Low Light Photography

Off the cuff of my last post I would like to talk a little about lighting, specifically low light situations.


So as I'm sure anyone with an ounce of logic will know photography is based purely on light. Without light there would be only black frames. To avoid said "black frames", one must understand how the camera works, and how light works. Assuming you all know about Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO, and how they all work together, i would like to take a trip into exploring low light photography.

Low light photography can be very challenging indeed, and when coupled with the job being paid, causes an infuriating situation. Personally, i find paid work to be very pressurizing, and when the job at hand doesn't quite fall into the camera, things can get very tricky.

This is the way i had lighting taught to me, and the way many people have been taught. There are two types of light. Hard and Soft. These two light types make a significant impact on your photography.



Hard light, is like the sunlight with clear blue skies. very bright and penetrating. This light causes sharp shadows and blown highlights. Hard light is also typically brighter. lighting such as flash units would be considered hard lighting, for their sharp and bright blast.

In a situation with hard light, exposures will need to be fast with a low ISO. Should a longer exposure be desired either a tiny aperture or dark ND filters will be required to avoid hot spots or blown highlights.


Soft light, is like the sunlight in an overcast sky. with the clouds diffusing the light over a larger area. This light is more subtle and thorough. highlights and shadows are often very close in tone, shadows have less of a sharp edge to them and are often dim. with low contrast and dim lighting, this light will often force the photographer to make fine tuning in post production, however with a good knowledge of your camera, on-board solutions are often the way forward. Soft light in photography could be ambient window lighting or continuous "model" lights.

Soft light will require a higher ISO if a fast shutter speed is desired. A polarizing filter is often useful for boosting the contrast.

So now we know of our two lighting types, we can begin figuring out what to do in low light situations. From my own personal experience, i have discovered three methods for shooting in low light situations, depending on the subject, one of these three will sufficiently allow decent photographic work.

First off is the obvious. Take the light with you. If you don't already have a hot-shoe/external flash you i highly recommend you go out and buy one. Try not to get too wound up over the prices, with most kit it is always better to with a brand you know and trust (Cannon, Nikon, Sigma etc) however, with an external flash, as long as you are confident it will have a good flash on it, it should be worth it. For my external flash i found a Chinese knock-off of a Nikon Speedlite. Initially, i was unsure about purchasing it, but after reading reviews and checking the specs i decided to go ahead and buy it. I payed about £40 to have it on my doorstep within 2 weeks, not bad considering it came all the way from China. The flash is absolutely brilliant and i use it regularly. I will add another post soon about using external flash units.

The next two techniques are for when an external flash is not available.


If you can't get yourself an external flash, then that doesn't mean you can't shoot in low lights, it just means you will have to compromise on a few things to get the shot. The Second technique for low light photography requires boosting your ISO to quadruple digits. Somewhere between 2000 and 6400. to shoot with this high an ISO, depending on the subject, it is better to shoot in black and white.



Grain and Noise show up as tiny white speckles, which when shooting in colour means a high level of interference. Because black and white photographs are just blacks, grays and whites, the noise doesn't interfere as much, and they can often add a cool dated look to the images.

The last technique is purely for still subjects, such as landscapes. This is the obvious one, when shooting in low light, slow down the shutter speed. I often find myself indulging in my personal work, consisting on landscapes. This means i spend a fair amount of time in low light situations such as sunrise or sunset. More recently, however, i have found myself experimenting with Astrophotography, which often requires an exposure of 30 second to 2 minutes.


Long exposures will not work for moving subjects, unless you are trying to achieve an abstract look, in which case it works very well.

If you have any questions or topics you would like me to discuss please email me at ajthomasphotography@live.com or contact me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007321418710

Thanks again!