Reducing camera shake - simply

Now you can laugh it this is you like, but the embedded video below demonstrates a method of keeping your camera steady - by using a piece of string. I have used this method for many years - and I promise you it can work. The video shows quite a refined version. I just make a loop at one end through which I put my foot, and the other end I simply wrap around the camera a couple of times. The idea of using the tripod screw at on the camera's base is a good one.

The truth is, this really can work - not in all circumstances, I admit, but it costs nothing, weighs nothing and you can stuff it into your pocket. If you lose it, you simply find another piece of string.
Thanks to Jon for this



$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - video powered by Metacafe

How to take flash photographs - part 1

Do you use flash only as a last resort when you run out of daylight? If so you are missing out on a most versatile light source. Over the couple of posts I’m going to explain how a flash gun can produce more than just an ‘in-your-face’ blast of light.

Take a look at the photograph of the man with the Venetian mask. Was it taken with directional sidelight from a north-facing window? Maybe it was lit in a studio using a big white brolly or soft box? No, it was taken using just one small portable electronic flash gun attached to the hot shoe on the camera. No tripod, no cables, no sophisticated gear whatsoever. It was the sort of simple set-up you might use almost anywhere.

I show my students this picture when they tell me they hate using flash. They say it ‘kills the atmosphere’. I like to demonstrate how flash is the fastest, cleanest, most portable, convenient, controllable and versatile light source they can use. It has endless creative possibilities, you can carry it about in your pocket, and, when you know how to handle it properly, it can create beautiful high quality directional light.

Sure, it’s bound to have power limitations – you’re not going to light the interior of the Albert Hall or the Hollywood Bowl with a portable flash gun mounted on your camera – but once you know where those limitations are, it becomes an invaluable tool.

Picture 1 shows the result of using straight, head-on flash with the set-up shown in picture 2. Notice the hard, unpleasant shadows beneath the model’s chin. It looks almost as though her head is separate from her neck.

To point a direct and undiffused flash at your subject is a pretty rotten thing to do. Straight flash has its place in newspaper, press-style photography, but not in portraiture. It can hurt your model’s eyes and creates sharp, hard, unpleasant and unflattering shadows. Results like this are the most common reason why so many photographers are completely put off using flash.

Next, in Part 2 - I’ll explain exactly how that photograph of the Venetian mask was done… and how to get more from your flash in other situations

How to photograph sunsets - part 2

Photographs of sunsets are really very simple to record because once you have arrived at the correct exposure for the sky, you can adjust your shooting angle and move around to silhouette subjects between you and the sky without worrying about changing exposures at all – you are really just photographing a colourful backdrop (the sky) with shapes in front of it (silhouettes). It is how you position yourself and arrange those shapes that can make or break the picture – and that’s all about good composition.

You will generally create a yawn if you include nothing but sky – no matter how dramatic or colourful it is. Neither will you create any feeling of the place in which the picture was taken. So look for interesting buildings, objects, trees and people doing things and try to include them in your sunset pictures. Often these subjects can be researched and found well before the sun actually sets – we all know it’s going to go down in the west – so a bit of pre-planning can pay dividends.

If we photograph a colourful sunset across an expanse of water, down a rain-soaked street or a snow-covered field, the rich colours will be reflected right into the foreground of the picture. The eye will then be led along these reflections. Photographing over reflective surfaces like this can almost double the colour of the sky.

People can make wonderful subjects for these outline shapes (silhouettes). Depending on what the person is doing, the inclusion of people in your sunset picture can add an immediate sense of romance, atmosphere, action or stillness. However it is vital that the outline of the person included is kept ‘clean’. It’s no use photographing someone running across the beach with a wonderful sunset behind him if his outline shape is obscured by a boat pulled up on the sand, for instance.

Top photograph
Having photographed the Taj Mahal during the day I was determined to return at sunset. I had worked out roughly where the sun would go down and found my way to a spot beside the river where I could position the setting sun behind the building. The atmosphere was absolutely still and a slight haze has diffused the sunlight and put subtle detail in the shadows. The inclusion of the man has added human interest, scale and narrative. Centre-weighted metering mode was used and although the light reading was taken mostly from the sky, part of the building was included. This has helped retain detail in the shadows without over exposing the sky

Centre photograph
For all I know, this couple might have been planning a divorce, but photographed against a setting sun the message is a romantic one. All detail the figures and the bridge has been removed by exposing for the brightness of the sky – this has created strong silhouettes. Even the hard, angular structure of the bridge has added to the composition

Bottom photograph
Even a poor Thai fisherman gathering supper for his family will stop to appreciate the beauty of a sunset over the sea. Don’t be afraid to point your camera straight into the light in these situations. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The Rule of Thirds is used here – horizon on a top third, man on right hand third, sun on intersection of two lines

How to photograph sunsets - part 1

There’s more to photographing a sunset than just capturing the colour. So how do you can inject more visual appeal, drama and romance into your pictures?

