nightscapes like daytime, long exposure landscapes
How to photograph nightscapes with long exposure, so they look like daytime shots
While on a trip to the beach recently, I played around with long exposures at night time and realised it was possible to photograph nightscapes so they look as though they are taken during the day. Take the nightscape image shown below for example. As you can see, landscapes that would normally be photographed during the day, can look quite dreamy when taken at night with a long exposure.
This nightscape shown above was taken at Cape Hillsborough National Park (Australia), in total darkness at 8.14pm. It looks as though it was taken during the daytime because the exposure was set to 521 seconds. In other words, the SLR camera actually took the long exposure in just over 8 and a half minutes. It then required another 8 minutes thereafter to finish processing the final image within the camera.
You can clearly see the star trails in the larger image. This is due obviously to the Earth’s rotation.
Other Camera Settings for this landscape taken at night were:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 17-40mm f4 L
Exposure: 521 sec (521)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Here is another example of a nightscape, ie long exposure landscape taken at night. Once again, you can view the larger photograph by clicking on the image.
Because it was quite dark, a torch also comes in handy. What I did, was shine the torch out to the rock so I had something to focus my camera on, pressing the shutter half way down. Then I turned the torch off and pressed the shutter the rest of the way down to take the shot. If you don’t do this, you may find your camera lens swimming a lot trying to focus in the dark, which will make it impossible to photograph anything.
This time the camera settings were:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 17-40mm f4 L
Exposure: 181 sec (181)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 19 mm
ISO Speed: 50
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Tips for taking nightscapes
Here is what I learned from experimenting with long exposure nightscapes.
- Always use a steady tripod and remote release. Obviously you won’t be able to hold a camera steady enough for 8 minutes without them. It’s also a good idea to use a remote release that will allow you to hold the exposure open for as long as you need. Therefore it’s important to buy a model that has a shutter release lock.
- You need to set your SLR camera to BULB. This will enable you to keep the exposure open for longer than 30 seconds.
- Try an exposure of 3 minutes to start with, then give or take a few from there depending on how dark it is. Note: Your camera will take just as long to process the image afterwards. Therefore if you take the photograph over 3 minutes exposure, the camera will actually take 6 minutes to complete the shot.
- Turn on your camera’s noise reduction setting (if it has one). Long exposure night shots are known for high noise. Therefore you will most likely need to use noise reduction software on the final image. I used Photoshop CS2 to reduce the noise in the two examples shown above.
- Some photographers will tell you that increasing your ISO setting will reduce the time required to take a nightscape. However, I find this causes high noise that will be seen in the final image. Hence I recommend keeping it to 100 or as low as your camera will allow.
The most important thing to remember when taking nightscapes, is that you need to be patient. When each photograph takes at minimum 10 minutes to complete, you need to be prepared to be in for a long night. After taking a few under or over exposed shots, or wobbly ones where a gust of wind blows at the wrong moment, you might end up with a keeper.
Hand held panorama tips photographing panoramas
Tips for photographing hand held panorama’s
Example Photograph - Hand held panorama
Note: Click the thumbnail below to view the larger panorama photograph. It is best to have a fast Internet connection for viewing the larger image as dimensions are 4219 x 800 pixels.
This panorama was created from a series of 8 photographs that were stitched together with Photoshop CS3. If you have Photoshop CS3 you can create panorama’s by opening File / Automate / Photomerge. If you’re lucky, you might also have panorama software with the CD’s that came with your camera. For example, if you purchased a Canon camera, it may have been boxed with a copy of Canon’s PhotoStitch software.
Tips for photographing images that will be used for creating panorama’s
Listed below are quick tips, useful for photographers who want to create panorama images.
- Use a wide angle lens, zoomed out ie at the lowest mm length, for example 17mm.
- Manually expose the first photograph, then keep that exposure locked for the others.
- Ensure sufficient overlap between photo’s, 20-30% is good.
- If you can, try not to get any one person in multiple photographs. If you look at the larger image of the example photograph above of Manly Beach, you may have noticed a woman holding a baby showing up twice. This is due to me capturing her in more than one frame. Where as what I should have done, is waited until she was further up the beach before taking the second shot.
- When hand holding the camera like I did in the Manly photograph, it’s a good idea to take two shots of each frame in case one isn’t as sharp as the others.
Photographing panorama’s is a style I am intending on experimenting with more in the near future. If you have any tips to share, feel free to leave them along with your comments 
Tips for photographing sunrises
How to photograph sunrises
Photographer and author Rick Sammon shares with you his best advice including 8 tips for photographing the perfect sunrise.
- Know where the sun rises before you go out taking photographs. Once the sun starts to rise, you won’t want to waist any time repositioning your camera gear.
- Know what time the sun is expected to rise in your particular area. Buying a copy of the local newspaper will tell you this.
- Use a tripod, because you will need to set slow shutter speeds due to low light conditions. For example, 1/8th of a second or slower depending on the available light.
- Underexposing your shot will result in richer, deeper colors and shades of reds, oranges and yellows.
- If you want a small sun in your composition, use a wide angle lens. If you want a larger sun seen within your composition then use a telephoto zoom lens.
- For composition purposes, don’t place the sun dead centre in the frame. Try and imagine a grid over your composition, like the one shown in the image below. If you always ensure the sun’s position is over one of the overlapping areas, you’ll come out a winner every time.
- Like any landscape, don’t place the horizon dead centre of the frame either. If there is a lot of color and light in the sky, then make sure that area takes up the top 2/3’s of your composition. On the otherhand, if there is a lot of color or reflection in the foreground, then compose your shot so the foreground takes up the bottom 2/3’s of the shot. You can view examples of both of these compositions in the video below.
- Take off all filters when photograhing towards the sun. Otherwise you will end up with a ghost image of the sun, which will ruin any sunrise photograph. It’s also important to remember that a polarising filter is only useful in creating a more colorful sky when the sun is to the right or left of your position. Therefore, in the majority of cases, polarising filters should also be removed for sunrise photography.
In the video below, Rick Sammon explains all these tips for photographing sunrises in more detail.
To watch this photography tutorial, press the go arrow.
Related posts and reading:
