How to Photograph the Artworks at the Amsterdam Light Festival?

  • Thomas van Loon
  • 🕐 6 min leestijd

The artworks at the Amsterdam Light Festival are best photographed with a low ISO value (100 to 400), a longer shutter speed, and a wide aperture. If you use a smartphone, night mode or portrait mode helps capture light effectively. The biggest challenge in night photography is overexposure caused by the bright light installations, combined with a dark environment. In this article, we answer the most frequently asked questions about photographing at the Amsterdam Light Festival, from camera settings to composition tips.

Which camera settings work best for night photography?

For night photography at the Amsterdam Light Festival, it’s best to use a low ISO (100 to 400), a shutter speed between 1 and 8 seconds, and an aperture of f/5.6 to f/11. This gives you enough light without the photo becoming grainy or overexposed. Use your camera in manual mode (M) for maximum control.

Night photography is all about balance. The light installations emit a lot of light, while the surroundings are dark. That contrast makes automatic settings unreliable. Set your camera to manual and experiment with these three settings:

  • ISO: Keep this as low as possible. ISO 100 to 400 produces the least noise. Only go higher if absolutely necessary.
  • Shutter speed: A longer shutter speed (1 to 8 seconds) lets in more light, but requires a tripod to prevent motion blur.
  • Aperture: A value between f/5.6 and f/11 gives you a sharp image with sufficient depth. A too-wide aperture (such as f/1.8) can overexpose the light sources.

Also set the white balance manually to “Tungsten” or “Cloudy” instead of automatic. Automatic white balance reacts erratically to colored light sources and gives your photo an unnatural tint. If possible, shoot in RAW format, so you have more room to adjust color and exposure in post-processing.

Do you need a tripod for the Amsterdam Light Festival?

A tripod is strongly recommended when photographing with a camera at the Amsterdam Light Festival. With the long shutter speeds that night photography requires, the slightest movement is enough to make a photo blurry. Without a tripod, it becomes difficult to capture sharp, detailed images of the light artworks.

If you’re walking along the installations on foot, a compact travel tripod or a gorillapod (a flexible mini tripod) is practical to bring along. You can place it on bridges, railings, or the ground. If you’re photographing from the water on a boat, a tripod is less stable due to the waves. In that case, it helps to shorten the shutter speed slightly and increase the ISO slightly as a compromise.

Don’t have a tripod with you? You can stabilize the camera by leaning it against a bridge, wall, or lamppost. Also use the self-timer (2 seconds) to prevent your own pressure on the shutter button from disturbing the photo.

How do you photograph light art without overexposure?

You prevent overexposure when photographing light art by metering the exposure on the brightest part of the artwork, shortening the shutter speed, or closing the aperture. Use spot metering instead of your camera’s average metering, so that you tune the exposure to the light source itself.

Many cameras and smartphones automatically overexpose because they try to compensate for the dark surroundings. This results in blown-out light sources with no detail. Here’s how to address that:

  • Set the exposure compensation to minus 1 to minus 2 stops (on your camera or smartphone).
  • Use the histogram display after each photo to check that the highlights are not blown out.
  • Take multiple shots at different exposures (bracketing function) and choose the best one afterwards.
  • Photograph at the right moment during the festival, shortly after sunset. There is still some residual light in the sky, which reduces the contrast between the artwork and the surroundings and makes overexposure easier to avoid.

With colorful installations, it helps to lower the vibrance setting in your editing software afterwards. This keeps the colors realistic and prevents you from losing detail in the brightest zones.

What are the best times to photograph during the festival?

The best time to photograph during the Amsterdam Light Festival is the so-called “blue hour,” the period of approximately 20 to 40 minutes after sunset. The sky still has a deep blue tint, the ambient light is soft, and the light artworks already show at their best. This gives your photos much more depth than in complete darkness.

The Amsterdam Light Festival takes place annually from November through January. In 2026, the edition begins at the end of November. The sun sets early then, around 4:30 to 5:00 PM. The blue hour therefore falls early in the evening, which is convenient if you also want to eat or do something else after photographing.

