The document provides tips for taking night portraits including using a tripod, night portrait mode, high ISO settings, flash techniques, ambient lighting, blurred backgrounds, keeping still or moving during long exposures, playing with color and creating unique bokeh effects. Night portraits work best with some ambient light and these techniques can help capture dramatic, unusual photos at night.

1. Photojojo’s Ultimate Guide to Taking Portraits
at Night
Nights on the Riviera…
Costume balls in Cancun…
Dancing until dawn in the glittering palaces of
Monaco…
Life at Photojojo is one mad whirl of unbridled
hedonism.
What? It totally is. Mad, we tell you. Whirly.
Okay, fine, we didn’t really think you’d buy
that. But if we did lead lives like that, you better believe we’d have some great photos to
show for it.
If there’s one thing we know, it’s how to take an awesome portrait at night. Use a tripod,
moderate your flash… oh heck, just keep reading. Everything you need to know is in
here.
Photojojo’s Guide to Night Portraits
p.s. We had a great turnout for the Macro-zoom-ography Contest! The winners are: subbyguy,mazzer, and Jana.
Thanks to everyone who entered- you made it really hard to choose!
p.p.s. Want to take some spooky ghost pictures this Halloween? Try capturing the mystery of entopic phenomena!
Photo credit: sgoralnick.
WHY’S IT COOL?
Being able to take a great portrait at night will get you invited to all the best parties.
Once you learn how to take dramatic, unusual, fun pictures after the sun sets,
everybody will want you hanging around to document their events. Seriously. Just you
wait and see.
NIGHT-PORTRAIT MODE
Most cameras have a “night portrait” setting that
combines a flash with a long exposure. The flash
freezes the person being photographed, and the
long exposure fills in the background.

2. Night portrait mode is the best place to start experimenting.
Usually the flash fires first, but some cameras have the option for rear-sync flash as well
(firing the flash at the end of the exposure). Play around and see what you like best.
HIGH ISO
High ISO settings (400, 800, 1600) allow you to
use shorter exposure times in lower light
conditions. If you have a high enough ISO, you can
use ambient light instead of a flash.
For film users, this means using 800 or 1600 speed
film instead of your usual 100 or 200. For digital
users, it means adjusting your camera to use a
higher ISO setting (the numbers correspond to film
ISO numbers).
The problem with high ISOs is “noise”: speckly or grainy-looking photos, especially
noticeable in areas of smooth color. Sometimes graininess looks great, sometimes it
looks awful- it depends on the mood and style of the photo.
You can test your camera’s performance at high ISO settings
by taking the same picture at each different ISO number and
comparing the results. Then decide what level of graininess is
acceptable, and at what point you go ahead and use flash.
USING THE FLASH
Flash is great when it’s used right. The key is not to overdo it
and wash the person out.
If your camera has a built-in flash, dial the intensity down 1 or
2 stops. If you can’t change the intensity, cover it with a translucent piece of paper (wax
paper or gum wrappers work well) or use a flash diffuser.
If you have a separate flash unit, point it skywards and use a bounce card to cast a more
flattering light on your subject.
LIGHTING
“Night” portraits are actually more effective when
there is some ambient light. Shoot just after
sunset, or use the glow from streetlights and neon
to cast some light on your subject.

3. Ambient light is much more effective than flash alone, and if you have enough of it, you
can forgo the flash altogether.
BACKGROUND
Use a wide aperture (4.5 or lower) to blur the area behind your
subject. Soft, indistinct colored lights make for great
backgrounds. Make sure they’re blurry enough that they don’t
draw attention away from the person.
And hey, don’t forget composition! Just because it’s dark out
doesn’t mean you have to revert to the standard head-on
portrait pose. Use the background, change your angle, move
around until you see something really great.
HOLD STILL
Keeping the camera steady is a big part of night photography.
Use a tripod or rest the camera on a stable object,
like a table. Even bracing yourself against a wall
while hand-holding the camera makes a difference.
Have your subject hold still too. You’ll find that
people tend to relax or move after the flash fires.
But if you’re in night portrait mode, the exposure
may still be going. Ask the person to freeze until
the shutter clicks closed.
DON’T HOLD STILL
OK, yeah, we just said not to move, but we don’t always
practice what we preach.
You can get surprisingly great results in night portrait mode by
snapping a picture and continuing to move while the exposure
finishes. Light trails, ghostly people, random patterns of color:
it’s pretty great.
Try moving the camera while the person holds still, then try
holding the camera still while they move. See what results you like better. This
technique works particularly well when there are streetlights or neon signs in the
background.
HOLD SORT OF STILL

4. This one’s really freaky:
 Set the camera up on a tripod.
 Have the person pose before pressing the
shutter button.
 As soon as the flash fires, have the person
change position and freeze for the rest of
the exposure.
Try giving the person two heads, or four arms, or whatever else you can think of. Create
your own sideshow!
COLOR
The color of night portraits tends to be a bit odd.
The night portrait default setting white balances for
the flash. That means the longer fill exposure
tends to be very warm, especially indoors.
Play with your camera’s white balance. The
tungsten setting will give you a blue cast outdoors,
and the daylight setting will give you a yellow cast
indoors.
If you want to play with it even more, use image editing software to emphasize or add
color casts, or even make the image look cross-processed.
BOKEH
“Bokeh” means the parts of your photo that aren’t in focus. We
like those parts.
A quirk of physics dictates that unfocused points of light in a
photograph take on the shape of the aperture. You canmake a
lens hood with a specially-shaped aperture (a heart, for
example) and turn all the points of light into that shape.
It’s really easy, super cheap, and lends an unexpected “how-
did-you-do-that?” touch to night photos. Make any shape you
want: stars, ghosts, butterflies. You can even buy specially-
shaped hole punches at craft stores.
DO MORE!