nightscapes like daytime, long exposure landscapes
 | Want to learn more about SLR Photography? Subscribe to SLR Photography Guide today for free. |
How to photograph nightscapes with long exposure, so they look like daytime shots
While on a trip to the beach recently, I played around with long exposures at night time and realised it was possible to photograph nightscapes so they look as though they are taken during the day. Take the nightscape image shown below for example. As you can see, landscapes that would normally be photographed during the day, can look quite dreamy when taken at night with a long exposure.
Note: Click the photograph below to see a larger image.
This nightscape shown above was taken at Cape Hillsborough National Park (Australia), in total darkness at 8.14pm. It looks as though it was taken during the daytime because the exposure was set to 521 seconds. In other words, the SLR camera actually took the long exposure in just over 8 and a half minutes. It then required another 8 minutes thereafter to finish processing the final image within the camera.
You can clearly see the star trails in the larger image. This is due obviously to the Earth's rotation.
Other Camera Settings for this landscape taken at night were:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 17-40mm f4 L
Exposure: 521 sec (521)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Here is another example of a nightscape, ie long exposure landscape taken at night. Once again, you can view the larger photograph by clicking on the image.
Because it was quite dark, a torch also comes in handy. What I did, was shine the torch out to the rock so I had something to focus my camera on, pressing the shutter half way down. Then I turned the torch off and pressed the shutter the rest of the way down to take the shot. If you don't do this, you may find your camera lens swimming a lot trying to focus in the dark, which will make it impossible to photograph anything.
This time the camera settings were:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 17-40mm f4 L
Exposure: 181 sec (181)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 19 mm
ISO Speed: 50
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Tips for taking nightscapes
Here is what I learned from experimenting with long exposure nightscapes.
- Always use a steady tripod and remote release. Obviously you won't be able to hold a camera steady enough for 8 minutes without them. It's also a good idea to use a remote release that will allow you to hold the exposure open for as long as you need. Therefore it's important to buy a model that has a shutter release lock.
- You need to set your SLR camera to BULB. This will enable you to keep the exposure open for longer than 30 seconds.
- Try an exposure of 3 minutes to start with, then give or take a few from there depending on how dark it is. Note: Your camera will take just as long to process the image afterwards. Therefore if you take the photograph over 3 minutes exposure, the camera will actually take 6 minutes to complete the shot.
- Turn on your camera's noise reduction setting (if it has one). Long exposure night shots are known for high noise. Therefore you will most likely need to use noise reduction software on the final image. I used Photoshop CS2 to reduce the noise in the two examples shown above.
- Some photographers will tell you that increasing your ISO setting will reduce the time required to take a nightscape. However, I find this causes high noise that will be seen in the final image. Hence I recommend keeping it to 100 or as low as your camera will allow.
The most important thing to remember when taking nightscapes, is that you need to be patient. When each photograph takes at minimum 10 minutes to complete, you need to be prepared to be in for a long night. After taking a few under or over exposed shots, or wobbly ones where a gust of wind blows at the wrong moment, you might end up with a keeper.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: nightscapes like daytime, long exposure landscapes.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.slrphotographyguide.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/28
Tanya, you mention that you hold the shutter button down half way to autofocus. How is that done with the remote? Do you not use a wireless remote? And lastly, can't you simply focus manually?
-Patrick
Nice to see you on Facebook Patrick :)
Yes I use the wireless remote's button to hold the shutter half way down. It works just like the button on your camera in that you can hold it half way down to focus, then press it fully to take the shot. You can manually focus if you find that easier. Personally I find it hard to do that in the dark with little light to guide you.
Have a great day!
Next time try also using the torch you used for focussing to 'paint' in details during the long exposure.
Thanks Linkwize, that's a good tip. I think I read about that in a photography magazine. I'll search it out and re-read it.
Thanks for the guide! I've been experimenting a little recently and found that ISO100 seems to be fine noise-wise on my camera (Canon 350d). I am intrigued by how long it took the camera to process the photos. I have not had any similar time issues; though I assume you are using RAW, and would be curious what file sizes long exposure RAW is relative to daytime RAW (I have only used it during the day, and have used highest-qual JPEGS at night for no particularly good reasons).
I took this early last week and tried lightpainting for the first time, it helped as although the moon was very bright, the verandah and door were pitch black and in shadow even after longer exposures than this shot. http://www.flickr.com/photos/timmy_pete/3100607271/ (exposure and lighting details on flickr) it did indeed take a few shots to get something nice.
Cheers, Tim
Wonderful photo you have on flickr Tim. Yes, I do shoot in RAW. I've found little difference in the size of RAW files, whether I photograph in daylight or night light. Both file sizes are relatively similar.
Kind Regards.
Tanya.
Hi Tanya:
Your Photos are awesome.
I came upon them by doing a search on Long Exposures at night.
I am new to DSLRs and just bought the 5DM2. I did my first long exposure (30 secs) at night and freaked out when I saw all that noise!
Your photos are soooo clean compared to mine!
Do you do noise reduction in both the camera and in photoshop? Canon's Digital Photo Prof. has noise reduction too. Do you do it there too on your RAW files?
Thanks,
Mat Marks
Hi Mat,
Yes, I did turn on the camera's noise reduction settings for long exposures. Although this still resulted in a lot of noise in the original. I then edited the image with Photoshop CS2 (under filters) to reduce the noise as much as possible. I did all this in the jpg not the RAW. Hope this helps :)
Kind Regards.
Tanya.
Tanya,
This is a great tip for me because I'm a night person and find it difficult to get up early for those morning shots.
Still reading the manual for my new DSLR Canon. So many more options and I have to try to remember how I used an SLR camera again. It will be great to use depth of field and different apertures and ISOs.
My first trip will be down to Ocean Grove and that place where Seachange was filmed. Then I thought I could use some Flybies to get to Sydney again to stay with friends and relatives.
Hi Jenny,
Enjoy your trip. I'll look forward to seeing some photographs :)
Kind Regards.
Tanya.
Hi. i am a fan of yours. i love this long exposure night shots. and i am currently a graduating student. taking photography. i wanted and was inspred by your topic. was wondering if i can use that as my topics. but i need some objectives and statement of the problem regarding this topic. it's for my thesis this year. hope you could help me. thank you so much :)
Hello Jayne, Yes you can use this topic for your thesis. All the best with it :)
Hey Tanya, I am an amateur photographer. I have a sony alpha 200 which I am currently using. I came across this page and was stunned by the effect you were able to get. Could you please guide me about nightscapes and exactly which mode are you shooting in? I have tried a few photos of my own in the shutter speed mode achieving an exposure of 30 seconds but after trying hard, I have not been able to get a longer exposure and nor am I able to capture the blue sky... Please do guide me thank you.
Hello Siddharth,
For nightscapes, you need to set your camera to bulb mode and use a remote release. Bulb mode will keep the shutter open for as long as the shutter release is pressed. The blue sky will come with longer exposures. The darker the night sky, the longer the exposure you need to set. Often its trial and error to start with. If it's a really dark night, set the camera exposure to 5 minutes, then adjust from there depending on the outcome. The best advice I can give, is to have patience. Nightscapes take a lot of patience, as well as trial and error.
Have fun with it!
Tanya.
--------------------