I've mainly been focusing on nature and landscape photography since getting my SLR. So I've always shot in daylight, or in the early evening. I've never really had a reason to shoot people at night, or in very dim lighting until last night, at my friends Hens Night.
I have to say, I sucked! We were up high in a hotel, with very dim lighting, sipping cocktails. And my shots either didn't work out at all, or they did work out quite nicely, but were slightly blurry or out of focus, and had to be sharpened in post processing.
Anyone have any clear, important tips when it comes to capturing candid photos of people in very dim lighting, or at night? I didn't want to use the flash so opted not to.
I tried manual settings, and always use MF - got the lighting right, but the photos weren't sharp. they were slightly out of focus :( is is possible to avoid this and get sharp images??
i'll be interested to see what the more experienced folks have to say, 'cos i want to work on this too... my first guess is that you'd probably have needed a very slow shutter speed, and that would probably mean both the camera and the subject(s) would have to stay very still to maintain sharp focus... and i'm guessing that would be hard in the setting you describe?
I'm going to be really interested to see what people say here too because it's something I've really been trying to work at recently too. I've come to the conclusion the best way is to bounce my flash off the ceiling (or play around with the direction will I get it right) and push the shutter speed up ignoring what my camera is saying about exposure - (250ish seems to be working well if they're just posing still and not moving about). I used to avoid flash at all costs, but am beginning to realise what an important tool it is, and how with a bit of practise and working out, it can make photos work, even in bright daylight!
Bit of a different person at night shot from what you're talking about but I thought I'd show it to you anyway because I posted it the other day.
Shot in the near-pitch-dark to get the colour of the glow poi with shutter speed on 2 seconds (if I remember correctly!), manually focussing first on the glow poi while they were being held still. And then using the flash bouncing of the verandah ceiling to bring the person into the picture too.
There is no secret, you need to gather as much light as possible.
This means as high an ISO as your camera can manage without the noise eliminating the gains in focus. And as fast a lens as you can afford. Fast means lets more light in. The lower the fstop number, the larger the opening and the more light let in.
Also a tripod, monopod or nearby rail can help. If you've none of these, bring the camera snug to your face, elbows against your body, take a good breath and slooooooooooooooooooly exhale whist gently pressing the shutter.
If you manually adjust the flash, you might be able to achieve a balance of lower ISO and still not have the flash be too harsh. This requires much experimentation.
What @lilbudhha said. You need a fast lens, and need to use a high(er) ISO. Some sort of stability will help as well, but that's only if your subjects are staying still, which probably isn't the case at a hen party :)
If all else fails, you can try to diffuse the on-camera flash or get a speedlite.
Yep what @lilbudhha said....I know that in my film days and with a friend in photography classes at the university 3200 ISO B&W was the way to for those low light bar scene type shots....lots of grain ( =noise in digital) but that was the point too.....
@shadesofgrey I didn't realize it was Hen's Night. They're the same thing, right? XD
Also, further to the above, some people get spooked about shooting high ISO because of the degradation of quality, but there are some really impressive noise reduction options out there, and plenty of ways to sharpen an image afterward. I say crank it up to 6400 and fire away!
@gurry I don't know if it is or not...you mentioned it first (I'm sure as an abstract relation...not a direct reference)....I was just being chauvinistic in my response! I agree Crank it up....
I did some shooting at night yesterday. I used a wide aperture (f/1.8) and upped my ISO (anywhere from 1000 to 3200 depending on how dark it was). I also find auto-focus is better in the dark as I sometimes have a hard time focussing manually when there isn't much light.
Natalie, good point regarding AF. I learnt that last night. lol I think I'll opt for AF at night when shooting candid photos.
I cranked up ISO to 3200. But I think it's the ISO that results in grainy pictures?
I'll have to experiment further with night shots I think. It's the only way to learn really. But hard trying to learn when you're meant to be "socialising" at events ;) lol
@claireclinch Yep, exactly! And AF gives you the chance to just snap away quickly rather than having to take the time to focus, great for candids, exactly like you said :)
Yep, photos do get slightly grainy at a higher ISO, but for me, it's a trade-off I don't mind, because otherwise my D90 doesn't really work in low-light!
I took this pic in extremely low light, just the one coming from the TV
I don't really have tips, but I just can share what I did for this one. I shot on manual because I wanted to keep an acceptable shutter speed (that I knew I could manage to have no blur with), I used ISO 1600 which also gives acceptable noise on my camera, stabilizer on (if I remember well) and I tried to keep the camera as steady as possible. For the aperture, f/2.8 was the max allowed by my lens. My aim was to make a low light pic, so I didn't care if the shot was underexposed. This is what I wanted. Does it help?
Grainy pics sometimes work well too, they are part of the ambiance, so you could try higher the ISO too.
