Equipment needed for Night Photography
1. Camera - PnS or DSLR
2. Tripod and Tripod Head (Pan-Head or Ball-Head)
3. Cable Release
4. Black Card
5. Flashlight or Speedlight
6. Colour Gels for Flashlight/Speedlight
7. Torchlight
8. Insect Repellent (Optional)
#1. Camera - PnS or DSLR
For PnS camera, the aperture and shutter speed may some time be limited. However, all is not lost. Just
do what you can do and don't do what other do. Understanding your camera's abilities and applying the fundamental of photography can some time produce results that are better than a DSLR.
For DSLR camera, understanding the operation, limits and performance is very important to gain better control of your camera. Remember, you are the master of the camera, not the other way around. Don't be afraid to try. Understanding the fundamental of photography is needed for the photographer to evaluate the exposure needed, the effects desired and the end results to be captured.
#2. Tripod and Tripod Head (Pan-Head or Ball-Head)
Invest on a good tripod system that can last you for a long time. The last thing that a photographer want is having to buy something that doesn't serve its purposes well or end up not using it or spending additional money to get a new set after a short while. Why not invest the money on a good tripod set that can last you at least 2 to 5 years (or more) while spending the additional money on new lenses, cameras or accessories.
What is a good tripod system? Estimate the heaviest weight of your camera setup and find a tripod head that can take the weight of the system firmly without creeping. Next, find a tripod that can take the weight of both the camera system and tripod head but yet still comfortable for you to carry around. Remember, take some of the following points into consideration when selecting a tripod system that is good for you : stability, comfortable, ease of use, height of tripod system, material used, weight and cost.
For Tripod head, the most common used are ball-head type and easy to use but a pan-head can sometime be used for creating interesting effects if used correctly.
*This shot was made possible using a pan-head tripod head.*
Situation where Tripods are not needed
Tripod should be used in most situation for Night Photography. However, in situation such as taking Street and Candid (e.g. Busy night crowd in Chinatown during Chinese New Year period) or maybe Reportage of Chingay (where you don't have the luxury to set up a tripod and be fixed at a position), setting up tripod might not be possible. Try to apply the fundamental of photography, understand what you want to capture and see what works the best for you in the situation provided.
#3. Cable Release
Cable Release is a good accessory to have, it might be available in wired or wireless remote version depending from camera system to camera system. Why is cable release important in Night Photography? Well, it minimized the need for the photographer to handle the camera when releasing the shutter hence reducing unwanted/accidental vibration and shaking. Another alternative to cable release is using a self-timer or using a black card.
Another advantage of using cable release is for shooting long exposure (Exposure time > 30secs) or known as BULB mode. Some cable releases come with shutter release lock/hold which will keep the shutter open until the photographer unlock/unhold the shutter release or until the battery of the camera is drain out. It give the photographer more control over camera as in when to release the shutter and how long to keep the shutter open.
#4. Black Card
Black card is a very useful item for Night Photography. It acts like a second shutter plane and it can be used cut down exposure (aka dodging technique) in some tricky situation such as when the foreground is brighter than background, use the black card for the brighter areas to remove the exposure. Or in situation where the street lights usually will get over exposure, use the black card to dodge down the exposure.
Black card can be used for creative shooting or to create different interesting effects. All you need, is to understand how to use it properly and let your creativity flow. Black card can be used as a stopper to prevent unwanted exposure/light from been capture (e.g. you are doing painting with lights in a very dark environment and halfway, you spot an on-coming car with bright-headlight which is unplanned/undesired. You could either do nothing and retake the shot one more time, or you could use a black card to stop the shutter temporarily and remove the black card and continue where you left off when the car is gone.)
Black card itself is a very useful and interesting technique which will be discussed in details in the future section.
#5. Flashlight or Speedlight
Flashlight/Speedlight is to introduce artificial lighting (usually rated at 5000K to 5500K) to light up the scene. Some time, colour gel can be placed over the flashlight to introduce light of another colour for interesting effect. More will be covered in the next topic
Colour Gels. Flashlight is rated based on Guide Number.
Flashlight/Speedlight is usually not required for Night Landscape/Cityscape Photograhy unless you are taking the landscape/cityscape with some human subjects or subjects that you like your viewers to focus your attention on. For Night Portrait Photography, Flashlight is needed so as to illuminate the human subject to be capture and also to prevent ghosting effect on the human subjects due to the long exposure required.
Flashlight can be used for create interesting effects such as Painting with Light (or Light Painting) for Nocturne Photography and Flashlight Photography itself is another big topic for discussion. Technique such as Repeating Flash, Creative Lighting System are just some of the possibilities that can be achieve if your Flashlight/Speedlight have the function in-built in them.
