Low light photography is a challenge. Depending on the circumstance, it may not be possible to capture a desired image. That being said, it’s essential to know every possible thing that can be done before you throw in the towel. It’s essential to learn shutter speed to aperture relationships. It’s essential to learn how your camera responds to raising the ISO relative to the quality of the capture. It’s essential to know how subject movement may or may not be sharply captured relative to the given shutter speed. There are many more factors that come into play. Incorporate what you read below into your workflow to become a better low light photographer.

Use a Tripod When Possible: A tripod will help ensure a sharp capture is made. It will stabilize the camera and lens that would otherwise render movement from too slow a shutter speed if handheld. It will also assist you to make a better composition in that you can study the entire viewfinder with the camera firmly planted on the head of the tripod. Even in bright light, I use a tripod for this very reason.

©Russ Burden

Make RAW captures: Capture all your low light images in RAW. There’s a lot more detail that’s retained in the shadows and highlights than in a compressed jpg file. Those extra pixels that maintain detail may mean the difference in revealing picture information or not. Use Adobe Camera RAW or Lightroom to bring out the shadows or retain the highlights.

Use Flash Creatively: If there’s low light and you use flash, get creative with it to maintain the lack of illumination look. Check your camera to see if you have a slow synch flash setting. It allows the shutter to stay open longer so the low ambient light can be recorded. It prevents the “black hole” look that’s so often associated with backgrounds when a flash is attached to the camera.

©Russ Burden

Adjust Your ISO: As digital technology improves, better images can be made with high ISO settings. This being said, there is a limit as to how high you can set the camera to capture an acceptable file. Shoot a series of photos in a low light situation and keep increasing the ISO. Download all the files and evaluate where the cut off occurs that determines a file is unacceptable. Armed with this information, if you encounter a low light situation in the field, you’ll know how far you can go with your ISO.

Subject Movement: This becomes the biggest challenge as there’s a relationship between the aperture, shutter speed and ISO setting that determines if you can freeze the motion of a moving subject. To allow the most light to strike the sensor, open the aperture to its widest setting and raise your ISO to a point that allows you to get an acceptable capture. If you’re in Aperture Priority, the shutter speed will now be set to its fastest possible speed. Make a picture and evaluate the movement. If it’s still recorded, short of increasing the ISO to a number that produces unacceptable image quality, the image can’t be made unless the use of flash is incorporated.

©Russ Burden

Try HDR: HDR, or high dynamic range, is created from a series of bracketed exposures and processed using HDR software. The end result is an image that captures a broad spectrum of brightness values that otherwise would be impossible to reproduce in a single capture. For instance, record a scene with an exposure that is two stops under normal, one stop under normal, a normal exposure, one stop over, and two stops over. All five are processed in HDR software netting an image that shows detail from the brightest highlights to the deepest shadows. Look into Nik HDR Efex Pro and Photomatix if the topic intrigues you.

Tip Summary for Low Light Photography:

• Use a tripod whenever possible
• Shoot in RAW to be able to bring the most out of the file
• Use fast glass - if it’s an important shoot and you don’t own a fast lens, rent one
• Use as fast a shutter speed as possible if the subject moves 
• Bracket if the situation allows
• Adjust your ISO accordingly but realize that noise increases as the ISO is raised
• Open your lens to the widest aperture to let in as much light as possible
• If you have it, be sure you have Vibration Reduction on the lens enabled
• Use flash creatively to create light
• Try HDR

To learn more about this topic, join me on one of my Nature Photo Tours. Visit russburdenphotography.com and click on the NATURE TOURS button for more information. Also, email me to be placed on my Tip of the Week list and to receive announcements about upcoming tours specials or to pick up a copy of my book, Amphoto’s Complete Book of Photography. You can purchase a signed copy directly from me or visit your local book store or Amazon. Contact me at rburden@ecentral.com to order your signed copy.