New Orleans Night Photography-Tips and Tricks

New Orleans at night [ like most cities] is beautiful, and there is a special magic about capturing this great city at night.  Night and low light photography is a difficult feat. Thus, it takes much practice and patients.

I see many tourist come through New Orleans with there expensive DSLR cameras, and they always want to shoot at night the many beautiful locations that New Orleans has to offer. However, many people always come up short because they use either a fast Film Speed and/or flash. The secret as most of you may know is first a Trp-Pod, Slow film speed (ISO 100 or lower) and a long exposure. This is just one technique.Having fast glass (F/2.8 or lower) is the other and the best way to go.

Here is a check list that you should have to accomplish clear, crisp and properly exposed night and low light frames. 1)A sturdy Tri-Pod or monopod 2) F/16 for DOF [wide apertures are a mistake as they can increase your chance of flare] 3)A clean lens free of dust (Most important) 4)Long exposure as I used 30 seconds (You want to bath you film or CCD in as much light stopping down on you aperture as much as possible, or a Fast lens and a High ISO (Note: I would only do this with full frame digital cameras, like the Nikon D700 and D3 5)Always Keep your EV value at 0 6) Manual Focus- Spend about five minutes looking at your seen or subject through your lens, allow time for you eyes to adjust. Then get the sharpest focus you can produce manually. 7_Manual Exposure- Dont depend on Aperture or shutter priorities, true pros shot with manual exposure. Also Use your spot meter feature when shooting night. Photography The recipe above should produce the results that I have achieved above everytime. A good book to read on Night Photography: "The Complete Guide to Night and Low Light Photography" by Lee Frost ISBN 0-8174-5041-6 Pick it up at any borders or Barnes & Noble Happy Shooting Jamil-Kareem