How to take night portraite photos ...

[Telstra]

so that you can see nice backgrounds of the city lights with a flash ?

Is it just keep on testing, adjusting the flash down to a very weak flash so you can see city lights in the background and peoples face at the same time.

 

[Corny]

If your camera has this - use a "light up" flash.
(Obviously your camera has no "night potrait mode" which I have seen at some digital cameras)

 

[Telstra]

i got a canon Speedlite 430EX II light which can be attached to a canon digital slr camera.

I just want to use a small amount of flash so you can see people's face and the background without using a tripod.

Can that be done ? just adjust the amount of flash in Speedlite .
I don't want to use photoshop or anything afterwards.

 

[star-warrior]

I have a digital camera that can zoon in an out automatically when you press a button thingy.

For night photography, there are two things that help : altering the exposure time and film speed.

The lower the number for the exposure like IS0 50 the slower the film speed, which means it needs more exposure time. The camera needs to be in the manual mode to alter the exposure time.

On my IXUS40, I can expose for up to 16 seconds, but this also require you to have the camera firmly placed on a tripod, or, if you're more careful, using the the delayed shutter, 10 seconds would allow you enough time to press the button and allow whatever the camera is on to stop quivering.

On an slr manual camera, you also have the option of altering the aperture manually too. A wider aperture lets in more light, therefore for night photography it comes in particularly handy.

That's for relatively static objects. I don't think it would work well with moving subjects like people.

The best thing to do is to give them a good bathing of light, if you don't have a source of light other than the flash, then your only alternative is to alter the film speed down a little way, and the exposure time slightly longer but not so long as to make the subjects blur....

I've use my digital camera to photograph the night sky, and they've come out fairly decent, apart from the speckling.

One thing to note is, the moon is bright. If you're going to use a digital camera on the moon, be aware that over exposure can fry the sensor board that your camera uses to capture pictures.

 

[trawler69]

As you have a separate flash what you could do is to do a manual long exposure and during this, fire the flash manually to get the persons face. The B setting used to stand for Bulb where you would open the shutter, fire the flash, which was the actual exposure, and then close the shutter. I believe it is quite common to adjust a flash exposure by controlling the flash rather than the shutter.

 

[HOT4MEN]

I have a night portrait setting on my digital camera. The problem is that they usually come out blurry because the the shutter speed is slow and you have to have the camera very steady.

 

[dt75006]

No, no.

Set the camera to a "slow sync" with the flash. Put the camera on the tripod and take the picture, telling your subjects to be very still.

With the slow-sync setting, the picture will be taken as follows ... the shutter will open for a split-second (to capture background settings and building lights) then the flash will fire (to illuminate your subjects) then the shutter will remain open for a fraction of a second longer (to fill in even more background detail) then the process is complete. The entire process sounds long in writing, but when you actually do it, it will be extremely quick.

Just be sure to tell your subjects to be very still until you tell them otherwise, and use a tripod with a shutter release cable if possible. The tripod and shutter release ensures the clearest picture possible because you don't actually have to touch the camera to take the picture.

 

[Telstra]

No, no.

Set the camera to a "slow sync" with the flash. Put the camera on the tripod and take the picture, telling your subjects to be very still.

With the slow-sync setting, the picture will be taken as follows ... the shutter will open for a split-second (to capture background settings and building lights) then the flash will fire (to illuminate your subjects) then the shutter will remain open for a fraction of a second longer (to fill in even more background detail) then the process is complete. The entire process sounds long in writing, but when you actually do it, it will be extremely quick.

Just be sure to tell your subjects to be very still until you tell them otherwise, and use a tripod with a shutter release cable if possible. The tripod and shutter release ensures the clearest picture possible because you don't actually have to touch the camera to take the picture.

but what if you don't want to use tripod.
Is there a way to make the shutter speed quick and weak flash, that is the shutter speed should be as quick as day time.

