Night

Learning goal

You will be able to explain why frames come out blurry or dark when you photograph city lights, and learn to use night photography's three basic tools together: a steady support, the right hour and a long exposure. You will put the camera on a tripod and prevent vibration with the self-timer; you will see why the light balance between the sky and the city lights in the blue hour gives the most favorable moment; you will set an exposure with stop math; you will notice that a narrow aperture forms a starburst on point lights; and you will recognize the ways of keeping a face's color natural in the mixed lighting created by lamps of different colors. When the lesson is over, you will also learn the address of the track devoted to night and the starry sky.

The question

An hour after sunset you are on the old bridge over the river. On the opposite bank the windows of the buildings are lit, the bridge's lamps drop orange streaks onto the water, and the headlights of the cars passing beneath it stretch on and on. You take out your phone and shoot; the frame on the screen is either shaken and blurry, or a grainy darkness where all the lights have run together. When you try with the camera, the shutter speed drops to a fifteenth of a second, and however steady you hold your hand, the lamps turn into twisted lines.

How do you photograph city lights? Why can't the camera capture this scene that your eye sees so easily? In this lesson we will talk about night photography's basic approach: steadying the camera, choosing the right hour, and gathering light with a long exposure.

Context

Your eye adapts to darkness within a few minutes and goes on seeing detail even in a dim street. The camera, on the other hand, gathers light for each frame only during the time the shutter stays open. At night this time rises far above the limit that can be held by hand. Either the ISO is raised and the image turns grainy, or the aperture is opened and the zone of sharpness narrows, or the shutter speed lengthens and even the camera's smallest tremble ruins the image.

That is why night photography is done not by hand but on a support, and it depends on timing. But its reward is big too: darkness hides the clutter of the day and leaves only the shapes drawn by light. This lesson tells the first steps through the door that opens onto the night; through the same door there is also a long road stretching all the way to the stars.

Simple explanation

How is the camera steadied?

The tripod we saw in Lesson 13.1 is the foundation of night photography: it fixes the camera to the ground and allows exposures of a few seconds, even a few minutes. But even with the camera on a tripod, pressing the shutter button with a finger creates a small shake. The self-timer is a timer that shoots two or ten seconds after it is pressed; this time gives the vibration your finger created enough time to die down. A remote shutter release does the same job.

Turning off image stabilization on a tripod prevents unnecessary small corrections on some cameras; for this you need to check the camera's manual. Lowering the tripod's center column and spreading its legs wide on a windy bridge also reduces shake. If there is no tripod, resting the camera on a railing, a wall or the ground, or using the phone's night mode that combines several frames, are the last resorts.

Which hour, which settings?

The blue hour is the short time right after sunset when the sky turns a deep blue. At this time the sky is still a little bright and roughly as bright as the city's lit lights; this light balance makes it possible to keep both the shape of the buildings and the light of the windows in the same frame. When night has fully fallen, on the other hand, the sky turns black, the lamps turn into bright blobs, and the difference between them becomes bigger than a frame can carry.

Setting the exposure with stop math is easy. In the deep blue hour, a rough starting point for a city might be f/8, ISO 100 and four seconds; but the real value changes with the scene's brightness, so you need to take a test frame and look at the histogram. When you stop the aperture down by one stop to f/11, you double the time to eight seconds to gather the same light; this long time turns cars' headlights into unbroken light trails. A narrow aperture does one more thing: it forms rays called a starburst around point lights like streetlamps. If the number of aperture blades is even, that many rays appear; if odd, twice as many rays.

How are color and skin kept in mixed lighting?

The city's night is full of mixed lighting: orange streetlamps, white or bluish LEDs, colorful signs and shop windows. A single white balance can't show all of these naturally; that is why you need to decide which light's color will look right. For buildings and the sky this is usually a matter of taste: you can keep the warmth of the orange lamps, or bring forward the coolness of the blue hour.

When a human face is involved, the decision matters more. Some old streetlamps give light in a narrow range of colors; a face standing under one may not return fully to its natural color even if the white balance is corrected later. Light skin can look yellowish and dull, dark skin muddy and flat. Moving the person into a light with a broader range of colors, in front of a shop window or a white sign, and setting the white balance for the face often works. Because the person can't stand still for seconds, you also need to shorten the time: opening the aperture and raising the ISO, for example f/2, ISO 1600 and a sixtieth of a second, gathers enough light in the same scene to freeze the face.

