Digital Camera World » low-light photography

Moonlight photography tips for making magical midnight landscapes

jmeyer — Thu, 02 May 2013 23:01:36 +0000

In our latest Professional Photographer to the Rescue post our professional photographer offers our apprentice his best moonlight photography tips for using long exposures and light-painting techniques to create amazing midnight landscape images.

Meet our professional photographer

David Clapp lives near Dartmoor in Devon, and he travels the globe shooting all kinds of landscapes, both by day and by night. He uses both natural and artificial lighting for his night shoots, and is an expert in light-painting techniques. To view David’s images and for details on his photography workshops visit www.davidclapp.co.uk.

Meet our apprentice

Mark Lake, a teaching assistant from Paignton in Devon, is a keen landscape photographer, and wants to take advantage of the long winter nights to try light-painting and other night photography techniques.

Technique Assessment

Mark was only getting the night shots he was after once in a blue moon, so David helped him out with some advice on camera settings and techniques…

Manual exposure
“To control the exposure its best to shoot in Manual mode,” David advises. “Start with the aperture at around f/8, and open it wider if you need to let in more light. The experimental approach to this type of photography means you’ll need to fire off a few frames to see what shutter speed and aperture work best.”

Bulb setting
“If you need a longer shutter speed then 30 secs you’ll need to use the Bulb setting.” David explains. “To control the Bulb mode you have to manually open and close the shutter. Press the shutter release to start the exposure, and let go to stop it – use a remote shutter release to avoid moving the camera.”

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer and apprentice
PAGE 2: Moonlight photography tips for during the shoot
PAGE 3: Final tips from our professional photographer
PAGE 4: Our professional photographer’s recommended gear
PAGE 5: Shot of the Day

Color Photography: achieving accurate tones at night

jmeyer — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:46:44 +0000

Our latest post in our series on color photography explores some of the common photography problems encountered with different light sources when shooting low light photography. Find out how you can use mixed lighting in your night photography and get the most accurate color balance possible.

Night poses special problems for color photography. It’s not the level of illumination that’s the problem, but the color of the lighting.

If you shoot in a busy city centre, you may have a mixture of tungsten lights, fluorescent lamps, yellow/orange street lamps and even multicolored neon.

How are you supposed to reconcile all these with a single white balance setting? Our advice would be not to try. This is one situation where your camera’s auto white balance should just be left to get on with it.

Only if the colors look completely wrong should you worry about taking over manually.

Using different light sources at night

It’s not possible to compensate for every single light source, and sometimes the color of the light doesn’t fall neatly on the warm-cool color temperature scale.

White balance adjustments work by shifting the whole spectrum of the light source up or down the scale.

They rely on the light having a full spectrum of colors, but simply shifted one way or the other.

Some light sources don’t have a full spectrum of colors. The prime example is orange street lamps.

They look orange because that’s all there is – no blue, no green. It’s impossible to correct orange street lighting to produce a full range of colors.

Fluorescent lighting is the other oddity because it contains excess green. Digital cameras deal with this with one or more dedicated ‘fluorescent’ settings.

These increase the levels of magenta (green’s complementary color) to restore a natural-looking color balance.

PAGE 1: Using different light sources at night
PAGE 2: How to achieve a good mix

Night Sky Photography: pro secrets for stunning moonlight landscapes

jmeyer — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:00:25 +0000

You may think it seems counter-intuitive to shoot landscapes once the sun has disappeared and light levels drop, but night sky photography actually has a special quality that brings a completely new dimension to your images.

Image by Daryl Benson

The low-light conditions can present a challenge in terms of the practicalities of taking pictures, but much of this is a psychological aversion to shooting in the dark (which is actually a common photography problem).

Once these mental barriers are overcome, the rewards of night sky photography far outweigh any personal discomfort, opening up  a whole host of new image-making opportunities.

Lighting is clearly an issue when shooting night sky photography – there simply isn’t much of it, especially out in the countryside away from artificial light sources.

So how do you light your subject? One way is to use the light reflected from the moon. Under a fullish moon it’s possible to produce a fully illuminated landscape picture using a long exposure.

Moonlit images have a mystical, tranquil quality. The light is unlike that  from the harsh rays of the sun, and the results are amazing.

In a similar way that our eyes adjust to moonlight and allow us to see almost as well as in daylight, a camera is able to capture images illuminated solely by moonlight.

However, there is a big difference between daylight images and those taken using the much softer light from the moon. The way that light interacts with a scene to reveal shape and form looks very different when captured over a long exposure  of ten, 20 or even 40 minutes.

