How to Photograph the Fair at Night

Photography tips for digital camera enthusiasts for capturing the bright lights and atmosphere of the sideshow or fair.

Waiting in line ISO 800 Shutter Speed 1/30 second

This is part of the street photography genre where the object is to capture candid images of ordinary people. These projects have the underlying theme of documenting social conditions of fashion and public behavior.

All the example shots used available light and the camera was hand held. They show it is possible to capture the atmosphere and spontaneity of street photography at night.

Forget The Light Meter

There is no correct exposure; it will always be a balance between overexposing very bright light sources and leaving darker areas underexposed.

Food Truck ISO 800 Shutter Speed 1/90 second

In this sort of photography, use the digital camera’s LCD screen and the exposure histogram, if it has one, as aids to judging acceptable exposure.

Experience of how your LCD screen relates to the exposure is the best guide. Take plenty of shots and keep experimenting. For example, take a number of the same shot with a range of shutter speeds. The great thing about digital cameras is they record the camera settings on the picture file so when reflecting on the merits of each shot the settings are readily available.

Wide Angle Lens for Focus

In dim conditions, the autofocus may struggle, and even manual focusing can be difficult in a dimly lit scene. A wide angle or very short focal length lens or zoom setting will give a large depth of field, helping to keep the scene in focus. A wide-angle lens helps in shooting scenes crowded with people and buildings.

Forget the Flash

The attraction of night streetscapes is the surreal atmosphere created by the colored lights contrasting with mysterious areas of darkness. Using a flash will kill the colors with white light and reduce the area of view. Another issue in candid travel, or street photography, is remaining inconspicuous so people continue acting naturally, rather than posing or becoming self-conscious knowing a camera is present.

Holding the Camera Steady

Partly to remain inconspicuous and keeping camera gear to a minimum while travelling, these shots need to be hand held. Using a short and light wide-angle lens makes this easier than a telephoto zoom, but still requires practice and technique.

Dodgems ISO 800 Shutter Speed 1/30 second

Get balanced and brace your elbows onto your chest, breathing gently and then squeeze the shutter button when it comes time to take the picture.

Walls, poles and fences, or anything solid to lean against, will help keep the digital camera steady during the shot.

For the last photograph, a handy post provided a steady support for a two second hand held exposure. The lights on the moving ride paint a pattern in the image making any minor camera shake unimportant.

RAW or JPEG

For reasons of space on the media card and convenience, the example digital images were saved as in-camera jpegs.

Yellow Ducks ISO 200 Shutter Speed 1/15 second

The only drawback is in the yellow ducks photo the white balance is not correct, as the ducks have a slight greenish tinge due to the color temperature of the lighting as the auto white balance did not get it quite right.

Saving the picture in RAW format allows simple adjustment to correct this on the computer.