Low Light Photography

[[Director] Joseph B]

There has been so much talk on the photo forum about low light photography I thought I'd share my tips and hope that others will do the same.

1. You can shoot handheld at speeds lower then you would think with proper technique. I've been successful at a full second (braced on a rail) and up to 1/2 second hand held with no bracing at all.
2. Breathing - much like fireing a handgun. Breathe deep, breathe slow, slowly squeeze the trigger (opps, shutter release) between breaths - don't hold your breath.
3. Don't Use The Video Screen! - Many people on this forum won't even have that option but if you do, use the eyepiece. A proper stance is critical. Camera agains face - hand under camera on lens - hand on camera grip - Three points of contact. When you hold the camera out at arms length and use the screen you only have two points. In addition to the third point of contact hold your arms in against your body to use that as a brace.
4. Use a rest - don't have a tripod brace yourself against a wall, railing, chair, whatever.
5. Use the highest ISO you have. I shoot a lot at 3200 indoors (no flash). I love available light photography and while there is more "noise" with the higher ISO the images on a good camera (high end DSLR's) still are pretty darn good. There are some photoshop plugins that I've read reviews on that supposedly completely, automaticly eliminate the noise but to be honest I haven't found it to be objectionable.
6. Shoot RAW - you have a lot more exposure latitude in a raw file then a JPG (kind of like shooting negative vs. transparency film). I invested in some big memory cards (I now use 4 - 4 gig, a 2 gig and several 1-gig cards I think I have 24 gigs of memory or thereabouts). With a RAW file you can't preview it on the camera so I use RAW and the smallest, lowest quality JPG the camera will produce. Even that JPG is a pretty good size (enough to download quickly for newspaper use) and leaves me a RAW file to play with later on. That JPG is more then enough for an in camera preview to see if the shot came out.
Well that's it for now - lets here your low light tips.

[[Admin] PHugger]

Just a few to add -

• Use a bounce flash where possible. Use a white card behind the flash or a dome diffuser to soften and direct some of the flash forward (act as fill). Proper use of a flash almost always trumps available light.
• Use image stabilization if you have it. It's not a magic solution, but it helps.
• Traditional wisdom states that you shouldn't hand hold at shutter speeds less than the reciprocal of your focal length. This means that if you are shooting with a long focal length, your safe shutter speed will be higher (bigger number, but shorter) than with a shorter focal length. It makes sense, any vibrations are magnified by the distance you are shooting (think about a telescope). As Joe mentioned you can often do better than the rule with practice. I'm also not sure about the effect of imager size multipliers, but the general principle remains.
• Get in the habit of carrying a monopod. It doesn't have to be a monster, even a small, lightweight one will help. Look for things in the environment to brace against.
• Triangles are very stable. Learn to brace your body by making triangles.

PCH

[Jeff Norris]

Not much wisdom here I just try to find a place to set the camera down then set it on a ten second timer and adust the camera before the countdown stops and let the camera do all the work without my shakey hands getting in the way.

PS Can someone sometime 'school me' in RAW ?

[RiveraRa]

Originally Posted by PHugger

[*]Triangles are very stable. Learn to brace your body by making triangles.PCH

I never though of it that way but physics proves you right.

Originally Posted by Joseph B

...With a RAW file you can't preview it on the camera so I use RAW and the smallest, lowest quality JPG the camera will produce.

My Canon 350D allows you to preview raw files on camera. You might want to check your manual as all brands and models might vary. Also, might this be something a firmware update allows?

[[Director] Joseph B]

Could be Ray, I never actually tried to preview a raw file. Just remember reading it somewhere.

If that's the case I may just go to RAW and forget the jpg.

Also if you use picasa you can see the raw files and upload them as jpgs.

[[Director] Joseph B]

Originally Posted by PHugger

Just a few to add -

• Use a bounce flash where possible. Use a white card behind the flash or a dome diffuser to soften and direct some of the flash forward (act as fill). Proper use of a flash almost always trumps available light.

PCH

I have to disagree with that one - I much prefer available light to any flash and there are a lot of times you just can't use flash. Which is better? Well it depends on the shot and a lot on personal preferance.

