Beginner Night shooting without tripod? Help and advice please?

Simonkadra

Simonkadra

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Simon
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Hello all,

I just bought my first DSLR camera yesterday (Nikon D3200).

I wanted some advice on shooting at night without a tripod. I am shooting in manual mode.

So far, I did some test shooting and got some okay results at ISO 800, shutter speed of 1/3s, and aperture at f9.

I was wondering if those with more experience can give me some valuable advice and tips on shooting at night without a tripod, and you can also give your experiences and the settings you use to achieve the best results possible without using a tripod.

Please bear in mind, my camera is pretty entry level, so advice accordingly.

Thanks in advance,

Simon.
 
You've missed one pretty key point and that is what are you trying to take a picture of?

Generally for night time stuff if you want to hand hold you need your largest aperture so smallest f/number and the the highest ISO your happy to use to get your shutter speed fast enough to be able to hand hold it, you may also need to make use of flash of its a moving subject that you wish to freeze in action depending on the shutter speed you are able to achieve

Alternatives are finding somewhere sturdy to rest you camera and setting a shutter delay to allow you to fire the camera without the associated vibrations
 
Accepted wisdom is the slowest handhold able speed is the reciprocal of the focal length. So on an 100mm lens you'll be wanting around 1/125 of a second.

Vibration reduction on the lens will give you another stop or so but the "crop factor" of aps-c (the sensor size on your camera) might be an issue, I've never worked out if it is or not.
 
Thanks, well I guess that varies, but mainly city shots, around water, bridges etc ... "city night life."

I guess I need to experiment. I already know that using the larger aperture you suggested will give less dept of field, and using a larger ISO can compromise the quality with grain or noise, which is undesirable. So I'm just trying to gauge the best balance for shooting at night without a tripod.


MWHCVT said:
You've missed one pretty key point and that is what are you trying to take a picture of?
Click to expand...
 
Simonkadra said:
Thanks, well I guess that varies, but mainly city shots, around water, bridges etc ... "city night life."

I guess I need to experiment. I already know that using the larger aperture you suggested will give less dept of field, and using a larger ISO can compromise the quality with grain or noise, which is undesirable. So I'm just trying to gauge the best balance for shooting at night without a tripod.
Click to expand...

With cityscapes and landscapes in general you don't really need to stop down to very small apertures for the DoF in most situation....

I'll be honest your going to be best of in most situations by having a tripod...can you find a way around it, a lot of the time yes but it will not always give you the best option for composition if your looking for somewhere to rest the camera
 
There's nearly always something around to use as a support for the camera - a park bench, a bus stop shelter, a wall, a bin, anything still and reasonably solid can be pressed into service! Handy to have a bean bag as well to allow a bit more flexibility. A tripod will usually be sturdier and more flexible but is something else to carry and not always welcomed by the Powers That Be.

If hand holding, I would go with Matt - open up as wide as possible to get as short an exposure time as possible. Try higher ISO values too and see how high you can go and get acceptable results - a noisy image is generally better than a blurry one.
 
Thanks all. I'll take on board everything mentioned. I have already ordered a mini flexible tripod, and I think the bean bag is also an excellent idea.
 
Simon, the smaller flexible tripods aren't much good for use with an SLR. Look at the GorillaPod SLR Zoom or better to get proper support. There's a thing called simply the pod that's a bean bag that screws into the tripod screw hole (and something similar that's like the stress balls that stay a bit moulded to whatever it's pressed against) which can be used as a stand alone support with short lenses.
 
Normally the only reasons I'll shoot without a tripod at night is if the scene is bright enough, iso 1600, 3200 or higher would be acceptable, and if I was using my 8mm fisheye lens. Additionally it would be if I didn't have my tripod with me or tripods weren't permitted. I took such a shot recently of the London Eye, am currently editing it. If I had set my tripod up in front of the Eye I would have been pounced on by security. I can hand hold the 8mm lens at very slow shutter speeds, my other lenses I can't. Another reason is to take noisy test shots, to view later and maybe go back with a tripod to shoot quality images.

I would seriously advise using a tripod. If not, the only option is to bump up the iso and use a larger aperture, or try to find something to support the camera on. Doing the latter you might not get the best composition. If using a support, use a cable release, you will have more control than using the self timer.
 
I don't like tripods, but I have a light monopod which can stay on the camera even slung on my shoulder (or I carry it around by the monopod "handle"). For many low light exposures this works very well; obviously not for HDR or focus stacking, or proper long exposure, but you can get quite a good result down to 1/4 a second or so, maybe more.
 
Simonkadra said:
I already know that using the larger aperture you suggested will give less dept of field, and using a larger ISO can compromise the quality with grain or noise, which is undesirable.
Click to expand...

Just to fill this out some more (you may already know this though)

I already know that using the larger aperture you suggested will give less depth of field - and the shutter speed will be faster in Av mode
using a larger ISO can compromise the quality with grain or noise - but most people won't notice/care ;)

For cityscapes, you'll likely want a tripod, but if you set the camera to manual, ISO to 800, open the aperture to as wide as it will go (probably f/3.5) and set the shutter speed to 1/60 - you may be surprised how much detail you can get whilst hand-holding. If you're in Av mode, your camera will likely over-expose the scene as it will be seeing a lot of dark colours which it will want to brighten to get what it thinks is a "correct" exposure - and in doing so set a long shutter speed which you can't keep sharp if hand-holding.

However for night shots, the dark parts of a scene can be very effective - by putting the camera in manual, you can ensure you don't get camera shake by setting the shutter speed fast enough (experiment how slow you can set it whilst hand-holding - it could be as low as 1/5 with good technique and a bit of IS\VR), and then adjust the exposure with the aperture or ISO.

Photographers are often wary of high-ISO noise, but ISO noise is always preferable to camera shake :)
 
Buying a tripod needn't break the bank

Redsnapper make excellent tripods at a great price, I have been using one for years now and it is still going strong.

I also believe they offer members a discoundt
 
Don't forget that when shooting a dark subject (i.e. night time) the camera's meter will tend to overexpose, which will lead to longer exposure times.

I always use at least -1stop of exposure compensation to avoid blown highlights on night scenes that contain any lighting, whether I'm using a tripod or hand held.

When in doubt - bracket the exposures.
 
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You could get an ARRI superclamp and Sirui tripod head for about £40.

Then use the street furniture.
 
If the issue with a tripod is cost, don't rule out local car boot sales and the like. I got a perfectly good tripod with two spirit levels, I forget the make now, nothing special but I'd heard of it, for a pound from my local sale. Just watch out - the vast majority that I see are quick-release tripods and don't have the part that screws onto the camera, which can be difficult to source separately. Mine had a captive screw, so a little longer to fix in place but nothing to lose. That's the tripod that stays in the boot 'just in case'.
 
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