There’s something special about the way cities look at night. Once the day draws to an end, our favorite cityscapes come alive and we often find ourselves itching to capture the scenes in front of us with our smartphones. But without a camera able to take on the nuances and challenges of nighttime photography, this undertaking can be a fruitless one.

The Galaxy S10+’s Night Mode* is the perfect tool for capturing photos after the sun has gone down. Accessible from the camera app, Night Mode can be manually toggled on and off whenever you wish to use it in the Camera app’s sliding menu. Compared with photos taken without it switched on, Night Mode minimizes the noise from a dark environment to enhance a photo’s details and corrects colors, along with other image qualities, to make the resulting low-light shots more vivid.

Hands On Galaxy S10 Night Mode

Samsung Newsroom traveled to some of the top landmarks around Seoul after dark to see how the Galaxy S10+’s Night Mode can bring out details of a nighttime scene, even in low light conditions.

A Palace for All Hours of the Day

Deoksu Palace is one of Seoul’s four ancient palaces, drawing visitors keen to take in its striking architecture day and night.

Junghwajeon, one of the royal courts of Deoksu Palace, was built in 1902 and features a remarkable golden exterior with intricate patterns, colors and textures that are not easy to capture at night. However, by simply turning on Night Mode on the Galaxy S10+, all the courts’ details come to life, thanks to Night Mode’s intelligent gradation adjustment that brings vibrancy to pictures taken after dark. Try using a tripod to level the top and bottom of the frame for an even better shot of the ancient palace that captures every striking detail.

While the Galaxy range’s Night Mode function previously only automatically activated when conditions were very dark (below 1lux), the Galaxy S10+’s Night Mode now allows users to get the most out of it as they can manually switch it on or off and use it for lighter nighttime scenes.

Stand-Out Statues Amid City Life

Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza, often bustling with pedestrians, is a place where the traditional and the modern come together. Neon lights from the buildings that flag it, along with the bright lights of passing cars, make up a vibrant patchwork of color during the nighttime, but, in pictures, can easily drown out the statues at the heart of the Plaza.

Hands On S10 Night Mode_GwanghwamunHands On S10 Night Mode_Gwanghwamun

Thanks to the Galaxy S10+’s Night Mode, the statue that sits right at the heart of downtown Seoul (Admiral Yi Sun-sin) can be captured without any compromise to the eclectic lighting of their surroundings. Night Mode lowers camera sensitivity and decreases shutter speed, capturing bright lighting well despite the high contrast. Paired with the super Ultra-Wide lens of the Galaxy S10 line, Night Mode provides after-dark shots that can capture everything in the camera’s field of vision.

When Urban Meets Rural

Naksan Park in northern Seoul features vistas that include a striking contrast between the area’s historic fortress wall, idyllic mountain views and the nighttime bustle of downtown Seoul.

Hands On S10 Night Mode_Naksan ParkHands On S10 Night Mode_Naksan Park

But Galaxy S10+ users need not worry about losing any detail when capturing close or wide shots of scenes with such subject contrast. Without Night Mode switched on, distinct features of the landscape would be lost, with city lights obscuring lower contrast areas such as the striking mountainous terrains in the far distance. Just by switching Night Mode on, you can maximize the visibility of your shot thanks to its intelligent noise reduction that balances different areas of contrast and light to cleanly bring out a shot’s every aspect – even in low-light conditions.

Sunset By the River

The Hangang Riverside Park lights up as the sun goes down, and the variety of different lighting attractions on display reflect in the Han River for a dazzling effect. Yet capturing this display of light from a variety of different light sources, from the natural light of the fading sun to the colorful façade of the Hangang Floating Islands, can present a challenge when looking to achieve balance in twilight pictures.

Hands On S10 Night Mode_main_Banpo Bridge
Hands On S10 Night Mode_main_Banpo Bridge

With the Galaxy S10+’s Night Mode, pictures emerge more vibrantly thanks to its auto color-correcting software, resulting in bright and clean shots that negotiate all the different sources of light in a shot. For an even more vivid take, users can alter Night Mode’s settings for lower exposure correction to capitalize on the darker aspects of a scene – without losing any of the color or detail.

Bird’s Eye Views

Seoul’s Namsan Tower sits at an impressive 479.7 meters above sea level, offering visitors a scenic, near-panoramic view of the city which comes to life as the sunsets.

Hands On S10 Night Mode_Namsan
Hands On S10 Night Mode_Namsan

One of Namsan Tower’s best offerings to visitors is the opportunity it presents for you to capture shots of the sprawling city that lies below it – as well as of the striking tower itself against a diverse backdrop. But cloudy weather conditions add more disruptive photographic noise to pictures that obscures the details of a shot, especially for long-distance vistas.

Just by sliding Night Mode on in the Camera app, Galaxy S10+ users can take shots that bring out the vivid colors of this cityscape at night thanks to Night Mode’s intelligent noise reduction capabilities. Whether you are looking to photograph a landmark or achieve a birds-eye view of a city, the Galaxy S10+’s Night Mode optimizes color and contrast balance to striking effect – even in less-than-ideal weather conditions.

*New Night Mode of the Galaxy S10 line can be activated after latest round of software updates. Availability may vary by market and wireless carrier.

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