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English Language Teaching and Learning

How to take photos: Low Light, and Events at Night

Basic gear you need:

• Your camera's on-board flash can be sufficient
• A swooning personality with an appreciative mode built in

The Aim:

• To show something unique, original, that others haven't done or seen before
• Get a great / dramatic picture in difficult conditions

How:

• ISO: Historically with film, it was best to use iso100 to reduce noise, and because you knew what camera settings you had to use (usually shown on a chart on the flash or on the camera). Now, you can use the histogram on your camera. For the ones shown below, I used an iso range from iso400 to iso3200.
• Aperture: About f5.6 (wide open to let more light in) to about f11.
• Shutter Speed: This should be about 1/125 for most lenses (18 to 100mm), or to 1/350 or so if you're using a zoom lens at about 200 to 300mm.
• Filters: Not needed.
• White Balance: Be sure your white balance is set for the the light conditions, 'Flash', or custom (if you know how).
• Lens: I prefer my 18-70mm lens, where possible.
• The How: Since the availability of sufficient light is the problem, you need to keep the aperture open as much as possible, hence F5.6 or so. The shutter speed of 1/125 is needed to 'freeze' the subject and to be in sync with the flash, so what other way can we get the subject to appear bright enough? Well, lets make the sensor more sensitive and increase the iso.
• Quality Issues: Be sure there's no distractions, or unnecessary junk in the fore or backgrounds. Plan it, so everything that you see through the lens is there, because it needs to be. That includes no dorky looking people in the background, no garbage bins, or an unsightly McDonalds billboard or other. Include rocks and kangaroos only if they add atmosphere to the picture
• Advice: When photographing people, be sure to get their permission first, where practical. It often works in your favour if you begin talking to them with polite enthusiasm or a kind of perkiness, so the person already begins to trust you and responds happily to you, so if you need a smiling picture, it's that much easier to get a genuine smile from them.
• Issues With Zooming: Also, if you zoom right in onto any object, then your camera will wobble a little from the very movement of you pushing the button to take the picture. So, increase the shutter speed to about 1/320 or more, if needed. View your 'test' picture on the viewer, and zoom in if your camera allows it.
• Also see the composition article.

Post Processing: Reducing Noise in Images

• Click on these thumbnails to see them larger:

Examples:

Click on these to view them at a larger size. Notice the time, and the varying shutter speeds.

	< At the World Cosplay Summit, 2008, Nagoya, Japan, 3rd August 2008. F5.6, 1/125, iso800, 18-70mm lens at 50mm (no filters used)
	< At the World Cosplay Summit, 2008, Nagoya, Japan, 3rd August 2008. F5.6, 1/125, iso3200, 18-70mm lens at 70mm.
	< At the World Cosplay Summit, 2008, Nagoya, Japan, 3rd August 2008. F5.6, 1/125, iso800, 18-70mm lens at 60mm.

Also see this gallery for more examples