I will structure this step by step for ease of use, once you have touched all points you will be ready to tackle the night with all its challenges.
Step 1 - The Camera
Over at DxOMark they are very good at testing stuff the scientific way, some will argue the real world application and images instead and I agree with both, but for iso which is so important for night photography this would be my first stop: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Rating…
Find your camera and note down the iso sensitivity, you have to forget about the dynamic range a bit here as with high iso you will not even get close to the cameras max performance.
Step 2 - The lens
Find your lens here: www.lenstip.com/lenses_reviews…
The one thing they do here that dxomark does not is test the lens for coma and astigmatism, the first would be the most important for you to know, check how your lens performs with points of lights in the corner.
This is more important when you are out trying to capture stars or simular as with bad coma performance the stars in the corner might start to look like flying birds, in other words it looks very bad.
If your lens has issus with Coma in the corner that means you have to stop down your lens 1 or even 2 stops to battle it.
Step 3 - Tripod and head
There is no escaping having a tripod when you are out to capture night scenes.
I would not recommend being cheap when it comes to a tripod+head, you have to factor in the value of the gear you are going to use on it, if you are using 3.000$ camera equipment on a 80$ tripod I would say your priorities are a bit messed up.
My recommendation is to find a carbon fiber tripod that can take the weight of your camera and lens and have more than enough to spare, also factor in future purchases, if you are looking into getting a long heavy lens you might have to go even a step up here.
Equally important is the head, for speed and ease of use I would recommend a ballhead.
Example heavy duty gear: Really right stuff Bh-55 ball head - Really Right stuff TVC33 series 3 Tripod.
Step 4 - Remote shutter release
You should really get yourself used to looking at your images at a 1:1 ratio (100%), the benefit of using a remote shutter release will become even more apparant looking at images in full size.
You can do without one I would say in 99% of cases shooting, but if you want the utmost quality and sharpness there is no way around having one.
Step 5 - Weather conditions
It can be a hot clear night and it can be a cold clear night, the difference might be subtle but as an example I would use my 24mm F1.4 lens at 1.4 on a cold clear night but I would stop down to f2.8 on a hot one this is because on colder nights there are less water particles in the air, and the less obstacles you have between your lens and subject the sharper and clearer the image will be.
If it is windy that poses another issue, maybe you have to take the camera strap off so it does not get pulled on by the the wind to make your image less sharp.
There are many factors to take into account, just take a minute to think about what conditions you will be shooting in, and try to take measures to minimize any impact on your pictures, if it is windy, remove that strap and maybe sturdy your tripod even further with rocks around the legs and weighing it down (most tripod comes with a hook under the center column where you can hang weights ).
Step 6 - Light
Now factor in the conditions you are shooting under, are you shooting towards a city from a distance with heavy light pollution, perhaps you are shooting with the moon lighting up the landscape or you are very far away from any lights and it is completely dark.
If you are trying to capture the night sky then the first and second would block out a lot of the stars, but it is by no means impossible to capture stars under those conditions but it just is not going to come out as clear as the last condition.
You might be close to a single streetlight and that might just be enough to ruin a otherwise good shoot.
I would make compromises with light pollution if the frame I want to capture is so good that I feel I can defend what I am loosing in the shot.
Try to avoid at the bare minimum light shining directly on you, if a light is pointing at you, just simply move yourself to another spot where you can minimize the problem.
Step 7 - The shot
I have picked out something from each step to illustrate en example with the challenges it provides:
Camera: Nikon D5300
Lens: Nikon Nikkor Af-S DX 15-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Tripod: Induro CT113 with Induro BHD3 ballhead.
Remote shutter: Check
Weather: Hot clear night.
Light: Full moon + city at a distance
Challenges:
Iso sensitivity of 1338 - It is quite alright, but I would not use any higher than 1600
Lens has Coma issues in the corners wide open at 18mm but not at 35mm
It is hot - Id try to avoid shooting wide open
Full moon and citylights - I can do a composite and combine 2 shots, 1 correct and 1 overexposed to combat that.
It is not a full frame camera - True focal lenght would be 1.5x higher shortening the exposure time I can use to avoid any star trails(use rule of 600).
(Rule of 600 example: 18 x 1.5 = 27 ----> 600/27 = 22.22 seconds max at 18mm.)
Had this been a cold clear night I would lean towards 35mm, but as it is hot and I have to stop down anyways I would choose the wide shot in this case.
