I came to photography as a hobby through Astronomy—Star gazing with telescopes. Astrophotography, the art of taking pictures of planets and nebula using telescopes as camera lenses, is the ultimate form of low-light photography. In this extreme form of low-light photography, cameras are modified to remove on-chip infrared filters, they’re cooled with exotic chillers to reduce thermal noise (heat inside the camera from its own electronics), and computerized mounts rotate the camera and telescope so the shutter can remain open for hours while the world turns underneath the sky.

That’s all much harder than taking low-light photographs. Having knowledge of astrophotography methods has made it really easy for me to avoid using a flash in photography, so I thought I’d share some tips on how to do it well.

Low light photography is more complicated than point-and-shoot. You have to learn and practice it to get decent results, and doing a good job requires a DSLR. I use (and love) the Canon Rebel T2i, but any modern DSLR will do the job.

Taking low light pictures means setting the camera up to absorb more light for a particular photograph than it would during the day. There are three low light parameters you will set on your camera to accomplishing this: Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity. Each of them comes at a cost so finding the right balance for a particular setting is the skill you will learn over time. The information in this article will tell you exactly how to get close to good “point and shoot” settings that usually work to get you started in low light.

• Use a fast lens (f/2 or below) on its widest possible aperture setting.
• Use your highest acceptable ISO setting.
• Set your camera to Aperture priority.
• Stabilize your camera.
• Focus manually using Live Preview and a point source of light.
• Shoot in RAW format.
• Use Exposure Bracketing.

The practice is simple: Make your camera as sensitive as you can get good result, open your lens to its widest possible aperture, and then control the shutter speed to get the light level you want to use. You will almost always need a tripod to prevent camera movement while the shutter is open, and you will need to select subjects that are not moving relative to the camera. Shoot in RAW format, and use auto-exposure bracketing to take multiple shots with different exposures in rapid succession to be sure you get the right shot every time.

If you don’t already know how to accomplish these settings, get your manual out and refer to it as you read through these steps.

Use a fast lens on its widest possible aperture setting

Aperture is the size of the lens opening. Because it is measured as a ratio between the focal length and the size of the lens, lower numbers mean a wider opening. f/ratio of a lens is typically between 1.2 and 5.6. Wider openings let in more light “faster”, so “fast” lenses have low numbers. The fastest commercially available lenses have f/ratios of 1.2 and they are extremely expensive. Typical lenses start at f/ratios of 4.0, and a lens is officially “slow” beyond f/5.6.

For low light you need a fast lens—f/2.8 or below, preferably much lower. I use and recommend Canon’s 50mm f/1.8 lens that costs just $100. It has junky build quality, it’s noisy, and it lacks image stabilization, but the optics are fantastic and its 1/5th the price of any other lens this fast.

I’ve not found a zoom lens that performs well in low light. Even the best zooms don’t get below f/2.8. Look to a prime 50mm or 85mm for night portraiture, and a 28mm for night landscapes or large subjects like buildings.

Use your highest acceptable ISO setting

ISO refers to the imaging chip’s sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the more-light sensitive the chip becomes, and the more noise you will see in your picture. My camera goes up to ISO 6400, but 1600 is the practical maximum for a good-looking photo. Likely yours will be similar. Set ISO to your practical maximum, which you can determine by eye after taking the same shot at each different ISO and blowing it up to the size you intend to look at it. If you can’t tell that there’s additional noise, keep going to a higher ISO until you can, then go back to the previous ISO level. This doesn’t really change much from session to session, so once you know your camera’s best acceptable ISO level, you can just set it and forget it going forward.

I don’t recommend using Auto ISO in low light situations. The camera usually prefers lower ISO levels and longer shutter times, which tends to result in blur for any motion. With a decent DSLR, you’re better off increasing the ISO to reduce shutter time in most cases. Canon cameras have the lowest inherent noise of all DSLRs and astrophotographers prefer them for this reason, but all modern DSLRs are reasonably good.

Set your camera to Aperture Priority

Aperture priority tells the camera to fix the aperture at the setting you indicate and then vary the shutter to achieve the correct exposure. Essentially, it “locks” the aperture and varies the time to achieve good exposure. Set your camera to Aperture priority and then open the aperture to its widest setting.

Stabilize your camera

If the camera moves while the shutter is open, the entire image will be blurry and appear to be out of focus. This never looks good. When you take low light photographs, the shutter remains open much longer in order to capture enough light to record an image. Any movement that occurs while the shutter is open will cause blur in the photograph. If your subject is moving, that’s unavoidable and you will get blur. This can be artistic, and in any case, there’s little you can do about it. But there’s no reason to allow your camera to move.

Many lenses include image stabilization, but the fast prime lenses that you will need for low light photography get expensive fast. Its far less expensive to use a non-stabilized lens on a tripod than to pay for image stabilization that won’t work well enough anyway. Hand-held photography rarely works well in low light conditions. You can solve this problem by mounting the camera on a tripod or monopod to eliminate shake.

