Mastering Your Camera for Night Photography: General Settings You Need to Know

There’s something almost magical about heading out with your camera after the sun has gone down. The world transforms — city lights sparkle, car trails paint ribbons of light, stars twinkle overhead, and scenes that seemed ordinary by day take on a new, dramatic character.

But night photography also presents unique challenges. You can’t simply point and shoot as you might during the day — at least, not if you want to bring home images that do justice to the beauty you’re seeing. Success comes from understanding a few key camera settings and learning how to work with low light rather than fighting against it.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the foundational settings every photographer should be aware of when shooting at night. And if you’d like to take your skills to the next level, I’d warmly invite you to join us at one of Learn Photography Canada’s Night Photography workshops, happening next on Friday, June 20th in cities across Canada. You can find full details and register here.

1. Shutter Speed: Embracing Long Exposures

At night, light is scarce — and this is where shutter speed becomes your best friend.

Your shutter controls how long your camera’s sensor is exposed to light. During the day, shutter speeds are typically fast (think 1/500th of a second or faster). At night, you’ll likely be using much slower shutter speeds — 5, 10, even 30 seconds — to allow enough light to reach the sensor.

Why does this matter? Long exposures can turn moving cars into beautiful light trails, make still water appear silky smooth, and capture faint stars in the sky. But they also require stability — you’ll need a tripod to avoid camera shake during those longer exposures.

Tip: Start experimenting with exposures of 5-10 seconds for cityscapes and light trails, and adjust from there.

2. ISO: Balancing Brightness and Noise

ISO controls your camera’s sensitivity to light. Raising your ISO will brighten your image, but too high an ISO can introduce noise (grainy, speckled effects) that may detract from your photo.

At night, it’s tempting to crank up the ISO to make the scene brighter. But the trick is to find a balance: use a tripod and long exposure to gather light naturally first, and only bump ISO as needed.

Modern cameras handle ISO remarkably well. On most newer DSLRs or mirrorless cameras, ISO 800 to 1600 is a good starting point for night photography. For particularly dark scenes (like astrophotography), you might push higher — but test your camera to see where noise starts to become unacceptable.

Tip: Keep ISO as low as practical. Let shutter speed do the heavy lifting.

3. Aperture: Controlling Depth of Field and Light

Aperture (f-stop) controls how wide your lens opens. Wider apertures (lower f-numbers like f/2.8 or f/4) let in more light, which is especially helpful at night.

However, aperture also affects depth of field — how much of your scene appears sharp. If you want everything from foreground to background crisp (typical in cityscape shots), you might need to stop down to f/8 or f/11, and compensate with a longer shutter speed.

Conversely, for dreamy bokeh (blurred background lights), open your aperture wide (f/2.8 or lower if your lens allows).

Tip: Experiment with aperture based on creative goals. Cityscapes and architecture often benefit from narrower apertures; portraits or artistic shots thrive with wider ones.

4. Focusing at Night: Manual is Your Friend

Autofocus struggles in low light. Your camera may hunt and fail to lock focus, especially on dark subjects.

Switch to manual focus, and use your camera’s live view and focus magnification feature (if available) to zoom in and fine-tune focus. Focus on a bright light, the edge of a building, or a distant star.

Tip: Practice manual focusing before your shoot — it takes a little getting used to, but is a powerful tool at night.

5. White Balance: Setting the Mood

White balance controls the color tone of your images — cool, neutral, or warm. Artificial lights at night (streetlamps, neon signs) can introduce strong color casts.

Auto white balance can sometimes do a good job, but I recommend experimenting with manual settings. Try “Tungsten” or “Incandescent” modes for cityscapes to tame orange streetlight glow, or adjust manually in Kelvin mode (around 3000-4000K for cooler tones).

Of course, if you shoot in RAW format (highly recommended), you can adjust white balance after the fact without degrading image quality.

Tip: Don’t stress too much in the field — focus on getting the shot. Tweak white balance in post if needed.

6. Stabilization: Essential Gear and Techniques

As I mentioned earlier, a sturdy tripod is critical for successful night photography. Without one, even the slightest camera movement during long exposures will blur your image.

Also consider using:

• A remote shutter release or your camera’s self-timer to avoid touching the camera when starting the shot
• Image stabilization (if shooting handheld), though for true long exposures, tripod always wins

Tip: Disable lens or in-body stabilization when using a tripod — some systems can actually introduce blur when the camera is perfectly still.

7. Composition and Creativity

Settings matter — but at night, composition and creativity shine even brighter. Here are a few ideas to inspire your next shoot:

• Light trails: Find a busy intersection or highway and experiment with long exposures.
• Reflections: Shoot city lights reflected in wet streets or water.
• Architecture: Capture dramatic lighting on buildings, bridges, or statues.
• Stars: Venture outside the city to photograph the Milky Way or constellations.

Night photography encourages patience, experimentation, and a sense of wonder. You’ll make mistakes — we all do! — but with each attempt, you’ll learn and grow.

Learn Night Photography With Us — Next Workshops: June 20th!

If you’d like to dive deeper, there’s no substitute for learning in the field, with hands-on guidance. That’s exactly what we offer at Learn Photography Canada’s Night Photography workshops.

Our workshops are:
✅ Small group, fun and supportive
✅ Led by experienced, passionate photographers
✅ Hands-on: We’ll help you dial in YOUR camera, not just theory
✅ Practical: We shoot together in great night locations, often capturing sunset, cityscapes, light trails, and more

Next nationwide workshop:
📅 Friday, June 20th
🌆 Locations across Canada (Vancouver, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Toronto, Burlington, Mississauga, Kitchener/Waterloo and Ottawa)

👉 Learn more and register here.

Whether you’re brand new to night photography or looking to refine your skills, we’d love to have you join us. I can promise you this — by the end of the evening, you’ll be amazed at what your camera (and you!) can create after dark.

Happy shooting, and hope to see you under the stars. 🌌