Night Photography Part 3

Using Flash

fig n-14 Multiple Flash

Flash used indoors can be quite powerful and a handy source of lighting. Outdoors at night though it is much weaker as there is no surfaces for the flash to "bounce" off and reflect back into the scene. The distance that flash light travels is also considerably less than what's needed for most night scenes. In an outdoor setting, the built in flash on a camera will have little or no affect on the scene.

The flash will light anything that is within a few feet of the camera but anything beyond this will not be lit with the flash. Attachable flash guns are much stronger but even they can be stretched a bit in some situations.

One way of overcoming this with a flashgun is to light various elements in the scene by using the flashgun off the camera. To achieve this technique you must have near enough access to the subject you want to light and plenty of time to get there. Here we have a step by step example of how to use a simple off camera lighting technique without any special equipment.

With fig n-14 of Kilgobbin church and graveyard, the camera was set on a tripod. The shutter was set to the "B" setting and the aperture was set to an f-number of f8 for reasonable depth of field and proper exposure of the flash. A locking cable release was used to hold down the shutter button for the duration of the exposure.

Since there was very little ambient light, there was no worry of the photographer crossing in front of the cameras view while the exposure was taking place. Once moving the photographer will not register on the film as long as the flash does not illuminate the photographer or their shadow.

Three flashes off the one flashgun were used to light this scene. This was done by moving close to each area and firing the hand held flashgun using the flash's own "test button". One burst of flash was used on the headstones in the foreground and two on the church. One on the front and one aimed at the steeple.

In this case the whole exposure took about 40 seconds. Some residual daylight off the near dark sky registered but all other lighting was done by the flash.

Multiple Exposure It is possible to go about this technique in other ways. One would be to use Multiple Exposure if your camera has this facility. This would mean using one of the cameras shutter speeds and the cameras self-timer. The self-timer would allow time for the photographer to get into position for the flash. Trip the timer and fire the first flash. Now, using the multiple exposure button, reset the shutter without winding the film. Repeat the sequence for the next flash etc.

Another method of lighting with multiple flash is to use a very long set exposure such as 30 seconds. In this instance though you would need a flash with a rapid recycle time to get all three bursts. Trip the timer and get into position for the first flash, once you have taken it get into the next position rapidly and fire as soon as your flash has recycled. You may find that 30 seconds is not really enough time to get all three flashes in however. These techniques can also be used in other areas of night photography.

Special Effects at Night

fig n-15 Coloured Flash & Ghost

Here we are going to use the same church scenario that we have shown in fig n-14 in this lesson. This time though we are going to take the creative lighting effect one or two steps further. When taking photographs at night special effects can easily be achieved, as we will show you.

Notice in fig n-14 we just used white flashlight at dusk. In the following images for this exercise we have taken them in total darkness. This gives us much longer exposure times, as we do not have to worry about the sky "washing out".

In fig n-15 we are going to take a number of separate exposures on the same frame. This can be achieved in one of two ways: [1] The camera is set to "B" and the shutter kept open with a locking cable release. Since there are three separate set-ups in this one image, a lens cap can be placed over the lens between each "set-up" to avoid unnecessary exposures. [2] With cameras that have a "Multiple Exposure Mode" the shutter can be fired separately for each exposure.

The animated sequence fig n-16 shows how the image was 'built up' stage by stage.

fig n-16 Multiple Creative Flash

The flash exposures were done in the same way as stated earlier. The church was first lit with two flashes. The path was also lit by a burst of flash before the "ghost" was positioned.

A person wrapped in a sheet was then placed on the footpath. To give the model a ghostly affect they "wobbled" while an ordinary flashlight or torch illuminated them. This exposure lasted for three seconds. The wobbling motion of the subject and movement of the flashlight gave a blurred ghostly appearance to the subject.

The headstone with lit with a red filter placed over the flash for creating a red burst of light onto the gray headstone. Either a red filter for a lens or special flash filters can be used.

So far so good but there is a large amount of black area in the upper half of the image. One could just compose for the lower half or crop out the upper half altogether. Now though we take one more step in completing this image.

When we have finished shooting the 'live' action, back in the warm of the office, we then added a moon using a digital technique called layering and PhotoShop.

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Shooting the Moon

fig n-17 Hazy Moon

If you are fortunate enough to have the Moon in the right location in your image, count your blessings and shoot it quick. You would be surprised at how fast the Moon crosses the sky. Typically it travels about its own diameter in distance across the sky in about two minutes.

Lens Choice - Using a standard 50mm lens (on 35mm film) the moon can appear quite small in the image. For a rough guide using 35mm film, you need 110mm of focal length per 1mm of moon on the negative. This will bring the Moon in closer and make it much bigger in the final image. Remember though the Moon is moving quite quickly and using a telephoto will exaggerate that movement.

