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60 Beautiful Examples Of Night Photography
Low light levels make night photography a challenging yet rewarding subject. The best results require specialized equipment, like SLR cameras, tripods, cable releases and flashguns. After sunset, the everyday world is magically transformed, and city buildings, fireworks, thunderstorms and the northern lights all become popular subjects.
We present 60 amazing examples of night photography, photos, created by some hard-working and dedicated photographers. Take a look at their websites and portfolios, and you’ll find some links to how-to articles about night photography at the bottom of the post.
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
- Celebration Of High-Speed Photography
- 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos
- 25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots
- 35 Brilliant Examples Of Rain Photography
- 50 Stunning Underwater Photos
- Smoke Photography and Smoke Art
In the City
Artificial light transforms the urban landscape into a place of magic and mystery.
Loveless Ramblings and Other Cynical Musings
Landscapes
Landscape photographers love the magical light of sunset and twilight. With long shutter speeds and a steady tripod it’s even possible to photograph the landscape lit by nothing but moonlight.
Northern Lights
The northern lights are a popular subject for photographers living in the extreme north of Canada, Alaska and Europe.
Storms
Dramatic thunderstorms are captured using slow shutter speeds.
Heavenly Bodies
It’s even possible to photograph the stars and the moon with the right equipment.
Fireworks
Another popular subject for night photographers.
Troy Paiva
Troy Paiva specializes in night photography and light-painting techniques. He explores America’s abandoned urban landscapes in his latest book “Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration.”
Anthony James
Anthony James has a passion for night photography. Over the years, he has amassed a unique collection of photographic images covering a variety of subjects from different parts of Asia, Europe and Australia.
“For me the joy of photography comes from the ability to capture and record a unique slice of space and time that may otherwise be lost forever. A moment perhaps only witnessed by an individual yet shared with the rest of us, albeit imbued with a unique perspective – a window on our world that may remain forever etched into our consciousness.”
Last Click
Resources
- PhotoNetCast – Interview with Troy Paiva
Troy Paiva is a night photography expert and author of the book “Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration.” - Troy Paiva – Night Photography Technique
- About.com – Night Photography Step by Step
- Moonlight Sonata – Landscape Imaging by the Light of the Full Moon
A night photography by article by Bruce B. Clendenning. - The Nocturnes – Night photography workshops, exhibits and resources
Lots of interesting night photography articles in the resources page. - Talented Night Photographers
- After Dark: Night Photography Flickr pool
Related posts
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
Andrew Gibson is a photographer and writer. He runs Magical Places Fine Art, an online photography magazine and another great photography resource.
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Loading ...- 91 Comments
- 1
- 2November 9th, 2008 3:10 pm
Hot collection! I love most of this pics!
- 3November 9th, 2008 3:30 pm
Amazing!
I live outside of Toronto, Canada, and I remember last year I went out and could see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and I was amazed and had NO photography equipment at all; not even a camera phone! bah! - 4November 9th, 2008 3:42 pm
Beautiful pictures. I’ve yet to master night shots.
- 5November 9th, 2008 3:47 pm
You missed one! check it out here. The ones mentioned are also really good.
- 6November 9th, 2008 3:53 pm
The first one is absolutely beautiful.
- 7November 9th, 2008 4:03 pm
Very cool. Storms are beautiful, as are the night pics.
- 8November 9th, 2008 4:41 pm
My favorite is Rambling Love, but they all are amazing!
- 9November 9th, 2008 5:30 pm
ESPECTACULAR!!
- 10November 9th, 2008 5:35 pm
These remind me of a friend of mine’s work. He’s from South Africa and takes all sorts of rad night photography – Ross Hiller Night Photography
- 11November 9th, 2008 5:43 pm
Thank you for posting these stunning photos. :)
- 12November 9th, 2008 6:07 pm
amazing shots!!!!!! thanks!!
glad to see some taken in Hong Kong! my home city <3
thanks again! - 13November 9th, 2008 6:36 pm
Love all the photos. Great work!
- 14November 9th, 2008 6:37 pm
egh… no insult, just keepin it real. I’m not to impressed by all the copied photography lists that appear as syndicated content everywhere.
- 15November 9th, 2008 7:13 pm
@mikemike
egh… no insult, but that’s only you
- 16November 9th, 2008 7:39 pm
Absolutely fantastic collection!
