A ROOM WITH A VIEW - HOW TO GET A GREAT NIGHT SHOT FROM YOUR HOTEL ROOM
I’m not much of a city girl (I’ve said it before) but I do love the way a city looks at night. When I travel to a city I do my best to try and get at least one night time image that captures it’s sparkling features. Sometimes (often) it is from the hotel room window. I’ve not always been successful but I have learned a few techniques that have helped me improve my hit rate. Here are few tips you might find helpful when making your own sparkling city images.
PICK A ROOM WITH A VIEW
You can use google maps to locate a hotel that might have a good view. Perhaps one that overlooks the skyline or a well lit landmark of interest. Once you have chosen your hotel you can check trip advisor to get suggestions from previous guests as to what rooms have good views. To narrow down your choice further, try www.room77.com to actually see and compare one room’s view to another.
GET A CRISP SHOT
Shooting through glass at night can present some difficulties. Here are a few things you can do to ensure you get the best shot possible;
Turn off all of the lights in the room and try closing the curtains behind you to block out the light and get rid of your reflection in the glass. Take a few shots and look at them closely before proceeding to see if you have any unwanted reflections.
Stabilize your camera. Either bring a tripod or be sure to place your camera on something stable - sometimes the window ledge is deep enough other times you may need to get creative with furniture or use your luggage to prop the camera up on. Be careful. Damage is not the goal.
Get as close to the glass as you can with the end of the lens. (But please don’t lean against it - I’ve heard terrible tales of glass breaking). If you are using auto focus, mind that the focus is on the city and not on the glass - you may have to flip it to manual focus to stop the camera from “hunting" for focus. Once you get the focus right, if you haven’t already, lock it in by carefully (without bumping the focus ring) switching the camera to manual focus so that it doesn’t shift back when you depress the shutter button.
No flash please. You may need to open up the aperture (low f-stop number) and or increase the ISO to get the exposure right. To start, I place the camera in manual mode, with my aperture at f9, ISO at 100 and shutter speed in bulb mode. I then press and hold the shutter button and start counting. At 8 seconds I let it go and check the shot to see if I am getting what I want. I adjust the length of time I hold the shutter open either up or down to get the right exposure.
HAVE FUN
It’s actually not that hard to get some interesting shots… and you have the added benefit of being warm and dry so take your time and experiment. For example:
try zooming the lens out on a long exposure shot for an interesting effect
try long exposures to get light trails on a busy street (as I did in the image at top)
take some at sunset and catch the reflections off the buildings
try creating some abstract images by zooming in on a building with interesting patterns
busy intersection below you? take a few images and process them using a tilt shift filter (or do it in camera if you have one of those lenses)
try bracketing - take multiple shots at different exposures and then blend these later using photo editing software
TRY TAKING A DOUBLE EXPOSURE
Some cameras will let you do this in camera. If not take two photos - the first in focus and and the second one purposely out of focus then combine them in post processing.
(click the image above for my post on creating this NYC image)
So the next time you find yourself in a city don’t forget to have a look out the hotel window and consider trying to make a few sparkling city night shots. Have fun my friends.