Later in the evening, after 8:00 PM, the surroundings are completely dark. This creates a more dramatic effect, but requires more precise settings and a sturdier tripod. The crowds also increase as the evening progresses, which limits your composition options but also yields interesting street photography with people as part of the image.

How do you take great photos of light art with a smartphone?

With a smartphone, you can take great photos of light art at the Amsterdam Light Festival by using night mode, manually lowering the exposure, and keeping the phone still or supported. Modern smartphones such as the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy perform surprisingly well in the dark, provided you consciously adjust the settings.

Practical tips for smartphone photography during the festival:

  • Night mode: Enable it if it doesn’t activate automatically. Night mode takes multiple shots and combines them into one sharp image.
  • Exposure control: Tap on the brightest part of the artwork on your screen and slide the exposure down using the slider (the sun icon).
  • Avoid zoom: Digital zoom significantly reduces image quality in the dark. It’s better to move closer.
  • Portrait mode: Also works for light installations and creates a beautiful blurred background when you’re close to the artwork.
  • Stabilization: Lean the phone against something solid or use a small smartphone holder on a mini tripod.

If you want to edit afterwards, use apps such as Lightroom Mobile or Snapseed. Increase the shadows, lower the highlights, and adjust the white balance for a more natural result.

Which composition techniques work well with light installations?

With light installations, the golden ratio, leading lines, and reflections in water work particularly well as composition techniques. Don’t always place the artwork in the center of the frame; instead, use the surroundings, the canals, and Amsterdam’s architecture as part of the composition.

A few techniques that make a difference:

  • Reflections in the water: Amsterdam’s canals beautifully reflect the light installations. Photograph low near the water for a symmetrical image with the installation and its mirror image.
  • Leading lines: Use bridges, quaysides, and canal edges to draw the eye toward the artwork.
  • Environmental framing: Photograph an installation through an arch, bridge, or opening in the buildings for a layered image.
  • People as scale: Add a person to the composition to emphasize the size of the installation. This also works well for conveying a sense of experience and atmosphere.
  • Leaving space: Give the artwork room to breathe in the composition. A busy background distracts; simplicity enhances the effect of the light.

If you’re photographing from the water, you have a unique advantage: you see the installations from an angle that most visitors don’t have. The official Amsterdam Light Festival route passes approximately 20 light artworks, and from a boat you can see many of those works from their most spectacular angle — reflected in the dark water of the canals.

How Rederij De Nederlanden helps you experience the festival to the fullest

Photography is one way to experience the Amsterdam Light Festival. If you want to make a full evening of it, with food, drinks, and the finest views of the light artworks, we offer various cruise options as an official Amsterdam Light Festival partner.

  • Custom Private Cruise: Fully tailored to your group. Your own boat, your own catering (from luxury snacks to a three-course dinner with an on-board chef), your own timing and boarding location. Suitable for larger groups or groups with specific wishes. From €250 per hour, minimum 2 hours.
  • Private Cruise Packages: Fixed arrangements with a clear price per person, including boat rental, skipper, crew, and catering. Easy to book for groups from 15 persons. For example the Drinks & Bites Cruise (1.5 hours, from €47.50 pp) or the Dinner Cruise with a three-course menu and on-board chef (2 hours, from €129.50 pp).
  • Shared Tickets: A shared cruise for couples, individual visitors, and small groups of up to 6 persons. The cruise lasts 75 minutes, follows the official route along the light artworks, has an English-speaking guide, and departs three times a day. Book directly online from €32 per person.

Our boats are covered and heated, so you can enjoy the experience comfortably even during the winter months. If you want to photograph the light installations from a unique angle on the water, a cruise with us is a special way to do so. View our Amsterdam Light Festival boat tours for an overview of all options, or take a look at our private boat arrangements if you want to cruise with your own group.

Would you like to know more or book a cruise right away? Contact us and we’ll be happy to help you put together the perfect evening on the water.

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