The Best Setting for Taking Photos in Low Light

Hello , photographers .

My name is Spiros Henny Addison .

This is where I answer your photography questions and we learned about photography together .

This week , I was going to do another lightroom video , but I decided to share with you one of the bonus videos from my guide to shooting and manual mode video .

Course .

What we're going to talk about is getting good photos in lo lights situations .

And with the holiday season coming , I'm pretty sure you're going to find yourself at a family gathering or a party where you're going to want to take photos and you're not going to have much light to work with .

So with that in mind , here's how to choose the right settings to get good photos in low light .

OK .

In this video , I'm going to show you the settings that you need to choose on your camera when you're trying to shoot in low light and you want to get a good decent shot .

And when you're doing this , we're using the I AM shooting method .

So we're going to start with the ISO and then we're going to set the aperture and then you need to set your shutter speed and in a situation like this in a bar environment or a dark environment , maybe a wedding or even in your home , you working with really low light .

And the thing you need to do is maximize your settings to let in as much light as possible .

So we're here at the water street grill and I have to say thank you to tech for allowing us to come in here and record this video .

And my friend Kelly here is going to be the model she's helping us out and my friend Kim is here .

So I want to say thank you to everybody first for helping me .

And now we're going to talk about the settings in low light .

You want to maximize the amount of light that you're going to get into the camera .

So the first thing you're going to do in a situation like this is you're going to set your ISO to a higher setting .

This is going to allow the camera to capture more light .

So I'm going to grab my camera .

I got this Penta K three here and currently my ISO is set to 100 I'm going to boost that up significantly .

I'm going to start by jumping all the way up to ISO 800 I'm using my 50 millimeter F 1.8 lens here .

And this is key because when you're shooting in low light , the bigger your aperture can be the more light you're going to get in the lens into the camera without even thinking about depth of field because it's so dark .

I'm going to set my aperture to F 1.8 the largest available aperture on the lens allowing for the most amount of light to get into the camera .

And once I've got it set to F 1.8 .

Now , what I need to do is just take a look at the shot , set it up and see what my shutter speed is going to be .

So as I point the camera at Kelly and she's got a great chocolate cake drink there and I look at this , my shutter speed is currently set to 1 , 1/100 of a second and at 1 , 1/100 of a second , I'm actually showing a negative exposure .

It's reading off the chart .

So it's greater than minus three , meaning that it's still too dark .

So I'm going to take my shutter speed and I'm going to set it until I get a zero exposure .

And when I do that it's 125th of a second .

So I'm not even to take a picture because I know at 125th it's too slow .

Camera shake is going to make the picture blurring .

I don't want a blurry picture .

What that means is I need to go back to the top to my iso and increase that iso setting .

And I'm at 125th .

If I take my ISO from 800 to 600 that's going to allow me to take my shutter speed from 1 25th of a second to 1/50 of a second .

And I know that I can safely shoot a shot at 1/50 of a second and have it be sharp .

So I'm going to do that , taking my Iso up to 1600 and I don't even have to look at it .

I'm just going to set my shutter speed to 1/50 of a second .

And when I look in here , it is perfect .

So now I'm ready to take a shot of Kelly having a nice drink at the bar and this is what the shot looks like and it actually looks fantastic and that is it in a nutshell .

That is how you set your settings to get the best low light shot that you can get .

Now , if you do all of this , if you set your iso up to the highest iso you're comfortable with if your aperture is wide open and you still can't get a fast enough shutter speed .

What's happened is you've reached the limitations of the camera that you're using .

What you can do in that situation is one of two things .

One , you can put the camera on a tripod with the camera on a tripod .

It's not strictly necessary to have a shutter speed that is fast enough for you to hand hold it because the tripod will hold the camera steady .

You're not going to have any camera shape .

Now , if you don't want to lug around a tripod or if you can't use a tripod , you're not necessarily going to take a tripod into a bar .

Then your only other option is going to be to add light to the situation .

Now , you could add it by using that little pop up flash on camera , but that flash usually sucks .

You're better off using one of those hot shoe flashes that allow you to point it at the ceiling or bounce it off a wall or something of that nature .

So that's how you take a shot in low light .

And if you have any questions about any of this stuff , how to set your settings or challenges that you experience in low light .

Let me know , just use the ask a question form below and be sure to check out the exercises below so that you can practice taking your own low light shots .

All right , I hope you enjoyed this video .

And if you have any questions about getting good holiday photos with your family and friends , let me know down in the comments .

And even though this Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the United States , I'm still going to be doing a Q and A video .

So be sure to check that out and don't forget to like this video .

Subscribe to my channel .

And if you really like this video .

Why don't you do me a favor and share with your friends ?

But the most important thing you should do is get out there and take some damn photos .

I'll see you on Thursday with that promised Q and A .