How I Take Photos At Night - Street Photography

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CHAPTERS:
00:53 - Light
03:09 - Slow Down
04:18 - Stabilise
06:35 - Shutter
07:50 - Underexpose
08:57 - Summary & Sponsor

[MacKintoshPhoto]

"Ignore the dark, look for the light" is what someone once told me. It simplified what I was looking for out on the street at night.

[AngeloHinojosa]

One tip I have is to not be afraid of bumping up the ISO. Personally I’ll max out at 6400 but occasionally will go a little above.

[paramidge]

Best bit of advice here is to underexpose. This Is often true in the day as well, it is much easier to pull details back from the shadows than try and rescue some vague and broken lines from blown highlights. In many scenes the exposure comp dial is constantly between my fingers. Just shoot when the tones and light sources look true. Sometimes you might need to blow the lights at night a bit in order to catch a candid and poignant subject when not necessarily in the best relation to the light; play it by eye, so to speak.

[ablesentry]

One very obvious tip for those with LCD screens: To hugely eliminate jitters, customise your screen to take a touch-screen shot. I use my left hand thumb as I hold the camera. Very stable.

[granitfog]

I would suggest pressing the shutter a few heart beats after exhaling. 

During inhalation, blood storage increases in the lungs and reduces the volume pumped out by the heart, but during inhalation the heart rate increases slightly. When exhaling, the first one or two heart beats will pump out that volume of stored blood into peripheral circulation, causing a very slight "pulsating" of the body, and the heart rate slows down slightly.

Thus, these two effects (volume of blood and breathing effect on heart rate), suggest the best moment to take a photo with reduced body shake related to blood volume and heart rate, is about 1 or 2 seconds after the end of exhalation but before the next inhalation.

[johanp]

Using a 2 second timer definitely works as you say, my fear however is missing the decisive moment. Two seconds is a long time in a busy world.
Your underexposure tip works very well. I notice a cleaner less noisy shot shot when I expose urban nightscapes 1 2/3rd stops under.
Thanks for the tip (which I started using after first watching this video a while back).

[scottswank]

The stability comments around the 7 minute mark are great. I'll only add that when you shift your left hand to below the camera to support it, that you also want to press your elbows against your torso because your body shakes less than your arms & hands. (Same reason the viewfinder or taut neck strap help, your head & neck are more stable than your hands.) Cheers, and thanks for very nice video.

[victorcarmelo]

I find a mini table top tripod helps when pushed against a wall, doorway etc.

[jarredcannon]

I hope some people see this. You shouldn't be afraid of bumping up the ISO, but you should also underexpose rather than bump it too far. The reason being that you can recover more contrast, and thus perceived detail when raising the exposure in post as opposed to using a much higher ISO to compensate. When in doubt, underexpose

[KuriK_photography]

hi Roman, good tips for holding the camera and stabilizing it while taking the shot in regards to shutter control. Surprised you didn't talk about using wider apertures like 1.4, 1.8, etc. to let in more light and that way allow for lower ISO and higher shutter speed. Additionally something that I've found is helpful is if you do have to bump your ISO a Denoise application like Topaz can help in post while editing to remove the noise.

[innercityunit]

Just discovered your channel last night, watched the first one simply because I saw a Fujifilm X-T4, and what a great find!...Watched 3 vids, The legality of, and how to approach, street & travel photography in different countries, Different focusing techniques for street and a What's in my cam bag gear round up...Really enjoyed them, found that a lot of your thoughts and philosophies mirror my own in how I approach photography and a great delivery, easy to watch videos....Two X-T4's!..lucky boy....I'm saving at the minute to get hold of one, can't wait!!....New sub here.

[BlancGivre]

I know is annoying and cumbersome but using the old tripod (and the timer) is how I was able to get my best nighttime photos. Using the tripod in combination with the timer allows you to access insanely slower shutter speeds, preserving your precious ISO and allowing you the luxury of managing the depth of field a little. And, of course, it completely eliminates camera shake.

[ImagesbyAsh]

Great video and really useful information.
I love night photography but struggle with my Canon 70D.
The tip about underexposing is something that I’ll try next time I’m out at night.
Thanks Roman.👍🏽

[dinomorphosis]

Great video with some sound advice. A couple other things to try if possible: 1. Use a Tabletop Tripod at night can be fun, challenging and offer you perspectives you may not have thought about before. 2. Try using a Digital camera with less Megapixels and an older sensor, especially for Fuji users. The X-E1, X10, Xpro1 and XT1 all have a grain that's very pleasing to look at when you bump up the ISO in heavily contrasted situations.

[charliejg]

Thanks for another informative video Roman! You mentioned how the display and the actual image often don't match. I have wondered about how far to go with the brightness settings for the back display because with my old eyes I sometimes have difficulty seeing the display and have to use the EVF.

[winc]

Hand rails, pillars, walls all give something solid to press the camera against to stabilize as well. It may involvd some squatting. You could get a half leather case or an L-bracket for night shooting if you are squeamish about scratching the camera.

[lausimon]

Great advice especially how to use the neck strap, thankyou

[mikefoster]

I'm a big fan of Auto ISO during daytime. During nighttime, I like to slide my shutter speed dial (on my X-T5) to 60 or 125. My front command dial is set to toggle (with a quick press) between 1) moving my Exposure Compensation and 2) adjusting the chosen shutter speed up and down a bit. (For example, at 1/60 my front dial lets me vary it from 1/40 and 1/100).

So I can can get plenty of useful control just with that one front dial, allowing me to get shots quickly at the best exposure. (Of course, also adjusting my aperture ring separately as needed).

[howardroark]

beautiful shots! and awesome tips! Subbed!

[ajblitzstein]

Great video, Roman! I don’t do a lot of nighttime stills but when I do I make sure my camera is not on auto-ISO. That way i’m not fighting with the camera to increase the ISO beyond what the scene calls for.