Shoot Better Low-Light Digital Photos

Indoor, low-light photography is not always as simple as point and shoot, even with the latest digital cameras. The following tips can help you take better indoor digital photographs in every kind of low-light situation.

Avoid Using the Flash When You Can

Although using a flash seems to be the obvious solution to low light digital photography, digital flash images have their downsides. Not only will a flash interfere with the setting, it also tends to flatten images, distort colors and wash out skin tones. This problem is especially apparent with the cheap, built-in flashes on most compact digital cameras.

The first thing pros will suggest is to increase your camera's ISO setting, or its "light sensitivity." Traditionally, high speed film (ISO 800 and higher) was better suited for low light photography. Unfortunately, higher ISOs on digital cameras tend to produce color noise - little specks of red green and blue scattered across your image.

Most point and shoot cameras, even those with manual controls, won't produce quality images above 400 ISO. The solution then is to use lower ISO settings, which however, requires long exposure times in low light situations.

Dealing with the Blur

Whether through the subject's movement or yours, long exposure times increase the chances of blurring the digital photograph. These techniques will help produce blur-free shots:

• Start with the largest aperture allowed by your digital camera. Use aperture-priority mode if you have one.
• Zoom out as much as possible if you have a zoom lens. More light will hit the photo sensor of your digital camera and exposure time will go down.
• If the exposure time is still greater than what you can handhold without shaking, use a tripod. Consider something small like the innovative Joby Gorillapod - a small, flexible tripod which will fit nicely in the average coat pocket. There are several sizes available, some of which probably won't fit in your pocket but still aren't as cumbersome as full-size tripod.
• Use the digital camera's timer function to reduce the shake that results from pressing the shutter button. Most digital cameras will have a two-second delay timer that works great, especially on long exposures.

If you have very steady hands, you can try holding the digital camera even on long exposures. Pick a solid stance with your legs slightly apart, and brace the digital camera against your face and hold your breath while you press the shutter. Be sure to zoom in on the resulting image on the preview screen of your digital camera to check for blurring!

Balancing Your Whites

The biggest challenge you face in low light situations is, obviously, the lighting. Chances are you will be shooting in artificial light. Light temperatures from incandescent bulbs or fluorescent overheads can cast yellow or blue tones over a scene. Sometimes, as in the case of incandescent light, this can have a nice warming effect, but it may not be what you are looking for at other times.

The solution is to adjust the white balance in your digital camera. Most digital cameras offer a variety of preset white balance settings which you can experiment with. If all else fails you may be able to customize your own settings. You can also change the white balance after the shooting using software if you shoot RAW images.

Killing Digital Photo Noise

There tends to be unacceptable levels of color noise in the finished digital photograph when using high ISO setting. There are ways to get rid of color noise after the fact using software. Adobe Photoshop features a noise filter that blends surrounding areas together. There are also dedicated software like Noise Ninja ($35-$80, depending on the license) that can provide much more pronounced improvements without blurring or other side effects.

Photography 101: Digital Photography Basics

A simplified digital photography course aimed at new photographers out there who want to know where to start.

by Kelly Paal

If you really want to learn digital photography the first thing you need is a good and reliable camera. It must, and I repeat must, be able to shoot in fully manual and fully auto focus modes. To really learn digital photography you must understand the equipment. You’ll need to learn how manipulating the shutter speed, aperture, and focus will have a dramatic effect on your digital photos. Meters, if you have a camera that can work in a fully manual mode it should have an internal meter suitable for what you will be doing. Tripod, you’re going to need one whether it’s portrait work or landscapes you’ll need one eventually to improve your digital photography. Luckily you don’t have to spend a lot here. Just something lightweight and durable. Flash, you can buy a separate camera mounted flash, which is great if you can afford it. Consider what kind of digital photography that you will be doing though. If you’re going to do mostly nature and landscape digital photography, you may only need the fill flash that comes with most cameras today. If you plan on doing portraiture only you will definitely need a camera mounted flash that has an adjustable angle.

Film Speed
ISO setting to be exact. Slower speeds (25 to 400) are intended for portraiture and landscape digital photography. Faster speeds (600 and above) are intended for actions shots and photojournalism. So first you need to know what you going out to digital photograph and make sure that you have the appropriate film for the job.

