From the course: Photography Foundations: Night and Low Light

Working with exposure parameters in low light

From the course: Photography Foundations: Night and Low Light

Start my 1-month free trial

Working with exposure parameters in low light

“

As light levels dim, your job as a photographer gets a little more complicated. However, if you're comfortable with basic exposure theory, you should be okay. There is nothing new that you need to learn on your camera. There is no new concepts that you need to add to your understanding of exposure theory. You still need to know about shutter speed and aperture and ISO, and you need to understand the compromises and trade-offs that happen as you change any of these parameters. Good exposure is always a balancing act. On the one hand, you have a creative vision that you might be trying to achieve, but on the other hand, you need to think about motion blur and depth of field and noise. Well that's all true in low light, but as the light in your scene dims, your tolerances for acceptable shutter speed and noise and aperture, those all get smaller. In other words, when shooting in low light your margin of error is much less forgiving. So in this chapter, we're going to quickly go through all of your exposure parameters and look at what your low- light concerns will be with each one. And if you're not already comfortable with the basics of exposure, check out my Foundations of Photography: Exposure course.

Contents