09/03/2011
Night time shooting.
Well, I guess no one had/has any questions to leave as tip 11 didn’t really go as planned :/.
Ah well, This tip is about getting some funky shots during the night.
For this to work you’ll need to be able to adjust the shutter speed on your camera, and having a shutter release button will be handy too.
I was amazed at my first picture I took in the dark with a long exposure, it blew me away and was a shock 
.
Here it is:
Nothing special, simply put my camera on my friends car roof and pointed it at the moon and took the shot. Bare in mind this was basically pitch black before.
Here’s the steps:
You’ll need to keep your camera completely still as you will be having the shutter open for a LONG time and if it moves you’ll get hideous blur.
So Tripod…Check
Depending on how dark the area is your photographing it may be handy if you get yourself a Shutter release cable, This enables you to have the shutter open for as long as you like instead of the limited time on the camera. Also it will reduce any camera shake and they are really cheap .
Shutter Cable…Check (not vital though)
Setting up the camera:
Set your ISO pretty high, atleast 800.
Make sure your aperture is as big as it can be, thats the ”F/” on your camera like so:
Set the ‘F’ to the lowest number it will go to. ( this will vary depending what lens you have/when you zoom in and out ).
Lastly, Set your shutter speed to as slow as it will go you’ll see if you have it set to Manual and scroll the wheel all the way to the right it will show BULB where the shutter speed is displayed, This means as long as the shutter button is held down it will keep the shutter open until you release the button.
This is where you would use your shutter release button as you can then use the bulb mode to keep it open for as long as you wanted.
If you don’t have a shutter release I know that on the Canons you can set the time to 30 seconds maximum, Most of the time this is probably plenty of time to make your image come through in the darkness.
Hopefully after you’ve took your shot you should see the colours come through from blackness on your final image .
Have fun!
Thanks
Dan.
4 Comments
Aww I wish you had a photo of the standard night photo! Car roof lol
My camera goes up to ISO 400 haha
Haha yeah I should of took a normal shot, Maybe I can re-create it. It would of been pure black with a hint of the moon lol.
Overall I think the article is fairly good, but I do have a question. Why are you setting the ISO high? You should be doing the opposite for a long exposure. The main reason you would up the ISO is to decrease shutter time, and as you’re doing long exposures you don’t gain anything and it makes your pictures more noisy. You should be setting the ISO as low as it can go most likely 100 or 200. This will reduce the noise in your photos.
Thanks for your comment AJ, That’s a good point to be honest, And you are right
. I think I tend to crank it up as it will let/make more light in which makes it easier/less of a wait for the image to ‘produce’?, Thats probably me being lazy though hehe, But thanks I will try with a lower ISO tonight as I’m off to shoot some star trails. Again, Thanks for your comment! 
Dan