Shutter Speed
Now that you have the camera loaded with film consider the shutter speed. Do you want to blur motion, or freeze it? If there is no motion at all what shutter speed do you need to expose the scene with natural light. Shutter speed plays a very important role in digital photography. From 1/60th and down to the bulb setting will blur most motion. For example if you want to blur the water in a waterfall, a setting of 1/30th should work. (You’ll need a tripod though.) 1/125th is a normal setting for most shots. On many cameras the 125th setting is marked in a different color to make it obvious. If you want to freeze action you’ll need to start with 1/500th and work up from there. The faster the motion the faster the shutter speed needed to stop motion. Many digital photography cameras go up to 1/2000th of a second. If you’re trying to use natural light alone in a scene you will want to determine the aperture first and then see what shutter speed you need to properly expose the scene for available light. (Keep in mind sometimes there isn’t enough light.)

Aperture
These are the set of numbers on your lens closest to the body of the camera. They can go from 1.8 to 22, and they are also referred to as f-stops in digital photography. These numbers determine how much light reaches the film inside of your camera. Most internal meters will blink on the appropriate aperture for the shutter speed that you’ve set, or the speed you’ve set will blink if your f-stop is correct for the speed. Both the f-stop and shutter speed can be changed to expose the scene correctly in digital photography. Consider that the faster the shutter speed the more light will be needed to expose the scene correctly. This makes logical sense if you think about it. If the shutter isn’t open as long, fast shutter speed, then there is less light able to make it to the film and so the scene must be brighter to expose correctly. To learn, bracket your digital photography shots. Take the first shot at the aperture suggested by your meter, move one stop up, take a photo, one down, take another photo.

Flash
I personally like shooting with natural light whenever possible and at most I use a fill flash in digital photography. But if you’re going to do portrait work then most of the time you may be indoors and you will need a flash sometimes. For the amateur the fill flash units that are on the top of most of today’s cameras are wonderful for basic work. You will have to read your manual on your particular flash unit to learn what it can and can’t do. This is where the camera that is fully manual and fully auto is great for the amateur. You can usually set it so that the camera will meter and set the flash output accordingly and then you still can control the shutter speed and aperture.


About the Author: Kelly Paal is a freelance nature and landscape photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography. She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

How To Master Digital Photography Basics

by Connie Fillmore

With the advent of digital cameras, the cost of photography has plummeted considerably, with the result that there has been a surge of interest in the field. Greenhorns in this area however, need not fret. Sharpening up on your digital photography skills is easy, provided you have the basics at the tip of your tongues, or is it, at the tip of your lenses!

Mastering the basics of digital photography, first and foremost involves knowing all about pixels and resolutions. These are the parameters that have a direct bearing, and quite a lion's share on the quality of the images being generated. The more the pixel count, the better the resolution or clarity of the picture and the better it turns out when enlarged. So it is obvious that the fastidious photographers prefer robust pixel values. However, with the market flooded with digital cameras of various makes, you can hope for a good bargain. Let us discuss a few basics of digital photography.

Zoom And Tele Lenses
Going digital has also meant that you can click away merrily at anything and everything under the sun. This will only help you get well up on the nitty-gritty of the zoom modes. The Optical Zoom of a camera is worth tinkering with. The "Telephoto" mode makes your subject appear larger while the "Wide Angle" mode is all about cramming a lot of a scene into your picture and hence the elements of the picture appear smaller.

Focusing
 Toying with the controls of your digital camera is a good way of getting a hang about the different picture modes and hence be able to put them to good use. For instance, instead of relying on the instruction manual, see for yourself that the Portrait Mode actually sharpens your subject and de-focuses the background. For those who are not yet comfortable with the exposure, focus and flash parameters can take the help of the Auto Mode in the awkward initial stages.

Lighting
There is no such thing as a photography gene. Good photographers weave magic with their cameras, but this magic is all about getting the lighting and flash issues straightened in their photographs. Shooting in the early morning light is advisable if you want to avoid the harsh glare of the midday sun and in case of night photography, filming during the twilight hours or just as the moon is rising gives you the best results. You should not shoot with the sun directly in front of the lens.

