I”m now back on pursuing my photography interest after being really pre-occupied with many other things Anyway, on to the subject: handheld night photography. I’m sure many would think that this is absurd, one would need a tripod for night photography right? Well, yes and no. There are variety of factors that would affect our results in handholding the camera.

For me, the main reason I handheld the camera at the time was because upon entering the Luna Park, we noticed that there was a big sign saying “No Tripod”. Hence for the sake of appropriateness and understanding I put my tripod back into the bag. This turns out to be a good opportunity.

So how do we do this? How do we photograph in low light condition without a tripod and expect to get a clear view ?

1. Use a fast lens if there’s any. The lens that I was using was the f 2.8 Tamron.
2. Use higher ISO. If your camera permits, use the around ISO 1600 or higher. Be careful with this since you’ll have to compensate with noise
3. Know your exposure rules. Don’t forget the unofficial rule of thumb: your focal length is around  the minimum shutter speed. So if your lens focal length is 50mm, then your minimum shutter speed is 1/60s. This works most of the time.
4. Be steady, make sure you are holding your camera in a steady stance. Use both hands with elbows close or resting to the chest.
5. Pick the right spot, there are places where you can rest your camera (and your hands) on for steadier shot.

Above are the few points that helped me get the shots that night.

Handheld photography is also made easier if it not pitch black yet, and it adds a lot to the composition.

For example, the shot on the right was taken just after the sunset; the best thing about that time is that its dark enough for us to capture the artificial lights and its still light enough to capture the scene easily without using too higher ISO. So another lesson to add: pick your time carefully.

One last tip before the end of the article: always shoot in RAW format. In case you get underexposed slightly, there is still chance to save your shot. Sure RAW is much larger in file size than JPEG, but with large memory cards these days, it shouldn’t be a problem.

So…to conclude, handheld night photography is possible given the technique and location. Maybe not so recommended, but will be handy when tripods are not possible.

To some people it is a time to have fun and to some people it is an opportunity to practice the night shot. Yes, slow shutter, tripods, lights and fast movements. This year I’m rather pleased with some of my shots, since I actually brought by tripod again. Last year I came out with very little usable night shots simply because I can’t be bothered to bring a tripod (so I can do more things with less hassle).

Slow shutter hand held

That doesn’t mean that without a tripod you can’t take any picture, all you have to do is know your minimal shutter speed, ISO and steady hands. The shot on the left was shot hand-held at 1/30 s, f/3.5 ISO 800. The resulting image shows how fast the movements were and it actually gives a hint of happy people on board the ride. Thanks to the bright lights from the ride itself, the children on board were illuminated quite well!

Here’s another picture (right) that I took hand held, good lighting in the venue really helps with these shots. When it comes to fireworks however, there is no escaping from using a tripod. There are also different pointers and tips that I’d like to share with you when taking picture of fireworks.

Photographing Fireworks

If your camera is capable for full manual control, this is the time to switch it on. Forget about auto-focus and auto exposure, most camera will not be able to calculate the settings correctly. What I did was:

1. Set the focusing to infinity. Auto focusing will be quite hard or impossible since there is nothing to focus in the sky until the moment the fireworks started and it’ll be too late.

2. Set your aperture high to preserve the details (around F16 and above).

3. Set the speed around 2-4 seconds. With this low speed, the fireworks trails can be recorded and more fireworks can be captured.

4. Set the camera trigger to wireless remote (or you can set timer for 2 secs or lower), this was needed to avoid camera shake by hand when pressing the trigger button.

5. Arrive early to get a good (and if possible comfy) spot.

And that should do for the settings. As for the picture taking, I mount my camera on the tripod and adjust the position to where I estimate where the fireworks will be displayed. Then, just enjoy the show while snapping the pic (peering into the viewfinder and adjusting as well obviously).

Moomba Fireworks

The picture on the right was taken using f/25, 4 s, this way the fireworks trails was evident and the smoke appears hazy. There are a lot to learn about photographing fireworks and I’m still learning as I go as well. However the pointers above are the ones that I have learnt and applied for a while. The fireworks was not the only exciting thing however, there was this rock band playing pretty good music too.

Of course because this is a photography blog, I can’t help but to share a bit of phototaking for these kind of situation. A band, low light and glaring spotlights, requires something more than full automatic settings.

I shot those two using spot metering and speed priority mode. In order to get the singer’s face into the correct exposure, spot metering on the face is needed, otherwise the camera will think that the scene is too dark and it’ll boost the exposure. Usually leaving us with very bright white faces…overexposure. On the other hand I left it to the speed priority mode to get a decent hand-held speed (about 1/200 for the above shots) while maintaining the correct aperture settings automatically. Apart from that the iso was set to 1600, a bit grainy, but it does the job.

Hmm…and the last thing, I can’t help but think that some clown statue can be quite scary…they should be made cuter or funnier…