London’s night time photography

 

London’s night time photography.

This is taken on the suspension pedestrian bridge from Waterloo station to the Embankment. With a high f-stop setting (f16) the exposure was slow.

London’s night-time photography is exciting and throws up all sorts of challenges.I’ve been exploring capturing these images in the winter nights. I was trying out my new Cannon Eos 5D and found the extra modes that it has, compared to a Nikon of similar grade, tricky to find in the dark. Also, I was even asked to stop taking pictures on the South Bank by security!

A tripod is essential as exposures are long and so camera shake needs to be avoided. I find a mobile tripod, i.e. a light and compact one, essential such as the Gitzo http://www.gitzo.co.uk, tripod. I took the camera in a rucksack so that it wasn’t obvious I was a photographer with expensive equipment on me when I was travelling.

 

 

 

London Bridge, St Pauls and The City

To get the light streams from vehicles, use the bulb setting. When you press the shutter release button the shutter opens and stays open until you release it.  For the river shots, I composed my picture and waited for a boat to pass before taking the picture. An exposure of around 6 seconds was about right. If the shutter is left open too long then unrealistic colours are apparent. I thought the colours and exposure in this shot(without a boat) represented the scene accurately.

 

The London Eye

This was taken with a small aperture set and a long exposure but not the bulb setting, as I didn’t want the terrific blue glow of the pods to be blurred. A second London landmark always adds to an image. The prolonged aperture has brought the redness in the sky.

 

Funfair on South Bank

Same settings as above. The figures in the foreground are silhouettes as there was little other light available and I was not going to use flash photography this night. Due to the limits of light, portraits are an even bigger challenge.

 

For regular information on all kinds of photography, please see my web site news page. I provide tuition as well as advice.

 

 

 

 

 

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