Night photography scares the soul out of many photographers. How do you even take photos when there’s no light? This is the question that they usually ask.

Well sure, there’s a shortage of light during the night but the artificial light sources that we have out there are plenty to take creative masterpieces.

When done properly nighttime pictures can come out much better than daytime photos. You just need to know how to make the most of what’s available. They also appear unique as not many people head outside when it is dark out there.

Night Photography Requirements

1. Lens for Night Photography

There are three aspects that you should consider when choosing the lens for night photography – focal length, aperture, and stabilization.

Choose your focal length based on what you want to photograph. For cityscape, landscapes, or the night sky, take a wide angle with you. For nighttime street photography, something between a wide to medium telephoto would do. For night portraits, take a telephoto lens.

No matter what lens you decide to take along, make sure that they have a wide aperture. While an aperture of f/1.8 or wider would be great, a minimum of f/2.8 is a must. Otherwise, you might really struggle taking photos in poorly lit conditions.

Lastly, having stabilization is a huge plus. A lens with stabilization will allow you to take steady shots handheld even at slow shutter speeds. It’s a must if you don’t plan on carrying a tripod along with you.

2. Camera for Night Photography

You don’t need a special type of camera to shoot at night. However, it’ll help you a lot if your camera has a manual mode. This lets you control the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO independently to allow maximum light to enter the camera.

It also helps if your camera has a good high ISO performance; just that the image must be usable even if you push the ISO to around 6,400 or 12,800. We’re not looking for a squeaky clean photo at those ISOs.

3. Tripod or a Gorillapod and Remote Shutter Release

A tripod or a gorillapod is a must if you want to take some long exposure shots or astrophotos. Otherwise, if your aim to walk around taking photos, it’s better to leave them at home.

If you plan on using the tripod then carry a remote shutter release with you as well. Using it will further help you to avoid any camera shake when pressing the shutter button. Don’t worry if you don’t have one. You can use a 2-second timer instead.

4. Other Accessories for Night Photography

Depending on how long you intend to stay out at night to take photos, there are some other things that you’d want to take with you.

• Spare battery, especially during winter, as batteries die faster in the cold
  
• A flashlight – a red one if you’re going out for astrophotography; they help retain your night vision
  
• Warm clothing, hot fluids to drink, and something to munch on

7 Night Photography Ideas

1. Shoot Night Portraits

While shooting night portraits sounds like a bad idea at first, you’ll know why we highly recommend you do it.

Look for artificial light sources like lamp posts, neon lights, windows of a well-lit restaurant, and so on, and place your subject close to them. Have their face turned towards the light and shoot with a wide aperture like f/2.8 or wider.

This will create an excellent tonal and color contrast with the darker surrounding and make your subject stand out better.

2. Shoot During a Rainy Night

Again, this might sound like a horrible idea at first but hear us out. The city with the wet roads, people with umbrellas, and the droplets on the window panes will open a whole new photographic opportunity for you. It’s like the rain adds a different mood to the image.

Moreover, try capturing the reflections of the traffic light on the wet road. The vibrance will surely please anyone.

3. Photograph Traffic for Light Trails

Nighttime gives you a perfect opportunity to photograph light trails. With people returning to their homes from work, and the low light environment, set your camera to shoot long exposures and capture mesmerizing light trails.

Set your camera on a tripod and with the camera pointed to the traffic shoot set the shutter speed to around 5-10 seconds and adjust the ISO and aperture accordingly. You can photograph beautiful light trails this way.

Be sure to go through the section on how to photograph light trails in our long exposure photography guide for complete details.

4. Night: Perfect Time for Photographing Bokeh Balls

Bokeh balls are the circular blurry shapes that are formed in the areas that are out of focus in an image. To introduce bokeh balls in your image, look for areas that have multiple light sources either in the foreground or the background.

Then, with the aperture wide open, around f/1.8 preferably, focus on the subject and adjust your shutter speed and ISO accordingly. This will result in a sharp image of the subject with soft bokeh balls in the foreground/background.

Besides looking aesthetically pleasing, the bokeh balls can add vibrance and depth to your images.

In case you have a portrait with bokeh balls in the background, but you want to add some bokeh balls in the foreground too, Colorcinch has a very simple way for you to do it.

