How To Capture Colors In Night Photography

Knowing how to capture colors in night photography should be an essential factor when shooting images at night. Colors play such a significant role in how we capture images during the day. I apply a similar theory to capturing colors in night photography as well.

One of the best ways to capture colors in night photography is to understand the camera and how it works. So many people have cameras and only shoot in auto mode. It’s best to experiment with various modes and settings and acquire techniques on how best to capture images.

Planning to shoot outdoors

To get great colors in night photography a good idea would be to scout the location to see the visuals beforehand.

Gears needed for Night Photography

Camera – A good camera that will not flake out and captures good quality images.

Tripod – To achieve sharper quality images when shooting night photography a sturdy tripod that supports the camera is needed.

Wireless Remote Shutter Release – A wireless remote shutter release is needed for slow shutter speed exposures. Any camera movement or the slightest touch will result in blurry images.

Batteries and Chargers  – Batteries and chargers should be fully charged.

Battery Packs – Always carry an extra battery pack.

Memory Cards – A good memory card is needed, one that is water-resistant and will perform well in extreme conditions.

Lens Cleaners – Just in case the camera lens gets dirty, having a lens cleaner comes in handy.

Allen Key Wrench (Hex key) – To tighten the tripod head/legs.

HOW I CAPTURED THIS IMAGE

I scouted quite a few locations before settling on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I snapped this image of the Brooklyn Bridge at 3:30AM. My areas of concentration were the buildings, the lights from the Brooklyn Bridge and the colorful reflection of lights from the water. I thought all three made for great optics.

I used a tripod to steady the camera because of the long exposure settings. By using a telephoto (70-200mm) lens instead of a wide-angle lens, I was able to zoom in from a distance and frame the shot with the water reflected colors in the forefront.

I chose manual mode to completely control the settings. The Metering Mode was set to Matrix.

Although I was shooting at night, letting in too much light would have compromised the colors. To avoid really unattractive color saturation the Picture Control was set to Standard while the Color Space was set to Adobe RGB. I chose the Auto setting for White Balance.

Camera Settings:

Aperture: F/13   

Shutter: 1/30

ISO: 100.

File Format: Raw