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My Go-to Gear for landscape photography at night


Shooting landscapes at night often requires equipment that is not strictly necessary for daytime shooting. Here are some suggestions for taking single shots, as well as star trails and time-lapse photography.

Photographing landscapes and nature at night offers an almost completely different world from what we see during the day. We deal with different weather conditions and we face different challenges when it comes to lighting. Shooting during the day often means dealing with an imbalance in brightness and being able to use exposure effects despite the excess of light. Shooting at night means capturing clear and colorful images despite the scarcity of light and overcoming limitations caused by motion, weather and artificial light.

While landscape photography at night requires a different process, astrophotography is a more specialized and meticulous one. This article talks about how to photograph landscapes with the night sky with a single exposure or composite shot.

Gear Camera

Of course, almost any camera these days, even smartphone cameras, can be used to capture the night sky. However, there will always be cameras that have the edge over others in terms of resolution and low-light performance. More than that, a good and reliable lens can be more important if you want to capture the night sky with considerable brightness and produce the clearest possible images.

Now I mainly use Sony a7IV and Sony a7R mark III for my landscape photography, that’s why the lenses I will mention are those intended for said camera bodies. However, the more important factors in these lenses are the focal length, aperture, and overall image quality they produce.

When it comes to overall landscape photography, the most common super wide-angle lens would have to be the 16-35mm. An aperture variant of f/4 will be more likely for landscape photography most of the time except for shooting at night. Having an open aperture of f/4 will mean having to use a significantly higher ISO, resulting in more noise even with a camera with a remarkably constant ISO. One 16-35mm f/2.8 will obviously do better by this logic and will therefore be one of the first zoom lenses to consider.

A wide-angle prime lens, on the other hand, will offer a bit more in terms of low-light performance. Popular options for Sony users would be 24mm f/1.4 G Masterthe 14mm f/1.8 G Masterand 20mm f/1.8 WOOD. As for full frame cameras from other brands, most have similar focal length and aperture combo options. My personal choice is the 20mm f/1.8 G for a number of reasons. First, I particularly like the angle of view of the 20mm lens not only for landscape and night sky photography, but also for outdoor videos and street photography. When shooting the night sky from a completely unobstructed position, it still offers a remarkably wide angle of view while being able to avoid obstacles in the foreground. While the 24mm f/1.4 is also a great choice because of its wider aperture and relatively similar angle of view, and the 14mm f/1.8 is a great choice for super wide-angle photography, the 20mm f/1.8 G offers ground-average for both lenses and is significantly more affordable than the other two.

Filter

The fact is that good quality filters for landscape photography should only do one thing and limit the light, filters are not usually used when taking pictures at night. However, there are two exceptions to this rule. An alternative use of the soft-edged GND filter is to use it with the shadows facing downwards when shooting a relatively brighter foreground. This can be done to reduce a bright cityscape with the intention of creating a brighter sky. This effect can be beneficial when there are visible elements in the sky such as fast-moving clouds, or even when the stars or moon are visible despite light pollution. shining.

The second filter is the light pollution filter. This special filter removes light pollution to some extent and allows for more clarity and brilliance in the night sky. This also gives a better chance of color from other stars and galaxies as the effects of artificial light are removed. I especially use H&Y Starkeeper Anti-Pollution Night Filter However, for general purposes, there are also specific astrophotography-specific multi-band filters with specific objectives.

Tripod

The requirements for a tripod are similar to daylight landscape photography. For relatively light mirrorless camera setups shooting in fairly mild environments, a travel tripod should suffice. However, when shooting from an elevated position, a location with high winds, or shooting with a tripod submerged in water, a heavier tripod will be a better choice. When shooting a single exposure to capture the night sky, the tripod’s resistance to wind or water currents will be important in avoiding motion blur. This becomes even more important as star trails or the passage of time as an accident can ruin an entire night’s worth of shooting.

Simple time lapse accessory

Shooting meticulously executed and long time-lapse videos requires a lot of skill and work so that doing it together with shooting stills and doing multiple compositions in one shot can be challenging. so it’s too much. However, since I am particularly focused on the latter, these two accessories make it possible for me to shoot time-lapse and star trail movies in a near-automatic manner.

The MIOPS Flex camera trigger is a rangefinder on steroids. It connects to the camera as a PC remote, can then control your shutter and can also manage files. It has functions ranging from a simple long exposure bulb mode, burst shooting, a light sensor to capture lightning, as well as a sound sensor for special effects. In terms of landscape and time-lapse shooting, however, this camera trigger can automatically assemble your time-lapse clips using the app and store them on its own micro-SD card. It can also do the same process for HDR-like exposures and process them instantly.

Finally, if your camera allows USB-C charging, having a portable power bank can save you from having to worry about running out of battery in the middle of the night while shooting time-lapse movies. In the video I show a sizable 26,800 mAh power bank, which is great for camping as there is the option to use a 100 watt AC outlet for portable electronics. However, when using it purely to shorten the time, a smaller and more portable 10,000 to 20,000 mAh power bank is more than enough for a night.

Landscape and night sky photography shows the world in a much more peaceful and majestic way. The day’s abundance of light often hides the wonders of the universe from our view and can overcome challenges in conditions of scarcity of ambient light providing for some rewarding landscape images. best.





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