I was waiting to see how others would advise this post before jumping in.
I'm not as flash adverse as most people here. Camera's need light. Light is a primary element in all photography.
And while the portrait above is amazing, when I'm at a fun event like a "hens party", I would flop the diffuser on the flash and use it. You can get very inexpensive diffusers for your flash to bring down the harshness; you can make a cheap diffuser even on the spot; you can use the brightness/darkness meter in the camera to adjust the flash to something desirable.
I get that a lot of people here don't like flash and that's great for doing artsy photos, but for a fun evening out with your friends, to get a clearer less grainy photo, flash works. More light means better colors, sharper images.
Consider next time, doing some of your photos with flash (enough to get at least one good shot of everyone at the event) and some of your photos without flash, to work on those low light photos that most prefer.
Also the night feature on a camera (which you can set manually with a slightly longer exposure, plus flash) will give you both a well lit group and pick up the background ambience lights. Just something to consider.
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/2.2
ISO Speed: 3200
Focal Length: 50 mm
I did not use a tripod and had a bit of ambient street lighting to work with so just snapped away...digging low light photography with a t3i there is no way I could have done this with my old powershot
Thanks for all your input. I think what Sheila said about using a diffuser for events like Hens nights it's probably best. I'll order one in a few days and practice with it. it's not something I want to use all the time obviously, but if I'm going to miss out on great candid moments with friends because of grainy or slightly blurred shots it's not worth it!
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Shot in the near-pitch-dark to get the colour of the glow poi with shutter speed on 2 seconds (if I remember correctly!), manually focussing first on the glow poi while they were being held still. And then using the flash bouncing of the verandah ceiling to bring the person into the picture too.
This means as high an ISO as your camera can manage without the noise eliminating the gains in focus. And as fast a lens as you can afford. Fast means lets more light in. The lower the fstop number, the larger the opening and the more light let in.
Also a tripod, monopod or nearby rail can help. If you've none of these, bring the camera snug to your face, elbows against your body, take a good breath and slooooooooooooooooooly exhale whist gently pressing the shutter.
If you manually adjust the flash, you might be able to achieve a balance of lower ISO and still not have the flash be too harsh. This requires much experimentation.
If all else fails, you can try to diffuse the on-camera flash or get a speedlite.
Yep what @lilbudhha said....I know that in my film days and with a friend in photography classes at the university 3200 ISO B&W was the way to for those low light bar scene type shots....lots of grain ( =noise in digital) but that was the point too.....
Also, further to the above, some people get spooked about shooting high ISO because of the degradation of quality, but there are some really impressive noise reduction options out there, and plenty of ways to sharpen an image afterward. I say crank it up to 6400 and fire away!
I hope you had fun at your friend's Hens Night!
I cranked up ISO to 3200. But I think it's the ISO that results in grainy pictures?
I'll have to experiment further with night shots I think. It's the only way to learn really. But hard trying to learn when you're meant to be "socialising" at events ;) lol
Yep, photos do get slightly grainy at a higher ISO, but for me, it's a trade-off I don't mind, because otherwise my D90 doesn't really work in low-light!
& yep, practice makes perfect!
I don't really have tips, but I just can share what I did for this one. I shot on manual because I wanted to keep an acceptable shutter speed (that I knew I could manage to have no blur with), I used ISO 1600 which also gives acceptable noise on my camera, stabilizer on (if I remember well) and I tried to keep the camera as steady as possible. For the aperture, f/2.8 was the max allowed by my lens. My aim was to make a low light pic, so I didn't care if the shot was underexposed. This is what I wanted. Does it help?
Grainy pics sometimes work well too, they are part of the ambiance, so you could try higher the ISO too.
I'm not as flash adverse as most people here. Camera's need light. Light is a primary element in all photography.
And while the portrait above is amazing, when I'm at a fun event like a "hens party", I would flop the diffuser on the flash and use it. You can get very inexpensive diffusers for your flash to bring down the harshness; you can make a cheap diffuser even on the spot; you can use the brightness/darkness meter in the camera to adjust the flash to something desirable.
I get that a lot of people here don't like flash and that's great for doing artsy photos, but for a fun evening out with your friends, to get a clearer less grainy photo, flash works. More light means better colors, sharper images.
Consider next time, doing some of your photos with flash (enough to get at least one good shot of everyone at the event) and some of your photos without flash, to work on those low light photos that most prefer.
Also the night feature on a camera (which you can set manually with a slightly longer exposure, plus flash) will give you both a well lit group and pick up the background ambience lights. Just something to consider.
Aperture: f/2.2
ISO Speed: 3200
Focal Length: 50 mm
I did not use a tripod and had a bit of ambient street lighting to work with so just snapped away...digging low light photography with a t3i there is no way I could have done this with my old powershot