Night photography tip: keep bright lights bright

Friday 25 February 2022, 14:41 by Nando Harmsen | 4,783 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

When you take photos at night, you quickly get bright lights in the frame. Don't try to fit everything within the dynamic range. Bright lights are bright, so let them stay bright. This makes your photo look more realistic, more exciting and, above all, less flat.

A street in 's-Hertogenbosch. Look at the lights, which are dirty grey. This isn't what you want.
I regularly see night photos in which even the bright lights have been brought within the dynamic range. That's a shame, because it takes the dynamism out of your photo. A photo can even become flat this way, especially when all the dark areas are also 'lifted'.

If something is overexposed, leave it overexposed. Don't be afraid of white in your photo.
Sometimes it goes even further, with overexposed lights being made less bright. The result is that the white takes on a dirty grey tint. Something that is pure white in the photo can never be made darker again. After all, there is no detail left in it.

An exposure bracket merged into an HDR. If you are afraid of dark and light, the result will be a flat, boring photo. This example may be exaggerated, but I regularly see something similar.
I believe it's fine to have overexposed lights in a night photo. Those bright lights should be bright, because that's how they really were. It also adds dynamism to the photo, creating a nice contrast between what is light and what is dark.

By introducing light and dark into your photo, it becomes much more dynamic. Let bright lights stay bright, that's more natural than trying at all costs to 'bring them within the dynamic range'
It's not wrong to capture as much dynamic range as possible in your photo, for example by making an exposure bracket and merging these images into an HDR. But let bright lights stay bright, it will only improve your photo.

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