Sometimes using a flash may not be ideal due to how brightly it illuminates everything within a given scene. Had there been more ambient light there could have easily been motion blur. The model looks perfectly still in the photo, and that’s because she was sitting in complete darkness. While using a flash keep the aperture wide open, and then dial in your shutter speed and ISO.Īs an example the photo below was shot using the following settings:
#SOCIAL BOOTH CAMERA SETTINGS ISO#
Speed lights are powerful and might even overexpose your subject if you’re too close, or the ISO is too high. Depending on how dark your scene is, you may be shooting the flash using a tripod, or holding the camera in your hand. If your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO aren’t getting the job done, you can always break out a speed-light flash to illuminate your subject. The problem with shutter speed is that your subject (And camera) needs to be entirely still, otherwise you may see motion blur. Most camera bodies will allow you to take a 30” exposure, which for most situations should be plenty of time to properly light a scene. Again, increasing the shutter speed beyond 1/60th of a second will require a tripod.
If your aperture is wide open, and you’ve jacked up the ISO, the next option you have is keeping the shutter open longer. Shutter speed determines how long your camera will allow light to hit the sensor. The main reason you’re going to use a tripod while shooting in low light is because your shutter speed will be less than 1/60th of a second (most people can take a photo hand-held as low as 1/60th). Having a tripod will allow you to stabilize the camera while the shutter stays open, preventing the image from having any blur. Use A Tripod!Ī tripod is a low-light photographer’s best friend. A high number like F/22 means the opening is very narrow and minimal light will be able to enter.įast lenses require complex manufacturing and are typically more expensive than their slower counterparts. A low number like F/2.8 indicates the lens is ‘fast’ and will allow a lot of light to enter. Every lens is given an F-Stop rating, indicating how much light will enter your camera in conjunction with your shutter speed. When you’re shooting in low light, you want as much light to enter the camera as possible within a given shutter release. Every camera body is different and so this is a matter of experimentation. Stop when your photographs begin to show noise and grain. When shooting at night, you’re going to want this number to be as high as possible. The higher the ISO, the brighter the exposure. Back in the day this metric was known as film speed, and similarly both are numbers used to measure how the camera will expose the photograph. ISO speed is what determines how sensitive our camera’s sensor is to light. In this article, I’m going to discuss eight tips for night photography, or shooting in low light, and teach you how your camera settings can work together so you’re photos at night are no longer dark. In the words of the great Alfred Stieglitz, “Wherever there is light, one can photograph,” which is a statement entirely relevant to shooting in low-light situations.įor those of you just beginning to shoot in the darkness it can be frustrating not understanding why, no matter what you try, your photos are turning out dark.