Photography News Issue 26 absolutephoto.com
20 Camera Club of the Year IN ASSOCIATIONWITH
Low light presents all sorts of technical
challenges to the keen
photographer but conquer those and great pictures are there to be had
Below Interiors can be very contrasty so metering needs to be done with care. Here a tripod was used. Bottom Entries for this theme can include low-light shots taken in markets and interiors.
Round 1: low light To kick off this year’s camera Club of the Year contest we want to see five stunning low-light pictures
Above While night photography is best done with a tripod, using a high ISOmeans that the camera can be handheld for low-light street shooting.
Low light presents all sorts of technical challenges to the keen photographer, but conquer those and great pictures are there to be had. We want to see pictures that show creative and skilful use of low light and how the photographers recognised the potential of the moment, overcame any problems and produced awesome images. Camera shake and/or subject movement are obvious issues when light levels drop and the slower shutter speeds that come with such situations require careful management. It might mean using the camera’s image stabilisation system to help get sharper pictures. Canon’s Image Stabilisation (IS) system is a brilliant innovation and features on many of its EF lenses giving a benefit of several f/stops. A 3EV benefit means that if you can take sharp pictures at 1/60sec, using IS means it is possible to shoot at a shutter speed three f/
stops slower and get equally sharp shots, ie. 1/8sec in this example. While IS is no substitute for a tripod, it does have a massive benefit to handheld shooting. Of course, once you really start to explore the potential of subjects like light trails, a tripod has no peer. Dealing with camera shake is all well and good, but if the subject is moving – or perhaps you are – no IS systemwill cope so here is where you can take control of the camera’s ISO setting. Modern cameras are amazingly good at the high ISO settings, with ISO 1600, 3200 and even 6400 capable of low noise performance and good enough for exhibition quality images. Go beyond these high ISO settings and there is the inevitable compromise with image quality, but with cameras such as the Canon EOS-1D X with ISO 51,200 and the option of expansion to ISO 204,800, low light should no longer hold any fear for photographers.
Left The great ISO performance of modern cameras means shooting in the poorest light is possible.
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