How to get the most out of your Night photography
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- čas přidán 28. 07. 2024
- Over 20 years ago I made my first night image and was hooked from day one. On a recent trip to the Canary Islands I was out shooting the Milky Way, the first time in many years. IN this video I look at the essentials to make sure you get the best from any night photography excursion. The things to remember and get right to maximise your results.
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I was shooting in the Teide National Park about a month ago and there was not a single soul around. When I was shooting foreground two other photographers come out of nowhere with (thankfully!) red torches. I kept shooting just in case while they walked right through my composition, and it resulted in a pretty good touch to the photograph. Not only it added some interest to the shot, but also added scale, which my composition lacked.
Thanks for the video, Alister! It's always very informative and inspiring
That’s awesome, it pays to flexible with possible outcomes - such a beautiful place
Thank you for exploring this topic.
Great video thanks. I was in Teide national part myself last week, determined to get a night shot, but I hit a lot of technical issues in both taking photos and then editing them.
I brought a tracker, but the stars were so bright I couldn’t find the North star, so that put an end to that.
I used a low powered light source to get some light and bring out colour on the foreground, but getting the right amount of light was not easy.
My foreground included Red Tajinaste flowers, which are susceptible to movement in the wind.
I focused on the foreground and stars separately, so I could merge the two images together to get a complete image in focus. This created a number of processing problems. Firstly, getting everything in focus on the foreground with an aperture of 1.4 is just not possible, but getting a good exposure match by using a different aperture for the foreground Is not easy. Secondly when overlaying the images the out of focus foreground results in blur that exceeds the size of the focused foreground. Lastly merging a foreground with fine details is a nightmare, made harder by the previous issues.
I took a shutter release to take a long exposure at ISO 100 to take out noise on the foreground image. For an unknown reason the shutter release refused to work properly, but the exposure time required would have been problematic as the plants were moving.
Alignment of the Milky Way and foreground image is fleeting, so there is a lot of pressure to resolve issues before the moment is lost.
All in all very stressful! I got one photo out of it that I am reasonable happy with it took a lot of editing work.
Awesome! Thanks for doing an astro vlog. Back in 2012 I was hungry for information on night photography and I remember I was blown away by the cover of your book. I’ve been a follower ever since. I hope you’ll do some more Dark Sky vlogs from time to time. Cheers-
Excellent video. I've enjoyed your landscape videos but didn't realize you did night photography! You always emphasize how important it is for photography to be a product of, or at least an important part of, the photographer's experience, and I was so happy that you brought that into this video too. I couldn't agree more that "composition is king" in nighttime photography and I like how the milky way fits the composition in your photos. It's very different from having a foreground of, say, a truck and a big bright milky way core in the background. To me, those elements are hard to relate to each other and the photo ends up with two competing subjects. In your photos the milky way aligns with and flows with the landscape so the image conveys the idea of Earth's place, and by extension our place, in the universe. For my part, I have become less interested in the milky way core as I am of producing a photo that tells the story of being outside at night, although I work very hard to get sharp stars and realistic colors. Just wanted to say that your daytime videos have led me to care less about doing the popular thing and to care more about making images that are special to me (sometimes only me) and I'm thrilled to see you include that in your nighttime advice as well.
Very nicely done....
Thanks man, I appreciate that
hi Alister i already read your night photography ebook and i really loved it... it pushed me to think more about all the details that go into planning a great night photograph that i never thought of before and the results are way better, so thank you for what you do.
Thanks for that, it was amazing how much I’d forgotten!! I had to use the Nikon D850 as the GFX weirded me out 😂
@@Alister_Benn 😂🤣
Great video Alister. I did a lot of night photography (mostly milky way and star trails) years ago too but got bored with it, I felt everything looked the same. I had an idea once to photograph the landscape by the light of the full moon. We even had a camera club event for it but many people only shot the moon then went home. 🤷🏼♀️🙄. Those of us left had a lot of fun with moon shadows and light on the landscape. You've inspired me to go out and do this again. God knows it's much more bearable where I live at nighttime 🥵😉. Time to dust off that book of yours again. Thanks!! 😊
Thanks so much Barb. I’ve been having such a great time here with Adam and he’s looking forward to your trip
Great video. I wonder if you saw Alyn Wallace’s video about Fuji GFX and the horrible results he got. It can’t possibly be that bad can it?
Fascinating stuff! The only time I really tried to get something at night was the aurora in Iceland in 2017. Of course I had no idea what I was doing, but the experience beat any images by far anyway. I was just dragging my jaw along. It would be fun to try again in September - I might pick your brain 🤣. I've been to the Teide some years ago and it's such an amazing, rugged landscape. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Canada and have fun!
Thanks so much, it can be so much fun shooting at night. Canada is brilliant, having an amazing time
Very valuable advice Alister, many thanks. Do you ever light paint your foreground subject as an alternative?
Hello Alister, thank you very much for sharing! Have you already taken opportunity to shoot with your Fujifilm gear at night? Does it make sense to do so with a sensor like this because of noise issues? Kind regards Martin
I struggled with the electronic viewfinder and ended up shooting with my D850. The GFX is still too new and the night learning curve too steep
Hi Alister. Since you recently switched to Medium Format, i initially thought the photos were taken with the Fuji. Unfortunately I was wrong about that. It would have been interesting to see what the results would have been like with the Fuji. Since the selection of high-speed lenses is rather modest. Which lens would you use on the Fuji GFX to do night photography? Kind regards Patrick
Yeah, I struggled with it and ended up with the D850 and a 2.8 lens. My widest is f4 at 20mm (medium format) and it wasn’t fast enough for the very dark conditions. With more moonlight it’s be fine. We’ll see?
@@Alister_Benn Right. And the only fast lens I know, is the Irix 45mm f/1.4 dragonfly. But 45mm isn't 20mm and therefore less viewing angle.
I have for the beginning after that its no sound at all
That's really weird, it is working fine for me on CZcams