Practice Night time photoshoot (Angles, Rule of thirds, Lighting)

Introduction

After researching Ian Aikens night time architect photography. I wanted to attempt these type of shots myself to connect with his work. This photoshoot was split into two halves. The first half was done without a tripod and the second part was done using a tripod. The reason for this is to show how big a difference there is when not using a tri-pod and in general great practice when using manual settings with the tripod. As you will be able to see further down the first few photographs are either a little blurry with the main focal point being out of focus and some just way too dark. After those photographs come the ones taken using the tripod. I will be concentrating on the use of angles and rule of thirds alongside using what natural light is available in combination with the lights outside the church.

Equipment


Camera: Canon 1000D

Lens: 18-55mm standard lens

Tripod


8Gb Memory card with spare 2Gb additional


Spare battery


Safety Considerations


With this photoshoot being taken at night there are a couple of safety considerations that are to take with interest. The obvious one is that it will be dark outside so I will need to be alert and be wary of my surroundings at all times. This will be taken highly into consideration as I will be on my own. One side of the church is near the river which will be ten times as dangerous at night as my vision will not be 100% so i will be taking extra care in that area.

Photoshoot

 

0"3, F-Stop 5.6, ISO 1600

As you can see this shot was taken without my tripod. It is pretty much impossible to get a photograph completely in focus using these settings without a tripod. What I was trying to concentrate on here was the rule of thirds to how Ian Aiken uses in his photographs. In a way it is pretty simple, get yourself in position and practice the shot with the right settings. Really, what I needed to do with this photograph was use a lower shutter speed because the top of the church is way too dark but without a tripod this was pretty much impossible. Although a little out of focus, a black background makes the church stand out a lot more alongside the light shining onto the church.

Add caption

Again, another photograph without using a tripod. This one isn't as bad as there is more light which shines onto the main subject in the photograph. Here what I have done is the same as Ian Aiken style of work with the use of light shining onto the church. As you can tell without using a tripod I was very limited to how exposed the camera was without it turning out blurry so parts of the church have turned out a little darker than normal. This is also a good thing as I have used as much light as I can which has created numerous colours and shades on the church and around the church.

1", F-Stop 7.1, ISO 1600

1"3, F-Stop 7.1, ISO 1600

These shots were taken using my tripod. As you can see there is a noticable difference in terms of sharpness, colour and lighting etc. For this I aimed to use the rule of thirds which worked quite well. I used as much natural light as possible but there was very little. It is easy to say that the light surrounding the church is dominant in this photograph creating different bright shades of yellow gradually going darker when moving up the church. With the background being completely dark it makes the main focal point (church) stand out alot more. A small use of shadows is used here aswell from the trees on the right of the photograph projecting a shadow onto the church. A very slow shutter speed is needed here otherwise the photographs would be way too dark so I feel the settings I used were perfect for the shot to get the right amount of colour and light into it.

3"2, F-Stop 5.0, ISO 1600



3"2, F-Stop 5.0, ISO 1600


These are my final two photographs I have chosen from the photoshoot and they are probably my best ones from the shoot. These were taken of the same church but at the front instead of the back. Here I have again used my tripod but I have slightly tilted it to an angle. This was purley for practice but the results were great. These photographs use a little more natural light alongside the light that was shining onto the church. This is great as it creates really warm smooth colours not only in the sky but on the church itself. I did this by taking these shots just before nightfall, this is the same kind of shot that Ian Aiken has attempted and has come up with the same kind of results.

Evaluation

Overall I feel that this photoshoot has been very succesful and has been a great learning curve for me. I have learned that to get much more better results when taking photographs at night use a tripod. I have also learned new skills when aiming for a specific theme when taking my photographs whilst trying to match another photographers style. If I was to attempt this photoshoot again which I most probably will I will be expermenting with different ISO's to see what different types of photograph can end up with. When I go out next time I will also be concentrating on a different type of style of photograph rather than the ones I have concentrated on this time. This will create different types of photograph and will be good practice.