Take your best night mode photos on your phone with these pro tips

best phones with camera which you can buy today, you’ll be able to take really great photos even after the sun goes down. best phones of 2024 How iPhone 16 pro, Pixel 9 Pro And Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra have exceptional night photography modes that allow them to capture bright and clear images in low light conditions while Xiaomi 14 Ultra Seriously impressed us with night shots taken with the large sensor. Even more affordable phones like Pixel 8A have amazingly capable night photography skills.

Previously, this type of night photography required a DSLR camera on a tripod, allowing long exposures of several seconds. Modern phones can take excellent pictures at night without the need for any additional equipment. This is great because you don’t have to carry a heavy camera and tripod into town every time you want to take a beautiful photo after the sun goes down.

Get an image you like enough to print and hang it on your wall it’s not just a case of waiting until it’s dark and pulling out your phone. You’ll still have to put in some effort to take photos you’ll want to look back on years from now.

I have been a professional photographer for many years and often take images at night with my professional camera and phone. Here are my top tips for getting great images at night on any phone.

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1. Know how to activate night mode.

If your phone has a night mode, it’s important to make sure it’s actually activated before you start filming. On phones like the iPhone 16 series or other recent iPhone models, Night Mode automatically turns on when the phone detects that you’re in a low-light environment. Some Android phones also have automatic night modes, while others will require you to use certain night modes (on the Galaxy S24 line it’s simply called Night; on the Pixels it’s called Night Sight).

Different phones may have different options or naming conventions, so if you’re unsure how to use yours (or if your phone even has one), then a quick Google search for the model and “night mode” should answer your questions. Night modes are increasingly becoming a must-have feature on camera phones, so chances are if you bought a new phone in the last few years, it will have some sort of night mode built into it.

2. Look for the light

Although the latest iPhone and Galaxy phones can take amazing low-light photos, you still need to have some light in the frame to make the image convincing. So, going to the darkest part of the forest is unlikely to bring you good results. Instead, try heading to densely populated areas such as city centers, where you’ll find light sources in the form of street lights, storefronts, and maybe even holiday lighting during the holidays.

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3. Wait for your moment

Good city and street photography often includes a person as the subject, and night can be a great time to capture such images. When light is limited, you need to make sure the person is exactly where you want them to be, and this may require some patience.

For example, imagine you are filming a road illuminated by street lamps. Each lamp emits a pool of light, and when someone walks through it, they are temporarily illuminated before turning invisible again in the darkness. In this situation, I advise preparing the photo by placing your finger on the shutter button. It may take a few minutes to wait, but eventually someone will walk through that particular pool of light and you’ll be able to take a photo. Patience can really pay off.

4. Be resilient

While night modes on phones don’t require a tripod in the same way as multi-second exposures on a DSLR, you’ll still get the best results if you hold your phone as still as possible while shooting. If you don’t have a tripod with you, find a low wall, trash can, or something to mount your phone on while you take the photo.

If there is nothing nearby, you can help the phone steady by holding it firmly with both hands, holding it fairly close to your chest, and pressing your elbows to your stomach. This will help reduce natural hand shake and help produce a clearer image.

5. Use drive modes if you have them.

The Pixel 9 and 9 Pro (and the earlier Pixel 8 and 7 series) can take great regular photos at night, but they also have a long exposure mode that allows you to get some creative shots that would normally only be achievable with a tripod. While this mode works well during the day, blurring objects like waterfalls, it also works very well at night, especially for objects like cars driving down city streets.

Long shutter speeds blur the headlights and taillights, transforming them from static balls of light into ethereal lines snaking across the stage. To get this effect, you’ll need to use your phone’s motion mode and make sure your shutter speed is on. These long exposure photographs work best when you hold the camera steady and take a photo that includes both static objects (like buildings and street lights) and moving objects (like cars, buses, or cyclists). This may take some practice – and the results can be hit or miss – but when it works, it works very well and adds an extra creative element to your night shots.

However, not every phone has this as standard, and while there are some third-party apps that aim to replicate this, I haven’t found many that actually work or that come close to the quality I achieved with Pixels.

6. Edit your photos

As with any good photography, taking the photo is only half the battle; it’s how you edit it that can be the best way to turn it into a true work of art. I use Adobe Lightroom Mobile for most of my editing, but Google’s Snapseed is also very powerful and completely free for iOS and Android.

Night photos can be inherently dark, so you may want to start by increasing your exposure. Be careful: low-light images, even good night mode shots, will have image noise (fuzzy grain) that will look worse and worse the more you brighten the image. You may need to reduce some of the highlights (especially if you shot bright street lights) and increase the shadows a little to balance things out. Pay attention to details and make sure you don’t go too far.

From here on out, it will all come down to what you think looks good, so spend some time playing around with the tools available and see what you can come up with. Personally, I find that night scenes can often look great in black and white, as the natural contrast of bright light and dark background lends itself well to a monochrome conversion.