Walking in the Night: Capture Night Snaps with Your Camera | Focus #49

Night snap photography offers a great opportunity to capture familiar landscapes from a fresh perspective. As the sun sets and the city is enveloped in artificial light, the charm of scenes unnoticed during the day emerges.

The contrast of light and shadow at night adds depth to subjects and creates dramatic scenes that tell a story. Here, we've gathered tips for night snaps, from preparation to shooting techniques and enjoyment, offering advice to enrich your night photography.

The most important aspect of night photography is finding the light source. Streetlights, light leaking from buildings, and car lights are diverse sources of night light. These light sources not only illuminate subjects but also add depth and atmosphere to your shots.

• Streetlight Only: Capture a single streetlight as a subject, using the surrounding light and shadow for your shot. Focus on the shape of the streetlight and how the light spreads to take simple yet impressive photos.

• Streetlight + Background: Combining a streetlight with the scenery behind it allows for deeper photography. Pay attention to how the streetlight illuminates the background, balancing the two elements is key.

• Streetlight + Background + Foreground: Adding something to the foreground creates more complex and engaging photos. Adding small objects or natural elements to the foreground enhances depth.

Light leaking from windows or entrance lighting adds warmth and softness to your shots. Use this light to capture the features of buildings and how they illuminate their surroundings.

Using moving car lights in photography can create a dynamic atmosphere. By capturing the light trails created by car lights with long exposure, you can express the liveliness and speed of the night.

Finding places where light reflects, such as puddles, wet roads, glass, or metal, is one of the joys of night snaps. Photography using reflections captures the magical world created by light and shadow and their reflections.

Rainy or snowy nights create shooting scenes different from usual.
Raindrops or snowflakes scatter light, creating a magical atmosphere, making subjects appear more impressive. The light reflected in puddles after rain or the quiet landscape illuminated by snow is one of the delights of night snaps.

Night snap photography is enjoyable through trial and error. It's important to try shooting with various settings and angles without fear of failure.

While mastering the basics of shooting, such as appropriate adjustments of shutter speed, ISO, and aperture, constantly incorporating new perspectives and ideas expands the scope of photography. Don't forget to capture the moments that move you, and enjoy night photography.

Finally, Cizucu is hosting a photo contest themed 'Memorable Nightscapes' from March 9, 2024 (Saturday) to April 8, 2024 (Monday). The winning works are scheduled to be exhibited in Kyoto Prefecture. Please express the inspiration gained through this magazine in the contest!

cover image by Yukihiro