Question 1

What should be the ISO camera settings for low light?

Accepted Answer

It is true that you should always and always consider the ISO setting when it comes to low light photography. Considering that most cameras now allow the setting to be manually adjusted and some camera models already have swooping ISO ranges, having to choose the optimum setting can be a challenge. You just have to remember that high ISO can make your images appear noisy or blurry while will truly affect the quality of the image in a bigger picture. If you are shooting in dark conditions that will inevitably allow high ISO performance, some of the image quality will be sacrificed. The working idea here is if you set that ISO setting too high, you are riding the device away from its optimum performance settings. When you are working on the upper end of the spectrum of the ISO, you will need to leave a choice between noise or blur. This sacrifice is driven mainly with the two choices you have in dim lighting. The first is that in order to utilize a lower ISO with as well a slower shutter speed that gathers more light, the image will most likely have a blur effect, but with the other option which is to operate at a high ISO with fast shutter speed, you will be meeting digital noise or have graininess along the operation. This can be a tough call, and the best thing is to work on the higher ISO range since it is better to have a slight amount of noise than your photo is blurry and lose the sharpness of it. For some specifics though, most professionals recommend an ISO range between 1600 to 3200. However, since cameras have different specs, that most suitable choice you can have is to try your camera at different ISO levels and see the quality of the image produced afterward.

Question 2

What should I remember in taking low light photos?

Accepted Answer

When you are in a low light condition for photography, you are left with two options: You either create more light physically by providing a third-party light; or adjust the settings of your device in order for it to react best to whatever lighting is available. When it comes to the talk of adjusting the exposure of the camera, there are three settings available for this, namely the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO.

Question 3

What is the right aperture for low light photography?

Accepted Answer

Since low light photography is the gist of this article, one way to allow more light to enter, you have to make sure that your camerau2019s lens opening is wide enough to cater more light possible into your device. Aperture is mainly correlated to the camerau2019s opening. Some of the most common values of the aperture in the camera include f/8, f/11, and f/16. As mentioned above, apertures work in reverse. The smaller the number assigned to it is, the wider the opening. Therefore, an f-stop of 8 has better light reception to an f-stop of 11. In locations of dim lighting, you should set your device to a small f-stop that will allow more light to enter the camera. An f-stop of f/4 can already do for low light photography. However, if you plan on taking a considerable amount of time shooting photos in poor lighting conditions, you can opt to invest in a lens that has a maximum aperture that goes somewhere around f/2 to f/1.4. Whenever you are adjusting your aperture, you should not go much wider than this. Aperture works in correlation with shutter speed and the ISO in poor lighting conditions. Like in ISOs, increasing the aperture can also mean increasing some disadvantages. It can be small sacrifices that you have to make in order to land on the best shot. The wider the opening of the lens, the area of focus will, in turn, be shallower or depth of field that will be in your photo. If you only have one muse, a low depth of field can be applicable since your sole subject will be the focus of everything else. However, if you have a lot of subjects gathered around at different points or distances in your frame, you will need to choose which objects will be more focused and which ones will remain blurred.

Tag: Low Light Cameras

Best Low Light Cameras