Part of my portfolio and one of my favourite projects is Urban Night Photography. I find creating long exposure images is creatively rewarding in a unique way. As I look for images I find myself envisioning a scene that will feature rich colors and many times a sense of drama. With the long exposures at one's fingertips at night moving lights can become lasers or streams of color. If you can add in some unusual weather all the better. Rain and wet surfaces reflect colors brilliantly allowing the creation of images that remind me of early painters.
Equipment-wise shooting at night is similar to landscape photography. A tripod becomes a necessity if you want to shoot long shutter speeds and lower ISO's. I use a mid range Manfrottto tripod and ballhead. For triggering the shutter a remote release makes life easier although the same function can be achieved by using the self timer function found on most cameras. I prefer a remote shutter release to both time light trails and in some cases shoot between gaps in traffic to avoid them. Lens choice varies, for me it may be a 12-24mm ultra wide angle, a 20mm prime, a 50mm prime or my 70-200mm. Sometimes I may go out with just one lens, the camera and the tripod.
Nailing the exposure at night can be difficult and requires some practice and learning your camera. I don't get perfect exposures every shutter click but I read my histogram and take my observations from previous shots to judge what compensation is necessary. It never hurts to take several different exposures or bracket shots. I also do this quite frequently.
So when the sun goes down, grab your gear and fire up your creativity the results will surprise you.
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| Waiting for Your Call |
I walked by this phone booth almost daily and it always seemed to grab my attention. Photographed at night/early morning it came alive and you can read a story into it. For me it brings a sense of loneliness and impending danger.
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After the Rain Came
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This shot came about as the tail end of Hurricane Sandy dumped rain on the city. The low angle and the wet surfaces give a lot of depth, color and drama to this image. The lines with the wide angle lens also gives an impression of movement and dynamics.
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Rain and Street Meat
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Another of my more popular images this was also shot during the same rainy night as above. This time I used a 700-200 to crop in tighter on this guy waiting at a hot dog stand. I couldn't figure out why he was out on this night getting food but I am sure he might have wondered the same about me out with my camera. The wet pavement reflected the red lights providing brilliant colors and the light from the stand lit the subject perfectly.
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| No-Karts |
Another wide angle shot this long exposure brought out the colors of the different lights in this scene creating a totally different scene than what would be available in daylight hours.
If you enjoy this blog please share and give some feedback. Much more of my Urban Landscape, Street and Night Photography can be seen at
www.torontophotographs.com or
www.robertgreatrixphotography.ca.
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