Night Landscapes with a Tripod
How to capture beautiful photographs at night with a tripod
Night time landscapes can open up tremendous opportunities for beauty. After sunset, the sky sky can take on amazing purples and blues. Lights come to life in a totally different way. The low light allows use of slow shutter speeds that can erase moving objects, make water look smooth. Fireworks are a prime example of the magic that can happen at night.
The obvious challenge of shooting at night is that the light is very low. If you understand the “exposure triangle,” there are the standard ways to deal with low light: Use a wide aperture like 1.4, 1.8 or 2.8, boost the ISO, and slow down the shutter speed.
The problem of high ISO
The problem is, that goes against shooting a great landscape. At high ISO, you lose image quality. You lose dynamic range flexibility in shoot raw. This image below included a great deal of shadow recovery that would not have been possible in a high ISO image. The exposure at the bottom part of the frame was increased significantly, giving you the details in the rocks and the fishermen. If this was shot at high ISO, the rocks would either be buried in dark shadow or would be extremely grainy. Shooting at tripod allowed use of low ISO, which then allowed a lot of versatility in post processing.
The problem with wide aperture
Typically, we want a wide depth of field in landscape images. Meaning, we want the foreground, subject and background to all appear sharp. With a wide aperture, the depth of field is too narrow for most landscapes. In the image below, the rocks in the foreground and the bridge in the background are all acceptably sharp because there is adequate depth of field.
The problem with slow shutter speed
Slowing the shutter speed will allow in significantly more light. But if you slow down the shutter speed too much, hand holding will lead to camera shake and motion blur. The below image was taken with a shutter speed of 4 seconds. There is no way to hold a camera steady for 4 seconds.
The Solution For Nighttime Landscape Photographs:
Using a tripod solves all of the issues. When properly used, a tripod will allow the photographer to shoot at any ISO, at any aperture and without any camera shake. You can’t shoot any action, but it works wonderfully for night time landscapes. Proper technique goes beyond simply setting the camera on a tripod.
How to Use a Tripod for Nighttime Photographs
- Set camera on Tripod
- Turn OFF Vibration reduction/Stabilization — OSS/IBIS/IS/VR. These functions counter minor camera shake. But if the camera is not shaking at all, they can actually add vibration to the images. So turn it OFF.
- Set a Low ISO, preferably ISO 100. This will maximize dynamic range, it will minimize noise and grain.
- Set aperture priority mode. Set whatever aperture you need for your chosen depth of field. When I shoot ultrawide (10-15mm), I can get very wide depth of field at around F8. When shooting with a longer focal length, you need a smaller aperture (bigger number).
- Set your focus point with attention to depth of field.
- Use a remote shutter or a 2-second self timer. Pressing the shutter button causes camera shake. A remote shutter of timer allow the shutter to be tripped without any vibration.
- Shoot. Check your image and re-shoot at necessary. You may often need some negative exposure compensation to protect your highlights.
Follow these simple steps combined with good composition and post-processing…. and get images like this..
You can also read how I use a tripod for long exposures such as landscapes.
Recommended Tripods:
Tripods can run into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. For most shooters, there is no reason to spend that much. But I’d also avoid the $20 to $30 tripods that are likely to tip over and ruin your expensive camera.
My recommendations also take into account tripods that are portable and easy to travel with.
Tripod for full size cameras:
The Mafrotto BeFree tripod is my go-to when I need a full size tripod. It folds up very and becomes very portable. It’s reasonably priced under $200. It’s extremely sturdy and will support heavy cameras and lenses.
See the Manfrotto BeFree tripod on Amazon.
Taken with the Manfrotto BeFree:
For complete portability, especially with smaller cameras and lenses, a fantastic option is the Joby Gorillapod. The gorillapod comes in a few different sizes, but the small and medium gorillapods can easily fit inside even a medium sized camera bag and they weight very little.
As of April 28, 2019, the Joby Gorillapod 3k is on sale for under $50. It can safely support a camera/lens combination of up to 6.6 lbs, making it suitable for most combinations barring the heaviest of lenses.
See the Joby Gorillapod 3k on Amazon.
Taken with the Joby Gorillapod:
Share your feedback on how you use tripods in the comment section below.
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