Tips for Low Light Photography

Capturing a perfect image is all about the right settings and skills, with the right kind of environment. But there are some situations in which you might find it difficult to get a perfect shot. Low-light situations are one of those that require special attention and skills. And if you are wondering how to shoot in low-light situations, this article is just for you. We are going to discuss shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and other considerations to make your low-light shooting stand out. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Scenario: Indoor Nighttime Shooting

While shooting in a low-light situation, there are a number of problems that you might run into. You might find your images are too noisy or blurry due to motion. But here, we are going to concentrate on a particular low-light scenario. Say you are shooting indoors during nighttime and you want to capture images of moving subjects. Now, as you are going to freeze the motion, you need a faster shutter speed.

Challenges in Low-Light Photography

Now let’s assume you have a Sony a6400 and a Sony 85mm lens, and both the camera and lens don’t have stabilization. In that case, you have three major issues you are going to face. 

• First, you need to compensate for the camera shake due to handheld shooting. 
• Secondly, you also need to freeze the frame to get a blur-free image. 
• And lastly, you have to do all these while maintaining adequate exposure in your image.

Solutions

Now let’s focus on the solutions. 

Shutter Speed

First, the rule of thumb about shutter speed is you have to set a shutter speed at least the same as the focal length of your lens. But this rule will only compensate for shake while shooting handheld. And just to be sure, it is always a good idea to crank up your shutter speed about twice the focal length, especially if you are using a telephoto lens with no stabilization. So, with your 85mm lens, you should definitely be shooting at a shutter speed of more than 1/85. Say you set the shutter speed at 1/100.

Freezing the Frame

Now you have to freeze the frame of your moving subject. Freezing the frame of a fast-moving subject also requires increasing the shutter speed even further. So, 1/100 would not be sufficient here. So, let’s assume that you have set the shutter speed to 1/400 to get a sharp image of your subject.

However, the more you speed up the camera shutter, the lesser amount of light gets to enter into the sensor and you end up getting an underexposed image. Now, this is where you need to focus on another pillar of the exposure triangle, the aperture.

Aperture

As you are shooting at nighttime at a higher shutter speed, you need more light. So, you have to set the widest aperture for your lens. But still, you might find that your exposure level is not good enough and your composition might still seem darker. And this is where ISO comes into play.

ISO

ISO is just like fake light that illuminates the whole scene. So, you might consider bumping up the ISO number. But there is also a problem with higher ISO numbers. As you increase the ISO number, you introduce more and more grain into your final image. This is why photographers always keep the ISO to its base value if they have another source of light or if they are shooting under the bright sun. But as you are shooting indoors and your image is already underexposed, you need to find a sweet spot where your image looks bright while maintaining a lower amount of grain. For example, you might set your ISO to 3200 or so, and that might do the job.

RAW

Another important thing to remember when you are shooting in a low-light situation is you should always shoot in RAW because that gives you enough freedom to go into post-production and do necessary tweaks to bring the exact look you want. So, after shooting your image in RAW, if you find your image to be a little more grainy than expected, you can use Lightroom and go to luminance adjustment. It will smooth out your image. But you shouldn’t go all the way with the luminance value because it will make your image look plasticky and unrealistic. You have to slide through to get to the right spot. And this is how you can shoot in a low-light situation.

But what if you need more quality in those situations?

Well, quality comes with a price. First, you can get a lens with a very wide aperture, for example, 1.4 or even 1.2 or less if your budget allows for it. If you are still not satisfied, you might consider getting a better camera. An APS-C or other smaller sensor cameras would definitely underperform in low-light conditions. So, you can switch to a full-frame camera. Besides, there are many full-frame cameras with advanced ISO performance. For example, the Sony A7 has dual ISO and performs extremely well even at higher ISO numbers.

Conclusion

So, that was all about tips for shooting in low-light situations. Though it is largely dependent on the camera settings you are using and the environment you’re in, still there are a lot of other considerations like the type of camera sensor, lens aperture, and so on. But the most important factor is you. Your experience will dictate you as to what settings to use and how to click the image. So, share your experience with us in the comments section and never stop clicking you.