How to Shoot Professional Images in Low Light

By Lee Stewart

Low light...it can be a photographer's nightmare. But here are some basic techniques that I use daily to overcome this obstacle. Some of this may sound mundane, but I am surprised constantly by how many photographers do not understand these basic principles.

First, let's talk about lenses.

For those of you who do not already know this, we refer to lenses in terms of how "fast" they are. This is kind of a misnomer, but what it really means is his: how big is the aperture? The larger the aperture, the more speed you can get out of the camera...hence...how fast it is. The absolute minimum aperture for exposing images in low light should be f2.8. If you have a lens that has a smaller aperture opening than this, your ability to capture sharp images will be drastically reduced. Most "kit lenses" are f3.5 to f5.6, and most of them lose aperture as you zoom in (the closer you zoom, the smaller the aperture becomes). This can spell certain doom in low light. So the first, and most important tip is to invest in quality lenses. Invest in lenses that are f2.8 or faster...f1.8 or 1.4 is even more preferred.

Second, let's talk about film speed (ASA) or CCD speed (ISO).

In a nutshell, the larger the ASA or ISO 3, the "faster" that medium is at exposure. This becomes very important in low light situations. The downside is that the higher the speed, the more "noise" one can expect. As a rule of thumb, I typically use ASA/ISO 200 for sunny days outside, ASA/ISO 400 for indoors with good lighting, ASA/ISO 640 for indoors with medium light, and ASA/ISO 800 for indoors with low light conditions. I have found that anything higher than a speed of 800 produces too much noise for what I do.

Third, let's talk about Shutter Speed.

In low light conditions, even with a professional flash mounted, I have found that anything slower than 1/30 produces blurry images. Human movement in that time frame (both the camera operator and the subject) is just enough that the image will be blurry at 1/20, so I try to never step below 1/30. The only exceptions are when I mount the camera on a tripod and I am shooting a stationary object, not humans, unless you are trying deliberately to capture their movement, but that's another discussion.

Fourth, let;s talk about Flash.

Rules of thumb for flash photography in low light conditions. If the ceiling of the room is low and light in color, I set the flash to TTL (through the lens), point the flash head at the ceiling and I use the diffuser. This "bounces" the light around the room and produces a really nice effect for evenly distributed lighting. In rooms where the ceiling is low, and a darker color, I do the same thing, but remove the diffuser. In high ceiling, lightly colored rooms, I set the flash to it's full power manual setting, point the flash head at the ceiling, and use the diffuser. The down side of this is that it will take longer to recharge the flash unit, but the payoff exceeds that I think. In the same room with darker colors, I use the manual flash, point the flash at the subject, and if the subject is close, I use the diffuser...if the subject is more than about 10 feet away, I remove it.

Now let's put that all together.

In low light situations, we want our lens open to it's "fastest" aperture...preferably f2.8 or faster. The reason for this may surprise you, but, the main reason is that so you can expose the background correctly. Did you hear that? It's right...the background. Why do we want to do that you ask? I'll tell you why. Anyone can get a picture of a person in a dark environment with the background completely black. That takes no skill at all. But show me the photographer that can light up the background in a dark room, and expose the subject correctly, and that is the professional. Next, we want to make sure that we are using the right film speed (ASA 800) or CCD speed (ISO 800). Lastly, we want to make sure that our shutter is set to the right speed (1/30). Anything slower will blur. Use the flash as described above, and you will be on your way to taking better images in low light conditions. Of course these tips are not set in stone, but they do offer us a starting point that should help the user make progress. And as always, practice makes perfect!

About the author: Lee Randall Stewart is a professional wedding photographer with offices in Newport Beach, CA and Honolulu, HI. His work has been seen all over the world in numerous wedding photography editorials and magazines, and he remains one of the industry's leading professionals. To see his Newport Beach based website, please visit http://LeeRandallStewart.com and to see his Honolulu based website, please go to http://HawaiiPhotoStudio.com

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Digital Video Cameras - Optical Vs Digital Zoom

By Abner Allarey

A digital cameras zoom lens is effectively a cropping tool that lets you zero in on an important subject area to make it fill as much of the frame as you want. The lens does this optically by narrowing its view to exclude some subject area while magnifying those that are left within the frame.

When zooming optically with a digital camera, the picture area contains the full number of pixels for the selected resolution setting, but more of them are now devoted to the area you want, making its details clearer. Most digicams (and some camera-phones) include a digital zoom facility that works by selecting out a rectangular area in the centre of the field of view and enlarging it to fill the frame. All unwanted pixels in the surrounding area are discarded.

The cropped image then undergoes an interpolation process that adds new pixels on the basis of existing pixels in the image, these new interpolated pixels are created from existing image data, so you don't gain anything beyond a slightly tighter composition.

The actual picture quality will depend on how many pixels your camera used to make the image and how much of that image you crop away. It will also be influenced by the quality of the cameras interpolation algorithms. High levels of digital zoom require a lot of extra pixels to be added and this usually results in a loss of both image sharpness and contrast so digital zoom shots often look much flatter and fuzzier than shots taken with the cameras optical zoom lens.

Digital SLR cameras never include a digital zoom function but photographers who use these cameras can achieve a similar objective by enlarging and cropping shots when they edit them on a computer. The higher the cameras sensor resolution, the more enlargement is possible before the image starts to degrade and the greater potential for selective cropping.

