I cannot stress enough the importance of shooting RAW format for digital night photography. White balance can be difficult with varying light sources, shooting in RAW allows for simple changes to the white balance and in turn select the best balance on a per shot basis.

Go low in ISO

ISO keep it low as possible, many will say you should increase your ISO for night photography, I disagree with this strongly unless you have the latest digital camera noise will end up running much of your night photography efforts if you start pumping the ISO up.

Stationary objects

We are not looking in most cases to shoot moving objects at night; we are after landscapes, cityscapes and other interesting but stationary objects. We could encompass shooting people at night but to me that is not what this kind of night photography is about and we can cover candid night photography in another article.

Getting your gear on

• You need a tripod this is a necessity for any good night photographer
• A cable or infrared shutter release again this will become your best friend
• A viewfinder cap or fashion a viewfinder cap if you cannot purchase one from your photography store.

One of the hassles with long exposures is light bleeding through from the viewfinder. Using a viewfinder cap or making one out of lightweight plastic, like an old ice-cream container and a little black insulation tape will stop this from occurring. 

Once you have found your subject and all set up on your tripod, frame your shot and then carefully put the viewfinder cap on, then use your cable or infrared shutter release to take the shot.

Accurate metering is not that difficult

Many people have tried night photography only to give up as their cameras light meter will not give them a reading. Furthermore this failing to get a light reading gives them the presumption that their camera cannot work at night.

Most digital cameras will give light readings for exposures of 30 seconds many will give readings for over a minute. Although if you have your aperture set at f/16 you are not likely to get a reading. Open the aperture up until you do get a reading, you might have to go wide open to say f/2.8, I know you don’t want to use such an open aperture. Once you have a reading at say f/2.8 it is only a matter of calculating for a smaller aperture.

Once you have your baseline reading double the length of the exposure for each f-stop. If you have a reading of 30 seconds at f/2.8 then at f/4 you would need a one minute exposure, a two minute exposure at f/5.6 and a four minute exposure at f/8 so in essence a 30 second exposure at f/2.8 will equate to a 16 minute exposure at f/16.

If you still cannot get a reading even at f/2.8 then we still have a trick up our sleeve.  Now is a good time to pump up the ISO but only to enable a light reading, if you have ISO 100 selected and we move that up to 1600 (most dLSR’s should have ISO 1600) with moving up we have in essence gained 4 stops of speed and I would be surprised if you cannot obtain a reading now.

Time to go back to the maths, if we are now given a 30 second exposure at f/2.8 at ISO 1600 then we need another 4 stops like we used earlier. So instead of our final exposure of 16 minutes we now need an exposure of 64 minutes just over the hour at ISO 100 and f/16.

There is always a way to get a light reading, and if we still are unable to achieve that reading then maybe we do need a little more light shed on the subject.

Night cityscape photography

This is my favourite night photography especially after a little rain, the way light is reflected from wet footpaths and roads can produce some amazing photography.

You will come to find some inherited intelligence once you have been out an about a few times so expect a little trial an error at first. Cityscape metering can be tricky and I would opt for spot metering, take a few readings from the mid tones and compare the results and look for an average.

Because there is normally an abundance of ambient light your exposure times will probably be quite fast, if we were to compare with night landscape photography. As our exposure times are quicker the instant feedback from the digital camera will allow you to adjust your shots accordingly.

Night landscape photography

You will hear of the golden hour in photography, the best light an hour before sunset and the hour before sunrise. With night landscape photography the golden time is often an hour after sunset.

Think about why you are taking the landscape shot, is there anything illuminated by the moon that will create interest within the shot. If you are using the moon as your light source it is advisable not to include it in the shot.  Nearly any correctly exposed shot will overexpose the moon in relation to the rest of the photo. If your exposure is longer than a few seconds the moon will appear blurred, as it has moved with the earth's rotation.

Snow can provide some beautiful night photography, it reflects every speckle of light while bringing attention to subtle details that are often missed or lost during the daylight hours.

Experimentation is the key to good night photography; you are equipped with a digital camera with instant feedback and no film cost. There has never been an easier way to perfect the art than with modern digital photography.
If you have any further tips or comments I would love you to leave them, until next time happy snapping.

Photo credits
Intro photo by sobriquet