PAGE 1: Using moonlight in your night sky photography
PAGE 2: Timing your moonlight photography
PAGE 3: Three ways to get great photos in moonlight
PAGE 4: How to photograph the moon
PAGE 5: Essential night sky photography tips to remember

Best digital camera features for low-light photography: all the specs you need

jmeyer — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:00:25 +0000

We’re firmly into that time of year again, when daylight photography is often off the menu. Unless you’re working nights, it’s probably dark all the time you’re not at the office. The good news is that, compared with film relics, digital camera features now include a number of tools that have great potential for low-light photography.

High ISO settings
You can easily adjust white balance to the prevailing lighting conditions, for instance. Better still, you can check the results while you shoot, taking the guesswork out of exposure settings. Even so, when it comes to dark arts, some digital camera features offer more than others.

The presence of at least some light is essential for night photography. But with little light, good performance at high sensitivity (ISO) settings is a huge bonus.

This gives the option of handheld shooting in low-light scenarios, plus enables sufficiently fast shutter speeds to freeze motion – something no amount of image stabilisation can achieve.

Sensor size
In digital cameras that have image sensors with high pixel counts, individual photosites are smaller and have less light-gathering potential. This makes high signal-to-noise ratios trickier to achieve, so cunning sensor design and good image processing are required to avoid grainy-looking pictures.

It’s even more of a challenge in Micro Four Thirds cameras, as the physical size of the image sensors is smaller than in the other four APS-C cameras.

Sony’s DSLT cameras face a different challenge for low-light photography. Whereas Canon, Nikon and Pentax DSLRs have a conventional reflex mirror that flips up out of the way during exposures, the Sony’s translucent mirror remains fixed in place. This reduces the amount of light that can pass through from the lens to the image sensor.

PAGE 1: Overview of key digital camera features for low-light photography
PAGE 2: Cheat sheet on what specs to look for

DIY Photography Hacks: capture light-painted orbs with common household items

jmeyer — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:00:28 +0000

Painting with light is one of the more satisfying sub-genres of night photography, producing amazing pictures that look almost like clever Photoshop effects. But it can sometimes seem daunting with the fancy torches and light sources. In this light painting tutorial we offer a fresh DIY photography approach to add to your book of night photography ideas. Follow our 8 step tutorial below and learn how to capture light-painted orbs using nothing more than some fairy lights, rope and a few more common household items.

1. The tools of the trade!
To create amazing lighting effects, a little DIY photography is required. For the orb, you’ll need a set of battery-powered LED fairy lights, electrical tape and cable ties, nylon rope, an off-cut plumbing tube to use as a handle, and a large washer.

To create sparks, get a chain dog lead, a wire whisk, a handle (such as a cut-down paint roller handle) and some wire wool. The dome requires an old wheel, an elongated axle, and some more LEDs.

2. Create a floating orb
The set-up for an orb is straightforward. Cable tie the LEDs into a bundle with the knotted rope in the centre. Insert batteries and test. Cable tie and/or tape the battery pack to the bundle, but don’t cover the switch.

Measure a comfortable rope length, about one metre, and thread this through the pipe and washer. Then tie a knot in the rope so its length is adjustable. Alternatively, tape the rope to a wooden dowel.

3. Make some sparks!
Creating an awesome shower of sparks is also a relatively simple procedure. Cut the dog lead chain in the centre with a hacksaw.

Clip the kitchen whisk to the end of the dog lead, and cable tie or tape the other end of the lead to the handle – securely and strongly! Stuff the whisk with super-fine 0000 grade steel wool.

4. Build a dome of light
Domes require a little more DIY photography skill, but results can be spectacular!

You need a wheel – an old bicycle wheel is ideal as the slender spokes help with the illusion – set on an axle the same length as the wheel’s radius (so when resting on it the wheel slants at 45 degrees, with the top rim directly over the axle).

Use a string of 10 or 20 LED fairy lights equally spaced around the circumference of the wheel, facing up and out. Secure them with cable ties or electrical tape.

5. Best camera settings
Any DSLR will do, and a standard lens is perfect for the job, but using a tripod is essential. A remote release and hotshoe bubble level are helpful, too. Shoot in raw format and set ISO100 for best quality, and turn the exposure dial to Manual mode.

An exposure of 30 secs should be sufficient for most light paintings, but for more complex night photography creations, set the camera to Bulb mode and lock it open using the remote release.

