Learning to balance two light sources is one of the most fundamental blocks in photography. But once you understand the fundamentals, and know a few tricks for doing so, suddenly all those nighttime hours will open up to you.
In my latest Tech Tip for Adorama TV, part of my ongoing series “Getting the Shot with Corey Rich,” I address these fundamentals by showing you how to shoot a glowing tent under a starry sky. But really, these techniques can be applied to any situation.
The secret for getting this shot begins by scouting out a stunning location in the daytime that you know will have a beautiful, clear starry sky at night. For equipment, I’m using a Nikon 24mm f/1.4 lens mounted on Nikon D4s, all set up on a Manfrotto tripod. Inside the tent I’ve chosen to use a Litepanels 1×1 Bicolor Astra continuous light source. This is the basic set up. But the real magic comes in understanding and mastering all the nuances and details for setting up this shot.
Hope you enjoy this video and learn a couple tricks for choosing your lens, aperture and shutter speed; how to diffuse your light source; and why you need to use the shutter delay function on your camera.
The result will be a photo that is relatively straightforward to create, and will impress all your friends and hopefully inspire them to join you next weekend in the great outdoors!
Just don’t forget the marshmallows and/or campfire whiskey!
1 comment
Hey Corey:
Thanks for a great workshop last week out in Jackson Hole, WY. While we were camping out on Wednesday, Ron Taniwaki was showing a group of students on taking the classic nighttime photo mentioned above. One thing I immediately realized while attempting to frame a shot was that having a wider angle lens than 24 mm would certainly come in hand. I was shooting with a Nikon D810 and a Nikkor 24-70 mm/f2.8 lens and wished I had either a 16-35 mm/f4 or a 14-24 mm/f2.8 to a get wider shot of the sky. Otherwise, the techniques mentioned in the video are spot on!!
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