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100 in 100: Low light & night photography

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100 photography tips in 100 days: Day 81

By Joe Farace

December 22, 2008

For more tips, go to the 100 in 100 homepage!

As the days get shorter, you will find it necessary to shoot in lower light—indoors as well as at night. This week, 100 in 100 explores ways to get the best quality images after the sun goes down.

There are few if any secrets about capturing images when light is low. The ingredients are a witch's brew of fast lenses, high ISO settings, and appropriate camera supports. What sets a successful image apart from a less successful one is not how these ingredients are combined but what you did before the image was captured.

A sunset can happen rather quickly, so it's important to have most of your work done in advance. You should already know which ISO setting and lenses you plan to use so it's a good idea to scout the location and determine the best spot to place your camera. Doing all of your planning before that golden hour arrives leaves you free to concentrate on properly framing the image and choosing what exposure and metering modes will be appropriate for the subject.

Take 1 from column A: I photographed Brighton, Colorado's City Hall illuminated by holiday lights in manual mode by taking a spot reading off one of the columns and making adjustments based on the LCD screen's image. The exposure with a tripod-mounted Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III was 1.3 seconds at f/7.1 and ISO 640. Since there is no reciprocity failure in digital capture there are also no unexpected color shifts or adjustments needed in exposure times as you might have when using film.

Joe Farace is co-author of Better Digital Available Light Photography along with Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Barry Staver. It is published by Focal Press and is available in all the best bookstores.

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