I’ve gotten some decent feedback on Flickr for some of my night shots, so I thought I would do a quick post on how these shots were taken.
Currently I am shooting with a small Panasonic point-and-shoot, the DMC-FX3. It is a simple camera, and offers very little in the way of manual controls. Normally, to get a good exposure at night, you would want to have more control over the shutter speed, and perhaps take 20, 30, and 60 second exposures — or even longer — to get the correct exposure. Since the shutter is open for so long, you would also need a way to keep the camera steady, and a way to trigger the shutter without touching the camera. Any movement would result in a blurry photo.
Most point-and-shoot cameras do not have shutter speed controls. But they do have a Night mode that tells the camera to keep the shutter open until it thinks it has enough light. On the FX3, you do this by selecting SCN (Scene Mode) on the control dial, and then selecting NIGHT SCENERY as the Scene.
To get the best picture quality, check your ISO setting. Set it to the lowest setting for your camera. On the FX3, this is 100 ISO. This will make the sensor less sensitive to light, but will reduce the amount of noise in the final photo. And since the shutter will stay open as long as necessary, the reduction in sensitivity is ok.
Now, to keep the camera steady. You can either use a tripod, or you can set the camera on a surface where it will not move around, such as a tabletop or even on the ground. I normally have a small tripod, such as the Gorilla Pod, to keep the camera where I want it. To trigger the shutter without moving the camera, I use the self-timer set for a 2-second delay. That way, I can hit the shutter release and be sure that the camera is not being touched when the shutter opens. In a few seconds — or more than a few seconds, depending on how much light there is — I will most likely have a pretty decent shot.
I always take several exposures of a scene, just to increase the chances of a decent shot. Even when I do not move the camera, it is common for each one to come out exposed a little differently. Depending on how good the camera sorted out the exposure, the photo may need slight adjustments in your photo editor of choice, but usually not much.
So get your little point-and-shoot out, and prowl throught the night. You’ll be surprised at the images you can capture with a simple camera and a little experimentation!