Step 1: Upload your image to Colorcinch.

Step 2: Navigate to Overlays – Bokeh.

Step 3: From the variety of bokeh overlays, select the one that suits your image. You can make further adjustments to the bokeh balls by clicking on the Settings icon. Finally, use the Slider to adjust the intensity of the bokeh balls and click Apply.

Have a look at the following comparison to see how much of a difference adding bokeh makes to the image.

5. Photograph Local Monuments at Night

If you have a monument or some architecturally beautiful buildings in your neighborhood, you must visit them during the night. Besides being free from the bustling crowd, the light used to light them makes them appear quite different from the daytime.

The lighting can accentuate the textures, patterns, and any structures that might be present in the monument/building.

6. Photograph Skyline at Night

Skylines appear simply mesmerizing during nighttime. The lights on the buildings stand out beautifully against the dark horizon, begging to be photographed. While it’s quite easy to ignore the buildings during the day, the story is completely different at night time.

It’s a bonus if you can find a water body in the foreground to include the skyline’s reflection on it.

7. Night Time Street Photography

Look at the right place and you’ll find the street equally lively even during the nighttime. Street photos taken during the night are something you don’t come across often. This makes it a perfect opportunity for you to take unique shots.

A medium-range prime lens in the range of 24-35mm would be perfect to capture the nightlife that goes around the city. And don’t be afraid to use a high ISO if you need to freeze motion. After all, a noisy photo is still better than a blurry photo.

On second thought, if done creatively, even your blurry street photo can turn out to be very meaningful.

To Sum It Up

While the shortage of light can make night photography a challenging genre, the rewards are truly worth it. You get various opportunities to take and present photos that are truly unique and stand out from the crowd easily.

Taking good night photos requires that you have a good understanding of what your camera gear is capable of so that you can take their full advantage. But even if you are a beginner, night photography is still a good avenue to learn how your settings can affect your photos.

The post Your Ultimate Guide to Night Photography + 7 Night Photo Ideas appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

What Is Golden Hour?

Golden hour is the window of time right before sunset and after sunrise.

The golden hour in photography is also considered by many to be the magic hour. And if you’ve ever had an opportunity to witness one, you’d know the reason why.

When the sun is low, it’s the longer wavelengths of light (orange and red) that have the strongest presence. Anything that the light touches then appear to have a golden glow to them. This is what makes it desirable for the photographers to work during golden hour.

And don’t be fooled by the term “hour” as the golden hour doesn’t last precisely for an hour. Based on where you are and the weather conditions there, the time and duration will vary drastically.

However, as a general “rule” you can consider that the golden hour in your locality will occur an hour before sunset, and an hour after sunrise.

The Importance of Golden Hour in Photography

Golden hour in photography has its own special place. Photographers of any genre and any level of experience just love being outside and taking photos during golden hour.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

• As the sun is low during the golden hours, any shadows formed on the ground are thus long and won’t appear in the image
  
• The light during golden hour is highly diffused and thereby soft – perfect for any sort of photoshoot
  
• Thanks to the longer wavelengths, the light adds a golden glow to whatever it falls on; subjects thus have a happy and warm feeling to them

Top 5 Tips to Photograph During Golden Hour

The lighting during golden hour is probably the best light you can shoot in. And the best part is that it’s absolutely free. So, what are you waiting for? Head out and make the most out of it.

If you’re unsure about how to benefit your photography using golden hour, here are our top 5 tips to get you started:

1. Plan for Golden Hour

When planning for golden hour photography, the first thing you’d want to know is the time of its occurrence. While taking the local sunrise and sunset time as a reference is a good idea, there are other apps and online golden hour calculators that’ll help you do this more precisely.

Some popular tools include Goldenhour.One, Photopills, and Photo Ephemeris.

Once you know when the golden hour is happening, make sure that you reach there ahead of time. This way you will get ample time to scout the location and work out your composition beforehand.

Remember, you have a very narrow window of time to take photos in the golden hour. Also, the light changes very quickly when the sun is low. So, whether you’re shooting portraits or landscapes, be sure to work quickly.

2. Set Correct White Balance

When the camera is set to auto white balance (AWB), it’ll always adjust the white balance in a way that the white will appear white. But this is not something that we want during golden hour photography.

