Shooting handheld at night

Can you shoot night-time Q city scenes handheld or is using a tripod better? Keith Thomas

The simple answer is yes, but it depends on A what’s in the scene you are shooting. A nighttime landscape-style shot where you want to photograph buildings lit up might be better captured on a longer exposure and a tripod. Anything that moves will then be rendered as a blur or, depending on the length of the exposure, may not register on the image at all.

However, if you want to capture little scenes of urban nightlife, then opting for a handheld approach that allows you to react to things happening around you will probably be better. In this case, set a high ISO and look for areas where shop fronts or other types of illumination are creating pools of light that will give you some interesting contrast. Keep your eye on your shutter speed and increase the ISO or use a larger aperture if the speed you are getting is too low for handheld photography. You are better o using a standard (50mm) or wide-angle lens in this scenario, rather than a telephoto, as you can hold it steadier to avoid camera shake.

Using a higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed inevitably means some compromises on image quality, but night-time urban scenes often have a gritty quality to them so you can just make this part of the image’s atmosphere and narrative.