Hello everyone,
My name is Arturo Gonzalez and I live in the Chicago land area. I started getting into photography in 2010 and have found nightscapes to be my favorite. Photography at night is pretty tricky due to the lack of light available. If you have a quality DSLR/lens and a tripod, you have the tools to capture great night pictures.
I currently own a Nikon D750 and utilize a number of lenses {Tamron 24-70, 70-200, Nikon DX 18-140]. Ideally, you'll want to have lenses where the aperture can go to 1.8 [prime lens] or to 2.8. Even if you have a regular lens where the aperture only goes down to 3.5-5.6 range, you can still get quality images:
The following is a high level approach to taking night pictures [example - downtown skyscrapers]. I hope to offer a more detailed approach in the future:
- When you buy a lens, make sure it allows for manual focusing. Auto focus does not work well at night.
- Set the shooting mode to Manual on your camera.
- Set the aperture to lowest setting possible [1.8, 2.8, or 3.5 -5.6].
- Turn off auto focus. Set it to manual and manually focus the lens on the subject you want to take the picture of.
- Set the ISO to 100 for now.
- Set the exposure to 5 seconds.
- Place the camera on a tripod or steady surface.
- It is ideal to have a remote control for the shutter or a release cable. Having these tools will greatly reduce the risk of shaking the camera. A shake will create a blur effect.
- When you are ready, hit the button on the remote or release cable.
If the picture is too dark, then increase the exposure. Set it to 8 seconds and try again. If the picture is blown up with too much light, lower the exposure to 3 seconds. Here is where you learn about the importance of exposure. Certain conditions require more exposure time and some less.
I hope this brief tutorial has been helpful and informative. You can check out my work at the following sites: