Night

fp4 125- 30" - f.5.6

Somtimes when one o' clock in the morning rears its ugly head and your still on lolcats there's something wrong with your life,

But that happens a lot with me so i curb my insomnia by night shooting, tag teamed with my hasselbald i just kinda walk around shooting ya know, nothing planned guess it helps me sleep, heres couple of tip for night time shooting that i've picked up and thought i'd share :)

fp4 125- 3 minuet 38 seconds - f.5.6

1. Focusing is very hard, as most of your subjects will have no light on them what so ever you'll need to spend a good long time working on your focus, look out for lights, signs or even gravel depending on how sharp your lens is. Also your big flashy auto focus has almost no chance unless your camera uses a assisted flash focus so always be ready and willing to turn the dials manually

2. When a shutter fires the mirror inside flips, if your shooting a 2 minuet exposure a minor shake such as a mirror flip will create camera shake, cameras will have a mirror up function sometimes witch will allow you to lessen shake before you fire the shutter, keep in mind you wont be able to focus or see our image any more when the mirror is up until you wind back down.

3. You know to always use a tripod right? well that's good only a lot of photographers don't realize a tripod is only half the game when it comes to night time shooting. You can spend an hour setting up and metering a shot to perfection but as soon as you press the button you'll knock the camera crating shake and motion blur, it wont be a lot but just enough to ruin your image, use a screw in cable release to avoid this.

fp4 125- 2 minuet - f.5.6

4. A decent light meter, the more auto a light meter is the less helpful it is in the dark. A good light meter will help you towards figuring out the best exposure time for your image, always have a wide open aperture and work towards shutter times. Night time photographys lowest shutter i've ever seen is around 30 seconds, thats with street light illumination. Never trust deicated inbuilt meters in darkness and always zero your meter before you set out.

5. As soon as you start using external lights its not night time photography any more its just street. Night photography is the art of using very low light to create a different feel to your images. Flashing kills atmosphere unless used professionally so just try and use natural light.

6. Use the empty streets to your advantage, its very easy to create a cold scary feel at night if your creative mind is in gear. Be creative and try to add tension as well as beauty to your images. Its all about atmosphere, be cinematic and use the darkness to your creative advantage.

fp4 125- 45" - f.5.6

7. Photography likes simple, in fact its always on the phone to simple telling it about its day. Isometric shapes, repeat patterns, simple ideas all work the best in most forms of photography that stays true in night time. Shoot your images one idea at a time, you might have 2 shots right next to each other and getting them both in the same shot is not always the right thing to do, space it out and take your time.

8. My final point is be safe, your carrying a lot of gear on your back when you do any type of photography right, i go out solo because its how i work if your happy to have a friend who's always having trouble sleeping take them, always check your not too far from help and take a phone, don't want your nice camera stolen do we! :[

fp4 125- 30" - f.5.6