Shoot Amazing Photos at Night Without Flash or Special Gear (VIDEO)

Outdoor scenes that appear boring during the day are often transformed into a sparkling tableau after dark, full of interesting lights, colors, and reflections. Unfortunately, some photographers avoid this great opportunity because of a mistaken notion that complex skills and special gear are required.

As you’ll see in this quick tutorial from Finnish photographer Peter Forsgard, nothing could be further from the truth. He provides seven simple tips and tricks for making amazing images at night. No matter where you live, you’ll be able to capture eye-popping nighttime photos by following his advice.

Forsgard’s first tip, to always bring a tripod, may seem obvious. But many photographers ignore this advice because they think today’s cameras, with high ISO capabilities and advanced image stabilization, means they can shoot handheld. Forsgard points out the fallacy of this thinking if you want to achieve optitum results.

When it comes to shooting techniques, Forsgard is a big proponent of exposure bracketing—especially with nighttime scenes that typically involve a wide range of tones and multiple light sources of varying brightness and color temperature. And his approach to bracketing is very simple to emulate.

His other tips are just as easy to accomplish, and they include the importance of experimenting with different shutter speeds, using the lowest possible ISO setting, and stopping down your lens to create eye-catching light stars from pointed light sources.

Forsgard also explains the advantages of setting white balance manually, and he demonstrates how to do this properly depending upon the specific scene you are shooting.

You can find more helpful tips on Forsgard’s YouTube channel and in another recent tutorial we posted, with five great ideas for shooting epic winter macro photographs.

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