Low-light Photography Guide
By Josh Lee
28 April 2008
We've all been there. You're in a dark setting, perhaps indoors or perhaps outdoors after the sun as set. Despite your greatest efforts, the only effect you are able to pull off is "artsy motion blur". Sure, your DSLR's kit lens captures amazing detail outside on sunny days, but sometimes you need to take the shooting indoors. Point and shoot cameras do fine indoors by blasting the entire scene with flash, which is great for party pics, but it isn't quite the professional quality you were looking for, is it? This guide will teach you how to capture professional looking shots in low light conditions without forking over $5000 for a D3.
First things first: put some tape over your built-in flash, or just break it off (only joking). The built in flash is useful for very few situations, and odds are your situation isn't one of them.
Next, there are a few pieces of equipment that you can buy to aid you in your low-key quest. These are all recommendations for people on a budget and at the end of this guide I will explain how to get good shots without added expense.
Tripods
Tripods are great if you are planning on shooting anything that will stand around waiting for you. They are quite inexpensive and every photographer should have one. If you are shooting in low-light and your subject can sit still for a few seconds, then you should be using a tripod. You can also explore the vast range of options available with long-exposure photography, such as blurred traffic lights, dream-like oceans/lakes/rivers/waterfalls, and wonderfully colored landscapes just after sunset.
Wide-Aperture Lenses
"I thought this was a guide for people on a budget!" you may be saying. Yes, it is true that wide-aperture zoom lenses are usually around $1000 or more. So, prime lenses and older manual focus lenses are great options for those of us looking to spend one-tenth that.
Both Nikon and Canon offer a 50mm/1.8 lens for $75-$100. My Nikon 50mm is one of my favorite lenses and it opens up a wide range of possibilities where a kit lens would be useless. Use wide aperture lenses in low-light situations with fast-moving subjects, such as indoor sports.
Vibration Reduction/Image Stabilization
These new lenses (VR for Nikon, IS for Canon) will allow you to handhold your camera and get steady shots, up to 4 stops lower than you could without the VR/IS. Essentially, a 200mm lens would normally require a 1/200 shutter speed for clarity and sharpness, but with VR/IS you could use 1/60 or even 1/30. I've even made some usable shots at 1/8 using my Nikon 18-200@200. However, VR or IS will not help you freeze the motion of your subject, only of your camera. period They are basically useless for fast moving subjects such as basketball players. In these situations, what you need is a wider aperture.
Hot-Shoe Strobes
Very often, an external strobe can be a life saver. These light sources are generally more powerful and more flexible than the built-in flash on your D-SLR. They work with any sized lens (whereas the built-in flash may be cut off by larger lenses), and can be modified to be much more diffuse than the harsh built-in flash. The largest benefit they offer, however, is the ability to "bounce" the flash.
If you are in a room with a white or near-white ceiling, you can simply aim your strobe up and the light will reflect onto your subject, providing a much more natural look than "blasting" your subject directly. Similarly, the strobe can be bounced off of any large, light surface, such as a wall, or even your own shirt. For these reasons, it is important to purchase a strobe with a flexible head, so that you can aim it where you need it. I would also highly recommend a strobe that runs on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. I saved $100 on a cheaper strobe a few years ago, and by now I have spent that much money on AA batteries, and I find myself wishing I had just gotten the more expensive strobe.
There are a few disadvantages to strobes though: first, they are not always welcome, particularly in concerts or similar venues. Second, they are expensive (the Nikon SB-600 sells for about $175 on Amazon). Finally, they have a recycle time which will limit your high-speed shooting. If you can afford a strobe and don't think you will be shooting in areas where flash is forbidden, then definitely pick one up and see the doors it will open in your photographic abilities. Experiment with different ways of bouncing and diffusing the light.
Finally, I promised some shooting tips that don't require any new equipment. The first tip is: shoot wide. In general, to get a good exposure, your shutter speed needs to be the equivalent to 1 /(the focal length of your lens. So with a 10mm lens, you can get away with a 1/10th of a second exposure, whereas with a 200mm lens, you would need to use a much faster (and thus darker) exposure of 1/200th of a second. Generally, zoom lenses also allow for the widest aperture at their widest focal length. Thus, with both of these facts in mind, shooting with an aperture of 3.5 at 18mm will result in much better low-light images than f/5.6 at 55mm.
Next, work on your own posture. You should have the camera resting on the palm of your left hand, with your index and middle fingers on the zoom/focus rings, and the other hand on the shutter release. Lock both of your elbows into your chest. If you can, lean against something like a wall or a tree or a fence. My favorite position is sitting cross legged, using my left arm as a "monopod" by resting my elbow on my knee. Once you are ready to shoot, hold your breath, relax your muscles (tense muscles vibrate), and fire a burst. You'll often find that if you shoot more than one frame, you stand much better chances of getting one usable image.
Another technique is to rest your camera on a flat surface. Then you use the camera's self-timer so that your finger on the shutter-release doesn't shake the camera. This is useful where you have a bar, a table, or even a fence post or tree branch if you're daring. All of these objects are useful in the same situations that a tripod would be (though you have much less control of angle and frame).
There is one last-resort technique that I will mention here. This is to boost your ISO. ISO is the "sensitivity" of your film or sensor. The nice thing about digital is that we can change the ISO for each shot, whereas with film it is specific to the roll of film. By increasing the ISO, you get more sensitivity and thus shorter exposures, but you also get more noise. This is where you really need to know your own camera well though.
Practice with your camera on every ISO and then view the images at 100% on your computer to see how much noise you're getting at each setting. Consider what you will be using the images for, and how much noise is acceptable. Images that will only appear on the web can often get away with much higher ISOs than images bound for print, but in the end it is up to you. Sometimes the only option is to boost the ISO or get a blurry image. In these cases, you should always opt for a little extra noise.
With these techniques in mind, you're prepared to shoot in almost any lighting situation you'd like to shoot in.
Happy shooting!
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