- 17November 9th, 2008 8:27 pm
I wonder…..
no wordsThanks for this spectacular collection,
- 18
- 19November 9th, 2008 8:49 pm
I have a few night shots of my own I’d like to share:
Spadina Nights
Bryce Canyon Trails
Monument Valley – Venus Rising
Cowan’s Bay Star Trails
St. John’s Harbour
Lake Valley Orion
401 - 20November 9th, 2008 8:56 pm
love the collection
- 21November 9th, 2008 9:32 pm
Thanks for all nice graphics.It was cool and nice collection.
- 22
- 23November 9th, 2008 10:15 pm
Great pics until you click on them and they take you to flickr. Nothing more iritating than having to click on it again to get a larger view. Couldn’t you have hosted these on your own server or direct link to the larger version on flickr?
- 24November 9th, 2008 10:22 pm
good pics
- 25November 9th, 2008 10:36 pm
@Bobby:
The Flickr license requires one to point directly (and only) to the Flickr photo page when hot-linking for compilations such as this. - 26November 9th, 2008 10:46 pm
beautiful!
- 27November 9th, 2008 10:49 pm
nice collection, I suggest you take a look at the Landscape and Northern lights pictures of Romko, a guy from Alaska:
http://romko-kr.livejournal.com/ - 28November 9th, 2008 11:28 pm
Nice collection. Love the ALTA VISTA.
- 29November 9th, 2008 11:42 pm
Very collection. There are some talents out there.
Good start into the new week.Stay tuned . . .
- 30November 9th, 2008 11:55 pm
Great collection of beautiful photographs!
- 31November 9th, 2008 11:55 pm
that’s good!
- 32November 10th, 2008 12:57 am
great collections..beautiful images…
- 33November 10th, 2008 1:31 am
very very well!
i love smashing
- 34November 10th, 2008 1:41 am
I love the Alcove picture, but I doubt that it is a night picture, if you look at the sky you can see that it’s the sun en the sky is blue.
I love the way that person processed it!great collection!
- 35November 10th, 2008 2:17 am
Absolutely sensational, really beautiful work
- 36November 10th, 2008 2:51 am
Nice!! Really inspiring.
- 37November 10th, 2008 3:27 am
beautiful.
- 38November 10th, 2008 3:40 am
awesome
- 39November 10th, 2008 4:51 am
Absolutely fantastic
- 40November 10th, 2008 4:52 am
Reminds me how an incredible place the world can be
- 41November 10th, 2008 4:56 am
The ilumination of the eiffel tower at night is copyrighted, so you should be careful with those pics:
As you can read in http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/pratique/faq/index.html, “There are no restrictions on publishing a picture of the Tower by day. Photos taken at night when the lights are aglow are subjected to copyright laws, and fees for the right to publish must be paid to the SETE”
- 42November 10th, 2008 4:58 am
Dear Smashing
Pls take another look at the pictures you present. A quite lot were not shot at night and a very few are not photography at all but artwork. Some of the “setting a night scene from a bright daylight picture photos” are not done very well. Look at the shadows.
In Janek’s night photo only f/32 keeps us from beeing suntanned :) - 43November 10th, 2008 6:19 am
Unfortunately I have to echo what Rune had posted above me, some of these were not shot at night at all. Some of the photos are just terribly done technically – blurry, grainy and there’s no clear purposeful intent. There are many night photographers that are much better at their craft, perhaps you should have looked just a little bit harder.
- 44November 10th, 2008 6:58 am
Love the Alcove photo. Great composition and color.
- 45November 10th, 2008 7:06 am
Simply awesome fotographs!!!
- 46November 10th, 2008 8:59 am
This kid has some great night photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/govus/ - 47November 10th, 2008 9:21 am
Always amazed by your collections!
- 48November 10th, 2008 9:40 am
Here’s one of mine !
http://www.monsieurlam.com/portfolio/?photoset=72157603546843677&single=464011979
- 49November 10th, 2008 10:29 am
i would really like to add the photography of Will Govus
his night photos are amazing - 50November 10th, 2008 11:33 am
Wooow!
- 51November 10th, 2008 12:15 pm
Does anyone know who is credited for the “Alcove” photo? I looked at some of his/her other work, and it is amazing. I want some prints!
- 52November 10th, 2008 3:12 pm
oh really beautiful night photos
- 53November 10th, 2008 5:46 pm
Very god artist
Felicidades
- 54November 10th, 2008 11:16 pm
Very nice work, but as a whole it tends to look like an exercise in cranking the saturation up to 11.
- 55November 11th, 2008 12:26 am
Pretty neat!
I agree to Stijn though…
the Alcove picture is not a night shot!edit: I did have a look at Alcove’s photos… most of them are clearly PS edited. The photo in this collection also looked way to good… though i don’t mind a slight work over, i reckon his shots show he’s good at PS rather than at photography!