Another trick I learned from astrophotography is to use a remote to fire the camera, even if you’re standing right next to it. Just the force of a person pushing the shutter button moves the camera. You can really improve your low-light photos by not touching the camera at all when you shoot. On my roof deck (where I shoot astrophotography) I can’t even walk around without causing camera shake that affects the image, so be aware of your floor surface as well.

Focus manually using Live Preview

It is very difficult for camera Auto Focus systems to perform well in low light—they hunt a lot and take a long time to confirm focus. It is also difficult for a human to focus manually through the viewfinder in low light, for the same reason: It’s hart to tell when you’re in focus with low light.

There are three simple tricks to focusing in low light: focus manually, shorten the depth-of-field, and use point sources of light to focus on.

Fast aperture settings shorten the depth of field and put most of the picture out of focus excepting the subject. Having a short depth-of-field makes focus more critical but also easier to spot because subjects will go in and out of focus quickly. If you’ve selected your lens’s fastest setting then you’ve also set the shortest depth-of-field.

The other way to make it easy is to use your camera’s Live View image on the LCD. This gives you a light-amplified image that is much larger to work from.

Try to pick point-sources of light such as lights or reflections on or next to your subject to focus on—when they are dots, you are in focus on that dot. When they are larger circles, you are out-of-focus. If your subject is a person, have them hold a tiny LED flashlight for you to focus on, which they can turn off before you shoot.

Shoot RAW format

If you are doing important low light work, use RAW mode. RAW creates very large, uncompressed images. The JPEG compression method used to condense the data that composes a photograph can create some very noticeable effects in low-light situations, such as halos around lights and dark “jaggies”. JPEG was optimized for broad color changes and can over-compress very similar areas as dark areas tend to be. Shooting in RAW format avoids this. If you can’t or don’t want to use RAW, use the largest and smoothest JPEG compression setting.

Use exposure bracketing

Exposure bracketing refers to taking multiple pictures of the same subject in rapid succession at exposures both above and below the standard exposure you’ve set. Essentially, the camera takes a darker, faster photo below your exposure setting, a photo with your exposure setting, and then a brighter, slower photo above it, all in a single button push or hold (depending on your camera). I recommend using 1 stop below and one stop above for your brackets—more than that seems to be well outside what I’d ever use.

Exposure bracketing does two things: Firstly, your eye sees light differently than the camera, and so you may not have a great idea which exposure setting is going to get you results similar to what you’re eye is seeing. Exposure bracketing takes the guess work out of it and gets a range of exposures, one of which is nearly certain to be what you’re looking for. Secondly, exposure bracketing creates the three exposures necessary to perform High Dynamic Range image manipulation with Adobe Photoshop, which is a complex topic beyond the realm of this article.

I had already given up on efforts to find “a better way” to deal with the camera strap when Custom SLR sent me one of their clever C-Loops.

The C-Loop is an ingenious little device—essentially it’s two camera strap loops on a standard mount screw that attaches to the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera. Because the loops swivel round the thumbscrew easily, the strap doesn’t become twisted.

When using the C-Loop, the camera hangs now from the bottom of the camera, so lenses always point down—the way I think cameras should hang. You can easily take the strap off the camera by simply unscrewing it, which makes packing the camera away much easier and allows me to avoid having the strap hanging off the camera when its on a tripod or attached to my telescope.

But the best thing about the C-Loop is that it makes it possible to use an adjustable camera strap to carry the camera over the shoulder messenger bag style—pointing down as it should, conveniently out of the way, and not chaffing my neck. For this reason alone I think the C-Loop is a keeper.

The C-Loop is a little bit awkward with the portrait extended battery adapter because the center of gravity is higher, causing the camera to carry upside-down. This will likely be the case on professional full-frame cameras that have a built-in portrait mode as well, and is something you should consider before buying a C-Loop. It doesn’t bother me, but you might not like it.

If camera straps bug you, the C-Loop is a simple solution! More photos after the break:

When Dru Ackerman broke her hip several months ago, a neighbor offered to help her. Unfortunately, her “friend” was also helping herself to Dru’s pain medication. When the woman noticed that some of her pills were missing, she set up a hidden camera in her house to see what was happening. She caught her neighbor red-handed with enough video footage to get her arrested.

She used the Stem IZON Remote Room Monitor, but she could have used the webcam installed on the computer on her desk. There are software options that allow you to monitor your home with your webcam and they will even upload the video to a remote server so if your computer is stolen, you will be able to see who did it.

The next time you are feeling paranoid about leaving your house, whether it’s just for a grocery trip, like Dru, or on an extended vacation, look into home monitoring solutions. There are so many options available right now that you’re sure to find something to give you peace of mind.

Via: iZON webcam and iPhone catch a thief in the act | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Even though both cameras were on the same jiggling platform, the picture on the left is jumping all over the place, while the one on the right is smooth as silk.

This feature of their video cameras was of special interest to me because I film and sell Walking DVDs at Starling Fitness. I’m actually in the market for a new video camera and the Sony HDR-CX550V is looking really appealing to me.

Too bad it’s retailing at almost $1300. I’ll have to wait until the price drops a bit.

