ARTIFICIAL LIGHT PICTURES

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FAIRGROUNDS

Swirling colour, movement and light are a favourite for creative night-time photography. With such a wide variety of illuminated rides to choose from you are spoilt for choice. Photographers’ favourites include the big-dipper-style roller coasters and giant rotating ferris wheels. Basically, any ride which can be shot with a long exposure to blur the moving coloured lights against a dusky-coloured sky.

Long exposures are required if you want to include dramatic movements in your pictures. The best approach is to place the camera onto a tripod to avoid camera shake. Set the shutter-speed dial to “B”. Set you aperture to say f/11 for a greater depth of field. Some cameras will indicate the time others you will just have to bracket your exposures. Try between 12-30 seconds provided you are filling the frame with light. Many of the modern electronic cameras, including digital, have shutter speeds up to a few minutes long. If this is your case, put the speed dial onto “A”, the aperture onto f/11, press the shutter and allow the camera to work out the time. Try to photograph the fun of the fair against a twilight sky to balance the artificial and natural light sources.

FIREWORKS

Choreographed firework displays always provide opportunities for great pictures – the difficulty comes in making sure the camera is pointed at the right stretch of night sky at the right time! Using a wide-angle lens gives you less scope for error. A telephoto or zoom lens will help you fill the frame with the action. Use the first fireworks display as a guide for cropping.

Making the exposure is the easy bit; just let the fireworks do it for you, by building up a composite image filled with colourful explosions as they happen. This technique involves finding an unobstructed vantage point over the crowds and setting the camera on a steady surface such as a tripod. Select f/16 and switch the shutter speed dial to “B”. Now line up the camera lens with the first fireworks as the display starts and release the shutter to start the exposure, holding a sheet of black card over the lens in between firework explosions and keeping the shutter open, manually, until you have caught about four or five explosions on film or digital.

As the night sky is pitch black, there is little risk of overexposure unless you have a street lamp or some other unwanted light source sneaking into the picture. Check all four corners of your viewfinder carefully.

TRAFFIC TRAILS

Fix your camera to a tripod and find yourself a safe, pedestrianized bridge overlooking a busy freeway. At dusk, when there is still some purple-blue ambient light in the sky, you can capture the streaking trails of white and red head and tail lights as the cars speed along – though the car silhouettes themselves will magically disappear because they are moving too fast to record on film.

To capture the effect, just load up with a slow-speed film of ISO 100 or set your digital camera to this ISO setting, set the shutter-speed dail to its “B” setting and use a remote release to start the exposure to avoid jogging the camera. For greater depth of field choose a setting such as f/16 or f/22.

With long exposures, it’s always wise to bracket, making the exposure longer in regular increments. So if you take your first exposure at f/16 and 16 seconds, next try f/16 and 20 seconds, then 30 seconds, then one minute.

When studying your initial results you will notice how the longer your exposure, the brighter your pictures become and that as the night darkens, the different traffic conditions, such as nose-to-tail rush hour traffic jams and at traffic lights.