LT week 12 – Fun with Slow Shutter Speeds

During this lesson task you will get familiar with working in a darker environment and how it affects buildings and people while using slow shutter speed.

• Wait until it’s almost dark outside. Take your camera and go and sit in a busy tourist area. Choose a building or statue to photograph. Place your camera on a tripod and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds or more (if you don’t have a tripod, something stable, like a chair, will also work. If you don’t live close to a busy street, just get one or two people (or even your dog) to move up and down past the camera during the 30 seconds).
  Take a look at your photograph. Do you see a lot of people in it or just the building/statue?
• Wait until it’s dark. Go and stand on a bridge over a busy street (or look from the window of a high-rise building). Place your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds or more. Inspect your photograph. What do you see? 
  (If there’s no bridge or high-rise building close to where you stay, find a street where there are some cars driving or alternatively ask a few people to help you by driving up and down your street. You can even pay an taxi/uber-driver. Ideally you should capture this from a bit higher than street level. You can ask a hotel in your area to use their window or the flat of a friend that stays on the second floor. Some buildings have a secret stairway to the roof… be creative, and safe!)
• Ask a friend to help you with this activity. Choose a dark room in your house and switch off the lights. Place your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds or more. Ask your friend to “draw” a picture in the air using a flashlight. Take a look at your photograph. What do you see? This fun activity is called light painting. Try an easy pattern first, but also a more complicated one.

As I only had one evening to do this task outdoors, it was not ideal, but these were a few the photos I took.

There are no “touristy” places these days, but this is as close as I got. No people, but cars passing by at least. Sadly this lady is a little unclear, but this is was still the best example.

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There are no places with a lot of traffic at night here, so I took pictures of the few moving cars in downtown Voss that night.

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Drawing with light – I did this assignment outside with street lights. In the first one I tried to make the @ which was semi successful.

Shooting in Low-Light Conditions

Question 1 

Written assignment (4 hrs)Describe the steps that you will take to ensure that you take a high quality photograph in low light conditions. Refer to exposure, lenses, tripods, colour temperature, flash and ISO. Your answer should be a minimum of 350 words.

To take good photographs in low light you need:

• A tripod to keep the camera steady.
  In darker conditions the shutter speed is higher, meaning the shutter will stay open for a longer period of time. If the camera is moved, even the slightest shake, the picture will be blurry. A remote shutter release can also be useful.
• To use longer shutter speed for longer exposure, making sure enough light is brought into the photo.
• Any lens.
• To keep the ISO as low as you can, preferably to a 100 to reduce digital noise in the image.
• A flash can come in handy, but is not absolutely necessary.

Question 2 

Practical assignment (1,5 days)

• Watch the LinkedIn course:
  Photography 101: Shooting in Low Light by Joseph Linaschke
• Take four low-light photographs.
  – One should be a sharp photograph that focuses on a static object, like a building or statue.
  – The second photograph should showcase moving objects, like cars or running water.
  – For the third photograph, take a moody portrait of a friend and use high ISO settings to your advantage.
  – The fourth photograph should explore using external light sources, like a Speedlite flash (please note, if you don’t have the equipment to take this last photograph, you may leave it out).