your shot.
Exciting. Even night photographty is one of the most easy things in photography, it's still my favorite. 

I like the gradient from black to blue. Gradient is important to me, and vanishing point aswel, that is something I need to work on in the future.


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## ChrisCalvin

thanks for this post  ++

__________________________
Chris @ Photography Names


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## ChrisCalvin

can't find my comment  thanks for this post  ++ useful.

__________________________
Chris @ Photography Names


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## DGMPhotography

Hi Manaheim!

Found this thread in your signature - I like it! Thanks for posting. I do have a bit of advice that could be useful though. When composing your shot, jack your ISO up to the max. 128,000 even, or whatever the extra high ridiculous setting is. This will enable you to get the right angle and everything, without having to go 20 seconds between shots. I've found it to be a helpful trial and error technique!


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## manaheim

Hey, interesting idea and nice suggestion.  Thanks for posting it!


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## DGMPhotography

Sure thing! I encountered the idea when doing some research on night photography myself. Definitely saves a lot of time. I just find night photography to be extra special because I feel like that's the time where every single setting on your camera can make a huge noticeable difference and everything has to be in perfect harmony to create a great image. Really tests one's ability. Plus, it's a lot of fun xD


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## picturethis1984

Excellent post!


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## manaheim

picturethis1984 said:


> Excellent post!



Glad you like!


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## hamlet

This just so happens to be what i'm looking for.


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## manaheim

Sweet!  Good luck with it.


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## ImSoQuazy

Very useful and Good post.
Thank you


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## manaheim

Glad it was helpful!


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## Poley

Thanks for your guide. I was actually at the same spot practicing long exposures a few days ago. Someone taught me just leave on AV mode F11, put on tripod and let the camera do the rest. Sounds as if i need to plan on staying later next time and try it your way. I do think the 10th attempt turned out pretty good with my lack of experience





Its also an extremely good spot for HDR. It seems HDR helps a lot in the darker scenes to brighten things up


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## manaheim

Hey, very nice.  Good start!


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## C. Brian Kerr

Thanks you for sharing your experiences with all of us.  Learned a lot now to put it into practice.  Will post results


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## Scotty9

Thanks for the guide. Do you have any tips or advice for shooting night time shots in a place like Las Vegas that has many bright lights everywhere. I would like to get some great night time shots while I'm there.


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## Max_Schröder

Thank you for that guide!
I have to admit my first try at night-time photography went south with a bit of stupidity myself.
I took the camera from the (nicely warm) car and set it up out in the field, in about 5°Celsius.
Halfway through the exposure-time the outer lens had steamed over, completely ruining the shot.
Now I decided to wait until spring, for warmer nights, and then try again.

Max


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