Shooting for the stars

By Cathy Hay

Whether looking for inspiration or a unique print to add flair to a room, the Night Photography show at the Freeborn County Arts Initiative will light up your interest.

The public is invited to attend the show open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at 224 S. Broadway. There is no admission fee and light refreshments will be served.

The show opens Tuesday and closes Dec. 31. The gallery is open to the public 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

“If people are curious because we’re new, they might want to check it out,” said Teresa Kauffmann, a local photographer who serves on the board of the Arts Initiative.

For the show, the Arts Initiative issued a call to artists for night photography entries and received about 60.

A panel of three photographers from the Albert Lea area — not in the show — reviewed the entries without knowing who took the photos. The judges ranked the photos on certain criteria, with the top 30 selected for the show from the following photographers: Brooke Boelter of Chatfield, Julie Bronson of Glenville, Micah Eastvold, formerly of Albert Lea, Teresa Kauffmann of Albert Lea, Marla Klein of St. Paul, Dustin Petersen of Albert Lea, Ward Robinson of Austin and Sue Vruno of Eagan.

As their work shows, night photography is far from dark and dull. As with all photography, the challenge is capturing the light to record an image. Digital cameras now offer the technology to overcome many of the challenges of night photography.

For example, photographers can try several different settings without wasting expensive film and processing. Another bonus — they can see if they caught the shot right away. However, images can look brighter on a camera’s LED display than when printed so using a camera’s histogram is recommended. The histogram shows the distribution of tones captured, and whether image detail has been lost to blown-out highlights or blacked-out shadows.

In addition, ISOs — film speeds — have advanced with technology. In digital photography, ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the number, the less sensitive the camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations. However, the higher the ISO, the noisier or grainier the shots are.

For night shots, photographers may want to try setting their cameras for tungsten white balance instead of daylight. Shooting in RAW mode instead of JPG mode will allow more control to adjust colors later on a computer.

Long shutter speeds — 30 seconds and more — are the key to capturing enough light to record an image. The trick is to not catch so much light that it looks like day instead of night.

Kauffmann uses a technique called light painting to capture photos at night. This technique entails using a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, to capture an exposure.

“Since discovering light painting at a workshop, I’ve become fascinated with the process. I really enjoy going out and shooting in National Parks or even just out on a gravel road in Freeborn County. It’s a fun thing to do with friends — if nothing else, you have a lot of laughs,” she said.

Kauffmann uses a Brinkmann spotlight of 2 million candle watts of warm light. She must keep the spotlight moving at an angle to the subject while the shutter is open. She starts her settings at 30 seconds for exposure, ISO of 400 and an f-stop of eight.

“A tripod is an absolute must,” she said.

Kauffmann will be offering a light painting photography class in 2015.

 

If you go 

What: Night Photography show

Where: Freeborn County Arts Initiative, 224 S. Broadway

When: Tuesday-Dec. 31; open house, 5-7 p.m. Thursday

How much: Free