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How to take photos: Low
Light, and Events at Night |
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Also see:
'How to use your SLR'. Bookmark
with  del.icio.us
(more below). Visit our
forums. |
Basic gear you need:
 | Your camera's on-board
flash can be sufficient |
| A swooning personality
with an appreciative mode built in |
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The
Aim:
| To show something unique,
original, that others haven't done or seen before |
| Get a great / dramatic
picture in difficult conditions |
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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: |
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With these, I used my
sluggishly slow RAW software that came with my camera.
I adjusted the curves and
the tones |
This one was a little
difficult, so I only adjusted the midtones, after the adjusting the
curves. |
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Examples: Click on these to view them
at a larger size. Notice the time, and the varying shutter speeds.
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< At the
World Cosplay Summit, 2008, Nagoya, Japan, 3rd August 2008. F5.6, 1/125,
iso800, 18-70mm lens at 50mm (no filters used) |
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< At the
World Cosplay Summit, 2008, Nagoya, Japan, 3rd August 2008. F5.6, 1/125,
iso3200, 18-70mm lens at 70mm. |
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< At the
World Cosplay Summit, 2008, Nagoya, Japan, 3rd August 2008. F5.6, 1/125,
iso800, 18-70mm lens at 60mm. |
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Also see
this gallery
for more examples |
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