Technique LOW LIGHT TIPS
Feel the noise
In low light, where moving
subjects have to be frozen,
using high ISOs is vital. I wasn’t
always con dent in really jacking up
my ISO level, because I was
concerned about how noisy images
would be, and I didn’t like to push it
beyond 800 or 1200. These days
I’llalmosttriplethat.ISO 1600 is
mybaselineforthesekindsof
shoots,andI’llhappilyjackit upto
3200 andstillgetgreatresults
frommyNikonD750.It’seasyto
gethunguponthetechnicalside,
butwitheventsandlivemusic,the
costof capturingtheatmosphere
is oftengoingto bea littlebitof
grain,andhonestlybandsandfans
don’tcareaboutit if yougeta killer
shot.Thatcon dencecouldmean
yougettingtheimageratherthana
blurrymess.Withnewcameras
handlingnoisesowell,there’seven
a trendforpeopleapplyinggrainto
cleanshots,justfortheaesthetic,
soit’sreallynothingto worryabout.Matt Higgs
Matt Higgs is an internationally published
photographer and videographer. Based in
London, he specialises in live music, portrait
and travel images, and you can see more of
his work at matthiggsphotography.co.uk
or via@matthiggs.Spotlight
WHETHER it’s bands playing live, events work or
atmospheric night shoots under available light, in
many ways what I do has more in common with sports,
wildlife and documentary work than regular portrait
photography. Even if the conditions seem bright to your
eyes, there’s never as much light as you think at a gig
or from the LEDs at a video shoot, and backlighting in
particular can make it seem like there’s more than there
really is when it comes to exposing your main subject.
What you’re left with is the need to freeze a fast-
moving subject sharply, and most of the time you’ve
only got the three sides of the exposure triangle to
back you up. Just to ramp up the problems, tripods,
monopods, and long shutter speeds are pointless, and
it’s three songs and you’re out. But handle your camera
the right way, and there are amazing opportunities, too.
Get some exposure
For my low-light gig shots, I shoot in
manual. Lighting will mix up the levels
a lot, so it could be bright one second and awful
the next, and using something like wide area
metering and aperture priority won’t always cut
it, and I’d rather blame myself, not my camera
if I miss a shot. The best approach I’ve found
is to set the shutter speed at a minimum of
1/200sec to make sure I’m stopping the subject
movement, then open up the aperture to f/2.8 or
f/3.2. After that, it’s all about riding the ISO in
response to changes, and pushing the shutter
speed up, and then the aperture, if I can. The
artist’s face should nearly always be the basis of
your exposure, like portraits in general, and if the
rest of the scene is way darker or lighter than
you’d like, it’s not the end of the world! With
scenes that have such dramatic differences in
light, you have to accept it may not all be perfect.