SP Photography Blog

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Most of the images taken in Venice at night were shot at ISO 800-3200, handheld, at wide open apertures. It just goes to show that with the right technique and proper exposure you can get good quality and very usable images. Even though I had a tripod with me, it wasnt practical to stop and setup shots because the streets were so narrow and there were constantly people walking by. That’s one of the things with photography; you snooze you lose. Sometimes its all about getting the shot there and then. Of course thats not to say that you should rush your shots, its just that some situations call for certain methods of working.

When shooting at night with slow shutter speeds, stability makes all the difference. For some of my shots I was shooting down to 1/2 sec handheld on a 85mm prime lens. I was using lamposts, walls, tables, and anything else solid that I could find to lean/rest against for stability. Keeping the camera close to your body and lowering your center of gravity makes all the difference in the world. Also you should try to use the 2-second timer function on your camera when taking the shot because the act of pushing the shutter button can actually cause more blur from your hand shaking. Instead, set the timer, depress the shutter, and hold very still until the shot is taken! The slight softness in some of the images isn’t a product of motion blur so much as it is an artifact from imperfect focus due to the shallow depth of field at wide open apertures.

Natural light night shots is where a 35mm full frame sensor really shines!

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