Night-time Photography

My previous phone was an LG G6.  It was a great phone, and had a really good camera… but night-time or dark photos was a real challenge for it to say the least.  With my Pixel 4 XL, I can now decent if now capture decent if not great looking photos at dusk even at midnight.  Understanding the limitations between shutter speed (stopping motion / sharpness of image), ISO (light sensitivity) and aperture (size of the opening to let light in and affects the depth of field), I know there is only so much you can do to take a great lowlight photo with a phone camera.  But add some digital image wizardry from Google, those limitations can be stretched.

Depending on the weight of your camera, the steadiness of your hands and the distance to your subject you will want 1/60 of a second or faster shutter speed to freeze movement and have sharp detail in the image.  These images were taken using Automatic, with a very slow shutter speed, wide open aperture and low ISO.

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LEFT: ƒ/1.73  Shutter: 1/26  ISO: 94
RIGHT:  ƒ/2.4  Shutter: 1/24  ISO: 110

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LEFT:  ƒ/1.73  Shutter:  1/24  ISO:  957
RIGHT:  ƒ/1.73  Shutter:  1/17  ISO: 1439

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LEFT:  ƒ/1.73  Shutter: 1/30  ISO: 253 – Feb 6pm indoor with Black Light
RIGHT:  ƒ/2  Shutter: 1/18  ISO: 5202 – March 8pm

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Random photos of the moon, no tripod.

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These two are also no tripod, but I used the in-camera brightness
slider (see image below) to darken the image to bring out the detail
of the bright Moon on May 9th at 6am.  I like the results.
LEFT: ƒ/2.4  Shutter: 1/156  ISO: 40
RIGHT:  ƒ/2.4  Shutter: 1/406  ISO40

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These are long exposure “Night Sight” pictures. 
LEFT: ƒ/1.73  Shutter: 16s  ISO: 217
RIGHT:  ƒ/1.73 Shutter: 13s  ISO: 293

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Trick Question:  What time of day was this photo taken?
Looks like a blue sky, but if you look close you can see stars.
Clear night with full moon makes this image look like mid day…
Not 11:30pm with no lights from the house.
ƒ/1.73  Shutter 12s  ISO157

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