Night Street Photography

Tonight I'd like to talk about night street photography. In case you do not know that I do lots of day time street photography and it isn't the first time I did night street photography. I used to shoot color negatives on my Nikon FM10 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens at night. Did a little with my Nikon D70s with the same lens. Hand-held shooting technique certainly poses a great challenge for night street photography.

The night photo shown above was taken in the same wee hours after my visit at the Fort Canning Park (the Fort Canning Lighthouse). I was heading back home and walked past this back alley, next to this Ritz Mansions condominium. Literally I walked past the openly displayed couches. I did noticed but subconsciously my mind told me to turn back and I'm glad I did. I set up my tripod and made two quick exposures at 15 seconds each.

Lighting condition was drastically great in contrast with super hot spots from the street lamps on the far right frame and some from the wall lights on the signboard and under. The 2-persons seat couch on the foreground was lit and illuminated by the street light on left behind camera, while the other couch on the background was lit by the street lights as shown.

Really love the lights and shadows displayed here, with vertical lines, shapes, textures which caught my attention in the first place. I managed to get the "correct" exposure timing. In post-production, I tried to retain the original output results in Camera RAW and Photoshop but couldn't get the desired result I wanted. So I resorted to apply HDR effect by tone-mapping and some color correction adjustments.

Next, I converted the color to black and white just to see how this scene looks like and it looks great. Somehow it rekindles my love for night photography on film and digital night street photography.

Each medium would produce different results. Night photography on film is more towards fine art style and project basis. Night street photography is similar to day time street photography where daily night activities/events are captured candidly. Some film examples of night street photography I did back in October 2006 which I posted here. Some other night street photos using Nikon D70s below.

Simple Contentment

Dozed off

Indian Store

I'm planning to do more night street photography, both on film and digital, perhaps every fortnightly, and lesser light-paintings as I've mentioned before that there are lesser or no ideal abandoned places in Singapore left to make good light-painting photos. Well, I've always keep a lookout and keep searching. Alternatively I'd have to venture out to overseas where there are many interesting subjects, though not necessarily doing light-paintings.

Urban Lighthouse

Urban Lighthouse

This urban lighthouse, also known as Fort Canning Light or Fort Canning Lighthouse, was built in 1903 on the southern side of Fort Canning Hill. It was formerly one of the 13 important lighthouses in the Straits of Malacca, which was to guide ships safely towards the Singapore Harbor.

Due to its historic significance, a replica of the Lighthouse was later erected near its original site by the Singapore Government. Though its lights are fully functional, it no longer serves its original purpose but stands today as a legacy of its contribution to Singapore maritime history.

FENIX TA21 was used in the making of this night photograph, light-painted on the left side of the Lighthouse which took 15 seconds exposure.

Below is another night exposure under 15 seconds with a medium size aperture to capture the clouds motion across the beautiful night sky. Same flash light was used on the top of the Lighthouse. Actual crop and composed on camera.

Fort Canning Light

It was a disappointment that those strong daylight white spotlights were not switched off after midnight. It would be good to do my own light-painting. Well I don't think I'd go back to remake for a long time.