This is a moment to live for photography! Advances in technology, coupled with falling prices and "gear wars" between brands, continue to make the highest quality image-making hardware increasingly available to everyone. This market process continues to allow us to minimize the sacrifices we once made in image quality when shooting in less than optimal conditions.
In the world of street and cityscape photography, some key advancements in the market have made it particularly convenient for those of us who like to shoot after dark, when the dynamic interplay of light and dark can greatly increase the impact of a photo. . The city's languid calm in the afternoon sun is very different from the buzz of life that emerges when the sun goes down, inspiring nightlife and bringing colorful characters and neon lights into our scenes.
Funny cars, motorcycles and other vehicles pop up on the streets after dark as people go out to enjoy the nightlife and leave their commuter cars at home.
Fujifilm Pursue your night photography with minimal sacrifice of image quality.
captures a scene of a man lounging on a bench in front of looming gothic urban structures, inviting the use of wider lenses, in this case the capable manual focus Rokinon 12mm f/2, This also requires a slightly higher ISO.
Fujifilm Their low price point, coupled with the often bundled kit lenses, make it easy to get started in photography, but their low-light performance has never been brilliant, and they lack a key feature for nightlife photography: in-body stabilization (IBIS).
IBIS The emergence of IBIS in compact, affordable mirrorless camera bodies like the Sony a6500 or a6600, many Fujifilm cameras, and many Micro Four Thirds options places this valuable technology squarely in the burgeoning field of street photography In the hands of photographers, the ability to shoot handheld at shutter speeds of 1/15th of a second or slower became invaluable for minimizing high ISO use (and reducing its inherent noise). This unlocks more capabilities for expressing movement in a scene while retaining a discreet, high-mobility camera setup.
Of course you can take a tripod out with you, the value of a really sturdy tripod in night photography cannot be understated, but if you're like me you want to be able to keep a low profile while still being mobile rather than exploring the city at night lugging a lot of gear through the backstreets. Keeping a low profile will prevent you from becoming a target for robbery and, perhaps most importantly, reduce camera awareness of those who may appear in the photo.
The value of the compact modern mirrorless camera for this type of photography extends beyond IBIS use as well. By abandoning the use of focus and electronic viewfinders , mirrorless cameras have made using manual focus lenses much easier by implementing focus assist tools such as focus peaking and digital magnification. This is accomplished by adjusting fast, old-fashioned glass or using one of the many native mount manual focus lens options that have come to the market with widely available mirrorless cameras, making them easy to use.
It is this new manual focus lens option brought to the market that brings another key reason why everyone is more accepting of handheld night photography. With all these new, affordable lens options, there are some affordable, super-fast options. There was a time when f1.2 was considered cutting edge fast, but a slew of f/0.95 lenses have hit the scene.Brands like Mitakon, Loawa, Voightlander, TTArtisans, and 7Artisans have all released relatively affordable f/0.95 manual focus lens options for countless APS=C cameras, and even a few full-frame options that were once ultra-affordable only through their sky-high price tags. Fast way to glass.
7 The Artisans 35mm f/0.95 is my go-to lens for street style portraits, such as those taken at a bar in downtown Salt Lake City.
These ultra-fast lenses, like the 7Artisans 35mm f/0.95 lens I attach to my IBIS-packed compact mirrorless, Fujifilm XS-10, allow you to shoot in the lowest light conditions while still keeping the ISO relatively low low level. Modern mirrorless cameras manage any noise very well, at least when compared to affordable DSLRs, which is a standard of comparison. This combination, along with the wider lens of the Rokinon 12mm f/2, made me say goodbye to tripods in the city forever.
Alternatively, these speeds can also be obtained by using a focal length reducer or "speed booster" to provide extra light resistance for fast old-fashioned glass. There are several brands that make them, and some even allow you to retain autofocus use, such as the Viltrox Autofocus Speedbooster and Adapter, which allows you to convert full-frame Canon EF glass to an APS-C lens while increasing its speed by one stop. It also offers the same field of view on adapted full-frame lenses as seen on its native full-frame camera. For example, mounting my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 produces an image that a non-enhanced 33mm f/1 lens would produce if it were a native Fuji X-mount lens. However, the autofocus aspect can fail, especially in low-light conditions, which leads me to prefer a manual focus ultra-fast lens with a native mount, especially since entry prices are so low right now. I purchased my 7Artisans 35mm f/0.95 for over $200, which is an amazing value compared to the investment it once was.
