Toby Keller - Night Photography Blog

Brent Pearson: Night Photography & Light Painting

Brent Pearson is a friend of mine and also one of my favorite night photographers. He is constantly pushing his own boundaries - and thankfully for the rest of us, meticulously documenting the process! His blog is full of interesting tidbits from his night photography and light painting experiments, and he is very candid about his processes.

I was excited, then, to get my hands on a pre-release copy of his new eBook, Night Photography & Light Painting. This is a fantastic resource for new night photographers and old hands alike. I definitely learned some new tricks to try out. The eBook has 86 pages of Brent’s amassed knowledge of shooting at night, from equipment to scouting locations to post processing.... If you’re interested in light painting there are detailed instructions on how to build your own killer lighting contraptions. Brent also includes a large number of before and after photos, showing the steps that go into a multiple exposure light painting image.

Full disclosure: Brent included a few of my images in the introductory section of the book, which was very nice of him, but totally incidental to the rest of the book. It’s so full of useful info I suggest you go over and buy this book if you are at all interested in pushing your night photography forward!

Night Moves at Safe-T-Gallery, Brooklyn

Almost forgot to mention: I have three photos going up at the Safe-T-Gallery in Dumbo (Brooklyn) on March 5th. After a taxing adventure trying to get four very large photos framed, crated and shipped to NYC, they arrived in good shape, and next week Jade and I will fly out for the opening. It’ll be nice to see how the 20"x30" prints look under the gallery lights. Check it out if you’ll be in the area, the show will stay up until April 11.

From the Safe-T-Gallery site:

[in this show] the photographers explore both the densely illuminated urban landscape and the stark all-natural world at night, as well as the deliciously ambiguous spaces in between.

And these are the photos I will have in the show:

Full Frame vs. DX Cameras

Which camera to use? Every photographer faces that question at some point, and generally we try to buy the best gear we can afford. I’ve gone through numerous digital cameras, and at present own ten different cameras of all shapes and sizes. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but I have fun with all of them. But when it comes to my “signature” style of saturated color night photography and light painting, I only use one camera. At the time I bought it, my Nikon D300 provided me with the best balance of features and image quality that I could afford. I prefer shooting digital over film for night work for several reasons (which I will reserve for a different post), but suffice to say the flexibility in white balance/color correction, exposure latitude, and not having to be stuck with an entire roll of one type of film keeps me shooting digital at night.

Now, with the introduction of the D700, it has become financially viable for me to buy into a full-frame (35mm sensor) DSLR system. I (like most digital SLR owners) have been using a “cropped sensor” or DX camera. The D300 has, for all intents and purposes, the same body as the D700. It has the same number of megapixels. But the D700 offers those inherent full-frame advantages that people are willing to pay so much for: lower noise at high ISOs, shallower depth of field, a larger viewfinder, wider angle lenses… I must admit, it’s extremely tempting.

However, I’ve decided to hold off at least until we see the hypothetical “D700x”, a full frame camera that packs 24+ megapixels like the new D3X. It’s not a purely financial decision, either. Upon careful consideration I found that for my style of shooting, the benefits of FX are less applicable, and sometimes even counter-productive, for my specific type of shooting.

Less Noise at High ISOs

Now, you’d think a guy who spends most of his time shooting at night would place a high premium on a camera with great low light sensitivity, right? Well, for my kind of work, it’s a moot point - I only shoot at the “native” ISO of the camera I am using. With the D300 and D700, that’s ISO 200. Having the ability to shoot relatively clean files at ISO 6400 might be nice, but I would NEVER use a high ISO for the specific style of night work that I do. I want files that print 20"x30" with no visible noise. It may be true that the D700 gives slightly cleaner results at 200 as well, I have no idea. But the files from my D300 appear totally noiseless in 20x30 prints, so it is of no practical value to me at all.