Step 8 - Settings
What has everything from step 1 to 8 told you so far ? (think about it)
Using the gear in example from step 7 I would shoot with these settings:
Iso 1250 - under the iso sensitivity of the camera so would be no problem reducing the noise in post, I would have no need to go any higher since the moon blocks out the faintest of stars already.
18mm - The 18-55 has issues with coma at 18mm, not at 35mm
F5.6 - Since I am bypassing the coma issues by stopping down I can go for the wide shot
20 seconds - I want to maximize the numbers of stars visible in the final image, yes the moon will be blown out and so will many of the city lights, but the D5300 is quite good when it comes to hightlights/shadows so I can live with it.
I can also to be sure make a second shot at 4-10 seconds and combine both to further reduce highlights of the city.
RAW - Without a doubt I would shoot RAW, not only would I not have to worry about whitebalance but also it gives so much more potential for any correcting in post.
Focus - With the full moon up I can use autofocus here, and to be absolutely sure I can use liveview, zoom in on the moon and adjust focus until it is perfect.
Remote shutter connected.
Step 9 - Make the shot
Knowing everything from step 1 to 8 we are now ready to make the shot.
However there is one more step towards getting the absolute best image we can get with the gear provided, and that is a black pieace of cardboard (big enough to cover the the lens).
The cardboard is held infront of the lens (important that you are not touching the lens, just keep it very close) for the very first second of the exposure to ensure that the camera is not capturing any light during the last tiny vibrations from the mirror moving inside the camera.
Once we have made the initial shots it is time to cover all our bases, make the same shot lowering the iso, or perhaps keeping it the same and stopping down further, recompose the shot in the variations you like and do not forget to take that vertical shot as well.
Step 10- Post processing
Now that you know you have done everything in your power to get the absolute best quality you can with your gear it is time to sit down and do the final touches getting the best result that you can.
It does not matter if you are using Lightroom, cameraRAW or another program, do check your image at 100%, especiallly when applying noise reduction and sharpening, it might look fine in the preview window, but if you have gone overboard with noise reduction you will instantly see the artifacts produced at 100% and can adjust accordingly.
Once you have adjusted the highlights/shadows, whites/blacks, whitebalance, contrast and so on to your liking you will be left with the highest quality image.
Summary
What you should take away from this is that the camera with all its potential is still just a camera, it is you that have to apply what you know to get the result you want.
I hope you will find this helpful and thank you for reading.
Tommy
Over at DxOMark they are very good at testing stuff the scientific way, some will argue the real world application and images instead and I agree with both, but for iso which is so important for night photography this would be my first stop: www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Rating…
Find your camera and note down the iso sensitivity, you have to forget about the dynamic range a bit here as with high iso you will not even get close to the cameras max performance.
Step 2 - The lens
Find your lens here: www.lenstip.com/lenses_reviews…
The one thing they do here that dxomark does not is test the lens for coma and astigmatism, the first would be the most important for you to know, check how your lens performs with points of lights in the corner.
This is more important when you are out trying to capture stars or simular as with bad coma performance the stars in the corner might start to look like flying birds, in other words it looks very bad.
If your lens has issus with Coma in the corner that means you have to stop down your lens 1 or even 2 stops to battle it.
Step 3 - Tripod and head
There is no escaping having a tripod when you are out to capture night scenes.
I would not recommend being cheap when it comes to a tripod+head, you have to factor in the value of the gear you are going to use on it, if you are using 3.000$ camera equipment on a 80$ tripod I would say your priorities are a bit messed up.
My recommendation is to find a carbon fiber tripod that can take the weight of your camera and lens and have more than enough to spare, also factor in future purchases, if you are looking into getting a long heavy lens you might have to go even a step up here.
Equally important is the head, for speed and ease of use I would recommend a ballhead.
Example heavy duty gear: Really right stuff Bh-55 ball head - Really Right stuff TVC33 series 3 Tripod.
Step 4 - Remote shutter release
You should really get yourself used to looking at your images at a 1:1 ratio (100%), the benefit of using a remote shutter release will become even more apparant looking at images in full size.
You can do without one I would say in 99% of cases shooting, but if you want the utmost quality and sharpness there is no way around having one.
Step 5 - Weather conditions
It can be a hot clear night and it can be a cold clear night, the difference might be subtle but as an example I would use my 24mm F1.4 lens at 1.4 on a cold clear night but I would stop down to f2.8 on a hot one this is because on colder nights there are less water particles in the air, and the less obstacles you have between your lens and subject the sharper and clearer the image will be.
If it is windy that poses another issue, maybe you have to take the camera strap off so it does not get pulled on by the the wind to make your image less sharp.