They had a display honoring the great Dr. Edwin Land, inventor of polarization.

They showed some artwork made with Polaroids.

They even brought some favorite retro gadgets out of the Polaroid Museum for some nostalgic appeal.

You can see all the photos here:

Fortunately, they came out with the Poloroid PoGo Instant Camera to replace it. They actually showcased the PoGo camera last year at CES, but this year, they had them out and available for people to play with.

They come equipped with ink on the paper, so all you have to do is load the paper and start clicking. They even come with cute frames for your photos. Here is the Polaroid of Mike and I that they took of us at the show.

With a little more centering, it would have been perfect. You can do that sort of editing on the camera, so when you know it’s ready, then you print.

The photos are substantially smaller than the Polaroids of yesteryear (2″ X 3″), but they are a good enough size for sharing with friends.

Here is a video from last year’s CES showing how the PoGo works.

In the end, you get a cute little photograph and with the new technology, no shaking is required. Outkast will be so disappointed…

Here is video showcasing it:

Think Geek has it for sale for $129 right now:

• ThinkGeek :: OWLE iPhone Video/Audio Rig

I have to admit that I am feeling the limitations of the iPhone camera and sometimes I miss my Panasonic Lumix. The problem with the OWLE is that it’s just as bulky as carrying around a “real” camera. If I have to carry around some bulky thing, I might as well just carry around my Lumix. It has a wide angle Carl Zeiss lens and optical image stabilization.

The iPhone camera is the best camera available, which means that it’s the camera that I have when I’m not planning on filming or taking photos. Unfortunately, the current iPhone camera will never be good enough for serious photographers and videographers. No amount of added lenses and mounts will change that.

Sorry, OWLE, you’re cool, but if I have to carry around something that bulky, I’m going to be packing some REAL heat.

Via: OWLE Adds a Boom Mic and Wide Angle Lens to your iPhone | CraziestGadgets.com

‘How can I prevent Camera Loss?’ I hear you ask, wishing I’d get to the point. Well, you can’t prevent cameras from getting lost, but you can do something so your camera can be found very soon after it has vanished.

All you have to do is take some photos – which you never delete from your camera – so when someone finds your camera at the bottom of the gorilla pit they are able to locate you and return the lost property to its rightful owner.

To illustrate, he included the photos that he keeps on his personal camera:

After reading through the photos and laughing with him, I would definitely try to contact him to return his camera.

I need to go take a picture of myself in the bathtub now…

Via: * Your daily gif blog *: How To Avoid Camera Loss

It is for a hundred year old camera, but some of the advice is good even today. I love their simple definitions for things like Depth of Focus and f-Stops. This photograph showing the proper way to hold the camera is wonderful!

These old Kodak cameras had a feature that I wish modern day cameras had. It was called the Autographic Feature and allowed you to document notes about the photograph when you took it.

The advice on how to take photographs is still good even today. I love this description of why it’s important to keep your lens clean. All of us need to remember this simple tip when we pull our camera phones out of our lint infested pockets for a quick shot.

If you own a camera like this, then this instruction manual might be helpful. You can see the whole manual here:

• Kodak Pocket Camera I and IA Instruction Manual – a set on Flickr

If you don’t own a camera like this, it’s sure fun to see how far photography has progressed in the last century and how the definition of “pocket” has changed over the years.

It reads:

So lifelike you feel like you’re right there with 3 dimension pictures!

It’s a camera and viewer that takes 3D photos and then lets you see them in a viewer similar to a Viewmaster. Some of them are still around today.

Fortunately, if you own an iPhone, you can do this with an inexpensive app called 3D Camera [iTunes Link].

The way it works, you aim the camera straight ahead and take a left picture. Then you move the camera a little to the right to take the right picture. The 3D Camera software merges the images for you, creating a stereogram, color anaglyph or wigglegram. Here is a screenshot of the directions:

It’s easiest to do these 3D photos on inanimate objects like this tiny lava lamp and snow globe. Since I have 3D glasses lying around from my Toy Story Mania! game, it’s easy for me to see the 3D object using the color anaglyph.

If you’re able to see stereograms, then this option is the best for you because you can see the image without color distortion from the 3D glasses. Note: view this stereogram by crossing your eyes.

It’s a lot more difficult to get humans or animals with the 3D Camera, however. If they move, even a little bit, it will screw up the photo. Since Maggie was being stone still, I was able to get a pretty good 3D picture of her here.

If you look at the stereogram, however, you’ll notice that in one photo her eyes are more open than in the other, which creates a weird effect in the 3D photo. Note: view this stereogram by crossing your eyes.

The Wigglegram makes that weirdness looks like she’s blinking.

Ansel Adams took MANY stereogram photographs over the course of his career. I wonder if he had to do it like this or if he had a camera like the Revere 33. I absolutely LOVE 3D Camera. It makes me feel a little bit like Ansel Adams. I originally bought the 3D Camera app when it first came out and they have since made taking the photos MUCH easier. It’s a great application for the iPhone and almost as good as the Revere 33 Stereo Camera!

Ad via: vintage_ads: Revere 33 Stereo Camera