Few things in life are as mesmerizing as a long exposure night photography photo. The ethereal beauty of a cityscape or landscape, bathed in the soft light of the moon and stars, can be captivating. But capturing such photos can be tricky, especially if you're new to photography
Here are a few tips to help you get started: first, find a location that offers interesting subjects and good lighting. Next, set up your camera on a tripod and compose your shot. Finally, adjust your settings according to the type of photo you want to capture. For example, if you want to create motion blur, use a slow shutter speed; if you want to capture star trails, use a long exposure time.
With some practice and these simple tips, you too can create stunning long exposure night photography photos!
Tips for Long Exposure Night Photography: Bring the Essentials
You don't need a lot of gear to start taking night photography. But the ones we mention on this list are essential to help you capture your shots effectively.
Fast lens
You can use any type of lens when shooting night cityscape shots. A lens with an aperture of f/1.8 or wider is not essential on a tripod, but it can help. Any lens with these wide aperture settings is called a fast lens because they let more light in and create exposures quicker.
Tripod
You can't shoot handheld at night if you want crisp and clean images. Your camera's shutter has to stay open for a long time to gather enough light for exposure. So any movement may cause motion blur and ruin your images. But placing your camera on a tripod will keep your camera stable and allow it to capture sharp photos.
Remote Trigger
Setting your camera on a tripod isn't enough to ensure you eliminate motion blur. Something as simple as pressing the shutter can shake the camera and make your photos blurry. The best solution is to not hold the camera at all and use a remote to trigger the shutter, instead.
Choose the Best Time to Go
Before you head out, ask yourself what type of image you'd like to create because that will dictate when you should get to your location. Do you want the setting sun in the background or do you prefer pitch-black sky?
If you want some sunrise or sunset images, you'll need to reach your location at least 45 minutes before the sun rises or sets. To make sure you don't miss anything, check your local forecast to figure out what time you need to head out.
For instance, if the sun rises at 6:50 am, then you need to be there by 6:05 am. That way, you have time to set up your equipment. 45 minutes may seem plenty of time, but you'll be surprised how fast the sun moves. So to be safe, just prepare for it or you might have to wait another day to do it.
If you want to shoot when the sky is pitch black, you'll have more time to prepare your equipment and take as many shots as you want. The hours of darkness vary with location and season.
Of course, the sun sets at different times around the world, so make sure you check what time the sun usually sets in your area. To be safe, you can wait an hour or two after the sun has disappeared before you head out. Even when you think the sun has gone down, your camera might still capture faint light from the horizon when you create long exposure shots.
Choose ISO for the Exposure You Need
For static night cityscapes on a tripod, start with a low ISO to reduce grainy photos. Use a longer exposure to gather enough light, which can also create light trails. Increase ISO when you need a shorter exposure.
Use Live View to Focus Your Subject
Achieving focus when shooting cityscapes at night can be tricky. Since it's so dark, your camera will have a difficult time finding a focusing point.
To make things easier for you, turn on your Live View and pump up your ISO so you can see everything on the screen. Pick a bright light and zoom in on it (not the lens but the screen). Next, switch your lens to manual and adjust it manually until that light becomes sharp.
Once you achieve focus, zoom out of your screen and switch your ISO to the level you want. Now all you have to do is press the shutter, and that’s it!
Compose Your Frame Before Clicking the Shutter
How do you compose your frame when you're shooting a night skyline? It's a tricky question, especially if you've never done landscape photography before.
The first step to answering this question is to figure out which part of the skyline you'd like to be your main point of interest. Is it the tallest building in your frame, or a statue in the middle of the park?
Once you find your main point of interest, you'll need to know where to place it in the frame. And to help you figure out that part, you should turn on your camera screen's grid.
The grid divides the screen into 9 squares. All you have to do is to place your main subject in the areas where any of those lines of those squares intersect. It's that easy!
The principle behind the grid is called the Rule of Thirds. Apart from landscapes, you can apply it to everything else from portraiture to still life photography. So always keep it in mind whenever you have your camera with you.
Set Your Camera to Aperture Priority
When photographing landscapes at night from a tripod, choose an aperture that gives the depth of field you need. You do not have to use the lens’s maximum aperture.
A wide aperture produces a shallower depth of field and more bokeh. For sharp foregrounds and distant buildings, use a smaller aperture and a longer exposure.
The Aperture Priority mode lets you set the aperture while the camera chooses the shutter speed.
Keep your camera on a tripod during long exposures.
Use the 500 Rule for Stars in Manual Mode
The 500 rule estimates a shutter-speed limit for avoiding star trails. Set the cityscape exposure separately.
So what's the 300/500 Rule? It's easy. If you have a full-frame camera, all you have to do is to divide 500 by your camera lens' focal length. For instance, if you're using a 24mm lens, divide 500 by 24 to get about 20 seconds.
For a crop-sensor camera, divide 500 by the lens’s focal length and then by the camera’s crop factor. With a 24mm lens and a 1.5x crop factor, that gives about 14 seconds. So why is the time shorter? The crop factor narrows the field of view, making star motion more noticeable at the same display size. A shorter exposure helps keep stars from trailing.
To be clear, the time difference between a full frame sensor and a crop sensor doesn't change the quality of the image. It's just a matter of physical difference between the sizes of the sensors.
Bracket Your Shots for Correct Exposure
Now, what if you can't seem to get your exposure correctly no matter what mode you're using? You'll encounter this issue a lot when you're doing night photography.
So how do you tackle this problem? The simple answer is bracketing. This technique involves taking photos of one scene with different exposure levels. That way, you now have a choice of which exposure best matches what your eyes see.
If your camera has an automatic bracketing function, turn it on and set how many frames you'd like to shoot. In most situations, 3 to 5 frames are enough to help you nail the exposure you want.
Once you activate bracketing, press the shutter, and your camera will do the bracketing automatically for you. If you did it correctly, you should see 3 to 5 frames that have different exposure levels. Expect some to be overexposed and some underexposed. But there should at least be one image that has the correct exposure.
Consider Applying HDR for More Detail
Are the cityscapes you took feeling too flat or blown out? You can bring out the details by using HDR (High Dynamic Range). This technique combines multiple images to create one photo that has the right amount of highlights and shadows.
To create an HDR on Lightroom, you'll need to load all of your bracket shots together. In Develop, select all the frames and right-click. Now go to Photo Merge and click HDR. Once you select it, the program will automatically merge the pictures to create an HDR photo.
In case you see some double exposures in your image, go to Deghost Amount and choose between Low, Medium, and High.
Once your HDR image is ready, feel free to edit it in Lightroom even more. Tweak the Exposure Settings as well as the Curves to bring out the details and the colors of your cityscape even more.
Conclusion
Shooting night cityscapes is challenging. Even with all these night photography tricks and tips, you're bound to make mistakes during your first few photoshoots at night.
Keep practising and learning from your mistakes. Once you polish those techniques, nothing will stop you from taking stunning night city and landscape shots.