What Are the Best Settings for a Camera to Shoot in Low light?
- teresasimmonssa
- Oct 11, 2017
- 2 min read
I’ve come across numerous fellow photographers who said that low light is not good for photography and this seems to be an accepted norm among those who involve themselves in this exciting hobby. Well, I beg to differ. In my opinion, low light can’t be that bad as long as you know what to shoot and how to shoot it.
Let me be clear, not all subjects can be shot with limited light and certain subjects look a whole lot better when shot in low light. Also, when it comes to low light photography, your option is not limited to just night photography. Wedding photography can be considered as low light in many cases because the scene that has to be captured is carried out indoor. And that’s just one of many examples.
Anyway, I’m not going to talk about low light photography ideas in this post. Instead, I’d like to cover the necessary camera settings to ensure the most beautiful photos in low light conditions. Without further ado, here they are. Best Low Light Camera
Go Manual
Photographers differ in this matter. Some like using full manual mode, while others don’t mind the camera’s assistance in priority (semi-manual) modes. Either way, one thing is obvious. You can’t expect to get a good result in low light with auto mode. Now I prefer to use full manual mode because it gives me complete freedom to adjust the exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO). You need to know how each of those elements affects the image’s exposure before you can capture somme amazing photos in low light. You can use the light meter in your camera to help tell which element needs further adjustmen to get the exposure right.
Aperture
Use fast lenses to get wider aperture.
Wider aperture is shown by lower f-stop value.
The wider the aperture, the more light enters the camera.
Be cautious with wide aperture as it makes the depth of field (effective focus range) narrower.
Shutter Speed
Never set the shutter speed lower than a fraction of the focal length. The minimum is exactly a fraction. For instance, if your lens has a focal length of 60mm, then set the shutter speed at 1/60 of a second or faster.
If your subject is moving, make the shutter speed faster. If you use a tripod or your camera has a stabilization system, you can set it slower.
Slower shutter speed brings in more light. Faster shutter speed freeze motion more efffectively.
ISO
The higher you bring the ISO number, the more exposed your photo will be.
High ISO makes image noise more visible. Setting it too high and your photo will look muddy.
The bigger the sensor, the better the camera will be in controlling the noise at high ISO, which is why full frame camera performs much better in low light in comparison to cropped sensor camera.
When you shoot in low light, it’s always recommended to set the file in RAW format rather than JPEG. With unprocessed file, the shadows in the photos contain more details, which can be helpful in post-processing.
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