Street Photography At Night
Shooting at night is about a vibe. It’s about telling stories too but there should be some atmosphere, mystery and maybe even danger in the best photos. The winter is one of my favourite times of year for taking street photos.
When night falls it feels like anything is possible, I’m not worried about the weather; if it’s overcast, sunny, or rainy. In the dark it’s always the same: either dark or too dark. It can be a great way to focus; a lot of distractions are eliminated. Parts of the city you would usually shoot might be too dark, there is only a certain amount of light for your camera and only then with the fastest of lenses. One has to zone in on the light that is available: a lamppost glowing, a neon shop window, a traffic light. Whatever will satisfy the Exposure Triangle. Shooting at night is a great leveller in many respects.
If one is so inclined then one can learn a lot about a photographer with a good body of work shot at night. Technically you have to be solid: making trade offs with depth of field, shutter speed and ISO level are tough decisions and can make or break an image. There’s focus too, many times your auto focus will grind to a halt or even worse give you a false positive just when you think you’ve locked into the perfect shot only to be back focused. Switch to manual, switch to auto. Always making decisions.
You have to be street smart to be in the city at night. You have to be willing to bear the cold and the rain, you have to know your city well and know your camera well: a quick fumble may be desired in other areas of life but in photography you just ballsed up a shot, many times you won’t get a second chance and you’re going home freezing cold, soaking wet and with a load of junk on your SD card. Oh Well.
Inspiration can be hard to find when it comes to night photography as so many photographers just don’t do it. I have found inspiration much harder to find and rely on fellow photographers that I shoot with at night and the occasional photographer on Instagram. A lot of people talk about shooting at night, there’s many people making videos about it on YouTube but to look at their work and it’s just shite. What to do then? Go out yourself and experiment and work it out.
Here are some recent favourite night photos I’ve shot.