Sunsets have always attracted photographers and artists, and so they should. But there’s more to capturing a great sunset photograph than just pointing a camera at a colourful sky. It is unlikely that you will need to improve on the colour of a really good sunset, either with filters or in Photoshop, but if you want to capture the romance and spectacle of the moment, you simply must resort to sound composition and good camera craft.

Strangely, it is rarely the glory of the sky alone that rivets the viewer or stirs the imagination in a successful sunset picture. It is more likely to be the inclusion of a foreground: people, landscape or other objects that the sunset is actually lighting or silhouetting. It will be the whole scene that will tell of the romance or drama, not just the sky. In an exotic location, a picture of the setting sun can express the thrill of travel like few other subjects. However, the most common mistake leading to boring pictures is to get so dazzled by the splendour of the scene that you cease to look at it objectively – you must bear in mind the way the camera will record it.

TOP PICTURE: an interesting foreground has been included in the picture of the lighthouse. There is no detail in the silhouettes of the rocks – just outline shape, that’s fine. The eye is moves over them and across the bay to the island and the sky, taking in detail as it goes. The pictures has much more to say about the subject and is far more rewarding to look at. Notice how that colour has been reflected right into the foregound

SECOND PICTURE: Yawwwwn… okay, nice colours. But where is the real visual impact? The only thing that can be said about this is that it is correctly exposed and the lighthouse has been placed on one of the vertical lines of our Rule of Thirds. The picture has no depth. Bin it!

BOTTOM PICTURE: A wide angle lens has been used to include lots of interesting foreground details. Notice how the reflected colour of the setting sun has been brought right into the foreground adding more value to the whole image. The camera was put on a tripod and a shutter speed 1/30sec was used at f11. The exposure was taken from the foreground. The small aperture has helped created a nice sparkle flare around the sun

NEXT in part 2 - Photographing people at sunset

How to photograph people - a simple portrait

The inside of the synagogue was a blaze of coloured wall tiles and, understandably, most of the visitors waned to take photographs of these. When I set eyes on the faces of the rabbis and scholars, I’m afraid the colourful surroundings faded into the background – such wonderful faces! While the others looked around the synagogues inner sanctum. I made a beeline for the man handing out the obligatory skull caps. There was no time to spend on chat and I don’t think the poor chap knew what hit him, but I wasn’t prepared to give him the chance to refuse to have his picture taken. I took him gently by the arm and sat him down by a small window – the best light available.

Setting up a tripod was out of the question, it was a case of making the most of the conditions as they were.

Fortunately, there was a table between us and I was able to rest my elbows on this to hold the camera still for the 1/15sec exposure. The result – a simple, but powerful portrait, whose impact is due to the sidelighting, which brings out the quality of the man’s features and the unblinking expression on his face.

The penetration and gravity of this simple portrait centres on the man’s doleful, knowing eyes. A frown or a smile is so often merely a transient, fleeting expression, and a more reliable giveaway to a someone’s personality is to be seen in the eyes. When we photograph someone looking straight at the camera like this, an intimate and hypnotic link is forged between the subject and the person looking at the picture.

The lower picture shows the simple set-up where I took the portrait. Just one small window and a table. It’s sometimes all you need.

First published in my book 'A Practical Guide to Travel Photography'.

Photographing Christmas lights

Following our festive theme, here’s a picture of one of those houses festooned with OTT Christmas decorations. Well, you’ve got to take a few photographs, haven’t you?
Once again, the old methods work best in these situations…

Find your best angle.
Get the camera on a good firm tripod.

ISO down to 100.
Aperture stopped down to f11.
Long exposure.

Again, I just used the ‘Bulb’ setting on the camera, opened the shutter for a couple of seconds or so. Checked to see the image was okay, and moved on to the next shot. Keep it simple. It's always best.

