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Photography: Capturing night photographs – Part 1

Photography:Capturing Night Photographs:

We’ve all thought it; the 21st of June comes and goes and we inevitably start to mourn the passing of long summer nights and brace ourselves for the dark winter nights that draw ever closer.

Some photographers resent the onset of winter as the beauty of natural evening light is replaced with a thick impenetrable darkness, that renders their cameras useless, save for snapping evenings out at a restaurant etc.

It needn’t be that way though, as photographers we should welcome the opportunity and challenges that the shorter nights give us, the chance to develop our skills and add a new facet to our hobby; night photography.

Admittedly to achieve the best results in night photography, (as with most things) it is best to have the best quality camera and additional extras such as a powerful flash. However, good quality composition and mastery of the technical skills used in night photography are a much more important factor in getting interesting and high quality images, at least that’s my opinion.

Equipment that you will need and some notes about using it

One thing you will need is a digital camera that can handle dark conditions, and thus one that has the ability to maintain high image quality despite the delayed shutter speeds that are inexorably associated with nighttime shooting.

Most modern cameras (even the small compact variety) have CCD chips built into them, which help to reduce the associated noise (or recorded distortion manifested as abrasive pixels) that occurs with night shooting. This works by the image sensor recording an unperceivable second exposure after the first without opening the shutter again.

The cameras CCD chip then informs the cameras built-in computer which extra, unwanted ‘noise’ pixels are to be ‘subtracted’ from the final image, which is the image that is saved or recorded to your memory card. A clearer, sharper image with no distortion or extra pixels (which is what causes blurring) is the result.

There are many cameras on the market capable of doing this but in the small compact range, the Finepix F31fd represents the new wave that have a night time shooting mode. This feature optimises a low shutter speed, whilst maintaining as wide an aperture as possible (to let in all available light) and not blur the image too much.

Cameras such as the Fuji 9600 also have a ‘Night framing’ mode, which (theoretically at least) allows you to take pictures in total darkness!