Aperture controls light brightness, so really bright LEDs or wire wool spinning work well at f/11, and normal LEDs at f/8 or f/5.6. Single Shot and Daylight White Balance round off the settings.

6. How to set up
Switch your torch or headlight on and place it on the ground where the action will take place – it’s also a good idea to mark this position using chalk or a light-coloured stone.

Zoom to the desired focal length to compose your image and autofocus on the torch using your camera’s central sensor. Then switch the lens to MF (manual focus), being careful not to move the zoom or focus rings. Recompose the image and level your camera.

7. How to capture
Shoot a trial exposure at, say, f/8 and examine the image. If the light lines are overexposed and burnt out (use the Highlight Alert to check), close down the aperture and try again. If underexposed, open it up a bit. It’s worth remembering that the brighter you record the light trails, the whiter they become. If you want a strong blue or red LED line, underexpose the image a little. If you’re ‘performing’ yourself or don’t have a remote release, set the self-timer.

8. Dress up time!
Wear dark clothes because any light objects may show up in the images. A dark hoodie works well and also protects from sparks. As long as you keep moving, you’re less likely to show up in the final image.

Just don’t stand in front of the LED lights or in front of a light background. You can paint light on things with an LED torch, or shine it directly at the camera to draw lines.

Tracing around an object or person works well, and strapping the light to an object that moves around can produce great trails or patterns. You can even hang it on a string. Lots of creativity here!

Night photography exposure guide: free cheat sheet

jmeyer — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:58:02 +0000

Start improving your low-light photography today with our latest photography cheat sheet. Our new cheat sheet is a handy night photography exposure guide with suggested shutter speed times for a range of subjects you’re likely to shoot at the ISO settings you’re likely to use.

Most photographers see the setting of the sun as the end of their photographic day, but nothing could be further from the truth. As day fades to night, our towns and cities are transformed into a glittering spectacle.

Floodlit buildings stand out vividly against the ever-darkening sky, neon signs flicker their messages in lurid colours and busy roads are turned into streams of graceful light trails.

Our new night photography cheat sheet looks at many of the popular night photography subjects you’re likely to encounter when you head out under cover of darkness, and suggests the best shutter speed to use in that situation.

While night photography always involves a bit of trial and error, these suggested shutter speeds should get you in the right ballpark to capture great images.

To view the larger version of our night photography exposure guide, click on the infographic to expand the file – or simply drag and drop it to your desktop.

Professional Photographer to the Rescue: live music photography made simple

jmeyer — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:20:59 +0000

We can buy the best cameras, read the best photography magazines and follow the best photography tips, but often the quickest way to improve your photography is by watching someone else. In another new series here on Digital Camera World we’ve found photographers like you who are struggling with some of the common photography problems in every genre and don’t know what to do. To help them along we’ve found a professional photographer in the field who works against these challenges on a daily basis.

In our first instalment of Professional Photographer to the Rescue, music photography pro Laurence Baker guides enthusiast Heather Fitsell through the common headaches of dim indoor lighting, slow shutter speeds and high ISOs at a massive Whitesnake and Def Leppard concert in London’s Wembley Arena!

Our Professional Photographer

Laurence Baker
Pro photographer Laurence, 42, regularly covers big gigs and festivals for Q, Classic Rock, Guitarist and other major music magazines and photo agencies. He also does lots of backstage and studio work with bands, as well as a variety of other commercial photography projects.  See more of Laurence Baker’s photos.

Our Apprentice

Heather Fitsell
Heather, 28, is a quality control executive from London. She’s tried shooting pub gigs but struggles with indoor lighting, shutter speed, ISO and other headaches, so she’d better learn fast if she’s to survive Wembley Arena’s dog-eat-dog photo pit!

Before the first band came on, Laurence checked out Heather’s settings and made some time-saving suggestions…

Shoot Raw Format and JPEG
“Heather was only shooting in JPEG, which is risky for gigs. You normally just get to shoot the first three songs, so you can’t afford to waste shots. She should switch to the Raw+Large JPEG setting. You can tweak Raw images for the best possible results, but you also have the shot in JPEG format if it doesn’t require much work and a customer needs it quickly. You’ll need to have a big memory card for this, though.”

Shoot in Manual mode
“I noticed Heather was using Auto mode. I always use Manual because of stage lighting. Bright backlighting, that’s constantly changing, will defeat any SLR’s Auto shooting mode, period. Shooting manually means that I set both the aperture and shutter speed – so I can concentrate on the bands and getting the lighting right. Oh, and Heather should set her camera’s White Balance to Daylight, too!”

