Some Night Photography Fun

This evening in my photography class, we went up to the penthouse of one of the buildings on campus that gave us an excellent view of downtown Calgary and looking west toward the Rockies.

Downtown Calgary by Night

Calgary Sunset

Now for some zooming fun:

From our perch, we also had a good view of the C-train, Calgary’s light rail train.

C-Train and Cars on 10th Street

Painting with Light

And of course, the photographer!

Some Night Photography Tips:

• Use a Tripod. Even amazing people cannot hold a camera perfectly still for more than a second.
• Put your camera on manual: use a low ISO (100 or 200), a small aperture (f/11, f/16, etc.) and a long shutter speed. Use the light meter to expose properly or under expose slightly to increase saturation of colours.
• Use your timer or a remote as pressing the shutter can create small vibrations, which equals blurry photos.
• Use a small light to “paint” light like I did with the C-Train. Once the camera starts taking the picture, point the light towards the camera and paint to your heart’s content.
• You can zoom, tilt, pan, rotate or just move your camera to create fun light trails.
• Experiment and have fun!

What is your favourite thing about night photography?