- Bonjour mesdames and messieurs.
In this episode I wanted to give you really cool trick
to take photos at night without a tripod.
(dramatic music)
All right guys.
So, you've been in this situation where you have like
an amazing view from a high balcony or something
of a beautiful city like New York and you have your camera
and tripods are not allowed.
How do you take your cool photo?
I want to show you this really cool trick
because I can not tell you
how many time I missed opportunities
because tripod were not allowed and I wanted to take
a night photo.
It's not the most quality ever, but it works great.
So here is the trick, and if you stay until the end
I'm going to give these RAW files so you can see
for yourself, you can also retouch them and try different
techniques and see the quality of them.
So what I did is I went up on a balcony of a restaurant
in Clearwater Beach at night, like really at night
when the sun was behind the horizon,
it was really pitch black.
And what I did is I shot with my Sony a7R II and I had
a 35 millimeter F2.8.
Now, smaller the aperture, better the results,
but it also works with an F4 lens.
I just happen to have my 35 millimeter prime 2.8
and what you do is this.
You try to stabilize it as much as you can by putting
a two second timer, meaning, it takes,
it waits one or two second and then it takes the photo.
So for example on this photo, I first started with my
24 105 at F4, and I was at 1/13 of a second, F4, ISO 1250.
Now the trick is ISO 1250 is pretty high,
but today's camera can really handle a lot of ISO.
And the major trick is you gotta stabilize your camera
by finding a position where you're not gonna move,
have the two second timer so when the photo gets taken,
there is no movement, and you will be surprised,
Some of this mirrorless camera can go up to half a second
without needing a tripod
because they have inside stabilization.
So you need to make sure if your camera has stabilization,
if your lens has stabilization, that it is active.
So check this out.
This was a photo shot at 1/13 of a second F4 ISO 250.
And it is sharp, it's completely usable,
it's a big file, it's almost an 8,042 million pixel file
and so I'm just gonna correct the colors a bit.
I'm gonna open up the shadows, I'm gonna bring down
the highlights, I'm gonna do the white,
I'm gonna do the black.
Okay, now one of the main problem that we have with night
photographing is you get weird white balances.
For example, the top of the photo is a certain color,
the bottom is another color.
So that's kinda tricky.
Usually what I do is I do two white balance
for the price of one.
So check this out.
I'm gonna make a white balance for the bottom,
so I'm gonna make a gradient here,
and on this one I'm gonna boost the exposure
and I'm gonna add some blue
because I think it's way too yellow, all right?
But that only applies to the bottom,
so let me show you before, you see,
it's very yellow and dark, and after.
Now I'm gonna create another white balance,
I'm gonna press I to get rid of this, for the top here.
And this time I'm gonna go the opposite.
I'm gonna warm it up a little bit
and a little bit of magenta just for the top
and not so bright.
And now we have a white balance for the bottom
and for the top.
The overall white balance was as shot, I think it,
I was on, now let's see here,
not daylight, yeah probably something
very similar to daylight,
maybe with a little bit more magenta.
So I was just on daylight, but you see, you can correct
the white balance and this photo is completely usable.
You can make a big print out of it and you shot it
without a tripod.
Let me give you another example.
I mean they didn't always come out sharp,
but check this one out.
I'm gonna filter this.
This one was really later at night and I shot this with
35 millimeter F 2.8, I was at .4 second at F5
and I was kinda holding on the balcony there
but I couldn't really hold it there.
And it, but with the stabilization I could still get
a sharp photo and let me retouch this again.
So similar I'm gonna open up the shadows,
bring down the highlights,
I'm gonna do the white and the black,
this one I'm gonna add a lot of blue,
and a little bit of magenta, I'm gonna press I
and I love this photo.
I'm gonna do maybe a little bit of exposure here
in the sky by brushing a bit of exposure, not that much.
Just bring it back a little bit.
On this one I don't need to do a double white balance.
So this trick really works.
I actually have had a lot of photos in my latest
new book shot from a chopper
using that exact same technique.
It's so cool.
One last photo.
This was like an Instagram kinda format photo,
something with the boats in the foreground
and same thing here, open the shadows,
bring down the highlights, do your black thing
and then add a lot of blue and add a bit of magenta
and check this out.
You gotta really sharp photo, taken from a balcony
without a tripod.
So of course there's a bit of noise here,
in the sky because 1,250 so what you do here
and this is my formula on this kind of photographing
I put the noise reduction around 30
and I put the sharpening around 70, okay?
And then the masking around 50 or 60, something like this.
And it doesn't get rid of all the noise,
but believe me, it's usable enough,
I've used it in books, it's amazing.
And, so same thing on this photo,
we can check out the noise level.
1,250 is, and this the Sony a7R II which is a camera
that is a few years old, yeah it's a bit noisy
so again, 30 of noise reduction, 70 of sharpening,
I'm always trying that noise reduction
and sharpening makes 100.
Okay?
And then, don't forget the masking around 50 or 60.
The way masking works is basically what you see here
in black, by holding the option key is not going
to get sharpened, so only the white is going
to get sharpened.
And it avoids to get grain in the sky.
And I love these photos, I think they will do great,
so next time you are on a balcony and you have an
amazing view, put your camera on the two second timer,
go like a 1200, 1250, 1500 ISO,
and open your aperture as much
as you can, try to breathe slowly,
and take photos you might very well use it,
you might sell it to galleries,
you might become an international star.
It is crazy.
Download the RAW files, and guys if you like this video
please give it a one big like.
Smash that like button and leave me a comment,
tell me what you would like to learn.
I did a video last week that did really well,
it was a really cool trick,
next time you take a photo at the beach.
Check it out.