Use a lens hood
“I swear by my pro lenses,” says Laurence. “They’re solid enough to reduce camera shake when shooting handheld and they seem to control that washed-out milky look you sometimes get when shooting into bright light. I always keep the lens hood on at gigs. It stops stray light getting in and prevents the lens getting banged or scratched when you’re jostling in the photo pit down at the front!”

PAGE 1: Meet our professional photographer & apprentice
PAGE 2: During the shoot
PAGE 3: Final tips from our professional photographer

Low-light photography fixes: how to reduce noise but preserve image quality

jmeyer — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:08:30 +0000

Short days and long nights make winter a perfect time for experimenting with low-light photography, but the high ISOs required will often produce noisy, gritty pictures. By using a tripod you can reduce the ISO setting, which will help with some noise issues, but in areas of even tone and shadow the noise may still sneak in. When it comes to enhancing the image with Photoshop effects – altering levels, increasing saturation and adding sharpness – that noise will become even more prevalent.

There are two basic types of noise you need to tackle in your low-light photography. The first is Chrominance noise, which introduces itself with higher ISO shots and can be recognised by its coloured speckling in shadowed or even-toned areas.

The second is Luminance noise, which is trickier to remove and can be seen in the form of random variations of brightness between pixels. Reducing this can result in a loss of overall image detail, so in this tutorial we’re going to look at techniques to reduce both types of noise while preserving quality.

01 Initial enhancement
Open a raw format low-light photo of your own in Adobe Camera Raw. Before you start to reduce the image noise, make some initial adjustments by setting Exposure to +1.25, Recovery to 25, Fill Light to 10, Blacks to 0, Brightness to 50 and Contrast to 0. You’ll see the amount of noise within the image increase.

02 Preparing for noise reduction
With the basic raw enhancements complete, you now need to look at noise. To do this, click on the Details tab. Make sure that all the sharpening and noise sliders are set to 0 and that the Preview window is at 100%. Initially you should see a fair amount of colour noise appearing in the shadow and sky areas.

03 Tackling chrominance noise
The first area of noise to tackle is the chrominance variety. You can see this in the shadows along the tree line – it looks like speckled colour. Increase the Colour slider to 16 and you’ll see the colour noise disappear. Use the Hand tool (H) to move around the image and check that the noise has been reduced in both the sky and shadow areas.

04 Reduce luminance noise
The second noise type comes from random variation of brightness between pixels and is trickier to remove. If you move the setting to high, you’ll have an image that looks painted rather than photographed. Increase the Luminance slider to 20 to start reducing noise; further reduction will need to be done later using Photoshop’s noise filters.

05 The Reduce Noise filter
Now click OK to edit the image in Photoshop. Go to Filter>Noise>ReduceNoise. Set all values to 0 and make sure Preview is set to 100%. Before adjusting the strength, try the Colour Noise slider. This should have no effect as we tackled this at the RAW stage. If it does, just increase it slightly to remove any last remnants of colour noise.

06 Reducing luminance noise further
Even with the colour noise removed, you’ll see that noise is still present. This is luminance noise and is trickier to remove. Increase the Strength slider to a maximum of 10; you’ll see the noise reduce, but details within the image will be smoothed. Reduce the slider to 7, which will reduce the noise but still preserve the main detail.

07 Preserve image detail
Although we have reduced the strength of the noise reduction, there is still a major problem: the detail within the image has been smoothed and finer detail has been lost. Regain this detail by increasing the Preserve Detail slider setting to 25%. Once you have a good balance between noise and detail, click OK.

08 Sharpen up
As with any enhancement, sharpening should come after you have made your noise reduction. Go to Enhance>AdjustSharpness. With an image that has contained a lot of noise, the amount of sharpening that can be applied will be considerably less than a low-noise image, so apply sharpening in moderation to avoid reintroducing noise.

Expert tip: Photoshop Noise filter
Noise reduction in Photoshop gives you much more control than Elements because of its ability to tackle noise in the separate colour channels.

Once in the Noise dialog box you can use the sliders in the Basic window to affect the image in much the same way as in Elements, but with the added feature of being able to sharpen detail as you apply the filter.

However, many images are affected by noise of different degrees in different colour channels. In other words, much of the noise can often appear in just one of the red, green or blue colour channels.

Click on the Advanced tab and you can adjust the influence of the filter per channel, rather than over the whole image.

