Photo tip: Night Photography

I had a friend e-mail me asking how to do night photography. I thought I would share my tips I gave him here. Night time photography is always as much fun as it it challenging. Here are a few tips to help it along:

• Increase the ISO of the camera gain faster shutter speeds. These may result in digital noise (graininess) but at least you've captured the content clearly.
• IS, VR or SR is only helpful to a certain degree. Since night photography requires exposures well beyond the capability of the stabilizers, it is best to use a tripod for all the shots and to to turn off the IS.
• Shooting on Tv or T mode (shutter priority) helps you to control the amount of light you see in the frame. The longer the shutter is open, the more light enters in.
• Use the timer mode at 2 seconds or a remote. This will avoid any camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button.

Photo Tip: Focus Point & Depth of Field

When choosing a focus point, you are not really choosing a certain point to be in focus but rather an entire plane to be in focus. If say two objects are the same distance from the camera, it won't matter whether you choose one or the other because both will end up in focus.

If the two objects are at different distance from the camera, choose the focus point on the object that is closest to the camera, then adjust the depth-of-field to blur (shallow or small f-stop) or not blur (deep or large f-stop) the object that is behind.

Photograph: Place Ville-Marie

Downtown Montreal at Place Ville-Marie
Featured in the Pentax Photo Gallery

Photo Tip: Compact Cameras for Natural Lighting

If you're trying to take a picture with natural lighting in the evening and it seems a little blurred, try boosting the ISO to a higher number like 400 or 800 instead of leaving it on AUTO ISO. This will make the camera work faster and reduce the amount of blur in your picture.

Photograph

Montreal Fashion & Design Festival 2009