Technique LOW-LIGHT PORTRAITS
Photographing people in low light can be seen as a challenge, but with solid technique it’s also a great opportunity for shooting dramatic, inventive images. Kingsley Singleton spoke to three pros who are doing exactly that…
As all photographers know, portrait situations where available light is low can cause problems. You could be shooting in poorly illuminated streets after sundown, or dimly lit interiors, day or night, but the principal challenges remain the same. The lack of light means you are battling limited shutter speeds, the need to use the widest apertures and the spectre of pushing the camera’s ISO settings higher than you’d like.
These factors can make low-light work risky. Without care, images can be unsharp due to camera shake or subject movement, blurred due to inaccurate focus, and speckled with noise that disrupts detail and colour.
But with modern cameras there are fewer and fewer reasons to fear low light. Image stabilisation neatly offsets camera shake, and while it can’t affect subject movement, there is no doubt that today’s camera bodies offer spectacular ISO performance. No digital image is noise-free, but when reviewers claim shots are ‘clean and usable up to 3200 or 6400,’ they are not lying. Modern AF with its subject detection and low-light acquisition means far fewer errors on that score, too, while small, light, and powerful LEDs let creative photographers fill and sculpt light in the darkness.
Embrace the dark with these new tools and you’ll be on the path to images with authenticity and drama, as the following photographers prove…
Clive Booth
After a 20-year career as a graphic designer, working with clients including Toyota, British Airways and Adidas, Clive decided to follow his lifelong ambition of becoming a photographer and filmmaker. He now shoots fashion, beauty and portrait work with an atmospheric style that uses continuous and found light, as well as being a Canon ambassador.
Visit Clivebooth.com and @cliveboothphoto
Clive Booth on the drama of low-light portraits
I don’t have any fear of working in low light, and that’s one of the things which has helped me build a career in photography. In many ways, it’s become my style. I see low-light as an opportunity to do something different – to build a sense of atmosphere that’s true to the environment or dramatic in its own right.
Some of that comes from my influences. I loved the mood of Stanley Kubrick’s candle-lit scenes in Barry Lyndon, where he’d shot with NASA’s Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lenses. And that combination of lighting and depth of field is something I also took from the portraits of Edward Curtis and George Hurr
