P#22 Q4B: The Challenges of Outdoor Low Light Photography
If you're wondering how you can shoot great outdoor photographs in the dark, you might be interested in John Siskin's advice
If you want to shoot outdoors after the sun has gone down, you need to understand what it takes to shoot low light photography. After all, not all nighttime shots are filled with bright stars or shining city lights. John was happy to share some advice with us. Here he explains how to overcome the obstacles of shooting in the dark.
A Unique Set of Challenges
John Siskin: When shooting in low light outdoors you can do all the same things you do when shooting indoors, except there's not going to be any found light in the room helping you out. You can increase the shutter speed, but if it's eleven o'clock at night and all you've got left are stars, shutter speed is not really going to do you much good.
In general, if you're trying to take pictures outdoors at night, what you want to do is use a small diffuser like the ones made by LumiQuest or Gary Fong. You can also increase shutter speed and if there is existing light it will come in to the shot, but there's really nothing to bounce the light off of.
One thing you definitely want to be concerned with when shooting in outdoor low light situations is that you can't do a ceiling bounce outdoors. There's no ceiling, so you need to make sure all of the light you bring with you is focused towards the subject.
Your light can be as broad as you can possibly make it, but it all has to be pointed at the subject. The Gary Fong reflector allows some of the light to go backwards so it can bounce off the room and back into the subject, but you can't do that outdoors.
In Closing
Low light situations are never easy to shoot in, but outdoors it can be even harder. With no ceiling to bounce your light off of and very little found light available (if any at all), the challenges can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, you can overcome these low-light obstacles by using small diffusers and bringing your own light with you.
« P#22 Q4A: Overcome the Obstacles of Low Light Photography | Home | P#22 Q5: Your Recipe for Successful Photography Includes Flash Compensation »
