A guide to taking great night-time photography

The winter months in Canada can leave little time for daylight photography, but some simple techniques and affordable equipment can make it a great way to capture a new night perspective on familiar subjects.

• Shooting photos at night does not mean you have to have a flash or particularly fast and expensive lens.
• In fact, a flash can make a nighttime scene look artificial by casting shadows where they don't belong.
• Even a basic lens can capture enough natural light to create an authentic and captivating photograph of a chosen subject without using costly artificial lighting.

• Shooting photos at night requires a good tripod. You need the lens steady during the long exposure to capture the available light.
• A good tripod will feel heavy enough to keep it steady in windy conditions and will likely have a hook in the centre for hanging additional weight. A water-filled milk jug will work well.
• Use either a remote shutter or a cable-actuated plunger to activate the shutter and keep it open long enough to capture the scarce light.
• A star filter also is when wanting to prevent the star-like effect that light bulbs or even the moon can create during longer exposures, but star effects also can improve some photographs.

• A fast lens with a large aperture can help with nighttime photography, but it's not necessary when using a tripod.
• A fast lens generally has a maximum aperture of 2.8 or better, which allows for faster shutter speeds in low light. Nighttime photography likely will require a tripod, anyway.
• Fast lenses work best at night when shooting scenes that have their own available light.
• Unfortunately, the additional cost for a fast lens can prove too much for many people when compared to the relative affordability of a good tripod.
• Some older cameras with standard 50mm lenses can work great as many of those old fixed lenses.

• Bracketing the subject by using varying shutter and aperture settings can ensure a good photo when you're unsure of how long an exposure should be.
• It can create different effects that can be subtle or even powerful, and it can make two photos of the same subject appear very different.
• Bracketing also can negate the need for photo manipulation afterward and produce a more natural and satisfying photograph of a landscape, cityscape or nighttime subject.