Using the Flash
The flash is quite a lure for the novice photographer but results are not always satisfactory. This is because improper use of the flash function leads to the marring of good photos. In fact, the flash really leads to underexposure, and thus ungainly shadows in night photography. While you are using this feature, inch closer to your subject and thus make sure that all the areas of the picture are equally lighted up.

Shutter Speed
The shutter speed is one area that many newcomers to digital photography is quite oblivious to. But you will be amazed at the dramatic results that mere varying the speeds can bring about. The rule of thumb: fast shutter speeds "freeze" the action, while slow values will result in a blur. Slow shutter speed also let more light enter into the camera, so this is an option worth considering when you need to shoot in low light conditions.

The basics of digital photography are not hard to master. And being well versed in them will help you capture reality in all its essence.

Photography 101: External vs Built-in Flash

By: Jennifer Clarkson

External flashes, or accessory flashes, have several benefits over built-in, pop-up flashes seen on most cameras today. Power, the ability to change light source location relative to the lens, and additional features all make external flashes worth considering for the avid hobbyist.


Bulb Power
First, let's discuss power. Simply put, external flashes have much more power than built-in flashes. Think of how many times it took you to learn that your built-in flash's light fell short of the intended subject and lit only the near objects in your scene. The ability to throw light farther is measured by a flash's guide number, which used to be the only way to calculate exposure. Specifically, the correct aperture (for ISO 100) equals the guide number divided by the number of feet of the flash from the subject.


Metering with Flash
Modern external flashes allow exposure to be metered with TTL (through-the-lens) flash metering, which allows the unit to regulate the amount of light output in auto-exposure modes. The flash actually cuts off light when enough has been dispensed on the subject. Flash exposure compensation allows further fine-tuning whereby adjustments can be made to allow more or less light than the TTL metering suggests. Thus, today's external flashes only have a guide number for flash power comparisons. The guide number on a typical pop-up flash is fairly low - perhaps 40 - whereas the guide number on an external flash easily has a guide number upwards of 100 or 200. For comparison purposes, you need to understand that a guide number of 80 is four times (two stops) more powerful than 40.


Flash Proximity to Subject
External flash also allows you to distance the flash light source from the lens. This becomes very important for macro photography where pop-up flashes can actually cause shadows of the lens, based on its proximity to the large barrel. It is also more likely to cause red-eye in portrait shots, and means you cannot conveniently counteract another light source since the built-in flash is not moveable. With infrared or radio slaves, motion detectors or photo cell sensors, multiple flashes can be triggered remotely in sync, no matter how far away from the camera they are.


Fill Flash
Most accessory flashes have the ability to shoot at less than 100% power, so as to enable fill-flash in appropriate situations. Built-in flashes must be manually covered with a diffuse fabric in order to be successful at providing fill-light (e.g. brightening a flower, or combining fill-flash with slow shutter speed for fast-moving wildlife). Variable power in external flashes makes fine-tuning aperture or flash proximity to subject very easily. Some external flashes have infrared sensors that sense the distance to the subject automatically, thus synchronizing the camera to suggest a correct aperture and shutter speed.


Flash Heads
When it comes to physically setting up an external flash, most come with swivel and bounce heads, to allow more realistic and softer lighting effects by bouncing light from a white card or reflector above or to the side of the subject. These are things that a pop-up flash cannot do.

Zoom heads on external flashes allow for coverage adjustment when the flash is used in conjunction with a wide-angle or telephoto lens. The path of light covered by the flash will be modified to suit the angle of coverage by the lens. Ring flashes are a particular type of external flash that forms a ring around the barrel of the lens - they are best suited to macro or portrait photography where large lenses can get in the way of pop-up flashes and cause a shadow.

Dedicated Flashes
Dedicated flashes are external flashes built specifically to work with a particular camera's features and settings. Third party flash manufacturers such as Sigma design dedicated flashes for each of the major camera brands.

Author: Jennifer Clarkson is a Canadian photographer living in Ottawa. For more Photography Tips, or to view her Photo Gallery, please visit Jennifer Clarkson Photography.

Article source: Articlecat.com