6 Mistakes to Avoid During Night-Time Photography

Get cracking on clicking quality photos at night instead of just going through the exercise during the day time. Night time photography is a tricky art and needs practice to master. If you aspire to click pictures like a professional photographer, then please frame these words and hang it next to your bed --- “Thou Shalt Not Use Flash At Night”. That is, if you can help it.

Using low or dim light to shoot at night can be challenging. So how about you take your DSLR out of its case once the sun goes down, and start clicking. And while you are at it, here is a list of common night time photography mistakes which photographers commit.

1. Watch your shadow: The basic mistake which all of us make while clicking in a bright light source at night, is forgetting that we might invariably become a part of the picture because of our shadow. Standing between the light source and the subject you are clicking means your shadow is going to fall either on the object, or on the ground near it. So try to stand at an angle where the shadow doesn’t sneak into the frame.

2. Under exposure is a kill joy. So make some adjustments and set the ISO as high as possible. If you camera allows you to go up to 1600 or 3200, then don’t hesitate in setting it that high. It will help balance the natural and artificial light so you can get the correct exposure for your snaps.

3. At the same time, beware of over exposing in your photograph. It will just unnaturally brighten up the frame and it might even look eerie to some. So play around with the exposure and try shooting some test photos before you go on.

4. Always use a tripod so that you don’t end up with blurry photos. It will also come in handy when you are shooting in long exposure.

5. Again, long exposure might cause noise to creep into your pictures. This happens with high ISO settings too. Try shooting in shorter exposure and then merging those multiple shots.

6. Shooting the Northern Lights are you? Your friends back in the city have every reason of being jealous of you for this. But it would be a short-lived ‘stardom’ (literally) for you if your pictures turn out horrible wrong. So while shooting the Aurora Borealisc, as it is also called, you might want to try using short exposure photos to minimize motion blur. Keep an earthly object in the frame as well, like a mountain or a tree top, to give an idea of the relative magnitude of this mesmerizing phenomenon.