As far as those reflectors I have a DIY project for making them (I'm not an available light snob, if I do use flash I much prefer it to be indirect - much softer, nicer light). I think I have it posted here, if I don't I'll have to find it and post it. Why pay $25 on up for a reflector when you can make'em for around $5

[[Admin] PHugger]

I've been using the card trick for over 25 years. I have some nice thin pieces of matte white formica that I got somewhere and have given many away as gifts. The flash dome is a new trick I just leaned about and have been playing with it recently. It's a small dome (or other shape) that sits on top of the flash. When you bounce, the light is diffused through the dome, with some of the light diffusing straight forward. I admit it's a new toy and was only around $15. I think the trick is to have it not look like either flash or available light. My goal is always for a natural look. Indirect flash always seems to get me closer to this goal.

Jeff - RAW file format is the uncompressed, unprocessed data file captured by the camera's image sensor, before any in-camera processing has been applied . In this sense, an image saved in the RAW file format is the digital equivalent to the (exposed but as yet unprocessed) film negative. In fact, the camera will ignore your white balance, sharpening, contrast and saturation settings. Instead of applying them to the RAW data, it will save those settings in a separate header associated with the RAW data. Later in your digital darkroom, you need to make all of the adjustments that you previously ignored in the camera. Let's say I took an image with available light and the white balance was way off (orange looking). With a RAW image editor (most manufacturers provide one) you can then adjust the white balance or color temp to make it look more natural.



PCH

[[Admin] PHugger]

Originally Posted by RiveraRa

My Canon 350D allows you to preview raw files on camera. You might want to check your manual as all brands and models might vary. Also, might this be something a firmware update allows?

The 30D also allows Raw Previews even when shooting in Raw only mode.





PCH

[[Director] Joseph B]

White formica - I got some white cutting pads (for the kitchen). Nice and thin, very flexible. If I can find a translucent one I can probably make a dome out of it.

[[Admin] PHugger]

The formica I used was scrap so the only cost was my labor to cut it out. I simply used a rubber band to keep it on the head. I've even used 3x5 cards in a pinch, but the stiffness and durability of the formica has kept them usable for 25 years...... (c8

The new gizmo I'm playing with is from Harbor Digital Designs. It's very simple. The lower 'sleeve' is custom made for your flash head. It just slides on (I think it has something like soft velcro loop material inside to provide some friction). This stuff isn't rocket surgery. DIY Rulz!



PCH

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by PHugger

.......The new gizmo I'm playing with is from Harbor Digital Designs. It's very simple. The lower 'sleeve' is custom made for your flash head. It just slides on (I think it has something like soft velcro loop material inside to provide some friction). This stuff isn't rocket surgery. DIY Rulz!

PCH

The cool thing about that one is that you can also carry fruit snacks in it.....just incase you need a snack.

[kbob]

A couple of other tips-

get an heavy, wide (2-3") camera strap, and size it so when slung over your neck, and in the postion described (eyepiece, underhand, pistol grip/shutter realease) it provides additional tension to act as a stablizer. This helps reduce hand shake even more than the position without it.

You can compensate a bit by simple wrapping the strap around your left hand-but its way better to have an adjustable strap instead...

When shooting fireworks, generally slower is better. Essentially, you're letting the light from the fireworks paint the picture, rather than shooting it freeze frame. Freeze frame, unless absolutely perfectly timed, will miss much of the effects of the fireworks. If you have a bulb setting, use it. 1/8-2 seconds may work. The beauty of digital is that you can see instant results, and adjust accordingly.

Also, with fireworks shot this way, you control the thickness/exposure by manipulating the f-stops...the wider you set it, the thicker the resulting stream of fireworks will be.

To a lesser degree, the same techniques apply to running water and waves, though you'd shoot much faster (1/8-1/30th of a sec)

I'll second the idea of a monopod-even a cheap one can help tremendously in low light situations, especially when using a telephoto. Also, there are many collapsing tripods that are only 3-6" high, some of which fold absolutely flat. The gorrila pod isn't bad either, allowing it to be used as a tripod or a clamp.

Finally, in a pinch, even a sock filled with sand or dirt can be used as a cradle/support to stabilize a camera on an uneven surface. Sweatshirts, jackets, etc can also help...