© 1999 Gerard Koh

Introduction

Night photography seems daunting to the beginner in photography. Mention it, and one is reminded of under-exposed or "muddy" prints. I hope that when the reader finishes this article, he/she will be more confident and raring to go. This article serves as a guide to beginners and explains in simple terms the different aspects of night photography.

Evening or Night Photography?

You may wonder why such a question should appear in an article about night photography. The truth is, the best "night" photographs are not taken at night! Yes, the best time is when the sky is not too bright and the contrast between the sky and the scene is reduced. The hour just before and after sunset is actually the best time to capture the city lights (which would usually be on at that time) and the darkening sky. Hand-held photography is also possible.

© 1999 Gerard Koh

Film Speed

More often than not, when anyone mentions night photography, the first thing that comes to mind would be high-speed (or fast) film, ie. ISO 400 and above. Whilst it is true that such film are more sensitive to light than slower film (such as ISO 100 or 200), it is simply not necessary and may even prove to be a poor choice.

Fast film, while being more sensitive is also more grainy. You may not notice it in 4R prints these days due to the advances in film manufacturing which has resulted in very fine grain ISO 400 film. But, if you increase the size of your print to say, 8x10 inches, you will be able to notice the "dots" in the image.

Always use slow film if you are able to use a tripod. I say "able" because in certain situations, let's say, covering an event, you may not have the luxury of lugging a tripod along. In such a case whereby you need to hand-hold the camera, get a faster speed, but the rule of thumb is always get the slowest that you can possibly manage.

© 1999 Gerard Koh

Type of Film

This is simply a matter of choice, personal taste, or necessity. Some prefer the richness of slides, whilst others want the convenience of sharing photographs through prints. Some photographers even use infrared film to get special effects.

Should we use colour or black-and-white (B/W) ? Again, this is up to the photographer. You may want to emphasize shadow and lighting, shapes and texture through the use of B/W film. Or, you may wish to capture the richness of the sunset or the multi-coloured neon lights of the city.

Another category to consider would be whether to use tungsten-balanced film or not? Tungsten film, as it is commonly called, is usually labelled with a T in the film name. In simple terms, this means that the film depicts "yellowish tungsten bulb" lighting as white, while non-tungsten film will record the yellowish colour.

Note: The above topic has to deal with colour temperature and various filters are used to achieve a "normal white" balanced effect when "normal" film is used. This is beyond the scope of this article.

© 1999 Gerard Koh

Tripod or Hand

If you are using a shutter speed of less than 1/60 s, use of a tripod is essential to prevent camera-shake which shows up as a blur on your photograph. As a rule of thumb, you should not hand-hold a camera at shutter speeds less than 1/focal length.

eg. If you are using a 300mm telephoto lens, to ensure sharp images when not using a tripod, use shutter speeds of at least 1/300 s. In most cameras, you can round it off to 1/250 s safely. If you are using a tripod, there is no worry as to how fast or slow your shutter speed should be. It can even be up to a few hours!

I know of very steady photographers who can hand-hold at speeds of 1/15 s using a 50mm lens, and yet produce very sharp images. Point is - if you want to produce an image beyond 6x4 inches (4R size), you should use a tripod, or the very least, a monopod.

Monopods are excluded from this discussion as it helps in speeds up to 1s, but night photography, which requires much longer exposure times makes it unsuitable.

Using a Tripod Effectively

The primary aim of using a tripod is to ensure sharp photographs, hence a good tripod should be steady. In Singapore, where the wind is light, small and light tripods are fine. I have encountered situations overseas where the wind is exceedingly strong, nearly toppling over my light travel tripod. In fact, counting on such tripods is one of the causes of damaged cameras.

Then again, there are photographers who use exceedingly heavy tripods (like me), and lugging one around is much worse than carrying an M16! This often results in the tripod gathering dust at home - a trade-off between mobility and stability.

