Night Photography
Photography 3 : Project 2
Objectives
 The student will demonstrate skill, independent
thinking, and craftsmanship (artisanship) in the
use of media, techniques, and processes to
achieve desired intentions in works of art and
design.
 The student will investigate and describe the
process of taking a photograph at night.
Project 2: Night Photography
 Taking photographs at night presents unique
challenges. Exposure times must be very long, so handholding the camera is out of the question. However,
with a steady place to rest the camera (which need
not be a tripod), and a long exposure, the light
gathering ability of your camera can greatly exceed
the human eye, allowing you to capture a shot of
something you could not normally see.
Project Criteria
 You will shoot 30 photographs using night
photography techniques found during your
research to document the following night
themes:
 See following slides...
Outdoor Night Scene of Nature
 Head outside, find somewhere stable to rest your camera, and
photograph a picturesque natural night scene.
 We want to see absolutely no motion blur due to camera
movement in your shot. You may wish to use the self-timer
mode on your camera to avoid the problem of moving the
camera when you press the shutter button.
 As this is a night scene, your exposure time should be at least
one or two seconds.
 For this nature requirement, you may will want to find a
landscape illuminated by the sky and/or moon and/or artificial
lights, but the subject should be nature (and not artificial
objects).
 It's okay if there is an incidental amount of manmade stuff in
your scene, but your photograph should be all or almost all
natural, and the subject should clearly be nature.
Outdoor Night Scene of
Architecture
 As in the last slide, take a night photograph of at
least one or two seconds exposure with absolutely
no motion blur, but this time your subject should be
architecture.
 Example subjects include bridges, city streets,
buildings, cityscapes, etc.
 Reminder: your photo should be well exposed, so
we can see detail in the buildings and other objects
-- don't make it so dark that all we can see are the
lights.
Painting with Light
 Take a long-exposure photo in which you use a light
source as if it were a painter's brush.
 You should move the light around to create the scene
you want over the course of the exposure. You can do
this by making a moving light source the subject as in our
example, or by pointing the light at the parts of the
scene you wish to be illuminated over the course of the
exposure.
 For example, you may want to walk around in your
scene during the exposure with a hand-held camera
flash, firing it in places you would like to be illuminated.
 In general, you may use any light source you have
available to you: bike lights, LEDs, candles, flashlights, or
even your cell phone screen will all cast light into the
scene in different ways. Be creative!
Light and Color
 Find a colored object and a strongly colored light
source (such as an LED) such that the color of the
object as photographed by your digital camera looks
dramatically different under that light source versus
under normal lighting.
 Take multiple photographs demonstrating this effect -
one under normal lighting and one under colored
lighting. Include in each photograph a white (neutralcolored) object as a comparison.
 You may have to experiment a bit. The effect will be
strongest when using a light source with a narrow
spectrum, such as the sodium lamps you find in
parking lots or the LEDs on your electronics.
Color as a Pictorial
 Take a photo that is primarily monochromatic (i.e. grayscale
or a single desaturated color like grayish-brown) that has one
or more elements sharing a single common bright color.
 For example, a black-and-white photo with three red apples.
You can achieve the effect with any combination of setup
and Photoshop, meaning that your original photo doesn't
have to satisfy the requirement as long as you use Photoshop
to selectively saturate everything that's not your color accent.
 Be creative here, and have fun with this one! Make sure you
document how you set up the shot and what, if anything, you
did in Photoshop to achieve the effect. (You don't need to
upload the pre-Photoshop shot, and again, you don't
necessarily even have to use Photoshop if you can achieve
the effect without it.)
Project Examples
After you shoot:
 You will turn in a digital contact sheet to receive credit.
 We will have a class critique on the prints and discuss
experiences.
 Choose best three photos to digitally edit and hand in
for the final project.
 lastname_firstname_night01.jpg
 lastname_firstname_night02.jpg
 lastname_firstname_night03.jpg