Since the light itself carries a rich yellowish tone, even white will appear golden during the magic hour. It is thus best that you either set your white balance manually or use the Shade or Cloudy white balance setting.

If you have a raw file, you can easily adjust the white balance using the White balance dropdown menu, or the Temperature and Tint sliders in software like Photoshop or Lightroom.

While jpeg files are not so flexible as far as white balance adjustment is concerned, you can still do it in Colorcinch or any other photo editing tool.

To adjust the white balance using Colorcinch, simply follow these steps:

Step 1: Upload the file to Colorcinch

Step 2: Navigate to Edit – Color

Step 3: Push the Temperature slider towards the right to give a warmer look to the image and press Apply

Here’s a before/after of an image after adjusting its white balance using Colorcinch:

5. Shoot Silhouettes During Golden Hour

The golden hour gives you a great opportunity to photograph silhouettes. By underexposing the foreground, you can accentuate the glow in the surroundings which makes the golden hour appear even more magical.

Moreover, if your position is just right, you can even capture the highlights on the edges of the subjects which creates a clean separation between the subject and the surroundings.

To Sum It Up

Golden hour in photography is indeed a golden opportunity for every one of us to create magical photos. And the great thing is that it comes around twice every day.

However, do keep in mind that depending on weather conditions, the magic of the golden light in those hours can vary. Nonetheless, if you’re looking to capture a beautiful soft contrast image in any genre, the golden hour will not fail you.

The post Top 5 Tips to Make the Most Out of Golden Hour in Photography appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

How cool would it be if you could turn your photos into a sketch, or even an oil painting!?

The great news is that you can do just that in a few simple clicks!

But, before take a look at these sketch Photoshop actions and amaze yourself.

In this quick tutorial, I’m going to showcase some of my favorite features and effects using Colorcinch to transform my photos into art. And when all is said and done, be sure to also check out the beautiful collection of sketch Photoshop actions for true inspiration.

Let’s get right to it!

How to Turn any Photo to Sketch

Step 1: Upload an Image

Click on Upload and select an image.

Step 2: Select an Effect

On the left-hand column, select Effects, followed by Sketcher.

After selecting Sketcher, you will see a whole range of different sketch-based designs to choose from. We offer both free effects, as well as many additional Plus Feature Effects, which are part of our Colorcinch Plus Subscription Plans. (This provides access to all of our premium features and effects!) 

However, for this example, I’ll be using one of our free sketch effects. Effect IC221.

And now for the magic!

All that you need to do is to click once on one of our sketch effects. Boom!

Easy enough, right!?

Now, while some effects might look great right away, I always like to make tiny adjustments to my effects.

In the next section, I will show you how to further customize your sketch effects.

Step 3: Customize your Sketch

Part 1: Using the Effect Slider

The first thing to do is to adjust the Effect slider.

By default, it will apply the effect at 100%. The further you move the slider to the left, the less intense the effect will be.

If you move the slider all of the way to the left, the effect will not be displayed at all.

Below you can see this effect applied at 100%.

Here’s what the effect would look like at 50%.

Now, this is all down to personal taste, so have fun with it and play around with the slider until you find the look that you’re after!

Part 2: Using Effect Settings

To customize the effect further, simply click on the Settings button.

Here we have 3 additional options: Detail, Color Range, and Hue.

• Detail: This slider essentially adds more texture/sharpness to the effect
• Color Range: If the chosen effect has color, you will be able to add additional saturation to the image by moving the slider to the right
• Hue: This will shift the color/tones within the image

In my example, I added 9 to Detail, 35 to Color Range, and 3 to Hue.

Seriously, how cool is that!?

Conclusion:

Whether you’re looking to create sketches out of your photos for Instagram, get them printed, or make an infographic, Colorcinch is a one-stop-shop for achieving your editing goals.

As you can see, with a simple click or two of a button, you can turn any photo to sketch, or an oil painting with ease. It doesn’t get easier than that!

With all of the different effects that we offer, you can easily lose a few hours trying them all out while turning your photos into art. (At least I did!)

I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and were able to turn some of your images into digital art.

So until the next tutorial, have fun with these effects and let your imagination run wild! Start editing.

The post Turn Any Photo to Sketch or Oil Painting appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.