 

[dt75006]

Well, you don't "have to" use a tripod, but the photos will be blurry to some extent unless you have a really steady hand.

You can make the shutter speed anything you want, but you need it to be slow so it is open enough to get the background city lights. That's just one of those things, the lights in the background are too week and too far away to show up on a fast camera, the exposure needs to be longer than normal in order for them to "imprint" themselves into the photo.
As for the flash, there's not much you can do to make it weaker if you are using a "point and shoot" camera. But if you are using an SLR with an external flash mounted on top then you can use a flash that you can swivel up (so that it's not firing directly at your subjects) or with the same flash you can attach what's called a "flash diffuser" which is basically a piece of white plastic that softens the flash and distributes it more evenly on your subjects. Think of a lamp in your living room, if you have no shade on it then the light is harsh, if you put the lamp shade on it then the light is softened and distributed through the room more evenly. The flash diffuser does the same thing.

It really comes down to what equipment you are using. SLR cameras will give you a lot more options than the point-n-shoot pocket cameras.

 

[Telstra]

^ yeah, i'm talking about SLR digital camera with an external flash mounted on top and no tropid.

so just adust the flash to as weak as possible to shoot night photos if you want to see the backgrounds.
Is this going to work?

 

[Telstra]

Not if the photographer isn't using it to fill in the shadows in an otherwise lit subject.

If the flash is the only source of light other than city lights in the background, weakening the flash will make for an underexposed subject, as it would in any flash-only photograph.

In this case, the background must be properly exposed as if the foreground subjects aren't there, and the foreground subjects must be properly exposed with flash as though the background isn't there. Weakening one to make up for the other won't work.

Do you mean you still can't see nice night backgrounds even you have weaken the flash as much as possible ?

The only way is to slower the shutter speed right down?

 

[underwearguy]

use a tripod or steady hand
slow-sync flash
start with 1/30 sec.
color balance may be slightly off

p. 113 getting the best from your 35mm slr camera

 

[Telstra]

underwearguy & dt75006 and others

how about using a video light shining on faces but don't use flash.
do you still need to use tripod? or in this case you can see faces but can't see the backgrounds ?

 

[dt75006]

underwearguy & dt75006 and others

how about using a video light shining on faces but don't use flash.
do you still need to use tripod? or in this case you can see faces but can't see the backgrounds ?

Theoretically, the additional light would probably be enough to illuminate the faces but there could be some issues with it to consider.

First, the light pattern would have to be wide enough to illuminate just the subjects, but not too wide or too narrow; very difficult to control.

Second, the light cannot be too bright or too dim. If it's too dim, then a flash should just be used in the first place. If the light is too bright then the subjects will look washed out, or you run the risk of too much light be reflected back to the camera, in which case none of the night background will be seen at all.

Third, a tripod will almost be a serious must-have. The camera shutter needs to be open long enough for the background to imprint itself into the camera, but the slightest movement will produce a blurred picture. Trust me on this one, I once took a night picture using a tripod BUT I didn't use a remote shutter release. Instead, I just gently pushed the shutter release button with the tip of my finger and the shot came out blurry. Not a severe blurry, but not as sharp as it should have been.

Light does not play games, if you don't treat it correctly it will ruin your picture every time.

I stand by my original suggestion .... use a tripod (or at least put the camera on something stable like a table, bar stool, etc) ... set the flash to slow-sync with the shutter, use a slow shutter speed like 1/30sec. and use a remote shutter release cable if possible.

Also, don't rely on just changing your ISO setting to something high, like the equivalent of using 800 speed film. Remember, high film-speed settings may produce very good small prints, but the more you try to enlarge the image the more fragmented it will appear. So a picture taken with a film speed of 800 will look great as a 4x6 or 5x7 print, but go any larger and the image will begin to distort and fragment.
I use ISO 400 for almost everything, unless I know for sure I will be wanting to make an 11x16 or larger print and then I will drop the ISO down to 200 or even lower sometimes.