What do you do with your White Balance (WB) setting for pictures like this?
Take it easy, that’s what. In this case I stuck it on Auto White Balance (AWB). Doesn’t seem a thousand miles out to me.

TODAY’S TIP
Try to take these pictures just before it goes completely dark. The perfect time is when there is still a touch of colour in the sky.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, and thanks for visiting my new blog. I hope you are enjoying it and finding it useful. Please do post your questions and responses.

Photographing Christmas

Okay, let’s get a bit festive and look at how to produce a couple of simple, atmospheric pictures this Christmas.

I put the camera on a tripod. A flash unit was hidden away on the fireplace behind the couple. I didn’t bother setting up flash synch cables or infra-red gizmos. I just got the young chap to fire the flash with his spare hand when I had the shutter open.
I used the ‘Bulb’ setting on the camera and fired the shutter with a cable release – the simple, sensible type that screws into the shutter button. This is the type that you can no longer use because the camera manufacturers have stopped putting the screw thread in the shutter button. Clever – now you have to buy expensive electronic release cable or silly remote controls (have you ever tried using one of those things outdoors in the wet on a bitterly cold night?). Ggrrrr!
I set the aperture to f11. ISO 100 was used. The shutter speed would have been around 2 seconds.

It is a big mistake to try and use wide apertures with this type of shot. Those small Christmas tree lights can often appear as fuzzy little blobs at wide apertures. The magic starts at f11 – just look at the sparkle around the candle on the mantle piece. You do not need star filters to get this – just stop down and use a slower shutter speed.

Depth of Field 2

In my last post I showed you a landscape photograph I took with a very wide aperture in order to limit the depth of field. Also contributing to this limited depth of field was the use of an 85mm lens. Normally, the longer the focal length of a lens the less depth of field it will give. So using a wide aperture with an 85mm lens is guaranteed to limit it and throw much of the scene out of focus. It is a technique that must be used with great care in landscapes. It can look dreadful. Usually it is used to isolate a particular part of the scene. In the case of that picture taken in Thassos, it was used to give an abstract feel to the shot.

It is far more common to aim for the maximum depth of field when taking landscape photographs. That means smaller apertures – f16 or less.

A wide angle lens is a favourite for landscape photographers because it has inherently tremendous depth of field. It also has and the ability to exaggerate the perceived perspective, which has the effect of creating the illusion of depth within a two dimensional image.

In the picture of the old wooden wreck above, I wanted the absolute maximum depth of field, so I have used a wide-angle lens, stopped the aperture right down to f22 and used a shutter speed of 1/4sec. The camera was, of course, put on a tripod, so I was able to use ISO 100 in order to get maximum quality.

Photographing reflections - part 1

The ‘reflection’ theme is a regular subject for camera club competitions, and rightly so. It’s a theme that’s open to all sorts of imaginative interpretations - from abstract ideas to perfectly symmetrical mirror images.

The idea of including mirrors to reveal an part of a subject that is out of the framed picture itself is far from new – artists have been using it for hundreds of years in portraits and interior paintings. The effect can be to bring an intriguing illusion of the third dimension to a two-dimensional iamge. Done well, it can also inject a sense of mystery, compelling the viewer to look more closely – and so get drawn into your composition.


The mirror inside Lincoln Cathedral (picture above right), was positioned so that visitors could see the roof without craning their necks. I preferred to photograph the stained glass windows through it. I used a small aperture, f16, which meant I needed a slow shutter speed of 1/4sec. The camera was put on a tripod. Using the centre-weighted exposure mode, a light reading was taken from the window’s reflection, this has underexposed the interior of the cathedral – just the sort of contrast I wanted

Simple reflections can virtually double the amount of colour, form and interest within your picture. They can reveal the most amazing abstract shapes by breaking up the form into waving patterns of colour and shape.

In town, reflected images seem to be everywhere we look, even more so in our modern cities with their glass-sided office towers. There are reflections in shop windows, pools and puddles – even the polished paintwork of cars can reflect interesting images worth photographing. Intriguing contrasts can be created when new glass office blocks reflect older architecture. Perfectly still water can mirror buildings, people and landscape, but lightly rippled water can sometimes produce even more interesting photographs – back to those abstracts again.

