Nighttime Photography Tips without Tripods

one more that i will throw in for good measure... trash cans, lamp posts, etc. made for great natural tripods...
using the self-timer on your camera makes for a hands-free operation.
 
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Craig,

Nice article, very well written!

One thing I have done is follow the advice of Joe McNally when it comes to the camera grip... especially when shooting at night or in low light situations!

Here are a few links incase you haven't seen 'da grip' before.

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2008/03/10/da-grip/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsx3-FWfwk

Also, fwiw, if you haven't seen a copy of Joe's book 'When it clicks', stop by the local book mega-mart, find a comfy chair and flip through it. Once you've had a few 'ahh ha!' moments...fork over the cash and take it home with you. You'll find yourself coming back to it time and time again! (the things ppl do with small flashes amazes me!)
 
Neat article, Craig! BTW, Craig also wrote a review of the Wave restaurant for my website this month including all the photos (like that's a surprise!).

I ditto Tim's addition to find structures to use if available. You didn't mention holding your breath when pressing the shutter. While I don't take a deep breath, I do stop breathing when I press the shutter and get as relaxed as I can. I highly recommend getting some sort of image stablizing technology. They are not that expansive these days and are now found in kit lenses.
 
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"Scottwdw" said:
I highly recommend getting some sort of image stablizing technology. They are not that expansive these days and are now found in kit lenses.
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Or for some of us who use the 'other' brands of cameras besides the two Superpowers...image stabilization works with ALL lenses! ;)

On that point, btw - I found it quite useful having IS for walkaround photos and some indoor handheld stuff in low light that I couldn't have pulled off without it - I was able to handhold shutters down to 1/2 second and get nice clean results. And being able to get IS with the Minolta 50mm F1.7 helped a great deal for those nighttime handhelds in extremely low light.

Nice article, Craig. Good tips, and Tim's addendum too. I use the leaning technique alot when I don't have my tripod along.
 
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It's all about the ledges, man. All my Epcot nighttime shots are taken from the wonderful stone ledges surrounding France, England and Italy. Why ? Because I'm always way too lazy to pack a tripod.

A friend of mine didn't want to pack a tripod because he had too much stuff to haul with the kid's stroller ... so he went a step further - he actually build a bridge type brace that fit ON the stroller, and had a screw mount system for holding a quick release. It was ingenious, and perfect for taking nighttime pics of every "street level" event at the parks.
 
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"jcvalenti" said:
It's all about the ledges, man. All my Epcot nighttime shots are taken from the wonderful stone ledges surrounding France, England and Italy. Why ? Because I'm always way too lazy to pack a tripod.

A friend of mine didn't want to pack a tripod because he had too much stuff to haul with the kid's stroller ... so he went a step further - he actually build a bridge type brace that fit ON the stroller, and had a screw mount system for holding a quick release. It was ingenious, and perfect for taking nighttime pics of every "street level" event at the parks.
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That is a rig you need to post a picture of if you can get it :)
 
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I was actually thinking about this subject today, not so much because I was doing night photography but because I was really pushing the limits of hand holding ability, seeing how low I could go without any of them new fangled stabilized cameras.

I keep thinking back to a scene from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I'm serious. I don't even remember the characters' names, but Sean Connery is on the conning tower of the Nautilus (or maybe he was on the surface of it, I don't remember) when it's on the surface, talking to the American pistol guy, trying to teach him to shoot a rifle. His advice is to take his time, to recognize when the moment is right to shoot. He said "you have all the time in the world".

That keeps coming back to me when I'm trying to push the limits of stability. It's not about forcing my hands and arms to steady, it's about settling down and feeling when the moment is right. A very zen sort of thing, you don't make it happen, you just recognize it when it does.

Obviously this won't work on a dynamic subject.

I still have to see how well I did today. I'm hoping that I did maybe one in four when at 1/300th or slower, when using my 400mm. I should have managed at least one 1/200th, perhaps several total. I'm talking with no bracing whatsoever. With bracing.. well I have to see how well I did there too.
Okay, I found one, 1/125 at 400mm. I'm happy. Hand held, probably no bracing, roughly one in seven good to bad ratio. And actually it was a dynamic, moving target (a wolf at the zoo, finally they're within my lens reach, they're MINE! all MINE!), although it had probably stopped moving at the moment I took the shot.

Also I think I tend to breathe out when taking a shot. Not hard, I think I just breathe out slowly. I say I think I do because I'm not really sure exactly what I do when I'm in the moment.
 
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"harra" said:
That is a rig you need to post a picture of if you can get it :)
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I asked him to send me a shot ... haven't heard back. If / when I get it, I'll post it. It seemed pretty decent, though I'm not sure I'd trust my 5D and 24-105 on the back of a stroller with some spastic kid popping in and out.
 
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wow... never thought of that. wonder how well it really works. probably not too bad for shutters faster than 1".
 
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Looks interesting. I agree with Tim that a shutter speed of 1sec, depending on what lens you're using is probably the limit for it. Since its a bipod it would prevent the upward movement of the camera and movement in the left and right directions. But, it would still allow the camera to twist perpendicular to the plane of the string, allowing the lens to move up and down.
 
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Still though it would be interesting to make and test. Hmmmm. . . Can someone say road trip? ;)
 
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When I want night photography without carrying a tripod with me... I carry a tripod with me. A tiny one that fits on my belt:
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I've had this one for years. It's barely able to hold the weight of my camera, and needs to be set on a trash can or rail for height, but it gets the job done.

Another technique I use is just the opposite of Craig's - I put the camer in TV (Shutter speed priority) mode, at the slowest speed I can possibly shoot handheld, and go from there. I use this technique for dark rides and fireworks, and I get about a 30% success rate.
 
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