There are many factors to take into account, just take a minute to think about what conditions you will be shooting in, and try to take measures to minimize any impact on your pictures, if it is windy, remove that strap and maybe sturdy your tripod even further with rocks around the legs and weighing it down (most tripod comes with a hook under the center column where you can hang weights ).
Step 6 - Light
Now factor in the conditions you are shooting under, are you shooting towards a city from a distance with heavy light pollution, perhaps you are shooting with the moon lighting up the landscape or you are very far away from any lights and it is completely dark.
If you are trying to capture the night sky then the first and second would block out a lot of the stars, but it is by no means impossible to capture stars under those conditions but it just is not going to come out as clear as the last condition.
You might be close to a single streetlight and that might just be enough to ruin a otherwise good shoot.
I would make compromises with light pollution if the frame I want to capture is so good that I feel I can defend what I am loosing in the shot.
Try to avoid at the bare minimum light shining directly on you, if a light is pointing at you, just simply move yourself to another spot where you can minimize the problem.
Step 7 - The shot
I have picked out something from each step to illustrate en example with the challenges it provides:
Camera: Nikon D5300
Lens: Nikon Nikkor Af-S DX 15-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Tripod: Induro CT113 with Induro BHD3 ballhead.
Remote shutter: Check
Weather: Hot clear night.
Light: Full moon + city at a distance
Challenges:
Iso sensitivity of 1338 - It is quite alright, but I would not use any higher than 1600
Lens has Coma issues in the corners wide open at 18mm but not at 35mm
It is hot - Id try to avoid shooting wide open
Full moon and citylights - I can do a composite and combine 2 shots, 1 correct and 1 overexposed to combat that.
It is not a full frame camera - True focal lenght would be 1.5x higher shortening the exposure time I can use to avoid any star trails(use rule of 600).
(Rule of 600 example: 18 x 1.5 = 27 ----> 600/27 = 22.22 seconds max at 18mm.)
Had this been a cold clear night I would lean towards 35mm, but as it is hot and I have to stop down anyways I would choose the wide shot in this case.
Step 8 - Settings
What has everything from step 1 to 8 told you so far ? (think about it)
Using the gear in example from step 7 I would shoot with these settings:
Iso 1250 - under the iso sensitivity of the camera so would be no problem reducing the noise in post, I would have no need to go any higher since the moon blocks out the faintest of stars already.
18mm - The 18-55 has issues with coma at 18mm, not at 35mm
F5.6 - Since I am bypassing the coma issues by stopping down I can go for the wide shot
20 seconds - I want to maximize the numbers of stars visible in the final image, yes the moon will be blown out and so will many of the city lights, but the D5300 is quite good when it comes to hightlights/shadows so I can live with it.
I can also to be sure make a second shot at 4-10 seconds and combine both to further reduce highlights of the city.
RAW - Without a doubt I would shoot RAW, not only would I not have to worry about whitebalance but also it gives so much more potential for any correcting in post.
Focus - With the full moon up I can use autofocus here, and to be absolutely sure I can use liveview, zoom in on the moon and adjust focus until it is perfect.
Remote shutter connected.
Step 9 - Make the shot
Knowing everything from step 1 to 8 we are now ready to make the shot.
However there is one more step towards getting the absolute best image we can get with the gear provided, and that is a black pieace of cardboard (big enough to cover the the lens).
The cardboard is held infront of the lens (important that you are not touching the lens, just keep it very close) for the very first second of the exposure to ensure that the camera is not capturing any light during the last tiny vibrations from the mirror moving inside the camera.
Once we have made the initial shots it is time to cover all our bases, make the same shot lowering the iso, or perhaps keeping it the same and stopping down further, recompose the shot in the variations you like and do not forget to take that vertical shot as well.
Step 10- Post processing
Now that you know you have done everything in your power to get the absolute best quality you can with your gear it is time to sit down and do the final touches getting the best result that you can.
It does not matter if you are using Lightroom, cameraRAW or another program, do check your image at 100%, especiallly when applying noise reduction and sharpening, it might look fine in the preview window, but if you have gone overboard with noise reduction you will instantly see the artifacts produced at 100% and can adjust accordingly.
Once you have adjusted the highlights/shadows, whites/blacks, whitebalance, contrast and so on to your liking you will be left with the highest quality image.
Summary
What you should take away from this is that the camera with all its potential is still just a camera, it is you that have to apply what you know to get the result you want.
I hope you will find this helpful and thank you for reading.
Tommy
