When you take the photo is just as important as what you photograph
Seems there is all sorts of information out there about what to take pictures of, but no one (other than landscape photographers) talk much about the TIME you take your photo. In this article, I want to explore this a little with a simple location that is right down the road from my apartment and show the difference that just a few hours can make in the mood and feel of a location that is being captured.
The camera of choice with my the Leica CL with the TTArtisan 17mm f1.4 lens shot off of a tripod so shutter speed isn’t a problem. I will be maintaining an ISO of 100 for all photos and an aperture of f11 on all photos, so shutter speed will be what I have to change to keep the exposures to where I like them.
The time of day is something that a lot of people think about a little but really don’t put much effort into the planning of the photo. It takes a good bit of reconnoitering to get the location scouted with the vibe you are wanting in the photo. I see these locations all the time, when I am driving around in the day time and when I see them at night it is a completely different scene. Some people like shooting in the daytime, some like the blue hour or golden hour and some, like me, prefer the night… So seeing a night photo while viewing the scene lit by the sun is a problem. I can get somewhat of a visual based on previous photos I have taken of other locations, but until you see it lit by the street lights and 8’ fluorescent tubes, you just don’t know what you will be getting.
I don’t know why I like shooting at night so much, but I do. The low light and the negative space just do something for me and the photos reflect it.
Ybor City has some interesting light that is only available at night.
I do like some blue hour stuff to add the touch of blue sky to my images at times, but not always. Another perk to shooting at night is that it is cooler in the summer months, with temps being generally lower and the sun in not beating down on me, I am more inclined to stay on a location longer and get better images. Street photos at night are a little tougher as I need larger apertures to keep ISO manageable, and this means focus is a lot more of an issue as depth of field is significantly shallower than in the daytime, but it is manageable if you think about it first.
I normally set focus traps and shoot in burst mode and this will usually net me a sharp photo of a scene at night at even crazy large apertures like f1.4 or f0.95… It just takes a bit of practice and patience.
The gear matters…
The gear you use at night matters just as much as the subject you are shooting. If you have the wrong equipment, you simply won’t get the shot.
Fast glass gives you options.
Take for instance, street photography, this is dynamic and has movement in it. For most human movement, a shutter speed of 1/250 second will freeze action sufficiently. 1/200 in a pinch if the subject isn’t moving too much will net sharp photos. Well, to get a decent exposure, you will need fast glass, shot wide open and will still probably need a fair amount of ISO to compensate.
Now, if you are shooting static subjects like buildings or scenes and motion isn’t an issue, you can just let the shutter stay open until the exposure is good, but once you cross about 10 seconds, humans tend to vanish from the scene… Cars make long lines with their headlights as they drive by and things begin to look different. So you can see it all depends on what you want to capture to drive your gear choices here.
I personally like to have fast glass if possible as this is the most versatile lenses. These lenses can still be stopped down for times when you want deeper depth of field and opened up when you need the extra light gathering power of “fast glass”. So whenever possible, I will always opt for the larger aperture option over the smaller, if just makes sense to me to have that extra optional aperture when needed. The old adage “better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it” comes to mind…
Water reflections are magical in low light or night photos.
Now that lenses are talked to death, what about the camera? Well, honestly any camera will do. It is the least important part of the equation to be honest. As long as it can be controlled manually for all three major functions, it will do. You see, it must be able to adjust shutter speed, ISO and aperture manually to be able to get creative results at night. The camera running in automatic mode will make choices in these controls that will not be what the photographer wants most of the time. It is guessing and will most likely guess wrong… But just about all reasonable cameras will let you control these functions and this is where it gets good…
The time of day.
Back to the original subject. Here are two photos taken from the same location, with the same camera and lens combination, at two different times of day.
Here we have a daytime scene of a garage.
Here is the same composition at night. Notice the change in mood.
Here is the same scene, but the overhead lights are turned off (different day). This changes the mood even more and gives the scene a different feel. Take a look at the scene below of the Dutch Motel sign I found the other evening. The daytime photo isn’t much to look at, but the night time one has all sorts of interesting features that make it unique and otherworldly since it is distorting time so much with the incredible shutter time of 10 seconds!
The Dutch Morel sign isn’t much to ponder during the day…
1/400 second ISO 100 f8
Once nightfall comes and you slow down the shutter, the magic happens
10 seconds ISO 100 f8
This is just a couple of examples too, there are many others that I have noticed over the years. So if you want a certain feel from an image, the time of day absolutely matters. There are some things that a strobe just won’t overcome and the sun is one especially if you are shooting buildings and not portraits.
So if you want to learn more about low light photography, check out my youtube channel here. David Saylors Youtube Channel.