Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

longer shutter speeds and smaller apertures, but

they don’t do so well in situations where you need

to use faster speeds to freeze the action.

Vibration reduction and image stabilization

Camera and lens manufacturers have developed

technologies that help reduce image blur that

comes from camera shake. Camera shake is

caused by the small camera movements that can

happen when using a long lens and slower shutter

speed, photographing from an unsteady position,

or using a shutter speed that is too long to hand-

hold the camera steady. Each camera and lens

manufacturer has a slightly different method with

a different name.

The types of vibration reduction and image stabi-

lization can be broken down into two categories:

in the lens and in the camera. The lens-based sys-

tem has the stabilization technology built into

the lens, and the control to turn the system on or

off is on the lens itself, while the camera-based

system has the technology built into the camera

body and works with any lens attached to the

camera. For example, Nikon and Canon use a

lens-based system, while Sony uses a camera

body-based system.

The vibration reduction systems work best when

photographing static scenes with little subject

movement; they originally were meant to be used

when handholding a camera and not when the

camera is mounted on a tripod. Some of the

newer vibration reduction technology has now

been designed for use with the camera mounted

on a tripod and may have a special tripod setting.

It’s best to check the manuals for your camera

and lenses. As you can see in Figures 3-10 and

3-11, where the same sign was photographed at

1/8 second in both images, a slow shutter speed is

range of focal lengths makes it very versatile;
however, this lens isn’t great for shooting sports
or events in low light because at the 400mm focal
length the widest aperture available is f/5.6 which
isn’t very wide when shooting in low light.

There is nothing wrong with variable-aperture
lenses, and many times they can be just as sharp
as any other lens. The smaller size and weight
make them much easier to carry around, but it is
important to know what their limitations are,
especially when shooting in low light. The lenses
are great for those situations where you can use

ABOUT THIS PHOTO The description on the lens shows that
the maximum aperture is 1:4.5-5.6 or f/4.5-f/5.6, meaning that at 80mm
the widest aperture is f/4.5 while at 400mm the maximum aperture is
f/5.6.

3-9