By using this technique you can dramatically improve the actual noise reduction, as it’s closer tuned to the affected areas, resulting in better detail and less smoothing in the final picture.

Low-light photography: tips for winter seascape pictures

jmeyer — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 03:00:45 +0000

With the nights drawing in, photographers can make the most of the low light conditions by getting out with your camera to capture glowing sunsets, inky blue moonlit skies and atmospheric stormy scenes. Below we’ve offered our best low-light photography tips for capturing beautiful winter seascapes.

1. Winter can be great for night photography: often the atmosphere is crisp and clear, resulting in clean night skies. Using moonlight helps fill what can otherwise be a deep, dark sky – but expose too long and your shot may look like daylight. At night you need as much light on your EOS sensor as possible; combine slow shutter speeds with wide apertures and high ISO settings.

2. The essential skill for sunset photography is to ‘read’ the sky – thin clouds above a clear horizon will usually produce great colour. The best time is around 30 minutes after sunset, so make sure you’re in position.

The Auto White Balance setting on your DSLR should give good results, but you can warm up the colours by setting the White Balance to Cloudy or setting it manually to around 6500k to 7000k.

If shooting in raw format you can adjust the colour temperature in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or using other Raw processing software. You can also intensify the colours using the Vibrancy and Saturation sliders found in ACR.

3. Knowing where the sun will appear in your scene can be very useful when planning a shoot. Tools such as Flight Logistics’ Photographer’s Sun Compass (£21, www.flight-logistics.com) show where the sun will set in a given location at any time of the year.

4. ND grad filters balance bright skies and darker landscapes in one shot. They come in degrees of density and transition – a soft edge for use with irregular horizons and a hard edge for straight lines. You can stack filters to get a stronger effect.

5. Capturing a sense of movement from water can really help to bring your landscape photos to life. Look for rivers, streams and waterfalls, and shoot after the sun has set, to benefit from the low light levels.

This will enable you to use a long exposure time to record movement in seas, rivers and waterfalls too – without fear of exposing your shots. Experiment to find the best exposure time to suit the speed of the water. Try 1/8 sec for fast flowing water and up to 30 seconds for slow moving water. If you require even longer exposures to get a particular effect you can use a straight ND filter.

6. It’s sometimes the case that there is only one ideal composition for a particular scene. However, it’s always worth experimenting to see what else could work. Try to incorporate interesting foreground elements, switch between horizontal and vertical formats – or even try creating a panorama by stitching several frames together.

You’ll often find that the panoramic format will work in situations where other formats fail due to lack of foreground interest or a boring sky. Careful setup is essential, and remember to overlap each image by at least 25% to enable the stitching software (such as Photomerge in Photoshop) to blend the sequence of images seamlessly.

Light trails: what you didn’t know about this night photography favourite

jmeyer — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 02:00:58 +0000

A fantastic subject to get you started in night photography is traffic light trails – long tendrils of colourful light that form wonderful abstract shapes. The great news is that it’s an easy technique to learn and you can produce really eye-catching images with some very basic gear. All you need is an SLR with a wide-angle zoom lens, a sturdy tripod, a remote shutter release and a basic grounding in tried and tested night photography techniques.

For more on general night photography techniques and the best camera settings to use, jump to our in-depth guide Night Photography: set up your camera to shoot anything.

Where to shoot light trails

Image by Mark Hamblin

The key to shooting successful traffic light trails is to choose a location with appealing surroundings. City centres are an obvious place to start, because they provide lots of interest from buildings, landmarks and street lighting.

But also consider shooting traffic passing through spectacular scenery in rural areas.

A high vantage point such as a bridge makes a good viewpoint, helping to define the light trails and contrast them with the dark road.

To produce interesting shaped light trails you need an interesting road. Winding roads, multiple roads that merge together, traffic islands, motorways or even a dead straight road can all work well.

Pre-visualise how the light trail will look by the way the traffic is moving and pick a busy spot so that you get lots of vehicle lights.

Also, bear in mind that cars moving in different directions will produce different coloured light trails – red if moving away, white if coming towards you (learn more about colour temperature with our free photography cheat sheet).

Often you’ll capture both, but you may want to compose for just one colour if it suits your scene best.

PAGE 1: Where to shoot light trails
PAGE 2: How to expose for light trails
PAGE 3: 3 ways to ensure you get light trails right
PAGE 4: How to shoot light trails at dusk
PAGE 5: 5 tips for getting creative with your light trails