Harold Davis - Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques
by Harold Davis

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
All photographs Harold Davis; except page 63 photograph David Joseph-Goteiner

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-52709-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Courtney Allen, Mark Brokering, Jenny Brown, Gary Cornell, Katie Gordon, Jack Johnson, David Joseph-Goteiner, Barry Pruett, Joseph Siroker, Sandy Smith and Matt Wagner.

Credits

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Front piece: This photo shows the full moon rising between abandoned construction cranes at an old naval shipyard on Mare Island, California. 200mm, 4 seconds at f/5.6 and ISO 100, tripod mounted

Title page: I used an interval timer to create this long exposure of the setting moon. 18mm, about 90 minutes at f/22 and ISO 100, tripod mounted

Above: This is a detail from a shot straight up at the early morning sky from the top of Half Dome. 16mm, about 36 minutes at f/8 and ISO 100, tripod mounted

I stopped the lens down to as small an aperture as possible in this night shot of the Golden Gate Bridge so that the length of the exposure would exaggerate the light trails from car head lights. 90mm, 5 minutes at f/22 and ISO 100, tripod mounted

In 1888, the great artist Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo, It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly colored than the day. Van Gogh was right; the night is alive with vibrant colors, shapes and forms.

Night covers the world in darkness roughly half the time. Its a mistake to assume that because our sight is limited at night that theres nothing to see. Hours after sunset, when the world appears dull and gray, saturation lingers. In almost complete darkness, fl owers exude electric colors. In the deep watches of the night, starlight produces subtle and glorious color variations.

The advent of digital photography has revolutionized the practice of night photography, because a digital sensor can record the spectacular colors of the night. These colors are created by light waves in spectrums that are invisible to the human eye. For the fi rst time, we can truly see the world of the night around us. With digital equipment, theres as much to photograph at night as there is during the day.

Yet, to be fair, night photography does present some challenges that dont exist for photography during the day. To state the obvious, it is often hard to see what you are photographing, and it can be diffi cult to see what you are doing with your camera. Auto-focus doesnt work; forget about light meters; and exposures are all manual.

Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques explains what you need to know about photographic technique to participate in the exuberant, and sometimes highly caffeinated, society of night photographers. Ill give you some ideas about how to stay safe as a night photographer. Ill tell you how to fi nd the best subjects for night photography and how to approach night photography creatively. And Ill show you how to take the experience of photographing at night and use it to become a better photographer during daylight hours.

A student in one of my night photography workshops put it this way: Now, when Im out on the weekends, if I dont get lucky by the time the bar scene closes, I can still get a lucky photo with my camera, timer, headlamp and tripod in the truck.

Expand your horizons! Welcome to the wonderful, wacky and colorful world of creative night photography.

Perched on a ledge above Tennessee Beach in the Marin Headlands, California, I was struck by the way the long exposure rendered the colors of the night and made the pounding surf appear transparent. 12mm, 3 minutes and f/5.6 and ISO 100, tripod mounted