Lighting for Nightscape Images

Lighting is vitally important to any form of photography but when shooting at night it becomes an absolute must have skill set. This video goes through 4 different scenarios shooting different objects with various lenses and exposure techniques. I tend to apply very similar lighting principles to most of my night photography, whether it be single shots, multiple blended exposures or even time lapse sequences. 

As described in the video there are many ways to light a nightscape image but I want to focus on my two main methods here today. You can see the various lights I use listed below and they all have a particular use depending on the style and setting of the particular application. For example I nearly always use my LED Lenser P7.2 for hand held light painting as it's such a user friendly and reliable torch. I have used other brands with success as well. 

The main requirement for a torch is a soft edge beam and the ability to zoom or focus the beam. The ability to "contain" light spillage is vital. Even the very small light I use on the lantern in the video has this ability. Sometimes our lights can be too bright and it's handy to have a dimming option to assist with that.

The constant lights which are commonly known as "Low Level Lighting" generally have a very wide spread of light and are therefore much better suited to environmental lighting. In the examples shown in the video these include lighting the tree in the background or providing a constant light source for a timelapse video sequence.
​Again, the ability to dim the light down low is very important.

​Lights used in video listed below: