How to Take Pictures of Night Lights

Introduction to Night Light Photography

Night light photography can be a very challenging endeavor and requires a bit of patience, but no specialized equipment is required. You basically just need a camera, a tripod is nice, but not required.

Night Light Photography Equipment

Below is what I use for night light photography:

• Olympus E-3 DSLR body
• Olympus 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 zoom lense
• Maybe a Gorilla SLR-Zoom tripod

Choosing a Lens for Night Light Photography

I like to use a wider lens for night light photos, because it’s usually a larger scene where the lights are mounted to buildings and you won’t get the full effect with a telephoto lense. That can be a nice shot too, but that’s for a different post. A wider local length also has an added benefit of allowing slower shutter speeds while handholding the camera. This is one situation where image stabilization comes handy, nothing is moving and the shutter speeds are slow. If you have it, use it! It’ll do in a pinch if you don’t have a tripod with you.

Focusing on Night Light Photography

Manual focus works best for night light photography, the Olympus E-3 is luckily good enough that auto focus does still work most of the time. DSLR’s and cameras in general have a tough time focusing in indoor low light never mind full on dark night light. Save yourself some frustration and go manual focus if your camera isn’t behaving after trying 2~3 shots. A lot of auto-focus issues has to do with the lens as well, so you’ll need to try out the AF autofocus with each lens on your camera body. E.g., my Sigma 105mm has no chance in autofocusing in anything but bright light, but all the Olympus high grade lenses work just fine even in dark street light.

Lighting for Night Light Photography

I just use ambient light if I’m taking pictures of night lights. Night portraits are a different beast and does require more lighting, but for night lights just turn that flash off and let the night lights shine through. It’s usually still buildings, so no need to use a flash to capture “action” either.

ISO Settings for Night Light Photography

I try to keep it ISO400 and below for low noise. In low light situations, a lot of your scene will be underexposed causing noise to show up.

Aperature Settings for Night Light Photography

Unless I’m going for the star burst effect, I stick with widest aperature possible. In my case f2.8. Since the subject is basically the size of buildings, you’ll be fairly far away. Depth of field shouldn’t be a concern even at f2.8

Shutter Speed Settings for Night Light Photography

I’m a bit shaky, so when just handholding the camera, I’d use 1/15 with image stabilization turned on along with 14mm focal length. That should be plenty for sharp pictures.