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Edit Digital Photography - Digital Photos Touch Up Guide

By David M Peters

The advances and conveniences in digital photography make it possible for anyone to take a perfect picture, but how exactly is this possible is we all are not the world's greatest photographer? By touching up your raw images through digital editing you can take what was once an average picture and make it a great photograph. Maybe you needed to lighten your image, crop or rotate a bit and even clean up some dirty spots; this is all quick and simple to do once you know how. Most pictures need some type of adjusting to produce the final image. Take a look at this short guide to help you with the most common touch ups for your photos.

Step 1: Start Up Your Image Editor The first step, of course, is to fire up your favorite image editing program. For beginners, it's best to get a program like Ulead PhotoImpact. It's a great tool that allows you to achieve professional photo effects using simple, easy-to-follow steps.

Step 2: Remove Red-Eye Almost everyone has experienced the red-eye effect when taking pictures of people. This is an easy corrected problem with image editing software. A Red-Eye Removal tool can be found in the menu of Paint Shop Pro that does all of the work for you. Ulead Photo Impact offers the same feature with its Remove Red Eye option in the Tool Panel.

Step 3: Rotate and Crop If you've taken a photo in a wrong orientation, it's easily corrected with little loss in quality by using a rotate tool. You'll also want to do some cropping of your photo to remove cluttered surroundings that draw attention away from your subject. For example, I find cropping very useful if my subject is occupying only the middle portion of the photograph. Cut away the two sides of the picture and you have a much more professional look.

Step 4: Play with Color Don't be afraid to experiment with colors. Image editing programs put a lot of power in your hands. You can make the leaves purple, change the entire photo to black and white, add a sepia effect - almost anything you want. A good photo editing program will have automatic color balance options to adjust color defects in your pictures.

Step 5: Blurring Effects Sometimes I like to add a blurring effect to my photos. What you can do here is to select areas of the photo which are unimportant and blur them out. This will bring more attention to the main subject of your photo. For example, if I had a picture of a flower and I wanted to play down the details in the leaves in background, I might add a blurring effect to the background.

Step 6: Sharpen Up Sharpening the image is the next step in the photo touch up process. You cannot sharpen an out of focus image into clarity contrary to popular belief. The best way to utilize the sharpen tool is to selectively sharpen just a portion of an image such as a person's eyes. Leave the unimportant areas unsharpened to give the focus to your selected area.

Step 7: Resize You may need to resize your photo to suit your need. To e-mail your photo, resize to a smaller dimension. To print on a greeting card, you will want to resize your image to a 4x6 size.

Step 8: Save Your Work You're almost there. Now just remember to save your work in the proper image format. Use the larger TIFF image format to preserve all details for further image editing. If you just want to e-mail your pictures or upload them to your website, the JPEG image format would work best.

Conclusion Alrighty then! Now you know the secret to touching up and preparing your raw digital photos for output. I'd say that not all the above steps are truly necessary in a given situation. Remember to use your discretion to see which is necessary. Don't be afraid to experiment and learn - practice makes perfect when it comes to touching up your photos.

Would like to find out more about editing digital photography? Don't trust anybody's advice until you read this free report.

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What Are the Main Features of a Digital Camera and How Can You Use Them?

By Alex Don

Digital cameras have revolutionized the photographic industry and will continue to do so. With more and more advanced features, these devices have also significantly brought down photographic costs. No wonder digital stores are always crowded. The advantages of digital cameras include easy storage, the possibility of editing photos on the computer, the elimination of film costs which have been replaced by memory cards and great features such as video and sound recording.

It is important to learn about these features in advance so that when you shop for a digital camera the salesperson doesn't manipulate you with all the marketing talk. You should have a clear picture on what is it that you need. The first and most important thing is the charged couple device (CCD). The pixel count in plays an important part in determining the quality of your photos. First you have to determine how many pixels you actually ned. If you want to take large prints (8''x10''), you need a camera with at least 3 megapixels. The more, the better. But if all you want is to publish photos on the web, one ore two megapixels are enough.

Another important feature is the zoom, especially optical zoom. This determines the camera's capacity to magnify the objects in the picture. The zooming in and out happens right within the lens and you can see it moving inwards or outwards just like with traditional cameras. The greater zoom power you have, the more you will be able to magnify, which gives you the possibility to shoot photos from the distance.

There are many other features you should consider apart from zoom and number of megapixels. Power consumption is also important and there are cameras which use a lot of power, which means you will spend a lot on batteries. Pick a camera that works with rechargeable batteries. If you could also get a recharger as a bonus, the it's great.

Another good thing is to have plenty of space on your memory card, especially if you are the sort of person who travels a lot. A CompactFlash card is a popular choice and it comes in sizes ranging from 16 MB to 1 GB. It is also compatible with a lot of camera models.

Also take a close look to the camera's LCD screen, as there is a wide variety of resolutions and sizes. There are also screens that you can move and bend over. The best choice depends on what you want to do with your digital camera. If you plan to take a lot of architectural pictures and shoot around angles, then an LCD screen that you can move is a good option.

These are the main things you need to look for before making a purchase and if they prove to be wrong they can really ruin your chances of getting good photos. Of course, there are plenty of other features. For example, if you always have problems with red eyes and want to get rid of them, consider getting an external flash. Red eyes will be much more seldom with this kind of equipment compared to a built-in flash. Think about other things that might interest you and look for a camera that responds to your needs.

Alex D. specializes in writing on the theme of image resizing for reshade.com. Reshade is specialized in online picture resizing and makes available an online image resizer application. Also it provides a picture enlargement windows application.

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