At the end of the day…
At the end of the day…
You’re on the home straight now – but no challenge is complete without a foray into low-light shooting
As the sun drops below the horizon, you might think that your 24-hour photo mission is destined for an early finish – but there’s still loads more to do, if you’ve got the energy!
Twilight and night-time offer stacks of photo opportunities but for many shots, a little colour in the sky works wonders, and the window to get this before it blacks out is relatively short; less than one hour after sunset. That means you need to work fast – even though your shutter speed will be pretty slow!
Because two of these projects are best with an inky-blue sky, make sure your traffic trail and industrial locations are only a short distance apart (unless, of course, you can combine the two in one shot…). The moon can be tackled after these, when the sky has turned black, as you need a faster shutter speed than you’d think to prevent the craters and seas on its surface from becoming blurred. The moon is moving at quite a rapid rate of knots!
1 Shoot industrial landscapes
With a little light left in the sky after sundown, switch to Manual mode then set an aperture of f/11 and a long exposure of 30 seconds to record amazing shots of industry on the edge of town. You’ll need a tripod, but the small aperture will render light sources as starbursts, and the long exposure will blur any clouds or smoke present into ethereal wisps.
2 Take a moon shot
Your longest lens will reward you with a great record of our closest celestial neighbour, and getting a good shot of the moon is relatively easy provided you set up your camera correctly. Switch to Manual mode and dial in f/8, ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 1/250 sec for a full moon. If it’s less than full, increase ISO to compensate. Use a tripod and set your self‑timer to a two-second delay so you don’t jog the camera at the key moment.
3 Shoot traffic trails
Find a safe spot like a footbridge above a busy road, and set up on a tripod. Focus on the scene, and with ISO set to 100, switch to manual focus to lock the focus distance. Now switch to Manual mode and set the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed to B (Bulb). Open the shutter when you see a stream of traffic, then cover the lens with a black card when it subsides. Uncover it for the next stream of traffic, and so on.
When you have enough traffic ‘in the can’, close the shutter with the cable release.
In one long exposure, you’ll have captured a vibrant river of headlights and tail lights.