Nature Photography Photo Workshop

6.9. THE GRAND SCENIC AT NIGHT

You might want to try your hand at night photography — you may find it's your favorite time to shoot! All over the surface of planet Earth, just because there may be very limited light never means there is no light. All the camera needs is a long enough exposure and you're bound to capture something. To the human eye on a cloudy, moonless night there may appear to be no light, but in many cases you will find that with long exposures the camera can capture much more light than what your eye can see.

NOTE

While shooting at night or very low light, try using a flashlight to "paint light" on objects in the scene. Light painting can create dramatic artificial lighting effects in your pictures.

Figure 6-22. ABOUT THIS PHOTO Image of Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah (ISO 100, f/22, 1/4 sec. with a Canon EF 17-40mm L lens).

Figure 6-23. ABOUT THIS PHOTO Image of Settler's Point, Arizona (ISO 6400, f/2.8, 30 sec with a Nikkor 14mm lens). The Milky Way (upper right) has a high density of stars visible from Earth and provides ample photo opportunities. In most cases 30 seconds is the maximum time you can leave the shutter open to render stars as sharp points of light. ©Grant Collier.

6.9.1. PHOTOGRAPHING STARS

On a clear night you can make photographs ...