Autumn is a great time of year to do these, with rush hour traffic and blue hour coming together. To get that deep, rich blue in the sky the hour just around lighting up time is always best, although this photo was taken at around midnight, it would have been far more interesting art around 7-8pm at this time of year. Some suggested long exposure times for various cityscapes at f/16:
Cityscape just after sunset – 4 secs
Cityscape at night – 20 secs
Docks and bridges with reflections – 8 secs
Floodlit statues and fountains – 2 secs
Neon signs – 2 secs
Christmas lights outdoors – 20 secs
Ordinary night street scene – 20 secs
Floodlit exteriors – 4 secs
Floodlit castles and churches at dusk – 15 secs
Floodlit castles and churches at night – 30 secs
Landscapes by moonlight – 30 mins
Landscapes at twilight – 1 min
Interior lit by tungsten – 12 secs
Interior lit by candlelight – 60 secs
Traffic trails – 30 secs
Fairground rides – 15 secs
Bonfire flames – 2 secs
Fireworks – 2 – 60 secs
These times are all approximate, and for 100 ISO. If you’re shooting with faster film, half the time for 200 ISO and half them again for 400. Bracket, adding the same number of secs to each exposure. Or if you’re using digital, experiment a bit and chimp.
A suggestion to put the camera setting on ’shutter priority and dial in 30 seconds might sound appealing, except that variable light conditions like traffic or fairground lights is likely to make the automatic aperture selection uncertain. It’s tempting for newcomers to this to use a wide aperture in the hope of getting more light into the lens, but this can result in distracting depth of field variations. Best to stick to f/11 or f/16.
And turn off autofocus. Your lens isn’t likely to be able to find focus in the dark and if you keep your aperture narrower than f8 the depth of field you’ll achieve will be wide enough for most circumstances.
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13 Comments
When out the other night taking pictures I remembered the bit about the f stop and hovered around f14. Why best f/11 or f/16 and not in between? I also remembered the bit about experiment and chimp! Cheers B.
I tend to think in traditional old school f-stop numbers, where there’s one stop between f/11 and f/16, but yes f/14 is fine!
Love your list for suggested exposure times. I can’t wait to try it out myself. I have only dabbled with night photography as I am a self-taught photographer. This month, I’d like to expand my horizon by learning how to do this well. Thanks for your input!
Your suggestions are great! I am merely at #4 — and, unfortunately, can’t through the list tonight as my toddler is looking forward to watching Snow White together ;) — but I’ll definitely be back to work through the list. I recently got hooked with macro photography. Now … this! :)
I am so gad to have come across your post. This may be called spoon-feeding, but nothing beats getting valuable tips such as these from experts. Thanks! :)
what a great post.. I really enjoyed it.. I have always wondered how to takew these types of pictures, they can be so beautiful, but if not done correctly they look terrible. Thanks for the guide
Hey TPP,
What kind of camera are you using or does it only matter what type of lens you use for these shots?
This is a very useful help for me as a newbie photographer. I just love to photograph everything that catches my eyes but I don’t have proper training. This post is a good start. Keep posting articles like this.Motel in Lexington
Great suggestions. I just bought a Nikon D5100 and am going to test out these shots this weekend.
I’ve been staring at that photo, trying to figure out what the orange-blue streak is…? It’s really intriguing…
This is an amazing resource! It just goes to show that taking pictures in low-light conditions has a lot of different factors to take into account, and there isn’t one “night” camera setting.
Thank you for taking the time to detail the specific exposure times — I’m inspired to try them all!
Hi there, TPP! I’m so glad to have come across your blog. You seem to have so many tips and secrets to share with your readers. I’m a new recruit in photography — my brother got me interested in it when we went on a mountain climbing trip and the photos he posted on Facebook looked so stunning. Honestly, I just want to prove that I’m better than him, yet again, on something. ;) Kidding aside, you’ve got an amazing blog here. Keep sharing!
Night photography gives a great artistic twist on the lights. Light exposures indeed look good if there are different lights on a certain area with unpredicted movements. It is just amazing that these accidental shots can become a piece of art.
martha
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[...] been Googling this search phrase, and landing here, which is useful, but I thought a tips list, (added to by my esteemed readers) would help even [...]
[...] left to run. A fab opportunity for all of us ‘early career’ photographers to hone our long exposure skills. There’s more lighting stuff over the holidays though. Anyone recognise these [...]
[...] been Googling this search phrase, and landing here, which is useful, but I thought a tips list, (added to by my esteemed readers) would help even [...]
[...] Almost the best part of the year, these long autumn nights. There’s a table of exposure times here and a traffic trails tutorial here. If you’ve still got a fireworks party to do, try a really [...]