When exposing the full moon, the first thing to consider is that the Moon is a lot brighter than one might think. Remember that on a sunny day here on earth, the average exposure for 100 ASA film is 1/125 at f16. The Moon receives roughly around the same amount of sunlight. Therefore your exposure of the Moon is roughly around the same exposure as for daylight. However, you should allow for the phase of the moon you can see and how much haze of our atmosphere you are shooting through. The higher up in the sky, the less haze to shoot through.

It would do no harm to open up your exposures to say 1/125 sec. at f8 for a brighter image of the Moon. Detail of the Moon on a clear night will register quite well. Fig n-17 was taken at 1/60 sec. at f8. It's yellowish appearance is due to a hazy sky, the exposure also needed to be that bit longer.

Overexposing the Moon too much will just make it a white glow and using too slow a shutter speed will make it an oval shape. The combined rotation of the Earth and the Moon around it makes it very possible to get a blur of light instead of a nice sharp Moon, especially as already stated when using a telephoto lens to capture it.

Adding a Moon

There are a number of ways of very simply adding a moon to an image as we are about to do with fig n-16 being "constructed" here. Though we have used one particular method on a computer, here are a few methods of adding a moon to your images.

1. Multiple Exposure - If you are fortunate enough to have a moon while taking your night shot, but its not in the right position, you can reposition it by using multiple exposure mode. Simply place the moon in the frame where you want it to appear and expose as we have discussed above. The black sky around the moon will not register on the film and you can even change lenses to a longer lens to make the moon bigger. For more information on this enroll in our Basic Photography Course. Note: if you mess it up, you have to shoot both shots again!

2. Slide Copying - It is also quite easy to add in a Moon at a later date. One way is when shooting on slide film. Using a slide copier, a double exposure can be taken of the night scene and place the Moon in the exposure. Many photographers will have a Moon image on file for this purpose.

3. Printing - In the darkroom a moon can be imposed into the image. Again even an image of the moon on file can be used. You can learn more about this technique in our Black & White Photography Course

4. Digital Image Editing - One other way of "inserting" a Moon is using your computer and a suitable photo editing programme. In fact, this is how we inserted our Moon into fig n-16. We used a technique called layering, where we can put one image over another similar to copying slides and then combine the separate images into just one image. Most imaging programmes will have the tools for this task. For complete instruction on this you could join our Digital Photography Course.

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Fireworks

fig n-18 Timed Exposure

To watch a fireworks display is quite spectacular. In order to create successful images of fireworks a certain amount of careful planning is needed.

Each burst of light can take roughly 5 to 10 seconds to complete its pattern in the sky. Although these are very bright, a tripod is a necessity. There is no way you are going to hold a camera steady enough for the length of time taken to expose the image.

• Put the camera on a sturdy tripod.
• Set the lens to infinity, use a wide angle lens to capture as much of the sky as possible.
• Set the camera shutter speed to B, this will hold the shutter open for as long as the shutter is pressed.
• Use a cable release to trip the shutter, so you don't move the camera.
• Look carefully and you will see the rocket on the way up, trip the shutter and hold it open till the light trails have finished. This will take several seconds.

One burst though may seem quite plain in an image. Therefore exposures of 30 seconds to 1 minute are utilised to capture three or four bursts on the one frame. This makes the image far more colourful (fig n-18).

Using the camera on it's "B" setting the shutter can be left open for a few minutes using a cable release. In order to reduce overexposure of ambient light simply hold a cover in front of the lens such as a lens cap or black card. It is best not to touch the lens to avoid camera shake and upsetting the focus or focal length with zoom lenses.

Another way of exposing fireworks in order to get multiple bursts is to use the multiple exposure facility on the camera (if you have one). Using the multiple exposure mode allows you to close the shutter between bursts to minimise the overexposure of ambient lighting. Just anticipate when a firework is about to go off and press the shutter. Use a 5 or 10 second shutter speed to ensure the firework is caught on film from start to finish.

Because some fireworks are very bright, it is always best to use the manual exposure mode on the camera to avoid the shutter closing automatically. Try apertures between f8 and f16 for best results.

Summary

We hope that the School of Photography's Night Photography lesson has not only been a learning experience but has also created food for thought. If this lesson has you thirsting for more information, have a look at the other courses we have on offer including:

• Basic Photography
• Black and White Photography
• Landscape photography
• Glamour photography
• Digital photography
• Freelance photography

For more free tips on photography please see our InFocus pages, or join our free Forum for discussions on photography

For more information please see our Frequently Asked Questions page
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Happy night shooting, have fun.

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