PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Shooting Digital in Low-Light Conditions GUEST COLUMNIST: DENNIS A. LIVESEY
I AM OFTEN ASKED WHAT IS THE BEST CAMERA or lens for low-light photography. While there are cameras and lenses that are better suited for that purpose than others, the real answer goes in a different direction. And that answer does not involve paying for camera gear.
T2.8: Wide Open an’ Hopin’
Back when I was a motion picture camera assistant, I worked for the director of photog- raphy Ken Kelsch, ASC. If you look him up on the movie website
imdb.com you will see the list of the films he has shot, and nearly every one has sequences with his signature “dark and moody” lighting. This meant there were instances when he was on the edge of what the film could do in making a usable exposure of the lead actor’s face. It was times like that he would look at his
meter, see it saying the scene was way under normal exposure, and he’d then tell me to set the lens’s aperture at the most wide open stop possible which usually a T/2.8. This was risky for him, the director, the actor and the film itself if it did not work. Though he was a Vietnam combat veteran, even he would get a bit nervous. Still, he forged on and announced to all concerned that the exposure was “Wide open an’ hopin’!” In speaking to his skill, I never knew him to fail in creating the proper image for any moment in any film. It was that type of a multi-million dollar, high-risk, high-stress environment that I learned it was not the $500,000 Panavision camera, not the hundreds of thousands of rolls of 35mm Kodak film that cost nearly a $1000
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each to purchase, process, and print nor the millions of dollars of lighting equipment and crew that captured low-light images. No, it was the skill of the cinematographer. People realize that learning to play the
piano, or being an athlete, or a surgeon takes a great deal of time, money and commitment. However, often the same people see a photographer working and all that seems to be happening is a button being pressed and a stunning picture the result. While a great camera does help, one of my most popular shots was done with a camera that you can purchase on eBay for under $300. You must realize the optical electronic or mechanical marvel in your hands is just a box made to collect light. It cannot make a photo without you. If the light is ugly or beautiful, the camera does not know the difference. Consequently, for low light photography to work the skill is to see what light is there and how to use it. That part is up to you.
Exposing It All My journey to low-light shooting really
started after I went digital and I got the principle of exposure under control. Outside of composition and focus, the part of the camera I pay the most attention to is the light meter. While the light meters in today’s cameras are amazing compared to the ones even ten or twenty years ago, you as the photographer still have to exercise judgment and not let the meter fool you. What you have to watch out for is the meter thinking what it is looking at is a normal light
level. That is fine with full sun at your back, but when you are in diminished light your meter may want to correct for the darkness. Often it will want to let in too much light in its effort to make it look “normal.” Do not let it. When you start shooting a low-light scene,
be ready to disobey the meter and deliberately underexpose the image. Shortly after sunset I do one stop under. As it gets darker, I go to two stops under, and then three stops, depending on what works for that camera and scene. (Don’t underexpose willy-nilly; use your head.) With the wonder that is digital, shoot some test shots and see how close they match the scene before your eyes.
Crepuscularity All photographers as they go along wish
to find something to differentiate themselves from the other shooters. For me, that came when I was attending Train Fest 2009 in Owosso, Mich. The crux of the festival was the attendance of three of Lima’s finest steam locomotives. They were Pere Marquette No. 1225, Nickel Plate Road No. 765, and Southern Pacific No. 4449. Each evening of the festival photographer Peter Lerro hosted a special night photo session. At the first session, the sun had set while
the crew members were setting up lights. There was full exposure on the engines because of the photo lights, but the sky had turned cobalt blue. I started shooting. Because Pete’s lights were fully covering the locomotives in dramatic cross-angles, what the meter said was correct. Since the sun had
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