Take your best night mode photos on your phone with these pro tips
The best camera phones you can buy today can take truly stunning photos, even after the sun has set. The best phones of 2024, like the iPhone 16 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, have exceptional night photography modes that allow them to capture bright, sharp images in low light, while Xiaomi’s 14 Ultra seriously impressed us with night shots of its large sensor. Even more affordable phones like the Pixel 8A come equipped with amazingly capable nighttime photography skills.
This type of night photography used to require a DSLR on a tripod to take long shutter speeds of a few seconds. Today’s phones can capture beautiful looking images at night without the need for additional equipment. That’s great because it means you don’t have to lug a heavy camera and tripod into town every time you want to take a nice photo after sunset.
Samsung’s recent Galaxy S range of flagship phones have great night mode cameras.
Getting an image you like enough to print and hang on your wall isn’t just a matter of waiting until dark and pulling out your phone. You’ll still have to put in some work to take photos you’ll want to look back on for years to come.
I have been a professional photographer for years and regularly take photos at night with my professional camera and my phone. Here then are my top tips on how to get 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 shooting. On phones like the iPhone 16 series or other recent iPhones, Night Mode turns on automatically when the phone detects that you are in a low-light situation. Some Android phones also have automatic night modes, while others require you to use specific night shooting modes (on the Galaxy S24 series it’s just called Night; on the Pixels it’s Night Sight).
Different phones may have different options or naming conventions, so if you’re not sure 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. to answer. Night modes have increasingly become a must-have feature on camera phones, so chances are if you’ve bought a new phone in the last few years it has some sort of night mode built in.
This nighttime photo is made all the more vibrant and dazzling by these incredible Christmas lights adorning the columns.
2. Look for the light
While recent iPhones and Galaxy phones can capture stunning images in low light, you still need to do that some light in the shot to create a compelling image. So entering the darkest part of a forest is not likely to give you good results. Instead, try going to densely populated areas like city centers, where you’ll find sources of light in the form of street lamps, shop windows and maybe even some festive lighting during the holidays.
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3. Wait for your moment
Great urban and street photography often involves a person being the subject of your shot, and nighttime can be a great time to take those photos. If light is limited, you have to make sure that person is exactly where you want them, and that can take some patience.
Both images in night mode are highly dependent on timing; on the left was the lone figure walking in the large pool of light on the ground. On the right it was about capturing the cyclist passing by.
For example, imagine taking a photo on a road lit by street lamps. Each lamp emits a pool of light, and as a person walks through it, he or she is temporarily illuminated before effectively becoming invisible in the darkness again. In that situation, my advice is to have your shot ready with your finger hovering over the shutter button. It may take a few minutes of waiting, but eventually someone will walk right through that pool of light and you can take your photo. Patience can really pay off.
4. Keep yourself stable
Even though night modes on phones don’t require a tripod, as you would with a multi-second exposure on a DSLR, you’ll get the best results if you hold the phone as still as possible while you take the photo. If you don’t have a tripod with you, look around for a low wall, trash can, or something else you can prop your phone on while you take the photo.
When there’s nothing nearby, you can steady the phone by holding it firmly in both hands, holding it fairly close to your chest, and pulling your elbows toward your stomach. This will help reduce some of the natural wobble in your hands and can make all the difference in getting a sharper image.
A long exposure night shot taken with the Pixel 7 Pro.
5. Use motion modes, if you have them
The Pixel 9 and 9 Pro (as well as the earlier Pixel 8 and 7 series) can take excellent regular photos at night, but they also have a long exposure mode that lets you take creative photos that would normally only be possible with the help of a tripod. While the mode works well during the day to blur things like waterfalls, it also works great at night, especially for subjects like cars driving through city streets.
The long exposure blurs the headlights and taillights, turning them from static orbs into ethereal lines that weave their way through the scene. You’ll need to use the phone’s Motion Mode to get this effect and make sure Long Exposure is enabled. Such long exposure photos work best if you hold the camera still and take a photo with both static subjects (such as buildings and street lamps) and moving subjects (such as cars, buses or cyclists). It may take some practice – and the results can be hit and 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 come close to the quality I achieved with the Pixels.
I love this black and white edit of a night photo. The natural contrast of bright street lights against the shadowy backgrounds translates well to black and white.
6. Edit your photos
Like any good photo, taking the photo is only half the story; it’s the way you edit it that can be the biggest 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 on iOS and Android.
Night photos can be naturally dark, so you may want to start by increasing the exposure. Be careful: Low-light shots, even good shots in night mode, have image noise (a faint grain) that will look increasingly worse as you brighten the image. You may need to tone down some highlights (especially if you’ve captured bright street lighting) and boost the shadows a bit to balance things out. Pay attention to the details and make sure you don’t go too far.
From there it’s all 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 often look great as black and white images, as the natural contrast of bright light and dark backgrounds lends itself well to a monochrome conversion.
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