Outdoors at night

By coincidence, in September the Guildford Photography Club held an evening of night photography in Guildford town centre. I used this event to take several photographs for this exercise, which I have supplemented with a few other recent photographs.

Floodlit buildings

I reached the floodlit buildings in Guildford long after twilight, and hence the photographs did not include the skyline.

Guildford Castle

Nikon 18-200mm at 18mm: Iso 3200 f7.1 for 1/5th second

I took a few photographs handheld using maximum Iso of 3200 before taking a further series at lower Iso using the tripod. After reviewing the photographs subsequently, I thought that this handheld photograph had better alignment of the tower than the equivalent tripod photographs. The problem was caused by a high cast iron fence with narrow gaps which made it difficult to check the camera viewfinder when on the tripod.

I was using the camera in manual mode, varying the aperture and shutter speed until the exposure seemed right.

Observation

The orange to yellow colour of the floodlights override the natural colour of the stone. I did not think that it was necessary to make any correction however, because the tower is this colour when seen at night by the naked eye. In effect, the orange has become the "natural" colour.

Through castle arch

Nikon 18-200mm at 18mm: Iso 3200 f7.1 for 1/5th second

The scene through the arch is lit by a street light rather than floodlights. The lighting however seems relatively similar in the small space of the street. Again, I took some photos handheld at Iso 3200 before lowering the Iso and using the tripod.

Observation

In this case, someone switched off the interior white light behind the doorway and left the building whilst I was setting up the tripod. Comparing the photos subsequently, the picture loses much of its vitality when that light is switched off. I therefore have chosen the high Iso photograph, even though there is significant noise if it is viewed at large size.

Guildford Guildhall under cover

Nikon 18-200mm at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 for 1.3 seconds (using tripod as a monopod)

The Guildhall is normally floodlit, but on this evening, it was covered with scaffolding for some maintenance work. I chose this viewpoint to include the shape of the platform jutting out around the clock and the bell tower which was illuminated internally.

Observations

I liked the way bright lights were illuminating the first floor verandah covered with scaffolding. The upright scaffolding polls are at an angle to the edge of the frame, but this diagonal view seems to work visually. The photograph was not improved by rotating the photograph to correct this. I also liked the small contrasts of the red lamp lights at the bottom below the verandah, and the lavender colour in the dome of the bell tower.

In addition to the Guildford photos, I have also included a couple of photographs of floodlit buildings and fireworks that I took whilst we were in Edinburgh in August, one at twilight and one in total darkness.

Edinburgh Castle with fireworks at twilight

Nikon 18-70mm at 48mm: Iso 250 f13 for 9 seconds

There was a roof garden on the building where we were staying from where there were views over Edinburgh, including Edinburgh Castle where the Tattoo was being performed. The castle walls were floodlit in various colours during the course of the performances of the tattoo, and at the end of each show there was a short burst of fireworks.

This was one of the photographs I took on my visit to the roof garden. I still had the camera set to aperture priority mode, but with the exposure compensation set to minus a half stop. I was trying various views and compositions, with the camera resting on a bean bag for stability, when the fireworks suddenly went off during a relatively long exposure. The frame cut off the highest part of the fireworks, but apart from that I was very fortunate to catch this.

Edinburgh Castle with fireworks in darkness

Nikon 18-70mm at 34mm: Iso 250 f6.3 for 1.6 seconds

This photograph was taken about an hour later presumably at the climax of the second show of the evening.

I had now set the camera exposure on to manual mode and had spent some time experimenting with different settings working off the light levels for the floodlit buildings.

The burst of fireworks erupted a second time, but in this case, my shutter speed was relatively short. I therefore took two photos in quick succession, the second one catching this view.

Learning from my experience earlier in the evening, I used a wider angle of view (34mm instead of 48mm) so that the fireworks stayed within the frame. I have subsequently cropped out the dark sides and bottom of the frame to leave the castle in blue light floating over the city.

Brightly lit store fronts

I found two shop windows that I felt were visually interesting.

White Objets D'Art

Nikon 18-200 mm at 200mm: Iso 100 f8 for 1/3rd second

The window display of this small shop seemed inviting because of the variety of forms, all in shades of white and silver. I chose a long focal length simply so that I could place my tripod on the safety of the pavement opposite, rather than in the road. Again, I was experimenting with using manual mode to set the camera's exposure level.

Observations

I also took photographs of the shopfront as whole, but the big difference in intensity of the light between the shop window and the exterior meant that the exterior was simply dark black.

Silver kitchenware

Nikon 18-200mm at 22mm: Iso 100 f10 for 1/2 second

I liked the autumnal theme of the decorations in this window and the darks and lights of the reflections in the shiny silver.

Observations

As above, I took several photographs of the shop front as a whole, but in this case, the contents of the window are too small to show up well. I therefore selected this close-up view.

Large interior

One of the city centre shopping centres closes at 6 pm and the other one does not permit photography. Instead, I photographed a view looking into a modern style Italian restaurant. The scene includes the activity of the restaurant, some customers and a waiter. This seems to have many of the characteristics of a shopping centre: there are numerous people, it is an interior that lit by a multiplicity of electric lights.

Modern style Italian restaurant

Nikon 18-200 mm at 24mm: Iso 100 f7.1 for 5 seconds

My viewpoint was a doorway with a clear view of the side of the restaurant away from the street and main doorway. I took a number of photographs using manual exposure settings. I included the upper story in the portrait shape frame, but in processing the photographs, I have cropped out the upper story as this was less visually interesting. In particular, no people were visible from my low viewpoint only the domed ceiling.

The instructions say not to use a tripod for this photograph, although the reason for this is not explained. If the reason is to encourage the use of hand-held camera using a high Iso, the first two photographs in this blog were both taken using this technique. The light level in the restaurant was probably a lot less than in a brightly lit shopping centre, and I needed to use a tripod for this particular scene.

Observations

The scene is attractive visually as the figures some of whom are blurred add vitality to the scene. Behind the figures, the interior is like a factory with racks of ham, shelves of wine and so on. There is a reflection of a mannequin from a shop opposite in front of the waiter. I feel that this is part of the scene which should be retained rather than cloned out, even though it partially obscures the waiter's body.

Overview of traffic

It took some time and thought to find somewhere with an elevated view of a busy road in this area. It was just a few days ago that I found a location with an overview of a bend in the A3 on the outskirts of Guildford.

A3 at night

Nikon 18-200mm at 44mm: Iso 125 f16 for 8 seconds (with tripod)

I set the camera onto manual exposure setting with fairly low Iso sensitivity and adjusted the aperture to obtain varying exposure times, ranging from as short as 1 second up to a maximum of 10 seconds. I also varied the framing and viewpoint aiming to show the curvature of the road and the traffic lights.

Observation

Whilst the photograph fulfils the requirements of the exercise, the scene lacks visual interest other than the receding lines into the distance. I feel it would have been better if there was someone waiting by their car at the side of the road or something similar to add some intrigue and mystery into the scene.

Conclusions

For me, a key element of this exercise was to gain experience and confidence in using manual exposure settings, and also in using my camera in the dark. Previously, I have done night photography rarely, maybe once a year. On these occasions, I recall a considerable degree of fumbling with the camera and tripod, and a lot of guesswork in managing the shutter speeds and exposure levels.