URBAN NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Here are a few tips to help you capture striking images at night in towns and cities

1

SET UP Find a safe place to set up your equipment. This spot is well lit, so the photographer can see the buttons on the camera clearly, rather than fumbling around in the dark trying to change settings.

3

LIVE VIEW If your camera has Live View, switch this on, as it makes the scene much more easy to focus. Zoom in on a bright point of light, and adjust the focus manually so that the scene is as sharp as possible.

5

REFINE YOUR SETTINGS

Increasing the exposure time from 5s to 30s means that much more light will hit the sensor on the camera, resulting in a brighter image. For exposures this long, you will definitely require a tripod.

2

SWITCH CAMERA TO MANUAL

Manual mode will enable you to have more control over the exposure time and aperture settings; in low-light scenes, most cameras do a poor job of gauging the light levels.

4

TAKE A TEST EXPOSURE Use a relatively short exposure time, fairly low ISO and stopped-down aperture to judge levels of light in the shot. This image was a 5s exposure, f8 at 400 ISO, and is too dark.

6

BRIGHTER IMAGE This shot is much brighter, with the boats in the foreground more visible. It is handy to shoot RAW images, because you can bring out more details in the darker areas of the image when editing.

PIER TERRACE AT NIGHT The 30s exposure helps accentuate the movement of the boats on the water, and using f8 the light on the left side becomes a starburst