Indoor Photography Without Flash

"Zeus"

Canon 5D MarkII

Focal Length 35

Aperture 4

Shutter 1/30

ISO 1250

This is a picture of my dog laying on the couch.  In a situation like this I find that it is good to shoot with a lower color temperature (cooler).  This photo was shot at 3200 (kelvin).  The color temperature is labeled as white balance in reference to the Canon 5D Mark II, and for virtually every digital camera out there.  Truthfully, I've never seen it labeled as anything else.  If you chose to use a higher numbered (warmer) color temperature the scene would have more of a yellowish tint to it.  One instance however where a very high color temperature would benefit the photographer would be if you wanted to desaturate the photo and turn it black and white.  Higher color temperatures seem to bring out more detail when they are later converted to black and white.

For this photo no flash was used.  I would recommend using a flash if you have one at your disposal, but if not, following these below listed steps should serve as a good guide.

First off, I shot this photo at a 1/30, which increases the chance of motion blur.  Given the above listed settings that I used to shoot my photo, I could of easily bumped my ISO up to around 2000 and sped up my shutter to 1/60 or faster.  Another nice feature of many Canon lenses is their image stabilization feature, which serves to minimize camera shake and motion blur.  This should be switched off if you are using a tripod however because without any camera shake the lens/camera gets confused.  If I was using a flash I would have been able to shoot at 1/60 or faster while bringing the exposure (ISO) to a significantly slower (lower numbered/finer grain) setting.  As you can see though, the Mark II shoots excellent shots with very little grain even at traditionally high ISO's.

For this shot I used Zeus's eyes as a focal point, a technique which works excellent for portraits along with a wide aperture.

Photographing Fire

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 73

Aperture 4

Shutter 1/200

ISO 3200

For photographing shots with fire present it may often be difficult to gauge the exposure due to varying levels of light which is dictated by the intensity of the fire.  Flare ups may cause the shot to be over exposed.  A good way to deal with this would be to use exposure bracketing, or simply take a number of exposures and dig through them later.

Setting a higher numbered (warmer) color temperature (white balance) will yield richer yellows, oranges, and reds which can be appealing for a shot like this.

I also used a wider aperture (larger number) to isolate the piece of meat and smoothen out the flames.  This is a good example of how well the Mark II is able to deal with noise at high ISO's.

Setting Your Aperture In The Daytime

Shown below are two shots that were taken from an (nearly) identical viewpoint with different apertures.  You can see how color is lost and the image looks severely overexposed with the example on the left.  It might as well be shot in black and white.  This is also a good illustration of how a large (small numbered) aperture affects the depth of field.  The trash can is razor sharp in the photo on the left, while the monument in the back is quite blurry and out of focus.  This is because the trash can was used as the focal point.  

However, if you are focusing off an object in the background your photo may have objects in your foreground which lack definition.  The photo to the right is a good example of this.  Although the difference in definition between the trash can and the monument isn't as exaggerated, as example to the left, it can still be seen when taking a closer look at the trash can in the photo on the right.  A way to correct, if not solve, this problem would be to set the focus off of the trash can and use a very small aperture (F18-32).  By doing this the objects in the far back may be only slightly less defined.  As long as there are objects in the foreground and background it may be quite difficult, if not impossible, to have the entire scene properly focused.  

You could also stand farther back from the trash can, and focus on the monument.  This would alleviate much of the blurriness with the trash can.  Later you would also be able to crop the image and reframe your scene.

So shooting in color during the harsh daylight sun just doesn't look all that pleasing.  This problem was compounded by the fact that I was shooting towards the sun.  This is one of the worst things that you can do, and it will be impossible to reach a decent looking, even exposure.  Also, you will notice a shadow that has formed at the base of the monument that is cast in my direction.  Without flash, or shooting in the shade, you will have mid-day shadows that occur.  In this case the sun was directly behind the pillar, and was rather low in the sky, which is evidenced by the whitish sky.  Shooting with a polarizer is a good way to lessen the harshness of the mid-day sky.

Truthfully, I don't care for either one of these, but they serve as a good example of techniques that may be used to offset the adverse effects of the harshness of the sun during the mid-day hours.

Canon 5D Mark II                                                         Canon 5D Mark II    
Focal Length 24                                                             Focal Length 24
Aperture 4                                                                     Aperture 10
Shutter 1/640                                                                 Shutter 1/200
ISO 100                                                                         ISO 100

Venice Beach
California, United States

Shooting Black and White Photos at Night

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Legnth 105

Aperture 9

Exposure 15 sec

ISO 400

Angkor Wat

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Using Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority

Adler Planetarium
Chicago, IL United States

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 24
Aperture 14
Shutter 1/180
ISO 400

Since there was so much ambient light in this shot I could have brought the ISO down to 100, or perhaps even 50, while keeping a shutter faster than 1/60 of a second.  1/60 of a second is a good rule of thumb to use for handholding your camera to avoid motion blur.

