Night and Low-light Photography

NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT

PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO WORKSHOP

Alan Hess

Night and Low-Light Photography Photo Workshop

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Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

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ISBN: 978-1-118-13822-9

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About the Author

Alan Hess is a photographer and author based in San Diego, California where he lives with his wife

and two dogs. He has written books on both photography and technology including the Exposure

Digital Field Guide, Composition Digital Field Guide, iPad Fully Loaded, and the iPad 2 Fully Loaded. His

concert and backstage images appear in numerous online and print publications and they have also

been used for promotional purposes, including music packaging.

Alan has been a part of the Instructor Dream Team for Photoshop World where he taught classes on

concert and event photography and the basics of Exposure and Composition. He has written articles

on concert photography and Photoshop for Photoshop User Magazine.

His website is www.alanhessphotography.com where he writes a semiregular blog or you can find him

on Twitter as ShotLivePhoto.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Courtney Allen

Project Editor

Cricket Krengel

Technical Editor

Haje Jan Kamps

Copy Editor

Marylouise Wiack

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Senior Project Coordinator

Kristie Rees

Graphics and Production Specialists

Jennifer Henry

Andrea Hornberger

Jennifer Mayberry

Quality Control Technician

Melissa Cossell

Lauren Mandelbaum

Dwight Ramsey

Proofreading

Laura Bowman

Indexing

Potomac Indexing, LLC

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my wife for enduring yet another book with crazy hours and weird schedules. This

time at least it made sense as I was out creating the images for this book mostly at night.

Big thanks go to Courtney for all she does in getting me the right projects and to Cricket for trying her

hardest to keep me on track, which is nearly impossible no matter how good my intentions are. Also, a

big thanks to Haje for all his work making sure all the numbers and tech stuff are right. If you find

something that’s wrong, it just means I didn’t fix something I should have. You can check out his work

at http://kamps.org.

To the great group of photographers who helped with images, I couldn’t have done this without you.

A huge thanks goes out to all of you:

Kenny Kim for his help with the wedding chapter and all that goes into photographing some of the

best weddings ever. You can find out more about Kenny at www.kennykim.com.

Larny Mack for his insight into photographing interiors and the use of his images to illustrate the

point. Check out his work at www.larnymack.com.

Jacob Lucas for the use of his great star trails image, I can’t thank you enough. His work is at

www.jflphotography.com.

E. Howe-Bryne for the star trails image. It is a great shot and I am honored that you allowed me to use

it here. For more on E. Howe-Bryne check out http://littleredtent.net/LRTblog.

Ken Toney who supplied the image of the flowing water and the use of the neutral density filter, it’s a

great photograph and I thank you for its use here. Check out Ken’s work here: www.kentoneyphoto.com.

To everyone at Nik Software especially Laurie, Janice, and Kevin, thanks for everything. Working with

you and your products is always a joy.

For Nadra

Contents

chapter 1 Night and Low-Light Photography Overview 2

Shooting Challenges 4

Lack of light 4

Freezing action 6

Digital noise 7

Light 8

Using available light 8

Adding light 10

What Gear Is Important 10

Camera supports 11

Camera and fast glass 11

Shutter-triggering devices 12

Postproduction software 13

Choosing Your Subjects 15

People 15

Places 16

Events 16

The night sky 16

City lights and landscapes 18

chapter 2 All About Light and Exposure 20

Direction and Intensity of Light 22

Direction 23

Intensity 24

Light sources 24

CONTENTS

xii

Measuring the Available Light 25

The built-in light meter 25

Metering modes 26

Exposure Settings 27

Shutter speed 27

Aperture 29

ISO 30

Exposure modes 32

Equivalent Exposures 34

Multiple Exposures 36

Exposure bracketing 36

Exposure compensation 38

Combining multiple exposures 38

HDR 39

The Color of Light 40

Different light sources 41

Color temperature and the Kelvin scale 41

White balance 41

chapter 3 What Gear Is Important 46

Understanding the Camera’s Capabilities and Limitations 49

The high ISO and digital noise problem 49

Bulb mode and long shutter speeds 50

Lenses 51

Focal length 51

Maximum aperture 54

Constant- and variable-aperture lenses 55

Vibration reduction and image stabilization 56

CONTENTS

xiii

Flash Units 58

Using a single flash 58

Off-camera flash 60

Using multiple flashes 61

Tripods 61

Tripod legs 62

Tripod heads 63

Extras 64

Monopods 64

Shutter Releases and Remotes 65

Timers 66

chapter 4 People and Places Indoors 70

Photographing People Indoors 72

Window light 73

Using a flash or flashes 75

Building Interiors 84

Choosing the best lens for the space 85

Dealing with multiple light sources 88