Insightful Tips from Photography Guru: Capture the Shimmering Nightscape of Hong Kong

Insightful Tips from Photography Guru: Capture the Shimmering Nightscape of Hong Kong

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Insightful Tips from Photography Guru: Capture the Shimmering Nightscape of Hong Kong

Our city’s landscape is constantly changing under rapid development with heritage buildings and old communities being demolished or re-developed. Photography is a way to record this change. Despite having been to many foreign countries, photographer Justin Law still believes that Hong Kong is the most beautiful city in the world, especially its nightscape. Let’s check out what insightful tips and tricks that help capture the city’s nightscape Justin has to share with us.
Photo by Justin Law
EOS 5D Mark IIIEF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM • 5s • f/8 • ISO 200

Unforgettable Beauty of Hong Kong’s Nightscape

Justin started out with photography because of a fish tank landscape decoration. He bought a digital camera and started learning in order to photograph his own work of planted aquarium. Justin is now a freelance photographer specializing in landscape and portrait. Being a media person, he gets a lot of chances to photograph abroad, and is more passionate in landscape photography than portrait if he has to make a choice. We can see many sunset and nightscape photos on his Facebook fanpage “Justin Law Photography”. Speaking of the most memorable night scene, Justin said, “Hong Kong’s nightscape is the best! I have no doubt about it. Even the famous Bund of Shanghai is far less attractive. I’ve also photographed Japan’s nightscape but it’s still not as good as Hong Kong’s!”
Photographed at Lugard Road, The Peak

Photo by Justin Law
EOS 5D Mark IIIEF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM • 8s • f/9 • ISO 100

A Bird’s-Eye View of the Flickering City Lights

Offering unobstructed view of Victoria Harbour, Lugard Road at The Peak is a famous nightscape shooting spot in Hong Kong. This is also a favorite place to Justin. “Lugard Road is indeed an excellent shooting location. A high vantage point on Victoria Peak, it offers sweeping view of both sides of Victoria Harbour from one single location. Once I was there and came across a beautiful sea of clouds. So I brought my equipment and walked over to Lugard Road to take photos. It was surprising and an interesting experience to me to discover that crowds of people were shooting there and we had to stand in three rows.”

To capture Hong Kong’s nightscape from more distinctive angles, Justin suggested some convenient urban locations like the parking lot at Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, Choi Tak Estate in Kowloon Bay and Devil’s Peak in Yau Tong. “If you don’t mind to walk a bit, you should go to the summits like Tai Mo Shan or Braemar Hill, as the scenery of Victoria Harbour is even more spectacular when viewed from a higher point.”
We can include Lion Rock in the composition when shooting from Choi Tak Estate to add depth to the photo

Photo by Justin Law
EOS 5D Mark IIIEF 17-40mm f/4L USM • 30s • f/14 • ISO 100

Explore Different Ways of Shooting to Reveal the Night’s Distinctive Beauty

Nightscape is a kind of landscape photography. The use of an ultra-wide angle lens can help bring out the magnificence of the night scene. For more one-of-a-kind results, we can try shooting with a telephoto lens and search for more interesting composition from a high vantage point. “For me, I especially like to play with repeating patterns or geometrical forms in the composition. Besides, we can try more special ways of shooting to create photos that are more fun to look at, such as using slow-speed shutters to photograph traffic light traces or multiple exposures.”
Photo by Justin Law
EOS 700DEF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM • 6s • f/16 • ISO 100
This photo looks more interesting by combining double exposures with bokeh effect

Photo by Justin Law
EOS 5D Mark IVEF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM • 5s • f/9 • ISO 100
For camera’s settings, Justin would use a low ISO setting to minimize image noise as well as to shoot in RAW or HDR to fully utilize the camera’s Dynamic Range so as to reveal more image details and greater gradation of color and brightness. “When taking nightscape photos, I would use an aperture from f/8 to f/14 to ensure sharpness and that the landscape is well within depth of field. But this is not an absolute rule. It all depends on what aperture of the lens that provides the best imaging.” Justin added, “It’s also important that you maintain precise leveling in your composition, as that’s the basic in landscape photography. I always pay attention to maintain a precise horizon level when doing the framing through the viewfinder.”

Shoot at the Right Time and with the Right Equipment

Nightscape shooting actually starts before the sky turns into total darkness. Justin is fond of sunset especially the Magic Hour when the colors in the sky are rich and start to transform. Besides, more image details can be revealed in the background to make the photo even more enjoyable. Some of us might be concerned about the weather change when doing nightscape photography, but in Justin’s view there are always opportunities to shoot. “Of course we can’t shoot on a rainy day, but a thin mist won’t harm. We have to be aware of the change of seasons though. For example, we can photograph fog and sea of clouds in Spring. Summer is the perfect season to take landscape photos as the sky is usually clear and vivid with very little smog.”
Justin loves to shoot after sunset and before total darkness when the colors in the sky are rich, making more attractive photos

Photo by Justin Law
EOS 5D Mark IIIEF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM • 5s • f/8 • ISO 200
Speaking of equipment, Justin opted for lightweight ones and had only one camera, two lenses, a tripod and shutter release cable in his gear bag. EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM that meet the need of wide angle to telephoto shooting are his commonly used equipment. “If I plan to photograph stars, I would consider bringing a large aperture lens. For merely nightscape shooting, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM that offers versatile focal range and high image quality is sufficient enough. A telephoto lens can help achieve more distinctive composition and is useful in creating photos with geometrical effects.”
A tight framing using a telephoto lens can help compress the densely populated buildings in the composition, resulting in photo that captures the hustle and bustle of city

Photo by Justin Law
EOS 5D Mark IVEF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM • 8s • f/9 • ISO 100
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