For a shot like this the aperture isn't all that important.  A shot like this would be safe to use autofocus on, since there are no other objects in either the foreground or background that could be accidentally selected.  However, if you are rather close to your subject there is a greater chance that you might isolate the tip of the sword for example, which may leave other parts of the horse, namely the ones farthest away like the bottom of the horse, out of focus due to a large aperture (a number less than F10).  I shot this picture from rather far away, perhaps 30 feet away, and later cropped the picture.

I would not advocate using autofocus, but if you must, it's good to use it to focus the point of the shot that you are most interested in, and then lock focus by switching it to manual.  By switching to manual at this point you are eliminating that chance that the camera will refocus as you reframe your shot.

I won't lie, the Canon 5D Mark II takes fabulous shots with all auto settings, but I like to tweak my shots a little.  There are also, quasi-manual settings like Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority, which allows the user to manually set the aperture while the camera automatically sets the Shutter.  Shutter Priority allows you to manually set the shutter while the camera automatically sets a corresponding aperture.  A benefit of this is that you don't have to be constantly fidgeting and trying to properly expose the photograph.  Also, you are able to manually set the ISO.  Using these quasi-manual functions serves as a great bridge from learning the camera and shooting in full auto to shooting in full manual.

With a smaller aperture you may see a little variation in the colors of the shot, but it will be negligible.  

Sunset at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Siam Reap, Cambodia

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Legnth 105
Aperture 22
Shutter 4 sec.
ISO 50

Using a Polarizing Filter

Arizona Desert

Arizona, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24

Aperture 4.5

Shutter 1/160

ISO 50

To achieve the rich blues in the sky I used a circular polarizer.  I also used a very large aperture to emphasis the cactus in the lower third of the screen, allowing the definition of the objects to the rear so sharply blur.  Along with shooting away from the sun, a polarizer filter is a great way to darken the sky and take shimmer of objects like water.  This is a basic, but good introduction to how a polarizing filter works.

Setting Your Shutter Speed at Sunset

Sunset Cliffs
San Diego, CA United States


Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Legnth 75
Aperture 22
Shutter 2.5 sec.
ISO 50

For this shot I used a relatively slow shutter of 2.5 seconds to record the waves as they washed over the rocks, it created a pleasant flowing effect. This can be achieved with a shutter of a 1/2 second or more, but it yields more of a streaming effect with shutters in excess of a few seconds.

You may see many photographers doing this with subjects such as waterfalls.  A problem is presented with that however.

The lighting during the daytime is much higher which restricts some of the functionally of the camera.  Even with using all of your manual adjustment of the ISO and Aperture you are still unlikely to be able to set the shutter to a low enough speed by stepping down to the cameras limits in regards to the amount of light it lets in.

The first thing you would want to do is to bring the ISO the the lowest possible level.  For the 5D Mark II the lowest level is ISO 50, while many other Canons may have an ISO of 100, or even 200.  This will give you smoother pictures anyways, and I would recommend always setting your camera to the lowest number possible while not sacrificing depth of field (Aperture) or shutter.

Then if bring the aperture to the highest possible number (which results in the smallest possible opening to let light in).  With certain lenses you may be able to get down to F32.  Sometimes you still may be unable to achieve light levels low enough to justify such a slow shutter.  Often times it is difficult to get shots of anything slower than 1/2 second.

This is where the neutral density filter comes in.  All this filter does is limit the amount of light that comes in.  It's only purpose is to limit the amount of light that can enter through the lens, typically it is one F stop.  If the picture still isn't dark enough you can add multiple filters, or perhaps something with much heavier dampening such as a 10 stop filter.

Angkor Wat

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal legnth105

Aperture F4

Shutter 25 sec.

ISO 50

Angkor Wat 

Siem Reap, Cambodia 

Setting Your ISO

Hotel Del Coronado
Coronado, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 47

Aperture 18

Shutter 20 sec.

ISO 50

This is a picture that I shot of the Hotel Del Coronado, in Coronado, CA.  I used a very low ISO (Exposure) so keep the image crisp.  By keeping a lower ISO you will have less "grain" or "noise" in your image.   Grain is rather of hard to describe so I will provide an example.  The above image was shot with a digital camera - an EOS Canon 5D Mark II.  

The below image is simply a variation of the first image that I retouched in Adobe Photoshop.  In photoshop i selected the Filter > Noise>Add Noise (Noise was within the filter drop-down).  This was done to mimic the effect that using a higher numbered (Faster ISO) would have.  This is an extreme example, and you would probably have to shoot in upwards of 6400 (depending on the model of your camera) to obtain an image with this much noise.  This would only be necessitated by very low light levels.  

By using a faster Exposure (ISO) you in essence using faster film (it is capable of being developed faster, although with digital cameras we aren't actually using film - just a digital file), which enables you to shoot at a higher shutter with the same aperture, thus not sacrificing depth of field.  

This can be useful when you are not shooting with a tripod.  If you are "hand holding" your camera you don't want to shoot at anything slower than 1/60th (1/50, 1/40, 1/30, etc.) of a second.  If you do this there is a chance that there will be motion blur in your shot.

