How to Take Photos in the Dark
Learning To Shoot In Low Light
By Sam Bugas - May 2024
Photography is, at its core, a visual representation of a moment, a story, or an emotion. Like the books you read, and the movies you watch, the goal with photography is to bring the person looking at your photos into the moment within which they were captured. Photography is visual storytelling through stills. In your favorite books, movies, and shows, do they ignore the times of day on either side of dawn and dusk? Firmly, I can say they do not. You, as a visual storyteller, should not either.
This blog is about a few tips and tricks to keep in mind when you have a camera in one hand, a coffee in the other, and the light hasn’t quite lit the landscape.
Lesson #1: Stop Being Afraid of ISO
This has become my favorite lesson to give, and it’s arguably the point that will open up your ability to shoot more compelling photos the most. Most of us learn shortly after taking our first photos that increasing ISO is a means to an end that should be avoided for the sake of photo quality. To some extent, this has been true with many generations of DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that struggled with pushed ISO. However, two things have changed. First, if you have a camera made in the last ten years, you likely have a camera that is capable of a higher ISO than you think without your photo falling apart. Second, the software available to us has progressed so quickly over the last several years that it now stands capable of cleaning up all but the worst photos.
I also want you to consider two more things. First, you have likely taught yourself to see ISO and feel disdain towards it. This is very likely a reaction your viewer will never have. In fact, I’ve never once heard someone criticize a photo due to the grain, noise, or other readily evident evidence of pushed ISO. Your reaction to the noise ISO produces is exactly that, your reaction. Second, look to the storied history of photography, and the many film stocks that led us to our current technology. We savoured the grain patterns in each of those films, and more importantly, every single one of them was grainier than our digital sensors today with ISO pushed to the moon (I’m speaking in terms of 35mm film, as 120mm was more capable of extremely fine grain profiles). All of this is to say, ISO is not out to harm you or your photos, it exists to allow you to tell more compelling stories in times of day with less light. Tell stories, and never miss shots because you are avoiding a higher ISO.
Lesson #2: Look For the Light
A darker scene often serves to simplify the frame. This can help you to more effectively direct focus if you use it correctly. If you find yourself in a dim lit scene, and you choose a dim lit subject, it will fail to stand out, and your viewer’s focus and attention will therefore waiver. Instead, it’s worth digesting the scene, and looking for where the light is leading. If there is a moon, is it casting any light on the scene? If so, which element is it hitting, and can you use that element as a subject or key element? Is there a street light that can help you to isolate a subject? These lights act like key lights, but often with a more subtle effect. Look for the light, and use it to paint a picture of the story in that particular scene.
Lesson #3: Work With the Light Temperature
By temperature, I do not mean warm or cold in the literal sense. The temperature in a scene is the tone of the light, and whether it is more orange, like during a sunset, or blue during dawn. The temperature of the scene helps to create a naturally occurring emotional disposition in the viewer. A blue dawn can feel either sleepy or chilling. Similarly, a dense golden glow of dusk can feel quite warm or uplifting. These natural reactions are a part of photos taken at these times of day, so lean into that.
By recognizing the temperature in the scene, and using the opportunity to take photos, we not only open up very innate reactions in our viewers, we also open up very vulnerable parts of our subjects to the viewers. If you are there in that moment, feeling the warmth or the cold, you have a unique opportunity to speak to something that is happening that otherwise would not be happening during the middle of the day. Mountaineering photographers take advantage of the early hours in the day because that is often when they are ascending, freezing, motivated, and these variables paint vivid visuals. Street photographers often look to late hours of the day, during dusk for example, because it exaggerates night life, neon lights, the warmth of a day coming to a close, and the stories of those that remain when so many others have returned home for the day. These hours, and the temperature in the scene, provide beautiful storytelling opportunities.
Lesson #4: Use Fast Lenses & Good Stabilization Technique
This is the most basic of all the lessons, but it’s worth remembering. First, using a fast aperture such as f/1.2 or f/2.8 will allow more light to pass through your lens and reach your sensor. With this in mind, investing in glass that can let in more light is the fastest and easiest way to make sure you can shoot in darker environments. While this can get expensive quickly with many fast aperture zooms costing significant amounts, there are affordable prime lenses with f/2.8 apertures for every camera system. These are often the smallest, the lightest, and still very practical for low light shooting.
Next, hand-held stabalization is an exceptionally important skill to practice for low light photography. Many cameras and lenses already have some stabalization, but you should work on the technique rather than relying on the in-body systems. I suggest:
Stabalizing by bracing your elbows against your chest and stomach while shooting in vertical or horizontal positions. By bringing your arms in close to your body, and tightening up your center of gravity, you eliminate a large amount of the natural shake that occurs from holding a camera.
Sitting on the ground and bracing your camera and arms by using your knees.
Lean against trees, rocks, ice, walls, or anything else that can get rid of your natural sway.
Exhale as you click the shutter. This can relax you for just a moment and steady you enough for a sharp shot.
Using these techniques can allow you to shoot at shutter speeds as low as 1/4 to 1/2 of a second if you are well practiced (some people can even shoot longer than that while most others only feel comfortable to around 1/25 or 1/40 of a second). Lastly, I typically toss my camera in a burst mode (3-5 frames per second) when I know the odds of a blurry shot are high. If I am struggling to hit single shots, sometimes the cure is to shoot more!
Lesson #5: Consider Manual Focus
Autofocus systems have been quite strong for years now, and most often you can count on them to detect contrast well enough to hit focus in dim lit scenes. There are times, though, when your camera just can’t quite get there. At night, there is often cold haze or fog in the air. There may also be light rain. Shooting in dim lit settings is already a fair challenge for your camera’s autofocus system to work through, and the addition of any additional elements that may increase the challenge can cause it to fail. When it eventually struggles, switch over to manual focus and do the job yourself. I have saved dozens of scenes by switching to manual focus when I otherwise felt sure I’d leave without a photo. If your camera supports it, flip on focus peaking as well, so that you can clearly detect what is in focus.
To Summarize
If you are avoiding low light photography, you are avoiding some of the best hours of the day to tell stories. The world looks and behaves differently when the light is dim, and the emotion in each and every scene takes on a distinctive set of qualities. Consider what tools you have: ISO, Aperture, slower shutter speeds, unique color temperature, physical and in camera techniques. Each of these can be leveraged to improve your ability to take vivid, evocative photos when so many others have already put their cameras away for the day.
About Me:
I have shot photos for five years, with a consistent focus on capturing moments of action and environment while I am outside. I’ve dabbled in quite a few different genres of photography, and I’ve found that my favorite moments to take a photo are when the wind is whipping, the air is freezing, and I’m far away from home. Over the last year, I’ve come to the realization that taking photos and telling stories are two very different things. My goal is to keep improving as a story teller that can work in the worst environments and come away with compelling sets of photos and written stories that help me, and others, to relive the essence of an adventure. I am focused on continuing to grow as a visual story teller so that I may leverage my skills to successfully work within conservation, expedition photography, and commercial photography.
Lastly, if you are a climber, backpacker, photographer, scuba diver or whatever else on the South Island of New Zealand, let’s get in touch! I just arrived in Christchurch, and I am taking every opportunity available to go out and explore this wonderful new place.