Kyo Suayan : In Night Photography (and all Photography) Timing is Everything
There's nothing easy about Night Photography. The lights just dim indoors and you have to start re-adjusting and calibrating your settings. What more at night?
Luckily, I have 8 sisters and with 8 sisters you have 8 more permutation/combination of friends who ultimately become your friends. Sister No.8, Y, went to high school with photographer and developer Kyo Suayan based in San Francisco.
I've admired his work for many years but only lately reconnected with him to ask him about his night photography techniques and tips.
As you see above, this photograph took hours.
Shooting star are not only hard to take but quite rare. Kyo's night photography secrets include his sturdy tripod, a kitchen timer (film takes longer to exposure), flashlight, warm clothing/jacket and a timing suggestion -- during full moon. I'm sure inordinate amounts of coffee and patience too.
I've never really thought about it but indeed a Full Moon gives you quite a different shade of darkness.
Also, Kyo reminded me of the value of specialized education. Kyo took one short course on night photography from Tim Baskerville (guy who runs The Nocturnes site http://www.thenocturnes.com/) Kyo also suggest to look into tips and tricks here
http://www.thenocturnes.com/resources.html
If you want to see more of Kyo Suayan's photography visit his flickr page at KYO SUAYAN FLICKR
Beautiful work. Thanks again for sharing Kyo.
Luckily, I have 8 sisters and with 8 sisters you have 8 more permutation/combination of friends who ultimately become your friends. Sister No.8, Y, went to high school with photographer and developer Kyo Suayan based in San Francisco.
I've admired his work for many years but only lately reconnected with him to ask him about his night photography techniques and tips.
As you see above, this photograph took hours.
Shooting star are not only hard to take but quite rare. Kyo's night photography secrets include his sturdy tripod, a kitchen timer (film takes longer to exposure), flashlight, warm clothing/jacket and a timing suggestion -- during full moon. I'm sure inordinate amounts of coffee and patience too.
I've never really thought about it but indeed a Full Moon gives you quite a different shade of darkness.
Also, Kyo reminded me of the value of specialized education. Kyo took one short course on night photography from Tim Baskerville (guy who runs The Nocturnes site http://www.thenocturnes.com/) Kyo also suggest to look into tips and tricks here
http://www.thenocturnes.com/resources.html
If you want to see more of Kyo Suayan's photography visit his flickr page at KYO SUAYAN FLICKR
Beautiful work. Thanks again for sharing Kyo.
posted by TheresNoTylerDurden at 5:14 AM
5 Comments:
Stunning photos!!!
Wow. Thanks for the generous post Mitch! You made my day.
-kyo-
I clicked through to Kyo's flickr page. There are even more wonderful photos on the site. Love this post.
Jen
Night photography is quite difficult. Both an art and a science I think. I wonder if we can get more technical details from Theresnotylerdurden or Kyo.
Suzanne
Hello Suzanne,
I find night photography as a relaxing experience. Visually, its amazing how differently the camera "sees" compared to our human eyes in terms of how time is presented (in the case of long exposures) and how differently colors are rendered (as an effect of choice of film or white balance settings in digital).
Even familiar places like houses across the street take on a new appearance under a different light (sounds ironic since we usually associate 'night' with 'dark' right?). :-)
BTW, this post inspired me to post a few more into my flickr account.
I took them in 2005 at Crissy Field when we went crabbing near the Golden Gate on a full moon.
Overall, exposures tend to be shorter with digital since you can kick up the ISO settings. Most of my digital shots are taken up to 30 seconds max.
On the other hand, film takes a little more patience. The longest one I took was 30 minutes with Ilford HP5 at ISO 400 but most would be below 15 minutes. At this brighness level (darkness?), light meters fail to indicate proper values due to a phenomenon called "reciprocity failure" so it's usually a good idea to bracket and bring a notebook to jot down the settings.
-kyo-
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