Visual evidence

The next evening you go to the bridge before sunset. You set up the tripod beside the railing, lower the center column and spread the legs wide; you turn off image stabilization and choose the two-second self-timer. When the sky turns deep blue, in the frame you take at f/8, ISO 100 and four seconds, the buildings on the opposite bank can be made out, the windows warm yellow, the sky dark blue; the orange streaks on the water are each a smooth column of light.

You set the aperture to f/11 and the time to eight seconds; the cars passing under the bridge turn into red and white light trails, and small starbursts appear around the bridge's lamps. Then you photograph your cousin who came with you, light-skinned and freckled, under a lamp; their face comes out yellowish and dull. You move them in front of the bright window of a bookshop a few steps away, set the white balance for their face, and shoot at f/2, ISO 1600 and a sixtieth of a second. Their freckles and the pink in their cheeks come back; behind them, as blurry rings of light, the bridge's lamps.

Common mistakes

Summary

At night the camera gathers light only while the shutter is open, so the time goes past the limit that can be held by hand; a tripod, a self-timer or remote release, and turning off stabilization keep this long exposure sharp. The blue hour offers a light balance between the sky and the city lights that a frame can carry; the exposure is set with stop math, a long time turns headlights into light trails, and a narrow aperture turns lamps into starbursts. In mixed lighting you need to decide which color will look right; when a face is involved, moving the person into a light with a broader range of colors, setting the white balance for the face and shortening the time keep the natural color of every skin, light and dark.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will watch and photograph city lights through an evening.

1. Choose a lookout, a bridge or an avenue; set up your tripod before sunset and choose the self-timer.
2. After sunset, take the same frame every ten minutes; find the frame where the sky and the lights are in balance.
3. Stop the aperture down by one stop and double the time; look at the headlight trails and the lamps' starbursts.
4. Photograph someone under a streetlamp, then in front of a shop window or a white sign; set the white balance for the face.

Check yourself

• In which frame do the sky and the city lights look balanced?
• When you stopped the aperture down and doubled the time, did the exposure stay the same?
• Is the color of the face you photographed in the shop window's light more natural than the one under the streetlamp?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Why is the self-timer used with a camera on a tripod at night?

• A) To make the colors livelier
• B) To let the vibration the finger creates while pressing the shutter button die down
• C) To lower the ISO
• D) To set the white balance

2. What makes the blue hour favorable for city photography?

• A) The sky being completely black
• B) The lamps being off
• C) The brightness of the sky and the city lights being in balance
• D) The sky being white

3. With a correct exposure of f/8, ISO 100 and four seconds, if you stop the aperture down to f/11, what should the time be?

• A) Eight seconds
• B) Two seconds
• C) Four seconds
• D) One second

4. A friend's face comes out yellowish and dull under an orange streetlamp. What helps most?

• A) Lowering the ISO
• B) Holding the camera higher
• C) Lengthening the time
• D) Moving them into a light with a broader range of colors, for example in front of a shop window, and setting the white balance for the face

Answers

1. B — The timer gives the shake at the moment of pressing time to die down.
2. C — In the blue hour the sky and the lights are close enough in brightness to be carried in the same frame.
3. A — Stopping the aperture down by one stop halves the light; doubling the time keeps the balance.
4. D — Under a lamp with a narrow range of colors, skin may not return fully to its natural color; a broader-spectrum light and a white balance set for the face help.

Summary card

• Night: tripod, self-timer or remote release, stabilization off.
• Blue hour: the sky and the city lights in balance.
• Stop math: aperture down one stop, time doubled; a long time = light trails.
• Narrow aperture = starburst.
• In mixed lighting, a broader-spectrum light for the face, white balance for the face, a short time.

Bridge to the next lesson

If you want to dive deeper into the night, Track R7 · Night and Astrophotography moves through ten lessons, from city nights to light pollution, from planning the Milky Way to photographing stars as points, from star trails to the Moon and planets. In the reading order, on the other hand, we move from the night on the bridge to a table. At the restaurant you stop at on the way back from the bridge, you photograph your plate; on the screen the food looks cold, greasy and unappetizing, while in reality it was steaming. Why do food photos make you hungry? The next lesson talks about food photography, light from behind and from the side, and a fresh presentation.