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CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / What Gear Is Important

Tripods

In night and low-light photography, one of the

most important accessories you can have is a tri-

pod. It is impossible to hold your camera absolutely

steady when using long shutter speeds. The longer

the shutter is open, the greater the chance that the

camera will move during the exposure, and the

resulting photo will be out of focus or, at the very

least, a little blurred. To counteract this camera

movement, the camera needs to be locked into a

tripod to keep it steady during the exposure.

■   Built-in trigger. The ability to use this method

depends on what camera and flash system you
are using. This system allows the camera to
trigger the external flashes by either using the
built-in flash or a flash unit mounted on the
camera. The advantage to this type of system
is that the camera and the flash units are com-
municating with each other and can adjust
the amount of light produced by the flash
depending on the scene. This type of trigger-
ing is usually line-of-sight triggering meaning
that the off-camera flashes need to actually
see the on-camera flash to work.

■   Slave trigger. The third method depends on

the type of flash you have, and whether it can
be set to fire when using a slave trigger. A
slave trigger just fires the flash when it sees
another flash fire. This can be an external
slave trigger, or it can be built right into the
flash. Check your flash’s manual to find out if
it has this capability. This type of technology
is also line-of-sight as the slave flash unit
needs to see the main flash to fire.

Using multiple flashes

Using multiple flashes is just as easy as using one
off-camera flash, except you now have multiple
light sources. If you are triggering the external
flash units with a remote trigger such as a Pocket
Wizard or Radio Popper, then you need a unit for
each of the flashes that you want to trigger.

If the method you use to trigger the external
flashes is a line-of-site solution like the Nikon
CLS or Canon system, then you need to make
sure that the sensor on the flash that needs to see
the light from the master flash is visible. I used
two off-camera Nikon flash units to light the por-
trait of Nicole in Figure 3-16. I wanted to have a
main light to the left of the camera and a less
powerful light to the right of the camera to even
out the light.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO I shot this portrait of Nicole after the sun

set, and because the natural light wasn’t helping, I used two flashes —

one on either side of the camera — to add the light I wanted. Taken at

1/50 second, f/7.1, and ISO 200.

3-16