The Nikon d5300 is a very popular DSLR camera from the Nikon range that just keeps on going from strength to strength amongst the photography community due to it offering some excellent levels of performance for a low, budget-friendly price tag. Due to the d5300 seeing constant strong sales amongst the community while currently already having a huge core customer base, we see d5300 users reaching out with questions based around pretty much every topic that you could think off.
Although we see a large range of different questions being asked, we are seeing more and more photographers asking for tips and tricks for getting better at Nikon d5300 night photography. With night photography seeing a surge in its popularity that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, we only expect its popularity to continue growing in the future and more and more people getting involved in it with their Nikon d5300.
Due to this, we have decided to focus on our top tips and tricks to try and help our readers improve their night photography image quality with their d5300. These should be able to offer you the best improvement with the lowest possible effort or cost and drastically help get your photographs up to scratch. The d5300 is a great little DSLR that is definitely capable of some excellent nighttime photographs and the majority of the issues that we see holding people back is down to user error, camera settings, or incorrect equipment.
Consider A Free Night Photography Course
Many people who use the Nikon d5300 are entry level photographs who go about their night photography sessions as if it is a day time session and use the incorrect photography principals from the get go. Thankfully though, all of our readers can claim themselves a two month premium trial of Skillshare without having to spend a single cent. This is a great little offer that so many people fail to take advantage of but it lets you enroll on the highest rated nighttime photography course on skillshare that most people have to pay for.
The course has one of the best reputations amongst photographers looking to improve their night photography skillset and has a ton of excellent reviews on the skillshare platform too. The videos in the course do a great job of helping to explain a bunch of night photography principals and are also jam packed with a bunch of excellent entry level and intermediate tips and tricks.
Get Yourself A Lens That Is Ideal For Night Photography
A large number of the Nikon d5300 owners who we see reaching out for advice on improving their nighttime photography skillset are usually still using their 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens. Although this really is a solid lens for a large number of different niches with a solid little focal length, the aperture can definitely end up causing you issues when it comes to capturing high quality photographs at night. This is why we try to get our readers interested in improving their night photography to upgrade their lens if possible as it can offer an excellent update to your camera accessories.
In our opinion, our readers who own the d5300 should look towards the Rokinin 14mm as the Nikon variant of the lens will natively mount to your Nikon d5300 while also offering some of the best image quality you are going to be able to get in the price range. It is an entry-level lens that just keeps on going from strength to strength while growing its excellent reputation amongst photographers. Although the lens is ideal for night photograph, it is also ideal for a large number of other photography niches that need a great little wide angle lens.
That said though, there are a large number of solid little lenses for the Nikon d5300 that can drastically improve your image quality for capturing photographs at night that all come with an entry level price tag. In our opinion, if you are using the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens then upgrading to a better lens is probably going to be one of the best things you can do.
Invest In A Suitable Tripod
If you are using the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens with your Nikon d5300 and you are unable to upgrade your camera lens then you should really be looking to add a tripod to your collection of camera accessories. Although many of our readers who own the d5300 do already have a decent little tripod in their kit, the image stabilization offered by a tripod is able to overcome some of the weaknesses of the lens and help to sharpen up the image quality that you are able to capture.
Due to the prices of carbon fiber manufacturing coming down over the last few years, you are able to get your hands on something like the Zomei z699c for a very budget friendly price tag. This should easily be able to help offer you some solid image stabilization and prevent the blur that is common with the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, especially if you are holding your Nikon d5300 in your hands when capturing your photographs.
Get Yourself A Remote Trigger
If you are planning on working in the astrophotography sub-niche of night photography then theres a good chance that you will probably be using a super zoom lens with over 300mm of focal range. When working at these high zoom ranges, you can often have issues with your image quality bluring up due to the ever so slight vibration of you touching your camera to trigger your shutter to capture the photograph.
This is why we always recommend that any of our readers who are considering trying their hand at working with these higher zoom ranges add a cheap remote control to their camera accessories. This removes the requirement for you to actually touch your Nikon d5300 to capture the photograph meaning that there are no vibrations and can help to keep your images as sharp as possible without you having to break the bank.
Take Advantage Of The Landscape
One problem that we see people new to nighttime photography make time and time again is that they will often not use the local landscape in their area or the area that they are photographing to their advantage. The image above shows a solid example of how you are able to use mountains and trees to add both scale and depth to the moon that is the main feature of the photograph. Although mountains can be rare in urban areas, tall buildings can work just as well and depending on its location, a bridge can also serve the same purpose.
You don’t have to use the moon as your main focus either, you are able to use stars or even star trails if you want to try something a little more advanced to add that extra whoa factor to your photograph. This can be a quick and easy way to add that additional layer to your photograph to make it stand out on social media and help you draw attention to your work for landmarks that are photographed on a regular basis.
Play Around With Your Camera Settings
The Nikon d5300 offers some great customization considering the price point of the camera and the Nikon range do often offer a higher level of customisation on their entry level cameras when compared to other brands out there. That said though, so many people just a large number of people seem to just Google nighttime settings for the Nikon d5300 and go with that without ever testing it.
Each location has its own unique lighting and features so you should always be tweaking and testing the settings that you are using with your cameras. We have lost count of the number of photographers who have issues with their camera settings and just input them direct from the internet without actually testing them. Now, to be clear, we are not saying don’t use a basic configuration off the internet with your Nikon d5300 for your night photography, just be sure to test it and play around with it as it will likely need a number of tweaks for the best image quality possible.
Optimise Your Aperture
If you are using the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens with your Nikon d5300 then you are pretty limited on the aperture that you are able to effectively use at night to get anything close to a decent image quality. If you have upgraded your lens to something more suitable though, you can usually play around with the aperture range on the lens towards its faster end to see what kind of change that will have on the quality of the photographs that you are able to capture.
This is an under rated tip and tweaking the aperture can often result in a drastic change depending on the lens. We see so many people just dialing their aperture right up and sticking with it just presuming that it is going to be the best option for their Nikon d5300 without ever thinking of testing it and this is a huge mistake but unfortunately, very common.
Capture Your Photographs In RAW Format
The final tip that we have that is particularly helpful if you are using a sub-par lens for your Nikon d5300 night photography is to stop using JPEG and switch over to RAW. Not only can this result in an instant improvement in the image quality that you are able to capture due to the JPEG compression rate having a number of issues but it also gives you the best possible starting point for any post production editing.
If you are using a lens that is not suited to night photography then you will probably have to do at least some post production on it and RAW format for saving your photos offers the best potential base photograph for editing to improve it in post production. Although RAW photographs do take up a large amount of space, modern memory cards for your Nikon d5300 are cheap enough for you to stock up and the file size not be an issue.
