NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO WORKSHOP Alan Hess Night and Low-Light Photography Photo Workshop Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-1-118-13822-9 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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For more information about Wiley products, visit us at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Control Number: 2011940395 Trademarks: Wiley and the John Wiley & Sons, Inc. logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. About the Author Alan Hess is a photographer and author based in San Diego, California where he lives with his wife and two dogs. He has written books on both photography and technology including the Exposure Digital Field Guide, Composition Digital Field Guide, iPad Fully Loaded, and the iPad 2 Fully Loaded. His concert and backstage images appear in numerous online and print publications and they have also been used for promotional purposes, including music packaging. Alan has been a part of the Instructor Dream Team for Photoshop World where he taught classes on concert and event photography and the basics of Exposure and Composition. He has written articles on concert photography and Photoshop for Photoshop User Magazine. His website is www.alanhessphotography.com where he writes a semiregular blog or you can find him on Twitter as ShotLivePhoto. Credits Acquisitions Editor Senior Project Coordinator Courtney Allen Kristie Rees Project Editor Graphics and Production Specialists Cricket Krengel Jennifer Henry Andrea Hornberger Technical Editor Jennifer Mayberry Haje Jan Kamps Quality Control Technician Copy Editor Melissa Cossell Marylouise Wiack Lauren Mandelbaum Editorial Director Dwight Ramsey Robyn Siesky Proofreading Business Manager Laura Bowman Amy Knies Indexing Senior Marketing Manager Potomac Indexing, LLC Sandy Smith Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Executive Publisher Barry Pruett Acknowledgments I would like to thank my wife for enduring yet another book with crazy hours and weird schedules. This time at least it made sense as I was out creating the images for this book mostly at night. Big thanks go to Courtney for all she does in getting me the right projects and to Cricket for trying her hardest to keep me on track, which is nearly impossible no matter how good my intentions are. Also, a big thanks to Haje for all his work making sure all the numbers and tech stuff are right. If you find something that’s wrong, it just means I didn’t fix something I should have. You can check out his work at http://kamps.org. To the great group of photographers who helped with images, I couldn’t have done this without you. A huge thanks goes out to all of you: Kenny Kim for his help with the wedding chapter and all that goes into photographing some of the best weddings ever. You can find out more about Kenny at www.kennykim.com. Larny Mack for his insight into photographing interiors and the use of his images to illustrate the point. Check out his work at www.larnymack.com. Jacob Lucas for the use of his great star trails image, I can’t thank you enough. His work is at www.jflphotography.com. E. Howe-Bryne for the star trails image. It is a great shot and I am honored that you allowed me to use it here. For more on E. Howe-Bryne check out http://littleredtent.net/LRTblog. Ken Toney who supplied the image of the flowing water and the use of the neutral density filter, it’s a great photograph and I thank you for its use here. Check out Ken’s work here: www.kentoneyphoto.com. To everyone at Nik Software especially Laurie, Janice, and Kevin, thanks for everything. Working with you and your products is always a joy. For Nadra Contents CHAPTER 1 Night and Low-Light Photography Overview 2 Shooting Challenges 4 Lack of light 4 Freezing action 6 Digital noise 7 Light 8 Using available light 8 Adding light 10 What Gear Is Important 10 Camera supports 11 Camera and fast glass 11 Shutter-triggering devices 12 Postproduction software 13 Choosing Your Subjects 15 People 15 Places 16 Events 16 The night sky 16 City lights and landscapes 18 CHAPTER 2 All About Light and Exposure 20 Direction and Intensity of Light 22 Direction 23 Intensity 24 Light sources 24 CONTENTS Measuring the Available Light 25 The built-in light meter 25 Metering modes 26 Exposure Settings 27 Shutter speed 27 Aperture 29 ISO 30 Exposure modes 32 Equivalent Exposures 34 Multiple Exposures 36 Exposure bracketing 36 Exposure compensation 38 Combining multiple exposures 38 HDR 39 The Color of Light 40 Different light sources 41 Color temperature and the Kelvin scale 41 White balance 41 CHAPTER 3 What Gear Is Important 46 Understanding the Camera’s Capabilities and Limitations 49 The high ISO and digital noise problem 49 Bulb mode and long shutter speeds 50 Lenses 51 Focal length 51 Maximum aperture 54 Constant- and variable-aperture lenses 55 Vibration reduction and image stabilization 56 xii CONTENTS Flash Units 58 Using a single flash 58 Off-camera flash 60 Using multiple flashes 61 Tripods 61 Tripod legs 62 Tripod heads 63 Extras 64 Monopods 64 Shutter Releases and Remotes 65 Timers 66 CHAPTER 4 People and Places Indoors 70 Photographing People Indoors 72 Window light 73 Using a flash or flashes 75 Building Interiors 84 Choosing the best lens for the space 85 Dealing with multiple light sources 88 xiii CONTENTS CHAPTER 5 Weddings, Concerts, and Other Events 94 Weddings 96 The ceremony 97 The reception 102 Photographing Concerts and Events 108 Know your gear 110 Stage lighting 112 Metering modes and manual exposures 114 Capture the moment 118 At the Fair 120 Exposure considerations 120 Those great rides 123 CHAPTER 6 Shooting Sports 128 Sports Venue Lighting 130 Indoor lighting 131 Outdoor lighting 133 Freezing the Action 133 The right shutter speed 134 Pushing the ISO 136 Know the Sport 136 Study the sport 136 Time your shots 138 xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER 7 The Nighttime Sky 140 Sunrise and Sunset 142 Setting the exposure correctly 144 Start early and stay late 146 Shoot the Moon 147 Picking the right focal length 147 Exposure settings 149 Double exposures 150 Time-lapse Photography 152 The gear you need 153 Picking the right subject and settings 153 Working out the math 155 Creating the movie 156 Star Trails 158 What is stacking? 161 Ambient light 162 Putting it all together 162 Photographing Fireworks 163 Adjusting the exposure 165 Why manual focus is the way to go 166 xv CONTENTS CHAPTER 8 City Lights 170 Street Scenes 172 Safety first 174 Using different shutter speeds 175 Light Trails 176 Capturing traffic flow 176 Move the camera 178 Use the zoom 179 Neon 181 Exposure considerations 182 HDR 185 Cityscapes 186 Location, location, location 186 The best time to shoot 187 Exposure concerns 188 CHAPTER 9 Light Painting 192 Light Painting Basics 194