If the need arises, you can hang your heavy camera bag from the centre-column of your tripod, thus pulling it downwards and giving it more stability.

A common mistake when using tripods is to accidentally move or shake the tripod when the shutter is open. If you want to use a tripod, keep clear of it. I have learnt from experience to keep my clumsy big feet out of the way of my tripod's legs.

Some photographers negate the effect of a tripod by not using a cable release. A cable release is basically a mechanism that attaches to the shutter button, and fires off the camera when you push the lever at the other end. By reducing your contact with the camera, any sudden jerk caused by the depressing of the shutter is eliminated.

Exposure

Ah, the seemingly difficult part of night photography. How do we know what is the right exposure time for a particular night scene? In most cases, we don't. The rule of thumb here is to bracket. Bracketing means to waste more film - just kidding!

Let's say, you know that the brightness level of this scene necessitates an aperture of f5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/4s. To bracket means to take additional photos of the same scene but at different exposures. So, you are actually playing it safe by taking perhaps another photo at a shutter speed of 1/2s (longer exposure) and another at 1/8s (shorter exposure), and in both cases, maintaining the original aperture.

Certain newer makes of cameras are able to meter the scene and allow shutter speeds of up to 30s, but in most cases, the slowest shutter speed the camera can reach is much less, maybe 1s. That's where the B letter comes in on the shutter dial. B stands for bulb mode and means that as long as the shutter release button is pressed, the shutter stays open.

So, how do you use it? Firstly, set the aperture as per normal. Secondly, if you have a cable release, connect it to your camera. This means that your hand will not come into contact with the camera during the exposure. Next, get a watch from which you can read off the seconds. Depress the cable release, and note the start time. When your desired shutter speed (say, 5 minutes) is reached, release the shutter.

How do we know what aperture to set in the first place? More often than not, photographers will try to use their largest aperture to allow more light to pass through. But, do take note that this reduces the depth of field, and most lenses do not perform well at their largest apertures.

For owners of professional cameras, there is often the option of mirror lock-up (MLU). This is crucial to taking sharp images for night photography, as it locks up the mirror before the beginning of the exposure, thus minimizing the vibration caused by the mirror slapping up against the focusing screen. Do activate this function if you have it.

Flash

During the last meteor shower, I noticed photographers using compact cameras and firing off their flashes towards the night sky in the hope of capturing images of the streaks of light across the sky. Such an attempt is futile, if not foolish.

In photography, the rule of thumb is that flash only affects the foreground subject. In most cases, built-in flashes cannot go beyond a few metres, while hot-shoe flashes can extend the range a little more. If you intend to take a photograph of your friend with the Supreme Court as a backdrop in the night, by all means, use the flash. But take note that this serves to illuminate your subject only.

In most other cases, switch off your flash. They work better in dimly-lit interiors where the flash effect is enhanced by reflections from the walls and ceiling. They are also useful for fill-flash in daylight situations.

Reciprocity Failure

Film are manufactured to be exposed within an ideal range. Any extremes of exposure speeds such as very high speeds (generally above 1/4000s) or very slow speeds (longer than 10s) may result in colour shifts (in colour films) and underexposure. As reciprocity failure varies from film to film, it is very difficult to state precisely what form of colour correction needs to be done or how much more exposure is required.

For most cases, we can concentrate on the exposure aspect as it is more apparent. As a rule of thumb, any time exposure of more than 10s will require at least a 1 f-stop increase in exposure. Let's say, you meter the scene's brightness and it requires an aperture of f4 and a shutter speed of 30s. To increase exposure by 1 f-stop, either open up the aperture further (if possible) to f2.8 or increase the shutter speed to 1 min. (Note that this is a simple case example and does not consider a lot of other factors.)

For most film (especially the slower-speed ones such as ISO 100 and below), the manufacturer does not recommend exposures beyond a minute. But, who cares? Just go ahead and try it out and see the effects of long-time exposures!

Conclusion