Ever wondered how to achieve those impressive nighttime pictures with different coloured lights spread across the shot?

My colleague Ciana and I recently went along on a nighttime photography course to shed some light on photographing the city of London at night.

The course took place on a March evening and we met near Big Ben, just after the sun had gone down. Our friendly guide, Katrina, outlined the evening and explained some photography basics to get us started. As you can see, our first attempt wasn’t the best!

We played about with the settings on the camera, navigating the menu on our SLR, with our guide on hand to help when we got confused.

She explained which manual settings work best at night, giving advice on what ISO to use and what effects could be created with different shutter exposure.

The longer the shutter is open when a picture is taken, the more light is taken into the camera – meaning slower shutter speed is the best for nighttime photography when the light is low.

We set up our tripods in a great vantage point and got snapping when the traffic moved, creating exciting light effects across our pictures.

The London Eye was lit up and looked incredible. When we headed down to the Thames and set up our cameras again, Katrina showed us how to create different and fun effects in our shots.

An extremely slow shutter speed made it look like the London Eye was spinning quickly and adjusting the zoom when the picture was being taken gave an impressive sun effect.

We also had some fun using the torch on our mobile phones to create lines of light (see the result in the middle photo).

When we moved on to London Bridge, we used our torch again, but this time to try and write our names in the shot. We think we did OK for beginners!

It was such a great evening, with lots to learn and some incredible scenery to capture using new techniques. We came away with lots of shots we were really pleased with, and the knowledge to let loose on future evening photography trips.

Katrina was so friendly and always happy to help with adjusting settings and helping us to refocus when we switched locations.

This is a great evening out for anyone with an interest in photography or who wants to learn more about their camera. Whether it’s evening photography you want, animal photography or a full day of learning, we have a great range of snap happy experiences.