Take a Shot: Night City Lights

This article brings you some advices, how to make good night city photo.

Shooting a cityscape during day isn’t the same thing shooting the same scene at night. Building lights, neon glow signs, lights from passing cars and street lamps – all this can create magical scenes. But this scenes are always high contrast scenes and this aspect requires certain shooting techniques.

Take a look at your city at night. These tips and techniques will help you to capture not only the scene you see in your camera’s viewfinder, but also the exciting feeling of the original experience. After all, if a photo conveys a feeling or an emotion, it’s a successful picture.

If you shoot film, I recommend using daylight-balanced film. For after-sunset shots with my digital camera, I set my ISO to 400 and use a tripod to steady my camera during long exposures. To determine the correct exposure, I set my camera to. I often use Exposure Compensation set to –1 – 1,5 because the dark areas of a scene can fool a camera’s exposure meter into “thinking” that the scene is actually darker than it actually is – resulting in the bright lights being overexposed.

High-end digital cameras have a noise reduction feature that removes some of the grain associated with long shutter speeds on digital cameras. (Noise in a digital image isn’t equivalent to grain in a film picture.)

When I plan on taking nighttime pictures in a city, I scope out the city during the day for scenes that may make nice nighttime scenes. Spending some time during the day helps me become familiar with the city. It also lets me pick safe shooting locations such as curbs or traffic islands in roadways.

I’d like to add an important safety note here: Follow your mother’s advice. Always wear white at night. You want passing cars, bicycles, and skateboarders and so on to see you when you are shooting.

A good time to take nighttime pictures is actually not at night. If you shoot shortly after the sun sets, you’ll get some skylight in your pictures. Skylight does two things. One, it softly illuminates the buildings so you don’t have just bright lights in your pictures. Two, it adds a soft glow to the sky so you don’t have a totally black sky in your pictures, as is the case when you shoot well after night fall
Notice that there are no white lights in the picture – which would have been created by cars heading toward the camera. That is no accident. I usually wait until no cars are coming toward me – because I only wanted red lights in the scene.

Speaking of streaking, look at how the bright red and yellow lights in your scene stop (or start) in the middle of the scene. It looks rather strange, don’t you think? My point: for successful streaking photos, most of the lights should streak through the entire frame. Again, to get that kind of result, you need to have patience, to take a lot of pictures – and to watch the lights.

So the next time you are in a city, remember: Nighttime is the right time for fun – and creative – pictures. And, please remember to wear white at night to be safe!

This article is compilation of Rick Sammon guide to a night photography published at
Adorama's catalog.

P.S. But what to do, if it's rainy outdoors? Just take a good camera bag and drive in the club. There you always can find awesome babes which will be posing for you for free. How to shot them in action is the next material, I'm gonna compilate.

Taking Photos Outdoor: On Travel or Vacations

Honestly ask yourself a question: "Do my friends really want to look at my vacation photographs?"
No one travels without a camera, and some take more than one with, and the urge to document a vacation usually results in hundreds of photographs, but for friends and family members, looking at all of these pictures has all the appeal of jury duty. If you getting tired of your friends on a holiday it’s easy to put up a white screen, telling: “And now we’ll look for a photos I’ve taken in Prague, not all, but only best twenty dozens of them”.
Peter Guttman is a New York-based travel photographer who takes pictures that people not only want to look at, but will also pay to own. He has traveled to more than 190 countries, is the author of three books on travel and has had numerous gallery shows, including a recent one at Sotheby’s, and in 2000 he was named the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year by the Society of American Travel Writers. In 1986 he held an end-of-the-year slide show as a way to keep friends up-to-date on where his travels had taken him.

As I research down the Internet there’s the tips I’ve found:

Determine the time you will have available for photography. Staying in one location for two weeks will provide different types of opportunities than when traveling through six European countries in ten days. Remember that others in your group may be affected by your schedule. Don't delay the adventures of your travel companions by chasing butterflies around a meadow for two hours. Good photographs take a considerable amount of time to capture. Time is needed to learn about a location and understand where and when the best photograph opportunities exist. It takes additional time to return to a location, set up, and wait for the proper conditions. Also, remember that the light will vary throughout the day. How does this fit into your itinerary? For example, if you want to photograph a city skyline while facing east, you will need to be there in the evening to capture the necessary light.
Carry your equipment with you as much as possible! Experienced photographers know this is a good idea at all times. When an opportunity arises, you will immediately be able to take advantage of it. This is also the best way to ensure that you acquire a complete collection of snapshots as any unexpected, interesting moments can quickly be recorded.
Stock up on film or memory cards before you leave home. Film is expensive in touristy areas, and the type of film you desire may not be available. This will also save you time during your trip and ensure you do not run out at an inconvenient time. When traveling, many photographers are concerned about the effect of airport x-rays on their film. However, documented cases of damage caused by airport x-rays are relatively rare. There is usually no reason to be concerned about film with a speed of 400 or slower. Some newer types of x-ray equipment used in modern international airports are stronger and do pose a higher risk. The equipment used to scan checked baggage is especially strong, so keep your film with you in a carry-on bag. To be safe, ask the attendant to hand check your film, although many airports insist all film undergo machine scanning. The effect of the x-rays is cumulative, so take extra precautions if film will be scanned repeatedly. Remember that your external hard drive can be any moment out of batteries, so keep a medium-sized CF or SD card to replace yours quickly.
Take many photographs at your destination. Try different angles, different compositions, different lighting. Don't photograph only the typical subjects. Take photographs of unique hotels you stayed in, meals you ate, and people you met. These often tell a story and bring back memories better than photographs of famous sites. Film is relatively inexpensive. You don't want to return from your trip regretting the ones you didn't take. You may not be able to return for quite some time.
Safety is important. In a city or other tourist area, carry your equipment as inconspicuously as possible. An ordinary looking backpack works well and is also a great place to pack small quantities of food, water, clothing, and travel guides. Some photographers even put black tape over the brand names on their equipment. However, in most areas, a direct robbery is very rare. Instead, bags are often stolen from distracted or careless travelers. For example, do not let others see your equipment just before locking it in your automobile or leaving your baggage somewhere.
Finally, at the end of your trip, take time to organize your photographs. Document dates, places, and people before you forget. It helps to write notes as you are taking photographs, rather than relying completely on memory. Use archival quality materials when storing prints or slides. For something different, prepare a travel scrapbook and mix photographs with brochures, tickets, receipts, and other souvenirs.