Photo shoot at night

[tartanndt]

Needing advice on a shoot I'm doing next week, one of my models that I work with on a regular basis has asked for some night time shots standing in a busy street. What is the best settings that I should be using to get sharp clear images? I'll try and get her under a street lamp and may use a side flash if needed was also thinking of using a few large torches to shine on her. I have absolutely no experience in night photography so very keen to do this. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Mikey

 

[PaulJC]

My first thought, a long exposure with light trails and collect ambient light and then with fill flash to light and freeze the model, might try this myself...

 

[Mahoneyd187]

A tripod...a long shutter speed...rear sync flash...and corrective gels for any flash you use to get a handle on the white balance if you're mixing with street lamps.

 

[mrwebb]

Correcting flash to street lamp temperature can be a nightmare, as the temperature radically changes as the bulb ages (I recall they used to go a pinky red in the past as they got to the end of their life). Make sure you've got a few varying strength gels so you can experiment and get it right. If you're shooting on a street near shop fronts you will have the fun of 2700k fluo light poisoning your shots as well.

Don't let any of that put you off though, you can start to train yourself to see various colour temperatures and will be able to get a pretty good eye for it over time. You're probably looking at 1/2s or longer exposures so a decent tripod will be in order, preferably with a cable release. Try to flag your flash so that it only hits the model, letting the background be lit by the ambient light.

Above all, experiment and have fun. Rules are made to be broken.