Night Photography | White Balance (WB) & histogram

Experiment with the WB settings when you come upon ambient light sources.  There are a variety of lights and camera settings to match them.   Cameras can be set for White Balance (WB).  There is daylight, cloudy, sunny, tungsten, fluorescent, custom, auto and in some cases you can  tweak each of those individual settings.

Don't worry, when you come upon strong ambient light, you'll find that the Auto WB function of today's cameras are really, really good.

And imaging software can be used to compensate for mixed lighting.  Today's programs are quite user friendly when you shoot in 'RAW' and post process.

Here's the catch;

At night I use the histogram to determine if I'm exposing correctly.  It's dark out there.  Looking at the review on the back of the camera for proper exposure is likely to fool me.  Especially if I have the LCD screen set at "bright".

So, I set the white balance to the color temperature 'close' to the way I want it.  This in turn gives me a histogram that shows me the exposures that match.  

Using those inside functions is a way to really 'appreciate' the camera... ...and increase the odds of making better images. 

Old Faithful Geyser & Jupiter peeking through the steam

15sec  70mm  WB 4100K 

car headlights and ambient light from the Yellowstone Inn

  

return to:  Robert Howell Photography.com              

for more information drop me a line

"See you out there"

                ~~~Bob

Night Photography | Star Trails & foregrounds

There are two things to think about when figuring out the correct exposure for a star trail shot.  

1.  How bright to have the star trails

2.  How bright to have the rest of the image

The first is controlled by the aperture and ISO settings and

the second is controlled by the aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

My favorite star trail images are the ones partnered with a foreground or silhouette.

And when combined with an iconic or recognizable landscape it can give the viewer

a reason to pause, and reflect----and see that feature in a new light….hmmm.. dark?   

And again, with the extended exposures used for night photography,

there CAN be a lot of light!

Liberty Cap in Yellowstone with ambient light 

and star trails in opposite directions. 

The brightest light is Jupiter’s trial.

return to:  Robert Howell Photography.com              

for more information drop me a line

"See you out there"

                ~~~Bob

Night Photography | Clouds

Your first thought might be that a cloudy night is an unappealing time to shoot.  But the long exposure times of night photography accentuate colors from sunsets that have long disappeared or nightly city light pollution.  

Clouds often reflect these colors. They’re your personal floating foreground.  My favorite shots are when I position myself to shoot the sky with small clouds moving left-to-right or right-to-left.   

Clouds are ever changing with the length of exposure.  Longer exposures allow more movement and clouds become translucent…as the background of stars peek through.  

Midnight | Elephant Back Terrace / Yellowstone National Park

~~~See you out there

return to:    Robert Howell Photography.com