Each pane of glass in this tower block has distorted the reflection of the building behind the camera., creating an abstract design. The window cleaners’ box has helped bring a sense of reality to the picture and added a focal point to the pattern

Next - in Part 2, water reflections

Keep photography simple

I watch with growing astonishment the amount of sophisticated gear my students manage to stuff into their camera bags. There are times when they can hardly lift their bags – rucksacs mostly – onto their backs. I sometimes wonder why all this sophisticated hi-tech kit has to weigh so much. Strangely, I seem to have spent most of my working life trying to reduce the amount of kit I carry about. It is heavy, and is responsible for my bad back. Bear in mind I started at the age of 15 carrying a large wood and leather camera box full of glass plates and a 5x4 plate camera, and I have lugged some sort of camera bag over my shoulder ever since. Have things really progressed?

I am totally converted to digital and could not imagine going back to the old days of film, but I do think there are countless methods and techniques for producing good photographs that are being lost to those photographers who are completely obsessed with kit. All that equipment just gets in the way.

Lots of expensive kit DOES NOT produce great pictures – photographers DO. The camera is merely a tool, and it is right that you should buy the best you can afford if you are keen. But keep it sensible.

The picture here was taken using just a camera on a tripod – no fancy tripod head full of gizmos and knobs to twiddle, just a simple ball and socket job. The lens was an 85mm and the light was from a window reflected with a sheet of newspaper. The quality of the subject, the quality of the light, and the timing made it a worthwhile image that sold. Simple – I like simple a lot!

Photographing the wind

Living on the west coast of Scotland offers plenty of opportunities to photograph the effects of strong winds. Wind-bent trees make fantastic subjects, and my students often photograph them when we head off along the coast to take landscapes.

There are two basic methods of showing the wind actuality blowing – one is to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action, and the other is to use a slow shutter speed to allow the movement to blur. Both can be highly effective when done well.

The practical difficulties of actually putting the camera on a tripod and using a long exposure in strong winds can be hard to overcome. Camera shake is the biggest problem. Yes, even when the camera is on a tripod, it can still be subject to vibrations and movement when the wind whistles around it. A good heavy tripod is one answer, but failing that you might try weighting the tripod down with a plastic bag full of stones or sand. Anything will do. The last thing you want is for the camera and tripod to get blown over. Most tripods these days have a hook onto which you can hang a weighty bag.

For the picture of the waves, I used a 200mm lens to compress the perspective and pull the waves closer together. 1/350sec was used to freeze the action.
The shot of the wind-blown grass was done with the camera on a tripod – a heavy Benbo. A slow shutter speed of two seconds was used to show the movement in the grass as the wind blew through it. A wide angle lens was used to fill the foreground – because that is where the action is.

How to take indoor pictures without a tripod. Part 3

In the third short article about how to get interior pictures indoors without using a tripod, let's take a look at how we might use flash. A variety of techniques were used for flash in the ironmonger's shop.

Direct flash light, either from the camera's pop-up unit, or from a flash gun mounted on the camera, can be hard and unpleasant. Bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling is common practice. But what do you do if there are no walls to bounce it off? Or the ceiling is far too high? All is not lost.

You can raise the quality of the light and soften it by swivelling the head of a flash mounted on the camera’s hot shoe to one side and angling the light to reflect off a piece of paper. Anything white will do. Just get your angle right. You can even aim the flash at a reflector held in one hand while holding the camera in the other hand – as in the picture above.

The stag's head was mounted high up on a wall in dark corner of the shop. Without a flash I could not have photographed it. The flash head was turned to aim at a sheet of paper held in my left hand. The flash has reached right up into the corner with a lovely soft light. Using one of those small box-type diffusers that clip over the flash will have little effect if there are no reflective walls or objects around the flash. The light will still be from a very small light source - and that's what gives hard shadows. If you think about it, the stag's head is lit by a light which is the size of the magazine pages - much better.

For the picture of the plant pots and shop interior, the camera was settled on a bag of dog food. I took the flash gun off the camera. A shutter speed of 2secs was used with the self timer. I fired off a couple of low-powered flashes by hand while the shutter was open. This added a little light into the shadows.

Shooting from behind the life-size dummy horse in the shop window and looking out into the street, the lighting contrast was very high and created only a silhouette image with little detail in the foreground. To counteract this I used the camera's pop-up flash, but reduced its output by –2 values... just enough to add detail and colour.

