Night Portrait Exposure Mode: Use the night-portrait mode to take exciting night portraits.
Night Portrait Exposure Mode
Use the Night-Portrait Exposure Mode
If
your camera has a selection of "scene modes" one of them is probably
the "night portrait mode." Much like other scene-specific
night-exposure modes (the night landscape or night scenes mode, for
example) the night portrait mode (typically indicated by a silhouette
of a head with a star above it) sets a longer-than-normal shutter
speed, but it also combines that longish exposure with a burst from
your built-in flash. The purpose of this dual manipulation of the
exposure is so that you can, for example, photograph a person standing
in front of an artificially lit scene and record both the face and the
background in a nice balance.
I photographed this "living"
Statue of Liberty in Times Square around midnight on a hot and crowded
July night and used the night-portrait mode to create a nice balance
between her (actually, I think it was a him in the costume) and the
bright lights of Broadway. Yes, I could have done this with more
precision (though I think my Nikon D70s did a great job with the
built-in flash) with accessory flash unit and some more tinkering with
flash exposure, but by that time I would have lost my subject. This was
a shot made rather quickly and I gave the subject $5 to pose for me for
a few moments and so I used the night portrait mode to create the
flash/ambient balance for me. Don't be afraid to experiment with night
modes, they often provide a quick solution to complex night situations.
Interestingly, the night-portrait mode in many very simple
point-and-shoot cameras does a beautiful job at night; the only problem
is that the distance range of the flash may be more limited with some
cameras.
Keep in mind that if there is motion (traffic, for
example) in the background, you'll get some natural blurring of those
subjects because the camera is leaving the shutter open for a longer
period of time. Personally I think that adds a touch of realism and
visual interest and, in fact, often try to time the shots so that there is motion in the background.
The night-portrait mode allowed me to balance the "Statue" with the bright lights of Times Square.
If you're going to photograph friends at the carnival, you have to have some carnival lights in the background! Here I used the night-portrait mode to do just that.
The night-portrait mode isn't limited to photographing people, of course. I used the mode here to photograph a giant saguaro cactus at twilight in Tucson, Arizona. Using the night-portrait mode kept the shutter open long enough to register some light from the deep-blue twilight sky.
I photographed this mime near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France using the night-portrait mode. Had I used straight flash mode instead of the portrait mode, the twilight sky and shapes behind the mime would have been lost.
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