Photo Disect - City at Night

A city night shot is one of those shots that really sets your photography apart from those with compacts, or pretty much anyone shooting on auto. It really impresses people! It's a great place to start learning how to control manual settings, as you have all night to get it right - there's no pressure on getting the shot quickly. And you can always come back again another night. Sometimes, like the following shot (which was taken when I didn't have very much experience at all) you'll get a lucky one that stays in the portfolio for years down the track.

Here's a shot I took from a great spot in Paddington overlooking Brisbane City:


There is an extra element in the light trails of a passing car, but the method behind the shot is still the same as any city night shot.

To make your shot stand out, you really need an 'extra element' in it than just a few buildings. An easy way to get this is to have water in the foreground which will create attractive reflections from the lights. Another option is to get a unique perspective, perhaps using an interesting lens such as a wide angle. Here, I've opted to add in the light trails from a car travelling past.

For this kind of shot, you'll need a tripod and I strongly recommend a remote shutter, cable or wireless. If you don't have a remote shutter you'll need to select the shutter delay option in shooting modes. Because you have the tripod, you won't need to worry about camera shake, so always aim for ISO100 or 200. You also have the freedom to aim for the sharpest aperture possible. In this photo, I was shooting on aperture priority mode and selected ISO100 and f/11 for those reasons. The camera chose a 20 second exposure. This was enough for me to get the light trails going all the way down the hill. If the camera had chosen something like 5 seconds, I would have increased the f/number to something like f/20 to make sure my shutter speed was long enough. The camera's shutter speed should default from about 1/4000 sec to 30 sec.

To shoot longer than 30 seconds, you'll need to shoot on manual mode on 'bulb' with a cable release. You'll have to guess your aperture and ISO that will shoot whatever shutter speed you will use. The magic of digital is seeing the results straight away. If it's too light, increase f/number. If it's too dark, decrease f/number or increase ISO.

Anyway, I was happy with 20 seconds. I mounted my camera on my tripod at its shortest length so it was nearly level with the road, to get a good perspective. This is a very simple photography trick - get low, low, low, low.. Changing your angle from head height (which is everyone's normal perspective) to down low will give you a much more interesting angle.

I plugged my cable release into the camera and fixed composition. Just as the car was about to drive past I clicked the button, the camera did its thing, waited 20 seconds, and the shot popped up on the screen. Excellent! I'd had many other goes at this shot, with cars going each way and different perspectives but this one was easily the best. Once you think you get 'the shot', don't stop! You will learn what you like from that shot and keep improving on it. Half an hour before this one I thought I'd got something brilliant, but I kept shooting and ended up discarding that one and going with this!

I only did some minor levels adjustments in photoshop - you generally won't need much editing for city night shots as the lighting is quite even.

So get out around the town at night with your tripod and have a go at this. Having the time to get used to playing around with aperture, ISO and shutter speed will help you so much - and you've got all the time in the world to practice and get it right.

Good luck!
Cheers
Tal