It's easy to think of low-light shooting as something that happens only at night, and there's a good reason for thinking that way. It's usually awfully dark at night. But low-light situations can happen at any time of the day and in lots of different locales and situations. In fact, most of your low-light shooting will probably be during the daytime, as you battle difficult lighting situations indoors. For example, a European vacation might take you inside dark cathedrals or marketplaces. Or maybe you want a shoot event in your office during the daytime.
These are all low-light situations most of the time. Indoor low light doesn't require a different skill set than outdoor low light; you still need to answer the same questions and solve the same problems that you face when you're shooting in low light outside. One of the great things about indoor low light though is that you can easily find low-light problems in your own home, so it's simple to practice dealing with them. I've invited a bunch of friends over for dinner tonight and I'm going to shoot the event. It will be nighttime and we're going to want some atmosphere in the room, so we'll have the lights down low.
This is the type of low-light situation that you might encounter anytime you have a family gathering or special occasion, and we're going to spend this whole chapter exploring how to get good shots. Now I've also invited my friend Steve Simon, a Canadian photographer and photojournalist. If you've seen my Foundations of Photography: Composition course, then you've already seen some of Steve's work. Now you're going to get to hear his take on how he handles tricky low-light situations. But before we get to that, I'm going to sit down with Steve and look at some of his low-light images and talk about what problems he faced and how he solved them.
Author
Released
3/29/2012Ben also shows how to obtain accurate color balance in tungsten and fluorescent lighting situations, and how to postprocess the images in Photoshop to remove noise caused by higher ISO settings. He also demonstrates accessories that can greatly expand your low-light photography options.
- Understanding how low light affects exposure, shutter speed, color temperature, and more
- Preparing for a low-light shoot
- Shooting in dimly lit rooms
- Using the flash indoors
- Shooting in the shade
- Taking flash portraits at night
- Controlling flash color temperature
- Focusing in low light
- Light painting
- Manipulating long shutter speeds
- Correcting white balance
- Brightening shadows
- Sharpening and noise reduction
Skill Level Intermediate
Duration
Views
Related Courses
-
Photography Foundations: Composition
with Ben Long5h 29m Intermediate -
Photography Foundations: Black and White
with Ben Long3h 3m Intermediate
-
Introduction
-
Welcome2m 23s
-
-
1. Setting the Stage
-
2. Exposure Considerations
-
Considering motion blur1m 14s
-
Exposing to the right4m 1s
-
3. Scenario: A Dinner Party
-
Introduction1m 36s
-
Shooting by candlelight1m 55s
-
Choosing a mode4m 34s
-
White balance considerations3m 27s
-
Flash considerations1m 18s
-
Problem solving1m 35s
-
-
4. Scenario: A Performance
-
Introduction2m 20s
-
Preparing for the shoot5m 25s
-
Reviewing the performance images12m 45s
-
-
5. Scenario: In a City
-
Shooting in the shade2m 55s
-
Street shooting2m 52s
-
-
6. Scenario: Landscapes
-
Shooting lingering sunsets1m 42s
-
Composing and focusing at night10m 42s
-
Shooting the stars9m 27s
-
-
7. Special Effects
-
8. Post-Processing Considerations
-
Correcting white balance8m 49s
-
Brightening shadows9m 8s
-
Reducing noise7m 44s
-
Sharpening9m 14s
-
Correcting night skies6m 39s
-
-
Conclusion
-
Goodbye53s
-
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: Introduction