- 56November 11th, 2008 12:56 am
the alcove picture is not night photography, it’s not supposed to be included since the post is about night photography although it’s nice. Great post anyway, some of the photos are really stunning and inspiring.
- 57November 11th, 2008 1:04 am
Aren’t they highly photoshop’ed?
- 58November 11th, 2008 2:43 am
that was my question too, can´t believe this all was done without using photoshop…
i mean some pictures made me speachless and would see hanging on my wall. really inspiring post sm, thanks alot - 59November 11th, 2008 3:21 am
Photo at !0:00 p.m
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57873672@N00/3021933032/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57873672@N00/3021933048/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57873672@N00/3021933046/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57873672@N00/3021933042/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57873672@N00/3021933040/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57873672@N00/3021933038/in/photostream/
- 60November 11th, 2008 6:33 am
Thanks Andrew and Smashing Editorial Team. I am really honored to see my photo (Niagara Falls at Night) being featured here (twice). Cheers!!!
See more of my photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/olvwu/ - 61November 11th, 2008 7:16 am
Very nice Pictures, I love them but I have to say they are so…. unreal. I see a lot of PS
- 62November 11th, 2008 4:26 pm
Thank you a lot !!
- 63November 11th, 2008 4:53 pm
5/10 SM
Some very nice pics in here. But also some VERY photoshop heavy pics, and also a lot of the pics have a very amateur quality to them imho. The ones that did stand out to me are very beautiful.
- 64November 11th, 2008 5:11 pm
WoW! So many new desktop pics!
- 65November 11th, 2008 9:36 pm
Lovely, thanks for the photos.
- 66November 12th, 2008 11:11 am
Great photography. Good work keep it up
- 67November 12th, 2008 8:18 pm
hdr is lame, those images all look shopped, unoriginal, and over-saturated, unrealistic.
get a film camera, learn how to use it. put down the computer, nerds.
- 68November 12th, 2008 8:23 pm
These images are *horrible* examples of night photography. I agree with the person above, hdr is terrible. Anyone can take a fantasy picture with an expensive digital and some hdr software. Composition, style, and content are lacking in almost every one of these images.
Even Stieglitz would have hated this crap.
- 69November 13th, 2008 8:14 am
Some of these are good. A lot of them are pretty boring. Stick to design articles, Smashing.
- 70November 13th, 2008 8:47 am
claro
- 71November 14th, 2008 1:41 am
Troy Paiva is the Best! thanx for sharing! Beautiful images!
- 72November 15th, 2008 11:35 am
ok men!
- 73
- 74November 18th, 2008 5:36 am
nice nice…. i like them
please check mine night shots :
- 75November 18th, 2008 10:01 am
some really nice examples of nightography displayed here – bob west, troy and toby are some of my definite faves. a few others were certainly missed however:
—-
chris drost aka n+s (Canada)Victor VonSalza (USA)
a crazy well produced shot
——Andreas Reinhold (germany)
longexposures and nightography
—— - 76November 19th, 2008 7:22 am
outstanding prortionate compositions great enthusiastic approaches towards cliking subject s wel done
- 77November 19th, 2008 8:04 am
my nightphotography inspiration for today. stunning work. keep it up.
cheers peter - 78November 22nd, 2008 5:06 pm
beautiful
- 79November 28th, 2008 5:14 am
I dig the Aurora Borealis photos.
- 80December 25th, 2008 1:17 pm
tung qa po ban si je aje mir
- 81January 16th, 2009 5:13 pm
TODAS LAS IMAGENS ESTAN CHIDAS
- 82January 19th, 2009 2:30 pm
I hope these are to your liking as well:
Link [gallery.me.com]
Click any thumbnail to see slideshow.
- 83February 25th, 2009 6:49 am
cool ;)
- 84February 27th, 2009 7:59 pm
gile bener………………….!!
- 85March 4th, 2009 3:54 am
~uapik tenan…
i love most of those pics…
keep it up.. - 86March 19th, 2009 6:31 am
all theses pictures are great. i like the fireworks alot.
- 87
- 88June 8th, 2009 1:43 pm
Beautiful pictures, thanks.
Now I just want to try a few tonight, we have a full moon in California… - 89July 15th, 2009 3:06 am
oh my god,mind blowing pictures!!!amazing lens and camera!! love all of them….great job!
- 90August 28th, 2009 3:29 pm
Amazing! Love the pictures.
- 91October 21st, 2009 7:12 am
Very cool collection. Its hard to find good photography for something specific on the web. I’m looking for a good photograph of a store or restaurant at night and found this.
- 00
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I love the “car”-picture! Nice collection!