Available Light Photography

By Steve Thomas
The Powerful Photography Coach

Dan Feildman has written a great guide to digital photography that he subtitles "Finally ... learn how to work that darn digital camera like a pro." In the guide he show you ...

• How to "capture the moment."  Be ready for that special something – it usually shows up unexpectedly
• Know which lenses can be added to create special effects – if you need them.
• Easily determine how much "camera" you really need for your purposes.
• The secrets to taking amazing night pictures.
• and much, much more ...

Dan will give you are free report called " Shoot Digital Pics Like The Pros" and give you the opportunity to get Your Guide to Digital Photography if you like what you see in the free report.

Amy Renfrey does a fabulous job covering both the technical aspects of digital photography and the artistic aspects. Digital Photography Success is a great companion to this course as it covers the subjects in more detail than can be fit into a weekly lesson. Highly recommended!

Available light photography means using the existing light to take pictures without adding extra light such as the flash from your camera. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the light level is low, but often it is. So, everything you have learned about holding your camera steady and composition comes together here to deliver interesting pictures. Most of the pictures in this lesson were taken at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.

With flash the computer screen just looks black and the boy’s hair and skin look overexposed and flat.	By using available light the computer screen is visible and the overall image is more interesting and the boy’s hair has color and texture. Also, by changing position the composition became stronger with the red wall hanging in the background becoming a barrier that helps keep the viewers eyes inside the picture.

There are times when the natural light in a scene is a critical element.and using flash or other artifical light completely changes the picture. Look at these two pictures as examples..

With flash you can’t tell that the boy is playing at a light table. Plus, the deep shadow in the background doesn’t add anything good to the picture	You can see he is playing on a light table. The exposure is a bit of a compromise to see detail in his face while not excessively overexposing the objects on the light table.

Combination light
Often you will find that in available light situations the light will be coming from more than one source. Perhaps some of the light is sunlight coming in through a window, while some is incandescent light and some is florescent light. This causes shadows to be colored rather than gray. A good camera can usually adjust its color balance to make the overall image color OK, however this doesn’t fix the color cast of shadows. If most of the light is florescent and the camera has set the color balance so the florescent light looks normal, the shadows will be blue if they are light by sunlight (and even more blue if the light is skylight with no direct sunlight.) If the second light source is incandescent, the shadows will look red. High-end photo editors such as Photoshop allow you to manipulate the color curves. While this can be tedious, but may yield good results. In an upcoming lesson on photo editors I'll be talking about some of these issues .

Light and shadow

You can use shadows to your advantage in a picture to help direct the viewer’s eyes to the main subject of a picture. You can also use shadows to conceal elements of the picture that you don’t want to show or emphasize, such as the subjects rough skin. This technique is called “short lighting” when taking portraits. You can use the same method in available light photography by moving your subject so the available light works the way you want it to.

Exposure
You will need to employ all your skills to get good exposures in many available light situations. Often the exposure times will be long because the light level is low, so holding your camera steady is critical to available light success.  It isn’t unusual to have a very wide range of light in available light situations, from bright light streaming in a window to deep shadows cast by inside lighting. I’ve found that keeping my back to the window gives me the best possible chance to get good pictures with a brightness range that both digital and film cameras can handle. It is tempting to shoot toward the window because the light level is higher, but the subjects of the picture are usually backlit, putting them in deep shadows that are difficult to compensate for. If you must shoot that way, adjust the exposure of the camera to increase the exposure by a factor of 4 (two f-stops or +2 EV) and, if the picture is particularly important, bracket the shot by taking several pictures at varying exposures to give yourself the best change of ending up with a workable picture. Some cameras include a backlight setting for these situations. Just remember to set the exposure back to normal when you are done so the next pictures you shoot won’t be badly overexposed.

For more normal available light situations make sure the camera is properly set to get good exposure on the primary subject. Sometimes this is easy if the subject is large and well-light, other times you will need to adjust the exposure up or down to compensate for the lightness or darkness of the subject. For example, if you are photographing something that is very light, the camera will sense the high light level from the subject and reduce the exposure so the overall light in the picture comes out to 18% reflection gray. This results in your subject being significantly underexposed. Increase the exposure to compensate for this effect. I have an 18% reflection gray card in my camera bag. I use it to determine the correct exposure settings by placing it in the light that will light the subject and taking an exposure reading. I then use those readings to set the camera to properly expose the subject. When I’m doing color film photography, I’ll take a picture of the gray card and use that negative to adjust the color filters in my enlarger so it is set to the proper color for the rest of the pictures on the roll.

Tripods and monopods
In the low light level region that is commonly called “available light” you need to take extra care to keep the camera from moving while you are taking pictures. In the lesson on how to hold a camera, you learned ways to minimize camera movement. Sometimes the light level is so low that you need to do something more to keep the camera from moving. That is where tripods and monopods are needed. A monopod is a single legged camera stabilizer. With a monopod you still have to hold the camera, but with the leg of the monopod resting on the floor or other stable surface you can get good pictures with much longer exposures than can be done by hand-holding the camera. The advantage of a monopod is its mobility and the fact that it doesn’t take much space.

A tripod is an excellent tool for stabilizing a camera and it is what I use. The advantage of a tripod is that it allows you to take pictures with any exposure without the camera moving, unless you or somebody else kicks the leg. Also, you can make small changes to the composition since the camera stays put, allowing you to make adjustments until the image is exactly what you want. A good tripod has several adjustments which allow you to tilt or rotate the camera. You can also make fine adjustments of camera height. The lengths of the three legs are independently adjustable so you can compensate for non-level surfaces such as stairs. I’ve used tripods in situations where one leg was on a table because there wasn’t enough room to put all three legs on the floor and get the picture I wanted.

Lesson 1 Subject Placement
Lesson 2 Leading Lines
Lesson 3 Light and Shadow
Lesson 4 Point of View

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(c) Steve Thomas 2007-2010 All rights reserved. This is copywrited content and may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author.