Urban landscapes
Master the main techniques for shooting cityscapes at night.
FROM ANCIENT BUILDINGS to modern
glass skyscrapers and derelict warehouse,
there are plenty of photo ooportunities in an
urban environment, and they all look fabulous
when lit up at night.
Before embarking on your night of photography, spend time planning your shoot it’s vital to
successful night shots, particularly if you’re visiting a location for the first time, the location of
the nearest station, earmarking landmarks and
viewpoints, where to park, printing off a street
map and knowing what time sunset occurs are
all great timesavers, allowing you to concentrate on getting great shots when you arrive.
Take inspiration from others people’s images,
too, to give you a starting point. Arrive at your
location several hours before dusk so you can
wander around and familiarize yourself with
the scene, and test out various focal lengths
and compositions before the sun starts to set.
Look out for trees, tunnels or bridges to frame
a picture. Statues can make good foreground
interest, making shots feel three dimensional
by adding scale. Don’t just look for wide cityscapes, zoom in and concentrate on high rises
or deserted streets.
Adding movement to night shots can also improve the composition and dynamism, so keep
a lookout for traffic and people. Try placing water in the foreground, too, to pick up the reflections from the buildings’ lights, giving your image stunning symmetry and contrast. Suitable
subjects include a river, lake or wet sidewalk
after a rainy period.
The best light for urban nightscapes is the
crossover period, when the ambient daylight
balance with the artificial lights of the buldings.
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At this point, the blue or orange sunset sky has
darkened and you can clearly see the streetlights, but there is still enough daylight to reveal
shadow detail. This moment after sunset varies depending on season,
weather conditions and how bright the buildings are. you‘re best to shoot about 15 minutes after sunset, or when the city lights are
switched on, and continue until the sky loses
all color and turns black. Shoot a
bracketed sequence of images (in one stop
increments above and below the camera’s
metered exposure) every few minutes, over a
20 minute period, so that you can choose the
most balanced shot later and also see how
the balance of ambient /artificial light subtly
changes. Once the sky turns black, you could
continue shooting with the view of converting
the shots to black & white.
When you’ve found a location and decided
on a suitable composition, your next job is to
concentrate on focus and exposure. Even the
best autofocus systems can struggle in low
light conditions, so do a test shot and zoom in
to check sharpness. If the focus is out,
alter the focus point manually to find a bright
area with strong contrasting lines and refocus
then switch to manual focus to stop the
system from hunting again. If your camera has
LiveView, set it to tripod mode via the menu
and use this to help manually focus. A remote
release can also make a huge difference to
sharpness, so ensure you use one.
Your camera’s metering system is usually
very accurate but there are instance