How to Take Great City Photos at Night

Intimidated by nighttime photography? Here’s an inspiring 11-minute video from photographer Peter McKinnon on how you can take better photos of cities at night.

McKinnon admits that he struggles with night-time photography.

“As soon as the sun goes down, photography ends for me,” he says. “I don’t really enjoy going out with my camera at night.”

But in an effort to push his boundaries and expand his creative horizons, McKinnon has been working on liking it more.

Using a tripod is very important when you’re shooting at night. Long shutter speeds are a friend of low light environments, and that means you need to keep the camera steady. McKinnon uses these speeds to create light streaks from cars for added effect.

There are plenty of other things you can try too. McKinnon recommends bringing along a bottle of water so that you can create your own puddles in the road, allowing for awesome reflections of urban lights.

“All of these things in combination make night time photography really creative and really interesting,” says McKinnon.