Night Photography Unlocked
One of the first things that interested me as a young boy just getting into photography, was shooting at night. I was fascinated by the way light was recorded onto film and the effects I could create with long exposures. Especially when using torches and a tripod.
Of course, I was rubbish at it. This was circa 1981 (aged 13-14)…
However, that didn't stop me trying and loving it. Trouble was, I had to wait two weeks for the prints to arrive through the post to see my results. Often very disappointing!
I experimented with all manner of techniques including:
...and remember, this was all with a simple, basic SLR film camera at the age of about 14.
Digital Night Photography
Later on when I got into digital, I loved it because it meant I could see results immediately. That meant I could experiment and learn a lot quicker. Now I use night photography quite a bit and the skills I have learned come in very handy for wedding photography at night.
In the image below, I was on a 5 day trip to Italy to shoot a 3 day wedding and in my spare time, I shot a lot of night photography for stock:
And of course, the techniques used came in very handy when shooting the actual wedding. Because for each of the three days I was shooting, the events started early evening and went on into the night:
Without the skills I had learned, this would have been a disaster and I could well have messed up the entire wedding.
It doesn't matter what genre of photography you are into:
There will more than likely come a point where you will need to learn some night photography skills. Of course, practice makes perfect but to give yourself a helping hand and speed up the learning process, check out this brilliant course by Neil Creek, a seasoned, professional night photographer.
