If you love taking photos with your phone, you’ve probably noticed that the quality of the images tend to go down at night. Photography and light go hand in hand. Capturing a beautiful image is as much your photography skills as it is mastering the art of light. As daylight wanes, we often struggle to take good pictures with our phones. The iPhone 11 delivered a MAJOR update with camera, and with a few simple tricks, you’ll be able to take professional photos at night. 

Here are the 5 things you can start doing right away! 

 

Take Advantage Of Night Mode 

Alright, so the biggest update that Apple made was an intuitive night mode. Yes, night mode has been around for ages, but the iPhone 11 can detect if you’re in a dim environment or if it’s night time and automatically turns night mode on for you. How cool is that! Keep in mind though, night mode doesn’t work with the ultra-wide setting, but you can easily get around this by getting additional lenses if you need it. 

 

Play With The Exposure

While night mode does produce crisper images, you can enhance your phones by experimenting with the exposure time. Exposure time is displayed right there on the night mode icon. If you love those pictures of car lights streaking across the highway or the creative movement of light, you can increase the exposure time. This allows your camera to take in the details of the image over a short period of time and produce a seamless photo. Alternatively, if you’re taking a picture of a still subject, you might want to reduce the exposure so that the noise and graininess that comes with taking photos at night. 

 

Keep Your Phone Steady

Or get a gimbal. Either way, if you want good clean images at night, you’ll need to get to hold your phone as steady as possible. At night, the shutter speed on your phone slows down to be able to capture more of the image you’re taking. The only problem with that is, the slower your shutter speed the more movement can cause blurry pictures so getting a gimbal, tripod, or even steadying your phone on a solid surface will really help you get the quality you want when shooting in low light. 

 

Use The Light Sources Around You

In our food photography post, we’ve covered lighting and how important it is in getting good pictures. Lighting is just as important at night. Without good lighting, you’ll just end up with a black photo. Extra phones, street lamps, and neon signs can all be great sources of light but be sure to play around with the angles to see what works best with your subject. Also, try taking pictures during the golden hour. Photos of dusk give you the best of both worlds, and the softer sunlight is more forgiving and often gives a more ethereal feel to your photos.  

 

Edit Your Photos To Make Them Black And White 

Black and white photos are the most impactful when the contrast is high which is what makes it perfect for night shots. Use an app to edit your photos to give it that timeless effect. As a bonus, black and white photos can help the graininess in your photos look more deliberate and artistic. So if you find yourself looking for a quick way to elevate your night photography, just try making them black and white and be wowed by level of sophistication and air of mystery that it brings to your photos. 

 

There you have it, 5 things you can do right now to make your photos look so much better in low light. Try them out and us know what you think. Better yet, share your best photos with us here at HDPick and spread the love. Till next time!