You pack up and leave after sunset and miss the pleasure of night photography?

A post by: John DavenportPPThere is no doubt that the best light during the Golden hours occurs, but does this mean that you need to pack your camera after sunset and Miss all the fun of the night photography?/PPIMG class=” wp-image-64162 alignnone” alt=”city-skyline-example” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-city-skyline-example-600×337.jpg” width=”600″ height=”337″/PPAbsolutely not!/PPNight photography offers so many great opportunities for photographers that it is something that should not be overlooked. In fact-I think it needs to be experienced by everyone./PPOf course, shooting in the night means that you’re going to push your gear to the extreme. High ISO ‘s, long shutter speeds, fast lenses, tripods, external shutters and patience are a must when it comes to shooting after the Sun has set, but the results will be worth it./PPSo what is there to catch in the night, and more importantly how do you go about capturing each of these topics?/PPIMG class=” wp-image-64166 alignright” alt=”Walking-the-city” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-Walking-the-city-429×600.jpg” width=”350″/PPCities are great places to photograph any time of the day, but at night, cities come to life. Think of Times Square in NYC or the Vegas Strip. Of course, not everyone is going to have access to such iconic locations, but that doesn’t mean that your local city will not provide you the goods./PPWhen shooting a place do you have so many options open to you; of skylines, for the simple every day things that make cities run. Things like the traffic, the people and the objects that they use to get around are a good start. This photo of a bike, chained to a parking meter, for a church for the night, lit is a great example of what can be found walking through the city streets./PPFor more tips and examples on shooting cities at night check out this great posts:/PPWhen it comes to capturing the night sky there are two basic ways that you can go about doing this. You can view of the vastness of space and demonstrate the number of stars in the sky, or you can record the motion of the Earth’s rotation by creating star trails./PIMG class=”size-large wp-image-64164″ alt=”night-sky-photography” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-night-sky-photography-600×430.jpg” width=”600″ height=”430″Night photography with vast open sky and stars/PPThe basic concepts for capturing both types of night air photos are the same. You need a tripod, a wide angle lens, and you’re going to work with a large aperture in most cases./PPWhen it comes to the shutter speed and ISO which is where things begin to differences between the two types of shots. What if the Earth’s rotation causes star trails to form, you need to narrow down your shutter speed to capture a single frame shot before this rotation is created by final effect./PIMG class=”size-large wp-image-64165″ alt=”Startrails-OneWS” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-Startrails-OneWS-600×374.jpg” width=”600″ height=”374″Night photography star trails over a long period of time recordingPPA general guideline for this is known as the 600 line that basically States that the longest shutter speed you can by dividing 600 is determined by your adjusted for 35 mm focal length. So if you are using an 18 mm lens on a 1.5 x crop sensor DSLR would Take 600 divided by 27 (18 mm x 1.5 crop factor) which would mean the longest shutter speed that you can would be about 22 seconds. To check that you are going to need to set a rather high ISO. However, with modern DSLR cameras is as good as they are these days with noise, this is becoming less and less of an issue./PPHowever, if you want to capture the effect of the star trail, then the object is to capture the movement you were trying to avoid before. Often times star trail photos are created by stacking multiple long exposures of the same scene over a long period of time. Since shutter speed is not a problem here it is much easier to use longer speeds that will result in less frames in the end. You’ll also be able to use lower ISO and smaller openings here if you prefer./PPHere are some more great posts to send you in the right direction for taking better pictures of the night sky/PPIMG class=” wp-image-64163 alignnone” alt=”light-trails-example” src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-light-trails-example-600×397.jpg” width=”600″ height=”397″/PPLight paths are a whole lot of fun to photograph and can be done just about anywhere there is a busy road./PPGenerally, a shutter speed of one second, up to a few seconds, enough so that you the look you are after. But it doesn’t just come down to finding a road with traffic and shooting it

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