Shooting in available light
Few photographers can live without a flashgun. But as we’ve probably all seen, flash adds an almost unpredictable element to our photographs that can rob a scene of its ambience. For many, shooting without flash can seem daunting, but using available light in photography often gives a more natural and evocative result than harsh, flash-illuminated pictures.
FILM AND DIGITAL
The first place to start is with our capture media, whether it’s film or digital. Naturally, the faster the film or the higher the rating of the ISO setting on our digital camera, the greater the potential for using available light. One negative aspect is the grain that’s inherent in high-speed film and the noise that is more evident in digital images. However, because this has always been the case, grain has become a natural and expected component of these kinds of images and something to which people are now accustomed. In fact it’s become an artistic feature of available light images, to the degree that it’s sometimes exaggerated in the darkroom or digitally simulated on the computer.
Then there’s the issue of colour temperature. Most film is daylight balanced, meaning that under artificial light it shifts in colour balance. You may have seen your colour prints warm up under the influence of tungsten lights. Tungsten lighting can be corrected by using tungsten balanced film or a blue filter such as an 80 A, B or C; fluorescent by using an FL –D filter for general purpose fluorescent lighting, or an FL W filter for warm white or white fluorescent tubes.
The other option is, of course, black and white film, and emulsions such as Kodak’s T400CN are excellent for this kind of photography, being very forgiving in exposure and easy to process and print at your local lab.
Digital cameras are a different ball game.
They will either automatically balance the colour, or allow the photographer to select the white balance setting manually for daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, window light and more.
USE A TRIPOD
For much of your available light work, a tripod will be necessary. Having a tripod that’s sturdy yet lightweight, such as the Manfrotto 190 or the Velbon Sherpa series, will make life easier. This is especially true of images that require seconds, minutes, or even hours of exposure. To ensure sharpness, your tripod should not be easily moved or shaken during the exposure.
THE RIGHT LENSES
If you’re going to add available light photography to your repertoire, it’s advisable to start collecting a range of faster lenses. The medium-range zoom lenses that come with cameras these days are often too slow, sometimes with apertures of f4.5 or even smaller. Once upon a time, a 35mm SLR was packaged with a 50mm f1.8 lens, a combination of focal length and f-stop that’s often perfect for available light photography.
Press photographers have other favourites too, which usually include wide-angle lenses with maximum apertures of f2 or even faster.
For portraits and other kinds of photography in which available light is used and longer lenses required, there are some superb lenses that are quite common. Focal lengths of 135mm are available with f2.8 apertures, and this is often fast enough. More specific lenses, like 85mm f1.8 and f1.4, also exist, but naturally at a cost. When using lenses with this kind of aperture, be sure to focus precisely, knowing that you have little depth of field to forgive you.
METERING CORRECTLY
It’s not always the speed of the lens that’s the greatest concern. Usually, successful available light photography is more dependent upon correct metering. This is especially so in the case of stage and performance photography, where it’s vital. Backlighting – and large unlit areas behind the performer – fool the camera’s average metering system, causing it to provide an exposure reading that suggests the stage is actually very dark. But the light that illuminates the performer is often very bright.
As the old song says, “black is black”, so it doesn’t matter how dark you allow the area behind the performer to be. If you allow the meter in your camera to include this area in its calculations, you’ll find that the performers’ faces are overblown and lack detail because of the strong frontal lighting and heavy contrast. If your camera has a centre-weighted or spot metering facility, you can utilise this very effectively to meter for the face of the main performer, who’s often spot-lit.
The same rules apply to other available light situations. Ensure that you’re metering correctly, perhaps exposing for the highlights.
Hand-held meters are often a godsend in these situations as you can more precisely meter for highlights using incident meter readings.
You’ll find that you can actually become less reliant upon your flash than you may have thought possible. A conversion to available light photography may mean a whole new learning curve for you, but it will also be a serious move forward in your image making.
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July 2nd, 2007
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