Night Photography Tips and Tricks

Photography at night can yield amazing results if done right, but it is also a major hurdle for beginners in photography. Instead of blaming the equipment, let's look at refining our technique. In this article I will suggest a few settings for night photography.

Fireworks Photography

A typical picture of fireworks is taken with a technique involving holding a black card in front of an open shutter. In manual exposure mode, set the shutter speed to 20-30 seconds (or use bulb mode), an aperture of F11 to F16 and an ISO setting of 100 or 200. Using the bulb mode on your DSLR, you can get the shutter to stay open as long as required. If you are using the bulb mode, a remote shutter release is very useful to avoid getting camera shake (yes it can happen even on a sturdy tripod). If you don't have a remote release, you can also use your DSLR self timer, set it to 10 seconds so that you can give it time to settle down any minute shakes, if any, triggered by pressing the shutter button.

The black card is used to block the lens during any intervals when the fireworks are not showing in the sky, so that the long exposure is optimized to record the fireworks and not over-expose other parts of the scene. The second reason is so that you don't record any smoke caused by the fireworks. Take care not to accidentally touch the lens, or you might cause some movement which will lead to camera shake.

Timing is Crucial

The single most important tip I can give you regarding night photography is to get a good tripod. With a sturdy tripod, you can use the most basic camera and lens and come out with a winning shot. Armed with a tripod, the next thing to do is to scout for a good location where you can set up your tripod and wait for the twilight hour when the amount of ambient light matches the amount of artificial light. This creates pictures where the sky is a deep blue color, perfect for offsetting the man-made lights in the scene. If you are shooting a low ISO setting like 100 at this time, and your aperture in the F11-F16 range, your shutter speed will drop to a level where it is not possible to hold your camera steady. That is why you need a tripod.

A tripod is useful for shooting stationary subjects, which is why wedding photographers rarely carry tripods when they are on the move, shooting moving subjects.

If you are shooting a scenic night landscape, forget about using flash, unless there are human subjects within a few feet from the camera. Your flash unit, typically a speedlight, will only be effective within a few feet. It will not be able to illuminate a night scene that is 800 metres away. Besides, shooting with an on-camera speedlight rarely results in a natural looking outdoor night scene.

Shooting Light Trails

Use a small aperture (which means a big F-number like F16) to get starburst effects on street lamps. Not only does a small aperture give you more depth-of-field (which means objects are sharp from front to back), it also enables you to get longer shutter speeds, which contribute to the long red lines created by the tail-lights of passing motorists. Or white lines created by their headlights. The easiest mode to shoot this is Aperture Priority.

The Right Technique Makes the Shot

You don't need high-end equipment to take nice pictures. All you need is the right know-how.

Five Standing Pose Tricks For Photographing Women

When photographing a woman standing, there are five key things you can do that will instantly flatter her figure. She will be your client forever if you make her look amazing. It does not matter if you can see her legs because she is wearing a bikini or shorts, or if they are covered by a dress. The position of her legs helps to set up her attitude, and that will give her confidence and help you make a remarkable photograph.

Here are the five key things you can do that will help you with that:

1) Have her put all her weight on the back leg. The leg that takes the weight goes thick and heavy. It's not as attractive as it sounds, so you don't want that effect to be front and center. With all the weight on the back leg, she becomes stable and can easily position the front leg in a variety of ways. With no weight on the front leg, it will look slender and shapely.

2) Raise the heel on the front leg. This is especially effective if she is barefoot. It gives the illusion of having a longer leg. It will also give a better shape to her calf. If she pushes down a bit on the toes, this isometric effort will activate her calf muscle, add a little sidelight and the muscle shape pops right out.

3) Turn her hips away from the camera and her shoulders back to the camera. This creates a shapelier waist illusion. The hips present the thinnest width to the camera while the shoulders present the widest view. This gives the waist a V-shape, creating a fit and curvier female shape. If you place the hands on the waist it projects a very confident image. If she has a bit of a tummy, bring the far hand across the tummy to the pant line - she can hold a purse or something, or if it's casual have her hold the belt. This hides the tummy while strengthening the V-shape body build form.

4) Have her place her hands on her waist, not on her hips. This better defines the waist, gives a strong hourglass impression, and can also hid soft rolls or waist issues. If she has a soft tummy be sure she does not push in too far or firmly, as this will often push more of the tummy forward, creating a bulge.

5) Tilt the camera upwards slightly. This will give the impression that she is taller. Be careful not to go overboard since it will also make her head look smaller if gone too far. When you do this, be mindful of the background. Quite often you will find the head goes above the background top creating a lot of clutter you will have to fix in post production.

The more of these techniques you can incorporate into your pose, the happier your client will be. Remember that the legs are the foundation of the pose. Always start there. Their position will become clues to the viewer as to the mood and attitude the subject has, even if the legs are not in the image.

Master the tricks of leg position and the rest comes relatively easy.