For a more detailed discussion on how Aperture works in conjunction with Shutter Speed please refer to this post.

Unless you like a grainy look, which actually looks appealing for certain subjects, especially if you want a rougher or older feel to them, keep the ISO as low as possible.  

(Above) This is a good example of "Noise" that would be encountered with a (very) high ISO.  Even if  the Mark II's ISO limit was reached (25,600) you would likely not see such visible grain.

Capturing Light Trails From Cars

1st Street, 

Coronado, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 105

Aperture 16

Shutter 8 sec.

This is a picture looking westward on 1st Avenue in Coronado, CA.  The light trails were captured by having a shutter of 8 sec. which recorded the car headlights as they passed.

Long Exposures in Conjunction with Focal Length Shift

Hotel Del Coronado

Coronado, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 100 - 67 (varied)

Aperture 22

Shutter 20 sec.

ISO 800

For those of you who are wondering how this was done, it's pretty simple.  You'll need a tripod, which you'll need for virtually all low light, and night photography.  The reason is when you shoot a photo a shutter is allowed to open.  Think of a shutter like a window.  To allow the camera to take in light you'll need to open that "window" for a certain amount of time that is dictated by the current ambient light. The less ambient light that there is (the darker your subject is) the longer you will need to leave the shutter open to properly expose the film.  In this case, since there was so little light I had to leave the shutter open for and extended period - 20 seconds.  During this time it is absolutely essential that you keep the camera completely still, as anything that is moving during the exposure will come out as motion blur.  Typically this is something that is undesirable.

For this shot I used a few techniques.  One was to place the camera on a tripod to limit the amount of motion blur that I had on the parts of the image (the hotel's frame), while simultaneously changing the focal length.  Since night photography most clearly records the parts of the scene that are lit the lights create a streaking effect when the focus is altered mid shot.  The reason for using the tripod is to avoid any vertical or horizontal sway of the hotel, which would give an undesirable messy look.

By looking closely at the photo you can see two hotels - a smaller one within a larger one.  The focal length was at 67 when I initially opened the shutter, and over the next 10 seconds I gradually adjusted the focal length to around 100.  When the focal length was at 67 it was capturing the smaller hotel within the picture because less zoom was being used, but as I shifted the focal length throughout the shot I stopped at 100 that captured the larger hotel.  The larger number for the focal length, the more “zoom” you are using.  One other important note on manually adjusting the focus during an exposure is to keep the movement fluid, if this is done in a jerky manner certain parts of the transitioning streaks may be brighter than others or appear to be segmented.

One potential problem to this however can be to retain the proper focus throughout the shot.  Fortunately for most nighttime landscape shots your focus will be set to the infinity symbol (∞) or somewhere near this.  When the focus ring is set to infinity everything within the frame should be in focus.

Another trick that I like to use during night photography is to use a smaller aperture (higher F stop number, in this case 22).  The aperture works in conjunction with the shutter and also deals with the amount of light that is coming in and determines how long this light must enter the camera.  Think of the shutter as the size of the window.  The larger the window (smaller F stop or aperture) the more light will come in, resulting in a faster shutter speed that is needed to properly expose the photo.  Just remember, since the window is bigger, and lets in more light you don't have to leave it open as long.

In this case I used a very small aperture (F 22) so that I would get a pleasant starburst pattern surrounding the lights.  If a smaller F stop, such as 5.6 were used the lights would more resemble the shape of a globe or an orb and they would be less defined.

Correcting Exposure in Aperture 2.0

Orange Avenue

Coronado, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Legnth 47

Aperture 18

Shutter 20 sec.

ISO 400

A picture of my cab.  For this photo it was impossible to get the scene evenly exposed so some post production was needed to be done.  For my post production (which is typically minimal) I use Aperture 2.0, which is much more user friendly, but a little less comprehensive than Adobe Photoshop (whatever version).

In this case i found that it was best to meter the scene for the road and the street lights/lighting and use the shadows function of Aperture to evenly expose the side of the cab.  Care is needed when doing this as noise/grain is added when the Shadows function is used.  Aperture uses an algorithm to determine the darkest parts of the scene and isolates them, letting you manually adjust the brightness in certain sections of the picture.

Conversely there is a highlights function that isolates the brightest parts of the scene and allows the user to manually dim/darken those spots.  The downside of this is that if used in excess halation (a halo effect around the edges, which is more noticeable in highly contrasted subjects) often occurs.  Also, when used excessively there is a dulling/flattening effect on colors in the section of the scent that is being altered, resulting in an artificial look.  Both these adjustments are best used sparingly.

Airplane Photography

Canon 5D MarkII

Focal Legnth 40

Aperture 14

Shutter 1/800

ISO 800

Even at higher ISO's (above 800) there is very little grain when shooting with the Canon 5D Mark II.

Amsterdam at Night

Amsterdam, Holland
October 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 18mm
Aperture 5.6
Shutter 1/30
ISO 400