What is.........

[newphotographer2]

Can any body tell me some of the best tips for night time outdoor photography .

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Thanks

 

[willis_927]

Tripod... Thats probably the only good tip that anyone can give you. You need to be way more specific on what you are doing. Strobed light? Long exposure with no added light? Maybe its night time but you are indoors and its really bright and need nothing at all but your camera and lens.

 

[FitzTML]

Nighttime, outdoor, more details please. Are you shooting people, places, light painting?

You have three basic options. Flash to light your subject, fast lens to gather more light and/or tripod to steady the camera for longer exposures. You could also max out the ISO on your camera, but not all cameras do this well even if they are capable.

Flash: This works when photographing people and subjects at a relatively close range, it doesn’t work very well for landscapes or distant shots. Learn the different features of flash if you want front or rear curtain sync or high speed sync.

Fast lens: This will allow you to take pictures with less ambient light, you will probably still need a flash or tripod, but you can find fast primes at a relatively affordable price (50mm 1.8 will be around $100(US) new). This will give you a few stops more than many kit lenses. Be aware that at maximum aperture you will have a narrower focus area.

Tripod: This will allow you to take longer exposures with less blur (on still subjects). There are a lot of applications for this including light painting and light trails.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

google search will give a plethora of night photography instruction and advice

 

[Derrel]

In really brightly-lighted places at night, do not be afraid to stop the lens down to f/11 or even f/16, which will usually produce nice diffraction stars on point light sources, like street lights.

White balance bracketing can be one thing to try: see if you prefer the scene rendered with Daylight or Tungsten WB, or a manually-set WB. Actually setting a white balance can have a different effect than letting it just run wild in AUTO...the camera is going to try and process the information from the color matrix based upon "some type" of white balance point...so...SET one, do not just let it yo-yo in AUTO.

In AUTO-exposure modes at night, allowing the camera to "time-out" the needed amount of exposure, it is often necessary to set the auto-Exposure Compensation to the Minus side, so as to keep things looking like a nocturne, and not some odd, abandoned city during a dust storm at noon...

Oh, and if you want to do light painting...wear dark pants and a dark hoodie!!!!

 

[paul85224]

Uh...bring a flashlight????

 

[dots]

Bring coffee