Due to cinematic and night time photography being a colossal topic, I've decided to divide it into parts so it's more digestible for you. This article focuses on managing light sources.
We often see amazing photographs and hardly take the time to think about what actually went into that shoot. A professional photographer is often expected to produce miracles with a camera and we often forget that there are numerous constraints that need to be worked around. One of those constraints - especially if you live in the UK - is access to natural light. Days are short in the winter and since it's usually cloudy or raining, the natural light available to us is quite low so we've become quite good at managing this using various techniques.
Some of the best cinematic and night photography gurus are urban street photographers because they produce cinematic and attention-grabbing results without any controlled light source. Therefore, in this article by Martin Creates, we'll start with the basics and first understand, what the challenges of low-light conditions are and then, focus on tips and tricks for improving how we work around them. This article will improve your night photography skills.
Use the comment section below to ask anything that you think is missing and let me know what advice you found the most useful.
Part I: Managing Ambient Light Sources:
Our ability to see with our eyes is thanks to light. When we enter a dark room, we can barely see anything and the same applies to our cameras. This is why, the wider your aperture can go the easier it will be to adapt to low-light conditions. Cameras such as Sony Alphas are excellent in low-light conditions e.g. the Sony a7siii, a7iv, etc. We can measure a camera's ability to perform in darker conditions by testing how quickly it can autofocus on a subject and how tolerable its ISO is and the colour accuracy. The night photos you see captured by Martin Creates are usually taken at a maximum of 1600 ISO at f1.8. This is enough to exposure highlights and lift shadows in post-editing and also importantly, it makes noise less of an issue. I explain how to de-noise in this article.
Now that we understand the importance of light for photography, we need to be able to find good quality light sources and then understand how to best manage its availability. Using ambient lights at night means borrowing light sources from wherever possible, e.g. shop windows, street lamps, cars passing by, reflections, neon signage and anything else that is emitting light. It's important to practice finding these light sources if you're a beginner, as it's a muscle you'll want to train until it's instinctive.
Now for the main lesson in this article:
During night photography sessions, pay close attention to the direction of the light source you're choosing to rely on. Ask your self: how much is the light spreading around the area I want to shoot in? What will my subject's behaviour/movement pattern be like once it enters this space? You'll be able to make a more impactful composition by framing your shot based on these observations.
Testing and tweaking is a natural part of the process, you'll rarely get it right first time.
Street photographers suffer when they fail to interpret their observations of ambient light into creative decisions. This is the difference between being good and remarkable. For example, if your subject is standing in front of the light source, then they'll be naturally darker than the light source behind them. That's an opportune moment to capture a silhouette shot like in the example below. For this photo, I used a reflection inside a circular window to frame my shot of someone mysteriously walking in front of an illuminated street advert. Notice how the circle is the same colour as the light source too. These are the layers of creative decisions that went into this photo which can tell, or at least be part of a story. There's a lot happening in general to execute a shot like this; it's dark, it's a considerable distance across the street and we're shooting at an angle to avoid my own reflection appearing. Timing is everything otherwise you'll miss the shot, and the precision needs to be calculated so it's in focus as much as possible.
The photo below is another example of how we make creative decisions based on lighting conditions. We're forcing our creative muscles to think about how we can achieve something impactful and a story worth telling.
Immediately, the CCTV cameras drew my attention to the security person who I could only partially see. There was something mysterious about it all.
What were they hiding? What's beyond that dark corridor?
I want the audience to not just see, but also feel and experience what I was feeling and experiencing. Of course, post editing comes into play to give it that sense of cinematic mystery. The light cut across the security person perfectly to be able to recognise it's someone guarding the entrance and yet we don't know who it is; we literally cannot see a face.
Stay tuned for part II where we explore camera settings and equipment when doing night photography and trying to achieve a cinematic style.
I am a professional freelance photographer and videographer based in London, UK. I started Martin Creates in order to help empower people and brands worldwide. One of the ways I do that is by publishing blogs with free information to help any creatives out there reading this. I welcome you to check out my work on this website as well as my newly launched site martincreatesweddings.com. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.
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