NZ Photo Info

Low light photography at night without flash gives you a new appreciation of your surroundings. If you take the time you can achieve some stunning results!

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A few things to think about when photographing in low light:

• Tripod - This is the most important piece of equipment. Make sure you get a reasonable quality one that is sturdy enough to hold your camera without moving. Don't forget to use it!
• Get a cable release, this will allow you to trigger your flash without touching the camera and introducing camera shake. If your camera is not capable of connecting a cable release use the inbuilt timer on your camera.
• Increasing the ISO setting will allow you to shot faster in less light. However, you run the risk of introducing noise into your images as you increase the ISO. Generally speaking I don't go above 400 ISO using my Olympus E300.
• Let your camera's auto focus do the work. Particularly when the light is very low your camera will often do a better job focusing than you can (not always though). Over time you will learn to recognise when to do things manually and when to let the camera do them.
• Shoot in full manual mode (except focus). This will allow you to get the right balance between ISO, aperture and shutter speed.
• If your camera has a noise reduction system use it. The olympus E300 has a system that takes a 2nd shot with the shutter closed and then automatically removes any hot pixels. However, this does not occur if shooting less than 4 second exposure times.
• Take your time and think about every shot. Try different settings and learn what works best for any given scene or scenario.