100% crop of a D300 shot at ISO 200

Larger Viewfinder

The D700 gets a big point in my book for having a larger viewfinder than the D300. Framing compositions at night is challenging, and generally the bigger and brighter the viewfinder, the better. My ability to get compositions right without cropping went up steeply after upgrading from a D70, with a tiny, dark finder to my D300. However, the D700 has a hidden disadvantage here as well - while the finder is a bit bigger, the accuracy takes a hit. The D300 finder has higher magnification and 100% coverage - that is, what you see is exactly what you get. The D700, however, has only 96% coverage and slightly lower magnification. That means I risk having to crop more to “fix” compositions that are slightly off due to the inaccuracies of the finder. On balance, not a true benefit for the way I work.

D300, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D lens

Wider Angle Lenses

It’s a fact that landscape photographers love wide angle. And on FX, a lens of a given focal length “acts” wider. For instance, a 17mm lens on FX is really effing wide, but on a DX crop camera it is only medium wide. Also, wider angles are possible with FX - there is no DX equivalent of the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, or the Sigma 12mm zoom. You would need an 8mm rectilinear lens to equal the 12mm field of view on DX, and such a beast sadly doesn’t exist. However, for my style of working, a 12mm DX lens (which would be similar in angle of view to an 18mm lens on FX) is plenty wide enough. I’ve actually found myself using longer lenses more and more lately - much of my new work has been shot using a Nikkor 85mm lens. I’m in the market for a longer prime as well, probably a 135mm Nikkor AIS lens. On FX these lenses would lose some of their effective reach, and I would have to step up to longer, more expensive glass to make up the difference.

D300, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D lens

Less Depth of Field

This is the big one for me. FX cameras have less depth of field for a given viewing angle and f/stop. This can be a great thing when you want to isolate detail, for instance in portraiture or food photography. But for landscape, more DOF is almost always better. The practical result of a switch to full frame for me would be that I would have to use smaller f/stops to get the entire scene in acceptable focus. Probably up to a whole stop smaller. That means instead of shooting 5 minutes at f/8, I’d be shooting 10 minutes at f/16 f/11. Not a huge deal, but then add on in-camera noise reduction, which doubles the exposure, and I’ll be spending 20 minutes per shot. That would cut my productivity for any given time spent shooting in half. True, working slowly can help you make better, more considered decisions, but trust me, night shooting is slow enough as it is ;)

Almost infinite depth of field at f/6.7

The one thing that full frame cameras could provide me with that I really do want is higher pixel counts. I like to print LARGE - I’ve got a trio of 20"x30" prints going up in a gallery in Brooklyn next month, and had a 24"x36" print in my last show. I am one of those users who really can use all the resolution they can get. The 24mp sensor in the D3X would give me a solid, real-world benefit that would be applicable to my style of shooting - but sadly $8k for a camera is a bit out of my reach at the moment. So I’ll wait for the hypothetical “D700x” or “D800” and enjoy my very nice professional tools in the meantime.

iPhone as Polaroid

The iPhone is an annoyingly handy little gadget. I find myself using it more than I ever thought I would, mainly for playing chess with friends or checking my news feeds. But it’s also got a 2 megapixel camera on it, and so I’ve been playing with that a bit. The camera has close to zero manual options - which is actually quite refreshing, and inspires the same kind of creative experimentation that a Holga would.

Here are a few shots from the iPhone, processed with the “Instant” setting from the CameraBag app:

Visualizing the Credit Crisis

Ok, so this isn’t the normal fare for this blog, but I found it so informative and spot-on (not to mention beautifully animated) that I had to share it:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Tutorial: Getting Exposure Right at Night

D300, 262 seconds, f/6.7, ISO 200.

“How the hell do you figure out how long to expose if it’s dark outside?!” That’s probably the most common question I am asked by other photographers. During the day, we can safely rely on the meters in our cameras or on guidelines like the “Sunny 16” rule. Once the sun goes down, though, it’s a different story… very few light meters give accurate readings after dark. And night shooting presents its own unique set of difficulties - for example, if you shoot film you have to contend with reciprocity failure, or the film becoming less sensitive to light once it drops below a certain threshold.

For the sake of simplicity I won’t get into the specifics of reciprocity failure. Instead, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how I expose at night, and a couple pointers to get you started on the right track. If you really really want to know about reciprocity failure, I recommend you check out Night and Low-Light Photography: Professional Techniques from Experts for Artistic and Commercial Success, written by Jill Waterman. It is the definitive guide for aspiring night photographers and devotes a good large portion to the concerns of film shooters.

