Times Square Photos : 6 Top Tips
On vacation in New York City? How can you create the best photos during the limited time you have when visiting Times Square in New York City?
After all, your vacation memories are precious, make them look as good as possible! Here are 6 tips for the enthusiast who is shooting with a budget model DSLR or advanced consumer digital camera.
1. Shoot at or near sunset for the most colorful Times Square Photos.
While Times Square is colorful all day, you do not get the full impact of all those mega-wattage billboards until the sky has darkened a bit. This is when Times Square literally begins to glow. However, keep this in mind: Do not wait until the sky is completely dark. Shoot during twilight, when the sky is alive with warm blue and violet sunset hues. Sunset and twilight colors add pleasing background color and sparkle to your Times Square photos. In fact, your most exciting photos will be captured during the sunset / twilight time of evening.
There is another good reason to shoot at twilight: The extremely wide dynamic range of light to dark tones in Times Square will cause exposure problems when shooting under a completely dark sky. The blackness of a dark sky against the bright lights of Times Square often means that many of those billboards will be overexposed by the camera’s meter, turning colors pure white. The best solution is to shoot while there is lingering color in the sky. This creates a more balanced exposure, insuring that most of the bright billboard colors will be captured faithfully.
I shoot all of my best photos of Times Square within a half hour of sunset. The colors glow in a way that cannot be captured at any other time of day.
2. Use a tripod for the highest quality Times Square photos.
This is the best accessory to have if you plan to enlarge your photos to 8×10 or larger. A tripod will allow you to create the sharpest possible photos at twilight. It makes possible the use of the camera’s lowest ISO setting for best possible image quality, and slower shutter speeds required by low light conditions. Stopping down the lens to F:8 or more insures the sharpest depth-of-field (sharpness through the full depth of the scene captured). It is cumbersome to carry, but essential for the highest quality images.
This recommendation comes with a qualifier. Officially, tripods used by commercial film crews and photographers in Times Square Plaza require a permit. According to the New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, a commercial crew is defined as two or more people requiring more than ten minutes to setup and shoot either film or camera on tripod. Even as a non-professional, you may occasionally be asked by an officer to stop using your tripod during crowded events or for security reasons. The best thing to do is to simply be polite, pick up your tripod and move on. You can always shoot from another street or vantage point in the area.
3. Use the Image Stabilization (IS) or Vibration Reduction (VR) Feature in your Camera for Sharper Hand-held Photos.
If you are shooting handheld, you can generally get pretty sharp photos at sunset if you use the IS or VR feature of your camera. In fact, I consider this an essential camera feature if you are not using a tripod (tip #2). Using a budget priced Nikon D60 DSLR, I have created sharp hand-held evening Times Square images at speeds as low as 1/10th second with the VR function enabled at the lowest ISO setting (ISO 100). In-camera stabilization is a must-have feature if you want to get great Times Square shots while traveling light. Also, you can increase the ISO setting of most modern DSLR and better “point and shoot” cameras to 400 ISO or 800 ISO for faster shutter speeds while keeping image noise at low levels.
4. Use a polarizer filter in sunset Times Square photos.
The largest benefit of using a polarizer in Times Square is reduced reflections. The myriad of reflective surfaces and light sources in Times Square bounces light in all directions. A polarizer can add perceived sharpness to a photo by minimizing reflections and enhancing contrast. Try shooting with and without a polarizer to see what gives the most pleasing results. A circular polarizer on a DSLR camera can be rotated until you see the desired result in your viewfinder or liveview screen. Just be aware that a polarizer slows down your shutter speed because it absorbs some light entering the lens. If you use a polarizer at sunset for hand-held images, it increases the risk of blurred photos. It is better used with a tripod.
5. Shoot Times Square photos in camera RAW mode.
The range of light extremes in Times Square go from bright white highlights to deep black shadows. Shooting in raw mode allows you to extract the best possible quality from your images in post-processing. Typically, I find Highlight Recovery and Brightness adjustments essential for creating the best looking images. You also have the ability to tweak White Balance for getting the best possible color. Developing basic RAW image post processing skills is not difficult to learn. I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 for those who are starting to take photography seriously. It is a powerful but easy-to-use software.
6. Shoot lots of photos.
The crazy shapes, colors and movement seen in Times Square demand creative compositions. Go beyond the standard snapshot views. Shoot at an angle, capture details, look for pleasing abstracts of pure color. Capture the blur of motion and traffic light trails with slower shutter speeds. Shoot plenty of images. Your best photos may not be the most carefully planned shots!
That’s it! These easy to implement suggestions will help you to create memorable images of this exciting destination. Enjoy your trip to Times Square, New York City. I hope these tips help you to capture wonderful memories!
Times Square Photo Gallery. Author: Donald Peterson, http://petersonlive.com
Tags: New York, times square pictures
