Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Sunsets and Nighttime Photos

Because photography is the art and science of capturing light, you wouldn’t think that nighttime would present many photo opportunities. But in fact, nighttime pictures can be the most spectacular ones in your portfolio. Sunsets, evening portraits, city lights, and even car lights can stand out like bright colors on a black canvas.

Tip

You won’t get far in this kind of photography without a tripod. You can practice the following techniques by bracing the camera against a wall—but you’ll find the job infinitely easier with a real tripod.

Sunsets

Your camera usually does a good job of exposing the sky during sunset, even in automatic mode. Keep the flash turned off and shoot at will. The biggest mistake people make when shooting sunsets has nothing to do with the sky—it’s the ground that ruins the shots. Your eyes can make out much more detail in the shadowy ground than your camera will. Therefore, it’s not worth trying to split the frame in half, composing it with the sky above and the ground below. The bottom half of your photo will be just a murky black blob in the final image.

TROUBLESHOOTING MOMENTUsing a Flash Indoors

Over the years, you’ve probably seen plenty of indoor flash pictures that have a pitch black background and a washed-out, overexposed subject. Many factors conspire to produce these stark, unflattering shots, but one of the major contributors is, once again, your camera thinking on its own. You’re letting it decide when to turn on the ...