How to take indoor pictures without tripods. Part 2

For the pictures of the interior of the shop and the goods on the shelves, I either steadied the camera on the floor or on a piece of shop furniture. For at least one photograph, the camera was nestled onto a bag of dog food and the shooting angle adjusted by stuffing my handkerchief under the lens. Use whatever you have at hand. You may be forced to make some small compromises with composition and angles if you cannot get the camera into exactly the position you would prefer. Don’t let this prevent you gathering pictures.

For the shot of the baskets hanging from the ceiling, I simply rested the camera on its back on the floor pointing upwards. Set the self-timer, stepped back, and the picture took itself.

A variety of methods was used for flash. The camera might be steadied as above, and the flash fired by hand during the long exposure. Or the camera was held in one hand with the flash on the hot shoe with the flash head angled to reflect off a sheet of paper held in my other hand. Sounds like a conjuring trick, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. I also used the on-camera flash for one shot.

For the picture of the rope and walking sticks in the shop doorway, I steadied the camera on the shop counter. Expoure was 1/15sec at f8

Unless your camera has 'live-view' facility, it can sometime be impossible to get your eye down to the viewfinder when it is resting on a table or other surface (see the picture below). In this case, frame the picture as near as possible before you set it up. Then try to aim it as near as possible for the shot you want. You will be surprised how accurate you will become with practice.

For the picture of the row of pot pigs, it was easy to just rest the camera on the floor, aim roughly in the right direction and press the button. Check your image, if you don't get it exactly right first time, try again.

The total time spent in the shop to take some 20 very different photographs was just 45 minutes – time I thought very well spent.

In Part 3, I'll show you how to create natural-looking light with your flash mounted on the camera.

How to photograph sparks - Part 3

For this picture I have used a separate flash unit to add some details to the man’s face. Compare this shot to the one shown in Part 2. That was taken without flash.

The technique I use is desperately simple. If the shutter speed is set to ‘bulb’, or is slow enough (perhaps 1/2second or less), there is no need to connect the flash to the camera by any means – cables or infra-red. You can even hold the flash in one hand, point it at your subject and fire it manually just before you close the shutter. So – open the shutter - fire the flash – close the shutter. This is the way Victorian photographers worked over 100 year ago when they used flash powder… yes, I know, I’m an old git. The technique works just as well today with your electronic flash and digital camera. But the makers of hi-tech gear will not thank me for telling you.

The flash has lit the man’s face. I set the flash to ‘manual’ mode and put it on half power. This was just about right, taking into consideration the flash to subject distance, the f11 aperture set on the camera, and the brightness of the sparks. Experiment with your own flash unit you get the results you want. You can play with your flash guide numbers if you have the patience, but, frankly, to me life is too short.

For the picture of the glass-modeller (left) I used two flash units - one from behind the sitter to separate his dark hair from the black background.

Whatever you do, do not use too much flash power. This will destroy the atmosphere. To be effective, most of the light should come from the sparks themselves.

Sometime I do connect the flash to the camera with an extension cable, radio, or infra-red device. Then I prefer to set a fixed shutter speed on the camera (not ‘bulb’ mode). I also set the flash synchronisation mode to ‘rear’. This fires the flash at the end of the fixed exposure, just before the shutter is closed. The reason for firing the flash at the end of the exposure is to avoid the subject’s movement (they often jump) as soon as the flash goes off.

TIP… It is vital that you brief your subject before you start. The subject’s head must be kept very still during the exposure.

TIP.. To find the ‘bulb’ setting is on your camera, set the camera to ‘M’ Manual exposure mode. Slow the shutter speed down as far as it will go. The ‘bulb’ setting is usually the next setting after 30-seconds.

How to photograph sparks - Part 2

Exposure for this picture was simple. I just fixed a cable release to the camera, put it on a good firm tripod, set the aperture to f11 and the shutter speed to ‘Bulb’. There’s no point in trying to take a correct light reading because when the sparks start to fly it will be irrelevant. I set ISO 100.

When my subject was ready and producing sparks, I just pressed the button for about 1sec. You will need slow shutter speeds of at least 1/2sec in order to capture the full trail line of a spark – not just the dot of the spark itself. If you use a faster shutter speed you will just capture a series of frozen dots or very short spark trails. This is not in the least effective. Of course, you could use fixed shutter speeds rather than using the ‘Bulb’ setting, it’s just that I prefer my way. I like to ‘gather’ the sparks as they fall and spread. Then close the shutter when I think I have gathered enough.

