Night photography

Despite the very long exposure times of early photographic processes, photography at night was attempted by early photographers. The development of mechanical clock drives meant cameras attached to telescopes could eventually capture successful images of celestial objects.

The first known attempt at astronomical photography was by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype process which bears his name, who attempted to photograph the Moon in 1839. Tracking errors in guiding the telescope during the long exposure meant the photograph came out as an indistinct fuzzy spot. John William Draper made the first successful photograph of the moon a year later on March 23, 1840, taking a 20-minute-long daguerreotype image using a 5-inch (13 cm) reflecting telescope.

In the early 1900s, photographers including Alfred Stieglitz and William Fraser began working at night. The first photographers known to have produced large bodies of work at night were Brassai and Bill Brandt. In 1932, Brassai published Paris de Nuit, a book of black-and-white photographs of the streets of Paris at night. During World War II, British photographer Brandt took advantage of the blackout conditions to photograph the streets of London by moonlight.

Photography at night found several new practitioners in the 1970s, beginning with the black and white photographs that Richard Misrach made of desert flora (1975–77). Joel Meyerowitz made luminous large format color studies of Cape Cod at nightfall which were published in his book Cape Light (1979). Jan Staller's twilight color photographs (1977–84) of abandoned and derelict parts of New York City captured the urban landscape lit by sodium vapor street lights.

By the 1990s, British-born photographer Michael Kenna had established himself as the most commercially successful night photographer. His black-and-white landscapes were most often set between dusk and dawn in locations that included San Francisco, Japan, France, and England. His subjects included the Ford Motor Company's Rouge River plant, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station in the East Midlands in England, and many of the Nazi concentration camps scattered across Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and Austria.

Moonlight photography (capturing scenes on Earth illuminated by moonlight) greatly differs from lunar photography (capturing scenes on the Moon illuminated by direct sunlight). The Moon has an effective albedo of approximately 0.12, comparable to worn asphalt concrete. Since the Moon is essentially a dark body in direct sunlight, photographing its surface needs an exposure comparable to what a photographer would use for ordinary, mid-brightness surfaces (buildings, trees, faces, etc.) with an overcast sky.

The sunlight reflected from the full Moon onto Earth is about 1/250,000 of the brightness of direct sunlight in daytime. Since log₂(250,000) = 17.93..., full-moon photography requires 18 stops more exposure than sunlight photography, for which the sunny 16 rule is a commonly used guideline.^[1]

Flash photography is the process of using artificial lighting to illuminate an object or scene.^[2] Flashes are used it is to stop a moving object in motion. Typically this is done with wireless strobes strategically placed to control the spread of light on a scene. These light have radio receivers and is triggered by a transmitter placed in the cameras hotshoe and sends a signal once the cameras shutter is pressed. Before modern DSLR cameras and electronic flashes, flashes were wired for power and trigger signal. These lights sometimes had 1-25 individual lightbulbs. These lightbulbs were only good for one-time use. After the photo they would have to be replaced.^[3]

One notable flash photographer was O. Winston Link. In the late 1940s early 1950s, O. Winston Link was fascinated by the big steam locomotives of the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).^[4] Around the mid 1950s, Norfolk and Western Railway, the last class one railroad to run steam locomotives in revenue service, announced their start of transitioning to diesel-electric locomotives. Link wanted to document the last remaining golden years of steam railroading before it disappeared. He would spend hours planning the scene and setting up several lights just to get one shot of a train on film.^[5] One of his most notable pictures is titled "Hotshot Eastbound", really captured the culture of the mid 1950s.^[6] Links work continues to inspire millions of people to continue pushing the limits of night photography with bigger and bigger setups.

This section includes significant night photographers who have published books dedicated to night photography, and some of their selected works.

• Robert Adams
  • Summer nights, walking : along the Colorado front range, 1976-1982 Millerton, NY: Aperture; New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982^[7]
• Brassai
  • Paris de Nuit, Arts et metiers graphiques, 1932.
• Harold Burdekin and John Morrison
  • London Night, Collins, 1934.
• Jeff Brouws
  • Inside the Live Reptile Tent, Chronicle Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8118-2824-7
• Alan Delaney
  • London After Dark, Phaidon Press, 1993. ISBN 0-7148-2870-X
• Maciej Dakowicz
  • Cardiff after Dark. London: Thames & Hudson, 2012. ISBN 978-0-500-54419-8.^[8]
• Neil Folberg
  • Celestial Nights, Aperture Foundation, 2001. ISBN 0-89381-945-X
• Karekin Goekjian
  • Light After Dark, Lucinne, Inc. ASIN B0006QOVCG
• Todd Hido
  • Outskirts, Nazraeli Press, 2002. ISBN 1-59005-028-2
  • House Hunting, Nazraeli, 2001. ISBN 978-3923922963.
• Peter Hujar
  • Night, Matthew Marks Gallery/Fraenkel Gallery, 2005. ISBN 1-880146-45-2
• Rolfe Horn
  • 28 Photographs, Nazraeli Press. ISBN 1-59005-122-X
• Lance Keimig
  • Night Photography, Finding Your Way In The Dark, Focal Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-240-81258-8
• Brian Kelly
  • Grand Rapids: Night After Night, Glass Eye, 2001. ISBN 0-9701293-0-0
• Michael Kenna
  • The Rouge, RAM Publications, 1995. ISBN 0-9630785-1-8
  • Night Work, Nazraeli Press, 2000. ISBN 3-923922-83-3
• William Lesch
  • Expansions, RAM Publications, 1992. ISBN 4-8457-0667-9
• O. Winston Link
  • The Last Steam Railroad in America, Harry Abrams, 1995. ISBN 0-8109-3575-9
• Tom Paiva
  • Industrial Night, The Image Room, 2002. ISBN 0-9716928-0-7
• Troy Paiva
  • Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration, Chronicle Books, 2008. ISBN 0-8118-6338-7
  • Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West, MBI Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7603-1490-X
• Andrew Sanderson
  • Night Photography, Amphoto Books. ISBN 0-8174-5007-6
• Bill Schwab
  • Bill Schwab: Photographs, North Light Press, 1999. ISBN 0-9765193-0-5
  • Gathering Calm, North Light Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9765193-2-1
• Jan Staller
  • Frontier New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1988. ISBN 1-55595-009-4^[9]
• Zabrina Tipton
  • At Night in San Francisco, San Francisco Guild of the Arts Press, 2006. ISBN 1-4243-1882-3
• Giovanna Tucker
  • "How to Night Photography", 2011. ISBN 978-1-4657-4423-4
• Nora Vrublevska and Dan Squires
  • "Cambridge at Night", 2013. ISBN 978-1-935489-27-6
• Volkmar Wentzel
  • Washington by Night, Fulcrum Publishing, 1998. ISBN 978-1-55591-410-3

• Light painting

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Night photography.

• Comprehensive tutorials and articles about how to do night photography by The Nocturnes