Now, down to brass tacks. You’re outside some abandoned warehouse at 3am with a thousand bucks worth of camera gear, trying not to look to much like a terrorist, probably freezing your ass off to boot. How do you figure out how long your exposure should be so you can get back to a warm house and a glass of scotch?

There’s a few things to remember:

1. You’ve got lots of time

During the day, an exposure might be measured in the hundredths or even thousandths of seconds. If you’re off by a couple hundredths, there goes the shot. Not so much with night photography… If the proper exposure is 5 minutes, you’d have to shoot for 10 minutes to overexpose by a single stop! This gives you some serious leeway, and it’s why I’ve never bothered timing my exposures with any sort of precision. A glance at the minute hand position usually suffices. The shot below was overexposed by 300 seconds - that’s 5 minutes that I sat there talking to someone before I remembered the exposure was done. I could have pulled it back to the “proper” exposure in Lightroom, but I actually liked the result. At any rate it illustrates my point - you’ve got a lot of padding on either side of the “right” exposure.

D300, 708 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 200.

2. Set it and forget it

Especially when you’re first starting, it pays to simplify the number of decisions you have to make for each shot. Find an ISO and aperture that work for you and stick with them, at least til you’ve got the exposure thing down pat. Your ISO should generally be at your camera’s “native” ISO - for example, my D300 goes down to 100, but the “native” ISO is 200, so that’s what I shoot at night. Any higher and you’ll see a noticeable increase in noise levels, beyond what you’d see during the day. Long exposures are taxing on digital sensors, so make it easy for your camera. You’ve got more freedom when it comes to aperture - I try to use the widest (smallest number) aperture that I can while maintaining enough depth-of-field to get everything in focus. This varies with focal length - but for my 12mm lens, f/6.7 is the sweet spot. Smaller apertures (higher numbers) will give me even more depth of field, but at the cost of longer exposure times.

Once you’ve got a good working ISO and aperture, leave them there! Don’t fiddle. It’s way easier to remember what a 5 minute exposure looks like if you don’t have to juggle those other parameters too. Experiment until you get something that allows exposure lengths that you’re ok with.

3. Keep an eye on the moon

If you’re shooting away from the city, chances are you’re relying on the moon to provide light for your exposure. I generally shoot between the half and full moon, which I know from experience gives me exposure times in the 4-8 minute range. 4 minutes at the full moon, 8 at the half, and so on. Since I’ve got my aperture and ISO figured out already, I can just vary the exposure time to account for any variance in light levels - for example, an extra minute or two if there are clouds passing by.

If you’re shooting in an urban area with artificial lights, the exposure times will probably be much less. Other than that, it varies widely depending on how bright the light is, what type, and how far away it is - not to mention what kind of look you’re going for. What I do: start at a minute or so and go from there ;)

4. The ISO boost trick

So you’re out there in the middle of nowhere and a freaking deer pops up out of nowhere and freezes, staring right at you. You ain’t got time for experimentation, you need the right exposure ASAP! Ok, well, there’s a trick that might help you get there a little quicker. Try boosting the ISO as high as it will go (say 3200), and do a test exposure at thirty seconds. Ignore the noise and look at the histogram. It will tell you if you’re in the ballpark. If it’s off by a stop, take note of it, but don’t do another test shot - you can calculate the right exposure time now for your true ISO. Each doubling of ISO means exposure time is halved. So if the proper exposure was 30 seconds at ISO 3200, go like this: 3200, 1600, 800, 400, 200. That’s 4 stops. Now go the other way with the exposure: 30”, 1’, 2’, 4’, 8’. The correct exposure at ISO 200 is 8 minutes. Hopefully, the deer hasn’t fuzzed off yet and you can get the shot.

Now, once you’ve experimented for a while and you’re getting a feel for how different exposure times turn out in different conditions, forget the trick and just go with your gut. Trust me, it’s quicker. I get within a half stop 8 times out of 10 now that I’ve been doing this for a while.

You still here? Quit reading and go shoot!