Night photography
At night light is scarce, contrast shoots up and the camera reaches its limits. In return, some of the most evocative images appear: wet streets reflecting neon, traffic light trails, starry skies. It all comes down to one decision: shoot handheld and accept some noise, or use a tripod and let time do the work.
Handheld or tripod
Handheld, you have two allies: a fast lens and high ISO. At f/1.8, ISO 1600 or 3200 and 1/60, you can photograph a lit street. Image stabilization helps you go a little slower, but it doesn't freeze people who are moving.
With a tripod the equation changes: you can work at ISO 100, stop down to f/8 for sharpness and leave the shutter open for several seconds. The image is much cleaner and everything that moves becomes a trail or disappears. Use the 2-second timer so the pressure of your finger doesn't move the camera.
No tripod, raise the ISO. With a tripod, lengthen the time.
The same street at the same brightness: two strategies.
Light trails
Car light trails come from exposures of 10 to 30 seconds from a bridge, a sidewalk or a bend, with the camera on a tripod. Work in M mode or shutter priority, at ISO 100 and between f/8 and f/11. If the image comes out too bright, close the aperture before shortening the time: the length of the trails depends on the length of the exposure.
The starry sky
To see the Milky Way you need a dark sky, far from the light pollution of cities, a moonless night and a very fast wide-angle. A good starting point is f/2.8, ISO 3200 and 15 to 20 seconds.
The maximum time is set by the Earth's rotation. The 500 rule gives you a reference: divide 500 by the equivalent focal length and you'll get the maximum number of seconds before the stars turn into streaks, about 20 seconds with a 24 mm. Autofocus doesn't work in the dark: focus manually on a bright star by magnifying the image on the screen.
Night recipes
Common starting points. Fine-tune afterwards by looking at the histogram, not the brightness of the screen.
Your turn: go out at night
Ideally with company and in areas you know.
- Go out at blue hour with a tripod, or rest your phone on something stable and turn on its night mode.
- Take the same photo handheld and on a tripod, and compare noise and sharpness at 100%.
- Find a street with traffic and try exposures of 5, 10 and 20 seconds.
- If you can get out into the countryside on a moonless night, try a photo of the sky using the 500 rule.