Low Light Photography Techniques and Camera Options

Images of night scenes never fail to impress. Night-time images have great ambiance, something which is often absent in flat, bright, daylight photos. Skillful low-light photos can look simply incredible and if you're looking for ways to make money from photography, selling canvas prints of night scenes is one way to achieve this. They are very popular.

The main aim of this article is to highlight:

Nikon D3000

- Night photography settings and techniques
- Good low light cameras on the market

Low Light Photography Techniques and Camera Options

1. Exposure: The basics

Given the amount of available light, there is a "right" exposure, where just enough light is allowed onto the camera's sensor to make an accurate representation of the scene - i.e. preventing the picture from looking too bright or "blown out" because there was too much light, or at the other end, under-exposing the picture through allowing in insufficient light.

Three camera settings can be altered to control exposure:

a. Aperture (or f-stop): Here is an inverse relationship - Low f-stop values mean more light is being let in
b. Shutter speed: At slower shutter speeds the sensor is exposed to light for a longer period of time
c. ISO / Sensor Sensitivity: At higher ISO settings the sensor is more sensitive to light

For any given scene, there can be more than one combination of the above settings that will give you a correct exposure. Your camera's light meter tells you how to combine them. For instance, if you choose to fix the ISO and aperture, the camera will set the correct shutter speed. Or when you select ISO and shutter speed values, the aperture will be set accordingly.

If you set the camera to "auto" all 3 of these variables are set by the camera. Good night photos, however, require that we do more than shoot on "auto"

2.Night photography settings

Note: The one night shooting option omitted here is using a flash - but this is a completely different kind of concept for a "night scene" and I'll deal with flash photography on its own in a later article.

a. Shoot "wide open" with a fast lens

This is a good option for street photographers who want to capture low-light (but perhaps not night-time) street photos.

Use a good lens which can go down to f/2.8 or even f/1.4 - i.e. a lens that can let in a lot of light! This will give you a nice shallow depth of field which adds dimension to your photos, whilst allowing you to shoot at decent shutter speeds (around 1/60th of a second). At slower shutter speeds you'll most likely get blurry images unless you use a tripod.

This is an essential technique if you have an older camera that only delivers good quality at low ISO settings. Still, even when you have a good high-ISO camera you may want to exploit the nice shallow depth of focus brought about by shooting at a lower ISO and wide-open aperture

b. Use a tripod and expose for longer

This is ideal if you want to capture a night scene of a cityscape, for instance, where your subject isn't moving, so you have time to set things up.

Ensure a wider depth of field by choosing a medium aperture such as f/8, fix the camera to your tripod and leave the shutter speed selection to the camera. Depending on the light in the scene it could be one second, several seconds or, for seriously low ISO settings, even several minutes.

Top tip: The best time to take photos of cityscapes is just after sunset, when there is still a little bit of ambient blue in the sky. If you're using in-camera metering, point the lens at the sky to determine the correct exposure - you'll be delighted by the good exposure you get in the end.

c. High ISO photos

This is especially useful (and sometimes unavoidable) if you're taking photos at an indoors or night-time event where flash photography isn't allowed, or perhaps you don't want to use a flash because it will disturb your subject and ruin the photo.

You can force the camera to be more light-sensitive by increasing the ISO. This opens up the possibility of getting sharp photos in dark circumstances without having to use a flash or tripod. Why? You'll be able to shoot at faster shutter speeds, which helps keep the images sharp..

Take note: There's no such thing as a free lunch. Increasing the ISO means that you are more likely to get a noisy / grainy photo.

3. Which cameras perform well in low light conditions?

Certain cameras give you more low-light flexibility because they perform well at high ISO settings - leaving you full creative control over which of the three above options you choose to make your photos.

Because DLSR cameras tend to have bigger sensors, they generally take better high-ISO photos than compact cameras with relatively small sensors (it's a bit technical, but it's based on the laws of physics and electronics). The latest DSLR cameras have full-frame sensors achieving superb high-ISO performance.

Here is a list of good low light DSLR cameras

Nikon D3000
Canon EOS 500D
Nikon D5000
Canon EOS 550D
Nikon D300s
Canon EOS 7D
Canon EOS 5D MKII
Nikon D700
Nikon D3S
Canon EOS 1D MKIV

Low Light Photography Techniques and Camera Options

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Photojournalistic Wedding Photography - Flash Techniques

Although most photojournalistic wedding photography shoots are done using ambient light, there are situations whereby the lighting situation might not be ideal to turn out good pictures. That is why judicious use of an external flash plays an important role in assuring great shots and happy clients.

A good photojournalist uses the external flash at appropriate moments to complement available ambient light. With a flash mounted at all times, you can address any kind of lighting situation, without having to scramble for one when the need arises. Many a time, the use of flash creates a distinction between getting the shot or not getting it at all. Therefore, there is no need to be so adamant in insisting that you follow the fad of just using ambient light in your photojournalistic wedding photography shoots.

Nikon D3000

These are some examples which make the external flash an indispensable asset:

Photojournalistic Wedding Photography - Flash Techniques

i. Indoor shoots

While many couples opt for a casual outdoor solemnization ceremony, there are some others who would prefer to have their ceremonies conducted indoors, such as a hotel ballroom or clubhouse, so that they are not at the mercy of unpredictable weather changes. While shooting indoors, it is practically impossible to expect to shoot using ambient light. The use of an external flash here would ensure that your subjects are correctly exposed.

To prevent harsh shadows being cast behind your subjects, you should at all times avoid pointing the flash directly at them. Try using an omni-bounce or bounce card to soften the flash falling on your subjects, so as to foster an ambient feel and creating atmosphere while reducing the evidence of flash. Flash can be bounced off the ceiling, walls, wedding gown, a guest's white shirt or anything available that reflects light well. Bouncing softens the light source by effectively making the source larger and spreading it out in every direction to eliminate hard shadows. Using sideway bounce off a wall can also create side lighting in rooms with very flat illumination and directional effect for simple portraits.

ii. Fill-in flash for outdoor shoots

When faced with a strong backlight situation, the camera's exposure settings will automatically underexpose the subject to compensate for the bright background. Using a fill-in flash in such situations will illuminate the subject, hence preventing them from being underexposed. It can also be especially useful for keeping eye sockets from getting too dark or to lower the contrast ratio of shadows and highlights in direct sun. For best results, you should shoot in A mode, and put your external flash on high-speed sync, a function which is available in most TTL flashes. This creates a nicely exposed subject and ambient background. When the subject is close, and the sky is clear or partly cloudy, you can also take advantage of high-speed sync and use a fast shutter along with negative exposure compensation to darken the background, saturate the blue in the sky and add a little drama to the clouds above. Darkening the background here allows your subject to stand out from the background, instead of blending in, hence creating more depth in the picture.

Contrary to the use of bounce flash indoors as explained above, direct flash rules reign for outdoor shots - no diffusers or modifiers, no bounce. Here it's used as either a slight fill to get rid of harsh shadows, or to bring the subject in balance with the ambient light - usually for strong backlight situations. For fill-in effects, try using strobes at about -1 to -2 power on your flash.

iii. Freezing an action

As events in a wedding evolve so quickly, there will be times you need to freeze an action. Some examples include a couple dancing and a wedding march-in. While shooting without a flash creates the "blurred movements" of an event, shooting with an on-camera flash shows the static action using a faster shutter speed.

Photojournalistic Wedding Photography - Flash Techniques

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