The Best Settings for Night Photography

Do you want to know the best camera settings for night photography? Then you’re in the right place.

Since you’re reading this, you might already have discovered that photographing at night is quite different than daytime photography. Using the same settings as during the day will lead to black images.

From experience, I know how frustrating this can be. You just want to capture that beautiful night sky.

To succeed, you need to use the correct camera settings. Below, I share the best ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed for night photography:

Note: To keep it simple and straight to the point, this article covers only the best settings for night photography. Make sure to read our Night Photography Guide if you want a more in-depth lesson covering other essential aspects.

Best Aperture for Night Photography

If you’re a landscape photographer, you might be used to photographing with a narrow aperture to achieve the best front-to-back sharpness. This is not the case at night.

The best aperture for night photography is f/2.8 or wider. Wide-angle lenses with a fast aperture are ideal for photographing stars.

I’m aware that lenses with the widest aperture of f/2.8 often are double the price of those with the widest aperture of f/4. While not ideal, you can also use an f/4 lens for night photography. The downside is that you need a higher ISO to compensate for the ‘lost’ light.

If you’re worried about your foreground being soft due to this shallow depth of field, there’s a solution for this: focus stacking. It requires a little more knowledge about your camera and post-processing, but the results will be night photos that are sharp from front to back.

Read More: Introduction to Aperture in Landscape Photography

The Best ISO for Night Photography

As you’re coming to learn, night photography is, in many ways, the opposite of regular landscape photography. During the daytime, a low ISO is preferred due to less noise and grain. During the night, however, it’s often pitch black and using the same settings as in the daytime will result in, you guessed it, pitch-black images.

That’s why we need to make some compromises.

Using a higher ISO means that the camera sensor is more sensitive to light and allows for a shorter shutter speed in order to get the same exposure. A high ISO also means introduces a significant amount of noise and grain to the image; which is why we tend to keep it as low as possible.

Depending on the moon phase and artificial light, the best ISO for night photography is between 1600 and 6400. An ISO of 3200 is a good starting point, which can be adjusted if needed.

Read More: Introduction to ISO in Landscape Photography

The Best Shutter Speed for Night Photography

Right now, you might be asking: why can’t I keep a low ISO and narrow aperture but a very slow shutter speed instead? This should allow for plenty of light to reach the sensor.

The answer is quite simple:

The longer the shutter speed, the blurrier your stars become. This is known as star trails. Some photographers deliberately use an exposure time of several minutes or even hours to create this effect.

To keep the stars sharp, you need to calculate the longest acceptable shutter speed for your lens. Luckily, there’s a formula known as the 500 Rule.

Take the number 500 (for full-frame sensors) or 300 (for crop sensors) and divide it by the focal length:

14mm: 500/14 = 35 seconds (300/14 = 21 seconds)
16mm: 500/16 = 31 seconds (300/16 = 18 seconds)
20mm: 500/20 = 25 seconds (300/20 = 15 seconds)
24mm: 500/24 = 20 seconds (300/24 = 12 seconds)

Use the formula above to calculate the maximum shutter speed for your lens to keep stars sharp. The use of a slower shutter speed will result in the stars appearing as blurry oblong trails.

I find the best shutter speed for night photography to be 15 seconds. That is when using a 14mm lens.

Read More: Introduction to Shutter Speed in Landscape Photography

Note: The 500 Rule is a good formula to begin with. A slightly more complex and accurate guideline is the NPF rule. Apps such as PhotoPills allow you to calculate both easily.

Conclusion

By now, you should have a fair idea of what the best settings for night photography are, but let’s summarize:

• Aperture f/2.8 (or wider)
• ISO 1600-6400 (start with 3200 and adjust if needed)
• Shutter Speed 15 seconds (Use the 500 or NPF rules to calculate the best exposure time for your focal length)

Keep in mind that the exact settings depend on the scenario. I use f/2.8 and 15 seconds for most of my night photos and adjust the ISO as needed. During the new moon, I might use ISO6400, while during the full moon, I only use ISO1600.

Apply these settings, and you’ll capture well-exposed images of the night sky.

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More Night Photography

Are you interested in learning more about night photography? Then be sure to have a look at these in-depth courses that will teach you everything you need to know about mastering photography in the dark: