Light #4 - Low light outdoors #1

[RichardTaylor]

Light 4.

Low light outdoors #1

There are two tutorials covering existing lighting outdoors on the DPS site:

(1) Night photography cityscapes:
Night Photography:1 - Cityscapes.

(2) Night photography - in the street.
Night Photography:2 - In the street.

Just a few more notes:

In some cases low light can be so diffused that it will not provide any modelling at all.

#1 Hand held with an image stabilised lens. Shot whilst on vacation.



Camera Canon EOS 5D
Exposure 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 1600
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

If long exposures are suitable for your subject then you won't have any real problems, except possibly for contrast.
However if you are hand holding a long lens and/or trying to freeze action then the low light will be a problem. It will mean using high ISO and fast lenses (preferably ones that focus quickly an accurately in low light. Point and shoot cameras and slow kit lenses will be almost useless.

Some examples from a choir shoot at a sports field.

#2 Hand held. During set up and rehearsal the flood lights were on. I thought the light levels were ok.



Camera Canon EOS 5D
Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 3200 (maximum)
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire


#3 Then they turned the flood lights off and only used spotlights to the rear of the choir. Very low light levels, and extreme contrast - In hindsight a graduated neutral may have helped (more to come on that).
This photograph has had a lot of post processing.



Camera Canon EOS 5D
Exposure 0.067 sec (1/15) (limit of my hand holding ability)
Aperture f/2.0 (wide open)
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 3200 (maximum)
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

#4 Capturing portraits was even more difficult with strong back lighting and low light levels on the faces.



Camera Canon EOS 40D
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125) (I cant get consitent results hand hold at this shutter speed at 135mm)
Aperture f/2.0 (wide open)
Focal Length 135 mm
ISO Speed 3200 (Maximum)
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

More to come

-----------------

Other parts of this series

#1 Introduction
Light #1 - Introduction.

#2 How much? Enough #1.
Light #2 - How much? Enough #1.

#3 Indoors #1
Light #3 - Indoors (1)

Part #5 - High contrast light.
Light #5 - High contrast


#6 Too much light.
Light #6 - Too much light.

#7 Light direction.
Lifgt #7 - Directiuon

#8 Weather
Light #8 - Weather

#9 Time of day.
Light #9 - What time of day to shoot?

Larger versions of the pics are on my Flickr stream
Thanks for looking, and feel free to ask questions or comment.

Richard

[ccting]

Dear Richard,
There are many light sources in such low-light scenes... I wander if we could use circular polarizer to filter the glass reflection. But, at the same time it may significantly decrease the shutter speed, making shooting even harder... ...