Night portrait
photography tips
✦Bring a tripod. A tripod helps
keep the camera steady for the
long exposures.
✦Use a higher ISO. A high ISO
helps keeps the shutter speed a lit-
tle faster so your subject won’t be
blurry.
✦Find an interesting background.
Look for background with some
brightly colored lights to add to the
ambience of the image.
148 Part II ✦Creating Great Photos with the Creative Lighting System

Table 6.9

Taking Night Portraits

Setup Practice Picture: For figure 6.28, I wanted create a vivid and
colorful background to accent the model’s interesting makeup. I
used an extra long shutter speed to ensure that the ambient light
would show through enveloping her in a warm glow.
On Your Own: Decide how you want the image to look before
shooting and be sure to set your camera to adequately capture
the image.
Lighting Practice Picture: SB-600 mounted in the camera hot shoe.
Speedlight set to TTL BL.
On Your Own:For taking portraits at night, the Speedlight can
be mounted on the camera or used off camera. When using a
long shutter speed, the ambient light can soften the light from
the flash allowing it to look less like a direct flash.
Lens Practice Picture: Tokina 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5, 35mm setting
On Your Own:When doing portraits you usually don’t want to
use a wide-angle lens due to the facial distortion it can cause.
With the 1.5 crop factor of the D70, the 35mm setting is closer to
that of a normal lens on a film camera, it works out to a 52mm
lens.
Camera Settings Practice Picture: Shutter Priority mode
On Your Own:Use the Shutter priority mode in order to set the
shutter speed slow enough to capture the ambient light.
Exposure Practice Picture: 2 sec. at f/7.1, ISO 200
On Your Own: Use a long enough shutter speed for the amount
of light you want to let in. In this example the shutter speed was
extra long, but for a more traditional look the shutter can be set a
little faster— .5 sec. will do.
Accessories When using long shutter speeds a tripod will help your subject
stay in focus.
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