Question A Day | Low Light Limbo w/ Canon (or any) DSLR
Q: Hi Tamara!
Congrats on the beautiful site! Love it! I hope you don’t mind; I added a link to you on my blog, Wee Bits by Suzanne.
Here’s my question for you… What setting would you suggest using during the late evening when the house is dark (no natural light)? I hate using the flash as it seems to make faces look ghost like and shadowy. Hhhhmm.. I’m still getting used to my Canon Rebel. It seems as though I have a ways to go. Thanks Tamara! I look forward to following you!
— Suzanne
A: Hi Suzanne: Thanks for the link and the follow and, while we’re at it, the question too! Much appreciated!
Setting for low light, late evening force our hand on three options:
- high ISO with the reality and risk of noise,
- P (Program) mode and the ability to stay very, very still to keep blur at bay,
- and, finally, some sort of flash.
Aw, shucks. I know. Flash can be a mood killer, especially external flashes which are bulky and scream “hey, look at me!”
But there are options before we get there…
We looked at high ISO last week* here.
Program mode continues to be a favourite of mine. Just the other night I wanted to continue documenting Isla’s sleep strike and P-mode served me well, catching the low light off the lamp and accurately reflecting both the environment of the room as well as our contented mood. But it didn’t start that way.
Auto | w/ External Flash pointed/bounced off white ceiling
Blech. Not what I was looking for. Here’s where P-mode stepped in.
Program | w/ camera resting on countertop as makeshift tripod
Note the reflection of the quartz surface bouncing in the left corner… Artistic? Maybe. But also a bit distracting.
Program | w/ camera resting on dining table as tripod, eliminating reflection
Program | w/ camera on table, using 10 sec. self timer
Now, these can all be slightly lightened and adjusted in post-production, but for now — SOOC — they tell a fine tale for our purposes. The key for low light is having a steady hand which, I don’t know about you but by day’s end I don’t. I use objects found around me (books, tables, etc.) as tripods and the self-timer or even a wireless remote control to keep the camera still and away from my tired hands. Then, the only battle is keeping the subjects still.
Flash can be used effectively, as in way more effectively than my photo up above. That is coming in the next post!
* I think my week/end’s worth of queued posts got lost in the glitch last week! Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey; I’m running all previously scheduled posts this week, including the winner of the 7x7 photo book!
Search
