Tips and tricks to help me with night photography

Shutter speeds

1/8sec

15secs

30secs

ISO.

When should I start to increase my ISO settings?

You should use high ISO settings when you want to avoid blur. It’s much better to put up with a bit of noise than end 
up with camera shake, so increase the ISO as far as you need to when you can’t use a tripod.

ISO 100

ISO 100 + Flash

ISO 1600

Also, a higher ISO can be a good alternative to simply using flash. With flash you can stick with ISO100, but it can ruin the atmosphere (as shown in the middle of the three shots on the right).

With many low-light subjects, it’s best to use an ISO setting of 100.

This shot of a Polish market, for example, was taken indoors at night. But using a tripod, there 
was no problem in extending the shutter speed to get enough light to the sensor. This gave a bright enough exposure without even touching the ISO controls.

What is camera noise?

All digital cameras create a certain amount of noise in the images they capture. Noise looks a bit like the grain in a picture taken with film – you need to blow the picture up to see it. Fortunately, digital camera sensors are getting better and better at minimising noise.

ISO 100

Noise gets more noticeable as 
you increase the ISO setting. It’s particularly noticeable in the darker shadow areas, and as well as a grainy texture, the blacks become mottled with colour.

ISO 1600

This noise can be minimised using custom settings on your camera, or by using the options provided by image-editing software.

Master white balance in your night photography

How do I avoid ugly color casts?

Most of the time, your DSLR is quite capable of capturing accurate colours whatever the lighting. It’s the job of the camera’s white balance system to adjust the colour of the image, replicating the way our eyes see the scene (check out our in-depth guide to common white balance problems – and how to solve them).

The standard Auto White Balance (AWB) setting, however, is much better at getting the colours right in daylight than after dark. Shots taken of floodlit buildings or in your living room, for example, can have a slight but unpleasant orange-yellow colour cast.

This is a sure sign that the white balance is wrong, and this discolouration can be easily corrected in Photoshop, particularly if you shoot using the RAW quality setting.

An overly orange color cast

Make a custom setting using a white object

A custom setting offers better color rendition

However, it’s simple enough to get the colours right at the time you’re shooting. 
All you have to do is set a Custom White Balance. If you’re taking a sequence of shots of the same building, or in the same lighting, this is especially effective. The standard technique is to use a white or grey object and use this to set the white balance.

Is there a simpler way to avoid colour casts?

Even if you set the white balance manually, the colours of some areas of your night shots can still look wrong. The problem here is that a building may be lit by several different light sources, each with a different colour signature.

You can adjust the white balance for one, but adjusting it for them all is a much less straightforward task. A simple solution is to convert these troublesome images to black and white.

Shoot in colour, and then convert them to monochrome using your photo-editing software; this gives you the best control over the contrast and tonal range 
of the image. It’s a good technique to use on your party portraits, too!

How do I set manual white balance?

All digital SLRs enable you to set the white balance precisely, using a reference shot you’ve already taken. The following steps show the steps for doing this with a Canon DSLR, the exact procedure may vary if using other brands…

1. You know when it’s time to act when your pictures start to look orange.
2. Take a picture of something white or grey. Choose the Menu button and select the Custom WB option. Ensure the reference shot is on screen, then press Set.
3. Now change your White Balance from AWB to the Custom option (denoted by a black rectangle above two triangles). Subsequent pictures will have no colour cast. Remember to recalibrate the white balance setting when you shoot a different scene.

An alternative method
The traditional method is to use a sheet of white paper or a grey card for your reference picture when setting a custom white balance. But you can get away with just using a picture of the subject itself.

Auto WB

This shot of Krakow Castle is much too orange. We then used this image as the reference for a Custom White Balance setting.

Custom WB

Using this lesser-known method results in a much better final image.