Choosing Night and Low Light

            One key difference between amateur and professional photographers is that the former usually put their cameras away when the light starts to go near the end of the day. But that is exactly the time some of the best travel pictures can be taken-- between dusk and night-time.

            Professionals learn to use fading light to great advantage, and just as importantly, to be where it can best be utilized. It's no use watching a great sunset without being able to shoot it! Organizational skills are very much part of a good travel photographer’s arsenal.

            In a big city for instance, a skyline with lit-up high rise buildings against a fading sky will produce good saleable pictures. Try a few frames with a Fluorescent Daylight Filter , which is magenta in colour. This adds a lot of purple to the deepening blue sky, and as the buildings are invariably lit with internal fluorescent lights, this filter will correct that as well. Take some shots without the filter as well, bracketing all the time, and shoot a variety of frames at intervals as the light behind fades into darkness. You'll find it's hard to fail!

Low Light

            Even in city streets at night you can carry on shooting if you have a few basic items, such as wide aperture lenses which are a must. I always carry a f2.8 28mm and use it a lot, because the zoom at f3.5 is not fast enough. Inside a dim church during the day, for instance, I will chance pictures at up to 1 second hand-held or leaning against a pillar, taking six or so frames, one of which will be sharp.

            Back on the streets, I also have a 50mm f1.4 for really low-light shooting, and with pushing 400 ISO film to 2000 ISO, I can be confident of getting good images under streetlights or even less. The colours may be technically "wrong," but I find a mixture of tungsten, sodium, fluorescent and a bit of daylight the most wonderful rich colouring for a picture. Try it, you might get a nice surprise!

Jeremy Hoare is a freelance travel photographer residing in London, England. Phone/Fax: +44 20 7722 2065. E-mail: jeremyhoare@hotmail.com. Web: www.travelwriters.com/jeremyhoare