Night photography - the best tips

When it comes to photography, the most important thing is the right light and brightness. But even at night you can take great pictures with the right equipment. You can find out what is important in this practical tip.

Equipment for photography at night

In bright surroundings you can take good pictures with almost any camera. In dark surroundings, however, you should have the following equipment with you:

• Camera: In order to be able to take good pictures at night, you need a camera that can be adjusted completely manually. This is usually the case with every SLR.
• Tripod: After dark, nothing works without a tripod. The camera must stand still to allow longer exposure times without wobbling. You should pay attention to good quality. More expensive models are usually made of stable and light materials, while inexpensive plastic tripods do not always offer the necessary stability.
• Remote release: This is useful for two reasons. On the one hand, you can trigger the camera on the tripod without touching it yourself, which prevents vibrations. In addition, you can achieve exposure times of several minutes with a remote release in the so-called bulb mode.
• Bright lens: Choose a lens with the largest possible aperture. These let more light fall on the sensor and are therefore more suitable for dark environments. Fixed focal lengths in particular, such as the 50mm 1.8 lens from Canon, Nikon or Sony, offer excellent light intensity for little money.

Take photos at night - these are the possibilities

Of course, there are countless motifs and methods for taking interesting night shots. Here are some suggestions:

• Long exposure: At night, the camera takes much longer shutter speeds to correctly expose the picture. Use exposure times of several seconds to blur moving objects, as in our sample image.
• Smooth water: The long exposure also comes into play here. Take a picture of a river or lake at night, for example, and expose it for around 30 seconds. The water surface blurs and appears particularly smooth and calm.
• Street photography: Above all in large cities there are enough light sources at night. Here you can practice street photography. However, the fast lens is indispensable, since you will mostly be taking pictures with your hands.
• Landscape: There are also numerous possibilities in landscape photography. For example, try to photograph the stars or the moon on a clear night.