I'm struggling with learning low-light photography. This photo was accomplished with A LOT of editing. Is there a trick to taking better "natural" low-light pictures or is it all about post-processing?
CC, tips, tricks, advice, or article references are welcome and very much appreciated!
I'm going to assume you have a fairly basic set up, i.e. camera body and 1 or 2 zoom lenses, so apologies if that is not correct and feel free to ignore anything below ;-)
I think the main thing that would improve your images is to reduce the f-stop of your aperture. For an indoor situation like this you want as large an aperture as you can get. An f-stop of 1.8 for example. Of course, I realise your current lens(es) may not be able to do that so experiment with taking photos at the lowest f-stop of your lens. A tripod and remote shutter release may also come in handy to avoid camera shake.
If you don't already have one you may also want to consider investing in a fast prime lens (such as the Canon 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4). These lenses are much cheaper than a zoom lens with the same f/# and generally result in crisper images to boot. It will mean you need to make more of an effort to get in the right position for the shot though. I've recently borrowed a couple of prime lenses from a friend and I love them. I'm dreading the day he wants them back!
I hope that all helps. Good luck and keep shooting.
I too shoot alot of low light photos. I don't have a prime lens YET but the one thing that helps me is using the selftimer while on the tripod eliminating camera shake.
Thank you so much for sharing all of that with me! You were dead on with all of your assumptions and I now know what is on the top of my wish list. That is a great article and I'm excited to practice some more :)
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DPS have a good article on improving low light photography http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-get-better-digital-photos-in-low-light-conditions-without-using-a-flash
I'm going to assume you have a fairly basic set up, i.e. camera body and 1 or 2 zoom lenses, so apologies if that is not correct and feel free to ignore anything below ;-)
I think the main thing that would improve your images is to reduce the f-stop of your aperture. For an indoor situation like this you want as large an aperture as you can get. An f-stop of 1.8 for example. Of course, I realise your current lens(es) may not be able to do that so experiment with taking photos at the lowest f-stop of your lens. A tripod and remote shutter release may also come in handy to avoid camera shake.
If you don't already have one you may also want to consider investing in a fast prime lens (such as the Canon 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4). These lenses are much cheaper than a zoom lens with the same f/# and generally result in crisper images to boot. It will mean you need to make more of an effort to get in the right position for the shot though. I've recently borrowed a couple of prime lenses from a friend and I love them. I'm dreading the day he wants them back!
I hope that all helps. Good luck and keep shooting.
Lisa
Oh, and I think the photo is great btw :-)
Thank you so much for sharing all of that with me! You were dead on with all of your assumptions and I now know what is on the top of my wish list. That is a great article and I'm excited to practice some more :)
Thanks!
low light is never fun
even my f/1.2 lens is soooo hard :S
hate it
thanks very much for the article lisa!!!