Photography Technique - Architectural Photography At Night

By Author: Adam Coupe
Total Articles: 18
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Shooting Buildings at Night
Shooting at night is a great way to inject more pizzazz into your architectural photos.

As an evening strolling through any town or city centre will prove, brightly coloured floodlights can transform even lacklustre buildings into inspiring photographic subjects.
At this time of year, nocturnal shoots can also take place at a more civilised hour because the sun is setting earlier in the evening rather than later. Probably the trickiest aspect of shooting buildings at night is determining the correct exposure. Bright floodlights often fool in-camera light meters into underexposure, so be ready to dial in up to two stops of positive exposure compensation to rectify the situation. Be careful though - dial in too much compensation and you'll burn out the highlights. If overall scene metering proves problematic, switch to Partial or Spot metering and meter off a mid-tone area within your subject. Noise is another potential hazard with exposures often running into seconds or even minutes if you incorporating light trails from cars. To minimise the risk, shoot in RAW and choose ...
... a low ISO setting, such as 100 or 200. In-camera noise reduction is another good option if your camera offers it, but beware that this doubles image-processing time. And finally, don't forget to stay vigilant. When you're concentrating on a shoot it's easy to become unaware of your surroundings. If possible go with someone else and never take unnecessary risks - no photograph is worth risking personal safety.

Creative Compositions
Don't limit yourself to as standard wide-angle shot that includes the entire building. Instead, seek out one or two more unusual or creative compositions such as selecting a foreground item and get in close filling one third of the frame to one side - fill the rest of the frame with the rest of the building or the area of building around it for impact. Also consider putting your building into context by incorporating other interesting buildings in the area into your into your composition. Don't worry if you end up with a few blurred outlines of people, as they can add to the atmosphere. When the sky turns black, switch to a telephoto lens and use it to pick out details such as gargoyles, architectural patterns and windows.

Field Skills - LCD Preview
Don't waste shots on dark and uninspiring black skies. Check the LCD screen to ensure the sky is saturated with colour and full of vibrance. Watch out for harshly floodlit areas on buildings. Check your histogram after every shot to see where clipping has occurred and highlights have burned out and adjust exposure settings accordingly.

The Sky's the Limit
There's no set rule that says you must only shoot floodlit buildings at a particular time of night. However, there are a couple of advantages of shooting when the sky is still reasonably blue as opposed to when it's gone black. First, blue skies create a pleasing backdrop that contrasts nicely with coloured illuminations. Second, shooting when there's still some colour left in the sky reduces contrast, making it easier to record both shadow and highlight detail in the same exposure. This type of lighting occurs around 20-30 minutes after sunset. Use the time wisely and keep shooting as the light fades in the sky. Keep shooting and adjusting your exposure accordingly, to increase your chances of success.

Essential Gear
To successfully shoot buildings at night you need a tripod and cable release to minimise camera shake. A cable release is also a must if you plan to use your camera's B setting to record light trails. You don't need fast, image stabilised lenses because you'll be using a tripod and will probably want to choose a smallish aperture to maximise depth of field. A couple of zooms (for example 24-70mm and 70-200mm) should suffice. Other desirable accessories include a hotshoe spirit level for levelling off horizons and a torch for viewing camera settings in dim light.

Expert Tips
File Format - For best quality and full control over colour temperature shoot in RAW
ISO - Keep it as low as possible to minimise noise
Exposure mode - Shoot using Aperture Priority for auto exposure control or in Manual mode for Bulb exposures.
Image Quality - Turn on Noise Reduction for long exposures.
Adam Coupe is pro commercial photographer specialising in commercial photography and architectural photography for a wide range of organisations that need to project their products, people or brand in a vibrant way see http://www.adamcoupe.com and http://www.adamcoupe.com/portfolio/category/19/architectural_photography/projects.htm