Take Better Photos in Low Light Conditions
Photography is all about light; without it, the art itself wouldn’t exist. Many times, photographers make use of available light to work, and when available light isn’t just enough, they have several ways of compensating for this. However, things might become a little tricky when photographers don’t have the means of compensating for such low light situations; it really can be a challenge and a nightmare for some – especially beginners.
It is easy to depend on your camera’s in-built flash, but you might know by now that this doesn’t exactly help. So, here are 7 tips that will help you take amazing shots even when lighting conditions aren’t optimum or seem to be poor.
One of the first things to do when you find yourself in a low light situation is to adjust the ISO settings of your camera. Increasing your ISO allows for more light to reach your camera’s sensor; hence, producing a brighter image. There is no specific rule on how much you should increase your ISO as every situation is never the same; so you need to adjust it accordingly. However, you need to know that the greater your ISO, the less sharp and grainier your image will become. So, don’t overdo it – there are still some other settings you can adjust.
The ISO and aperture of your camera work hand in hand. While the ISO regulates the speed at which light gets to your camera sensor, the aperture determines the amount of light that gets in. As said earlier, having an ISO that is too high, can relatively reduce the quality of your images. However, increasing your ISO and using a wider aperture can help you capture amazing low light photographs while maintaining the quality of your photos.
Using a slower shutter speed is also a great way of producing brighter images in low-light conditions. However, this tip is only best when shooting still life or landscape as any movement at all, will produce a blur in your image. If you are into portrait photography, this is definitely not a tip for you.
Nonetheless, you should know that there is a great need for your camera to be very still when using relatively slow shutter speed. Hence, you definitely want to use a tripod – doing this, will help you produce very sharp images.
White balance doesn’t exactly help produce brighter images but is quite important as low light conditions can result in the poor colour quality of photos. To get accurate colours from your camera, you will need to adjust your white balance to match the colour temperature of your light source.
All the same, if you don’t exactly feel like messing around with your white balance, another option is to shoot in black and white. This way, you won’t have to be worried about colour accuracy.
There is no reason why you shouldn’t be shooting in RAW format. Apart from the fact that it produces clearer, sharper and better quality images than shooting in JPEG, it also gives a lot of flexibility for post-processing.
Speaking of post-processing, it is also another way of producing bright images in low light conditions – however, it is only a last resort thing. Remember that if an image is bad from the beginning, no amount of editing can fix it. So the aim of post-processing is to enhance your shots and fix little issues that might arise from changing your camera settings.
To wrap things up …
You might not expect to find yourself shooting in low-light conditions if you are not into low light photography. Nonetheless, you might just find yourself in such a situation someday. The above tips will absolutely be of help when such days come.
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