Tips on Low Light Photography - part II

Garden Of Gods, 1805 N 30th Street (at Gateway Rd.)
Colorado Springs, CO 80904

www.gardenofgods.com

Garden of Gods features some amazing red rock formations in the state. This is a free for all park that offers unpaved hiking paths, interesting challenges for rock climbers, sandstone formations, a wonderful view of Pikes Peak, etc. To make interesting photographs you need to visit this place early before sunrise or during late evenings. This time was my second visit here and i reached there almost around sunset time. The picture above was taken after sunset.

Tech info on the Photo:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.6 sec (3/5)
Aperture:	f/22
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Here are some more tips to keep in mind while taking photos in low light.

1) I almost always use a tripod. This was already mentioned in the first part of this series but i cant stress this enough. This is the single most important factor in low light shooting.

2) Mirror Lockup. (MLU) . In canon SLR cameras like the rebel series, its available under custom functions. enabling this helps prevent some vibrations caused by the mirror lifting up when shutter is pressed.

3) Remote Cable release This is a very valuable tool. This will help prevent camera shake when u actually press the shutter. Since the switch is connected to the camera using a cable or in some cases Infra Red rays, the shake caused while pressing the shutter button will not transfer over to the camera.

The remote cable release is also very useful for taking Bulb exposures. (Bulb exposures are custom long exposures that is accessible through the manual mode. Basically you can keep the shutter open as long as you want by keeping the shutter button pressed.

More to follow... keep checking
Arun (www.asasidh.com)

Low Light shooting Tips - Old Abandoned wood house near MOAB,Utah

This picture is featured at Deviant Art

On our way to MOAB Utah, we stopped to fuel and get snacks. It was evening time and I noticed this old wood house by the side of the gas station. Shot with a canon 18-55 USM at 55mm. Color and level adjusted in Adobe Lightroom.

Tips for low light shooting
Shooting under low light can be quite challenging. Tripod is a must to capture all the magic and glow in the sky and the surroundings. This time was able to support my hands on rails near the gas station. This gave me enough support to capture this shot without the need for a tripod. Always remember that when u shoot handled using a non image stabilized lens, you need to make sure that the shutter speed is at least one stop more than the focal length you are shooting at. Please consider the field-of-view multiplication factor (1.6x for APSC Canon, 1.5x for Nikon cropped models) when you calculate the effective focal length. I was short of time here and quickly took this shot. It was framed loosely and finally cropped later in post processing to give a more pleasing layout.