When you are shooting photographs it’s all about light. Light is the content. And as we know using a flash has the advantage that we can shoot sharp photos in a low-light environment. The disadvantage is that a flash is too harsh for the most time. The light gets to hard and photos look clinical and cold.
So what can you do when you are in a pretty low illuminated room and you want still smooth, warm but crisp photographs?
I want to give you some tips on how to shoot sharp and beautiful photos without using a flash like I did on my last Berlin vacation:
1. The correct holding of the camera: Mr Freeze
In low-light situations you have to be “frozen”. To ease your posture keep your arms holding the camera near the body. Your elbows should be parallel to your torso.
The most common mistake is the trigger: By pushing the trigger button the camera moves exactly when you shoot the photo. To avoid that, roll the fingertip over the trigger button instead of moving it down – like you would create a finger print.
2. Keep an eye on the shutter speed
Play with your shutter speed but remember: Increasing it means less light, decreasing it means more vibrations.
3. Choose the biggest aperture of your lens
The bigger the aperture – the more light can go through the lens. So go all the way down to the lowest f.
Even better: Buy a fixed-focus lens with a big aperture. My one has f/1.8 and costs around 100 bucks. The f/1.4 model costs around 400 bucks.
As you know, a big aperture means more depth the field means that only your focused object is sharp. The background and foreground is blurry (like on the image above).
4. Still to dark? Try the ISO
If the photo is still to dark you have another possibility: The ISO. Usually the setting is on “Auto” which means 400 ISO for the most time. Choosing a higher ISO (e.g. 800) will lighten up your photo. But be careful: Too much ISO will increase the noise of the image.
If you have a good camera you can choose ISO 800 without worrying. Others even have good results with ISO 1600.
5. White balance adjustments avoid “red photos”
In a darkened room with synthetic light from bulbs you will get photos which are pretty redish. The reason for that is the wavelength of this kind of light. While the light from the sun is white, this one is very red. To remove this red tone – if you don’t want it – you can change the White Balance (WB on your camera). For instance 3200 K or 4000 K.