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Night photography .. Special techniques .. How to take the most beautiful pictures .. Photography book

Special techniques

- Night photography
Night photography has long attracted photographers: fireworks or colorful and moving lights at celebrations. Complete darkness of course leads to serious limitations and that is why most night scenes are taken at sunset when it is still time to recognize the shapes and sizes of objects, but in the pitch dark the picture will only have some harsh and overlapping lights in a group that does not represent any detail in the shadows.

The exposure time depends on the proportion of illuminated or reflective areas. In humid weather, for example, dark areas become reflective: you can reduce the exposure time and look for a complete balance between lights and shadows. In most cases, it is better to take several pictures, for example, at half or twice the estimated exposure. The average light intensity determines the exposure, which ranges between 30/1 second and 5 minutes. If you exceed five minutes, you risk exposing the light sources for too long without increasing the details in the shadows, due to the exchange differences.

Color photographs pose special problems, especially when there is a mixture of natural and artificial light: scenes of roads, airports, buildings photographed after sunset. The closer to night, the more the colors change and the more artificial light prevails. Using daylight film gives artificial light warmer colors. And artificial light film makes daylight bluer. Both are effective: you can give your subject a night effect by using artificial light film in the daytime by narrowing the aperture by several stops. For black and white, use a red or gray-moderate filter.

With today's very fast films, you can photograph anything, even if it is under very low light. Of course, using a cathode tube image magnifier (a recent invention) makes it possible to take pictures in complete darkness, while our eyes are completely blind and cannot see because of the pitch darkness.

- Motion and light (above)

At nightfall with a long stop on artificial light film. A correct stop on daylight film would have given a flat image with artificial light film. The lights give warm colours that contrast with the bluish surroundings

And the remaining natural light.

The long stop gives the impression of movement.

Hasselblad 2 sec. 16 Ectachrom EHB

- Using daylight film after sunset (opposite page)

This landscape of the Mourne Mountains was shot on daylight film and pushed to ASA 250, which gave a warm colour in the windows and preserved detail in the dark areas: this explains the effect of night. In fact, night had not yet fallen.

Hasselblad 1/8 sec. 5.6 Ectachrom HS

- Moving the camera while taking the picture (right).
Out of habit, I changed the camera's position during the one-second capture. This gives importance to a stationary subject. Capturing light reflections in facades or pools of water is another way to get a lively scene from a stationary subject. Leicaflex Aperture 8 Ectachrom EHB