I set the ISO at 100 because it is not necessary to set a fast ISO when you are using slow exposures and the camera is on a tripod. Remember - the slower ISO the better the quality and sharpness of your image.

Why f11? Because experience tells me that at ISO 100 sparks from a welder’s torch are just about right at f11. For sparks from a disc cutter or grinder, f8 is often best because they are not so bright. Experiment for yourself and see which you prefer.

Unlike the picture in Part 1, there was absolutely no ambient light for this picture. The workshop was completely black This time there is no light on top of the man’s head – his face is lit solely by the glow of the cutting torch and the sparks. In this darkness I could have left the shutter open as long as I wished – provided the subject kept his head still.

TIP… your auto focus will probably not work with this type of subject. Turn it off and set the focus manually.

Next, in Part 3, I’ll explain the ‘bulb’ setting and tell you how to add some flash

How to photograph sparks - Part 1

Is there some secret to photographing a wonderful cascade of sparks as an engineer grinds away metal with a disk cutter? Well maybe – but it’s a very simple one. It’s all about light – or more precisely the lack of it - that makes the difference between a picture capturing bright golden spark tracks, and a lack-lustre photograph with washed-out specks where the sparks should be.

Take a look at the main picture of the man producing the great shower of sparks that pour onto the workshop floor and spread out in all directions. You will notice that the background is almost completely dark. His face is lit by the glow of the sparks from below but there is some light on the top of his head. That’s because his workshop was not totally blacked out and has a glimmer of daylight coming down from a sky light above him. Had that light been brighter, it would have put more ambient light onto the background as well, and made the sparks less distinct and bright. As it is, that ambient light is just bright enough to pick out the top of his head while not spoiling the rest of the picture.

However, had there been even less ambient light, I would have been able to use an even longer shutter speed and gather more spark trails – but you must be careful not to ‘over-cook’ it with over-long exposures. In other words, if you leave the shutter open too long you will gather too many sparks and they you will lose the rich orange colours; the sparks will be washed-out. You will also lose the individual lines and patterns of each individual spark and they will become one big white mass.

Of course, with slow shutter speeds, it is essential to have your camera on a good, solid tripod.

Yes, the secret, if there is one, is to work, whenever possible, in almost total darkness.

TIP… Always have a small torch with you when working in very dark situations. It helps when changing your camera settings and when moving around a dark workshop.

Next, in Part 2… what shutter speed should you use for best results?

How to photograph night events. Part 1

Outdoor events after dark, present one of the most challenging of assignments; and coping with the light – or lack of it – is at the top of the list of problems you'll face.

The photograph here is of the Kirkudbright Tattoo. A wonderful event of Scottish pipers, marching and music. The shot was planned some days before the event. I secured the use of an upstairs window overlooking the street where the action would take place. From this vantage point I could see everything that happened below and had the backdrop of the castle. The camera was mounted on a heavy tripod which extended out of the window. The ISO was pushed up to 800 and an exposure of 1/8sec at f4 was used. With such a slow shutter speed it was inevitable that there would be some movement in the marching pipers, but as they are marching almost directly towards the camera, this is hardly noticeable. The important aim was to capture the atmosphere and splendour of an outdoor night event in the street.

There are broadly three methods of dealing with the difficulties that low light levels present.

1
Put your camera on a tripod and use a slow shutter speed. You will not need to bother about using a fast ISO, and you will be free to use a smaller aperture with its greater depth of field to get more of the scene in focus. Good, you should have a sharp picture of the overall scene - the buildings and surroundings, and that slow ISO will give you fine quality. But hang on, that’s okay if nothing within the scene moves. If it does, your long exposure may render it as a blur.
2
Whack up the ISO as high as possible, maybe ISO 1600, and use the fastest possible shutter speed to freeze the action. Bearing in mind the low light conditions, you may also have to use a wide aperture to achieve this fast shutter speed, this means you will have less depth of field, and the image will be of poorer quality due to the faster ISO. It’s all a compromise, really. However, this method can achieve some wonderfully atmospheric pictures using what little natural light is available. It's a useful technique.

3
Use eletronic flash. This can freeze any action, but the downside is that it is likely to eradicate any atmosphere with its harsh, ‘press photo’ results… and remember - when shooting with flash outside at night any distant background may become totally black because the light of the flash will not carry that far.

In part 2… I'll show you how to combine some of these methods