Low light, with no tripod?

[bratkinson]

I've been battling low light, no flash photography for years.

As mentioned above, raise the ISO, take the noise. I'd probably go to 1600 on the T3i. That was my 'OK noise' level when I had a 60D. Try some test shots at home at 1600 and see what you think about the noise. Check out ISO 800 and 3200 too. You never know until you try it with what you have.

As mentioned above, a 'fast' lens such as f1.4 would be a great help, at the 'cost' of thin DOF. An f2.8 lens might be a better, lower cost choice. But then, the 'nifty fifty' 50mm 1.8 can be had for about $100. Any smaller aperture such as the kit glass provides will seriously limit your results and force some very looonnnngggg exposures...like 1/20 or so...near impossible to handhold with any motion blurring.

So, the next step is a monopod. They're easy to carry and not terribly 'intrusive' or 'obstructing' to others. Leave it attached to the camera, but collapse it down when walking around with it. Be sure to practice all the other 'steadying' techniques as well...breath out 1/2 and hold it, lean against a wall, or even sit on a chair if possible, etc. You'll likely end up with shutter speeds in the 1/10 - 1/30 range, so no matter what, a good number will be blurred. Not even IS can fix things perfectly at those slow speeds.

Lastly, be willing to underexpose by about a 1/2 stop. Perhaps even a full stop if there aren't any too dark areas in the frame that would lose all detail if underexposed. I'd even consider having a pocket flashlight and having someone hold it on the subject area to light it up a bit, as well. You can easily increase the exposure in post processing without much 'obvious' degradation in IQ.

For what it's worth, I'm considering a trip to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and this has got me to thinking about how I'd shoot it...

 

[snowbear]

For what it's worth, I'm considering a trip to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC and this has got me to thinking about how I'd shoot it...

Large apertures & higher ISOs. Tripods are outright banned, but I'm not sure about monopods. You might be able to get away with the parachute cord trick, though I haven't tried it.

 

[kundalini]

These were taken hand held at my local museum in available light. Gear: Nikon D700, 24-70mm

Aperture: f/5.6, Shutter speed: 1/80s, ISO: 400

Sorry, but you need all three shots for the exhibit to make sense.

 

[Gavjenks]

Whats with the weird chain thing under the lens?

 

[amolitor]

It appears that you can take the sphere out of its bracket and wave it around a bit. The chain is presumably to prevent theft?

 

[cgipson1]

It appears that you can take the sphere out of its bracket and wave it around a bit. The chain is presumably to prevent theft?

How about so that it can accommodate a variety of people of different sizes? As in lift the sphere to your eyes... instead of bending over if you are tall, or needing a step ladder if you are short? And it even makes it kid friendly! One Sphere fits all!

and yes.. prevents people walking off with it... lol!

 

[Patrice]

There are tricks to increase your keep ratio when doing slow shutter speeds handheld.

- Try to avoid the 'elbow in the air' stance, brace your elbows against your torso.
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and one slightly in front of the other.
- Lean against a wall or column if you can, resting the camera on a banister or guard rail also helps a lot.
- Slightly pause your exhale as roll the shutter button.
- Don't jab the shutter button, gently roll your finger over it when you want to activate it.
- You can improvise a fairly effective steadying aid from a piece of string. Put your forward foot through a loop at the end and attach the other end to the tripod socket. The camera is held with the string in tension.
- Avoid long focal length shots if you can.

With practice you could get a decent keeper rate with speeds as low as 1/10 seconds or even slower.

 

[Derrel]

Take a lot of pictures. A LOT. Some will be sharper. Use those.

In this same vein, take your shots in bursts of three frames with the camera set to Continuous High Speed advance; the first shot is often blurred a bit with downward camera motion from the pressing of the shutter release button; the second or third frame is USUALLY sharper than frame #1. Use Single frame focusing, so that the camera will shoot ONLY upon achieving a good focus lock-on.

I would set the ISO to 320 or maybe 400. SOME museum exhibits have very,very bright lighting on certain exhibits, so do not automatically assume the light will be dim on all subject matter.

But yeah...do not expect to click one time and crank out a super-sharp image every single time...that is NOT the way low-light, hand-held shooting is best done...out of 10 frames shot at marginal speeds like 1/6 to 1/15, there is often ONE, as in *1*, really crisp shot; 3 to 4 acceptable images, and 5 that suck.

 

[Tailgunner]

There are tricks to increase your keep ratio when doing slow shutter speeds handheld.

- Try to avoid the 'elbow in the air' stance, brace your elbows against your torso.
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and one slightly in front of the other.
- Lean against a wall or column if you can, resting the camera on a banister or guard rail also helps a lot.
- Slightly pause your exhale as roll the shutter button.
- Don't jab the shutter button, gently roll your finger over it when you want to activate it.
- You can improvise a fairly effective steadying aid from a piece of string. Put your forward foot through a loop at the end and attach the other end to the tripod socket. The camera is held with the string in tension.
- Avoid long focal length shots if you can.

With practice you could get a decent keeper rate with speeds as low as 1/10 seconds or even slower.

Good advice!

Sign post and Columns are your friend...use them to help stable your shots.

But yeah...do not expect to click one time and crank out a super-sharp image every single time...that is NOT the way low-light, hand-held shooting is best done...out of 10 frames shot at marginal speeds like 1/6 to 1/15, there is often ONE, as in *1*, really crisp shot; 3 to 4 acceptable images, and 5 that suck.

Agreed, I shoot 50% or more of my shots hand held in low lighting conditions, including night time and can test to this. I can't count how many shots that end up in the trash can. That's why I take a series of shots on each individual subject experimenting with various angles and settings only to pray I get at least "1" good photo.

 

[xxWesxx]

Thank you guys so much for the advice. It really helped out. Still had issues with balancing and stuff. But that's probably the limit to the camera. Its only a kit lens, and a starting DSLR. Im still getting used to all the settings and the aperture. This is the first time really messing with the aperture. This was amazing practice. And thank you so much again for the help!
-Wes

 

[snowbear]

Glad it went well. Looking forward to seeing some of them. If you shot raw, pulling the WB into alignment won't be a problem. If you shot JPEG, you might be able to convert then to something like a TIFF beforehand an not get the lossies.

 

[xxWesxx]

I shoot only RAW