From the countless stars, meteors, distant planets, to the light of the moon, the night sky offers a pretty spectacular light show! And although the light may be dim, it’s definitely still possible to capture some of it.
I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with night photography, but below is a list of 11 great resources I found this week. I’m looking forward to trying them out soon 🙂
1. Shooting by moonlight by Ben Long
2. How to photograph meteor showers by Space.com
3. How to photograph the moon by J. Andrzej Wrotniak
4. How to photograph star trails by Harald Edens
5. How to photograph star trails (another great guide) by Kasi Metcalfe
6. How to build a star tracker for under $20 by Jason Anderson, CanonBlogger
7. How to photograph the northern lights by Patrick J. Endres
8. Tons of info on astrophotography techniques by Jerry Lodriguss
9. Flickr group that determines what part of the sky your photo was taken in
10. Free helpful software for night photography (stellarium)
11. Moon phase calculator by StarDate
Where to shoot night photos
One thing I’ve learned about night photography is that location is essential. You need to get very far away from the city’s light polluted sky, otherwise you’ll end up with an orange sky in your photo or if you’re photographing stars, you won’t see very many.
Deserts are great for stargazing because not only are they usually far away from cities, they also have clear skies on most nights. But, if you can’t get to a desert, any remote location will do 🙂
What did I miss?
If you’ve ever tried taking photos at night, we’d love to hear about your experience, so please leave a comment below! Have you found any other helpful websites or books? Did I miss an area of night time photography?
P.S. The annual Perseids meteor shower should be visible for another week or so…
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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains or the Mojave Desert, both located in the beautiful state of California.
Very nice post. I’ll be sure to pass this link on to all of my students. I’m sure they will benefit from it. Thanks again, Terry Day
I love photographing at night. If you’re interested in night photography, check out this blog & podcast. http://blog.thenightwriterz.com
@Michael – thanks for suggesting that site, it looks great. Just subscribed to the podcast 🙂
Steve:
Great blog! I’m a bit of a hack, but learning bit by bit. I’m really happy to have found this.
All the best, Mike Barlow
A couple more resources:
The Nocturnes – San Francisco Bay Area night photography group and web site: http://www.thenocturnes.com/
Hints for Night Photography: http://www.gdanmitchell.com/2009/02/11/hints-for-night-photography
“What did I miss?”
The main to things I photograph at night are: 1.lightning, and 2. the International Space Station / Space Shuttle.
Lots of resources on the web for shooting lightning, but for info on when the ISS / Space Shuttle might be whizzing by over your area, check out NASA’s sightings page:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html
And, here’s a couple of my shots of the Shuttle/ISS:
http://www.twilightscape.com/photo19.htm
Qube.
You missed Painting with light. But those are some great links.
Here’s another one –
http://futurephoto.weebly.com/