Even lenses that fall into the more traditional fast speed classes, like f/1.4 and f/1.8, will serve you well. I use my beloved Fuji XF 35mm f/1.4 and Rokinon 12mm to produce excellent results, although sometimes it requires me to push the ISO to higher levels, such as ISO 3200 or even 6400. Luckily my little Fujifilm camera still performs well at these noise levels, and modern noise reduction software like DXO PureRaw and Topaz Denoise AI can be a huge help when dipping your toe into high ISO waters.
This bouncer graciously allowed me to take a photo of him after breaking the ice and complimenting his dog. Fujifilm XH1, 35mm, f/1.4, 1/50 sec
Techniques and Workflow
Once you're equipped to shoot the streets at night, your next step is to get the most out of the equipment you'll be using. If you're gearing up in a similar way to me or my suggestions, you'll find that you may need to make some adjustments to your shooting workflow. The biggest is probably a matter of adapting to manual focus lens use, but thankfully modern manual focus aids like the aforementioned focus peaking and digital zoom make this a relatively simple process, and, I've found, much better than trying to do it in low light. It's easier to rely on autofocus. The process of manual focusing slows things down a bit, which I find is a boon to my goals of being consciously creative in my shots. When I compose and focus manually, I am more aware of my scene and the moment, leading me to really think about my composition, shooting time and settings.
The lights and colors of the city will add sparkle, the contrast of darkness and light in the shadows will add drama, and when you put them together with interesting thematic material, what you get out of the deal is excellent photos, sacrificial images Minimal mass and high urban mobility.
When photographing the city at night, thinking vertically can provide opportunities to capture symmetry and interesting lighting scenes, such as this balcony arrangement.
Fujifilm As long as your handle is steady, urban scenes will remain still even with shutter speeds as low as 1/5 second. For example, I might see an ambulance passing on a red-light trail while the surrounding city remains constant and sharp, with skyscrapers in the background and office lights flashing across the sky.
If you are the kind of person who intersperses nightlife shots with short breaks in one of the buzzing bars or clubs in the city at night, then you will be treated to very interesting and colorful themed material that your quick glass will Allowing you to capture it and achieve good results. Some of my favorite street portraits and people photography focus on the many watering holes that exist in the cities I visit. I find that people out enjoying the streets and bars at night are usually in a good mood and more willing to have their portraits taken, or just don't care as much about your candid photography.
You can also cover ground in the city more easily by keeping the setup compact, lightweight and mobile. While I often get around a city on foot, one of my ultimate secret weapons for maximizing the ground I can cover is my electric bike, the City Grounds Crew Dart 2.0 EBMX, which gets me in and out of situations quickly and combing through at record speeds city ββstreet. Additionally, public transportation options can provide interesting themed material of your own choice. If my bike or regular bus or subway options aren't available, I'll just park somewhere safe, walk until I can't walk anymore, and then Uber get back to my car. I urge you to cover as much ground as possible, as this will only increase the number of keepers you have each night. It's not uncommon for me to come home from a nighttime shooting session in the city, with a dozen or so photos that I'm proud of, thanks in part to the ground I covered, but otherwise Plus, there are plenty of fun photo opportunities to be found after dark.
When you're painting a city with your camera, an important tip to remember is to think vertically. If you only focus on street scenes, you may miss a lot of shots. Look up at the balconies, which may be occupied and illuminated, providing a scene where brightness pops up in the dark night sky, sometimes by people who, due to the verticality difference between you, always don't notice you and you camera. Instead, try to find a high vantage point and shoot down from the bright city streets and skylines. Typically, tall parking lots will have accessible roofs, as well as some skyscraper observatory levels, or even regular old tall hills. When you do have a vantage point, consider taking multiple photos to stitch together into a panoramic image.
By taking a high vantage point, you will be treated to the lights from the city below, becoming a dynamic feature of any skyline as night falls.
Fujifilm , can be very beneficial. I believe the better a photo is from the start, the more it will improve through polishing, so even though my setup allows me to take sharp photos with minimal noise levels, I still often process my most through Lightroom and the Topaz Denoise and Sharpening suite. Like photos, this gives your images a higher level of quality and creative intent.
Pubs and bars are great locations for photography, and this highly polished wooden bar provides warm reflections of the colored lights from the ceiling.
FujifilmI canβt think of a time when I shot at night and didnβt go home with some serious keepers, and if you take my advice into consideration and implement a similar workflow, you too can step up your street and urban game and make more Images with high impact levels.
