My wife and I enjoy going to museums, but almost all museums don’t allow flash photography. This article is about adjusting your camera to the best possible photo with available light. Recently on a trip to the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC the above sculpture was on exhibition.
We had been walking around the city and all of my photos had been taken using
Evaluative/Matrix/ESP/Pattern
at ISO 200 and Aperture mode. ISO 200 is a good setting for a sunny day. In light of this photo being inside, I chose to change the ISO to 1600 (see the result below)
Checking the photo displayed on my camera’s LCD the resulting shutter speed was 1/6 sec. Just too slow to get a sharp hand-held photo. Remember that for hand-held still photography you would like to keep the shutter speed at 1/50-1/60 for a normal lens with focal lengths of 14mm to 58mm. Next, I increased the ISO to 4000. Doing this increases the sensitivity of the sensor. I should see an increase in speed.
Yes, the speed increased to 1/15 sec. better but still too slow. My next choice was to increase the ISO to 6400 which is the highest I can go with the camera I was using.
Better, but still too slow and the highlights are too bright. The only control I now have available is:
Exposure Compensation (EV)
Given that the highlights are too bright I want to decrease the exposure. This should also make the shutter speed faster. I selected negative EV of 2.
I achieved a shutter speed of 1/125 sec by using exposure compensation set to EV -2 and highlights are not as bright. What would have happened if I had used EV -1?
The EV -1 photo is a bit brighter than EV -2 because of the shutter speed at 1/40 sec. the sensor is receiving more light than the faster 1/125 sec.
At this point, I stopped, as I didn’t think I could achieve better exposure in the camera. Either EV -1 or EV -2 is acceptable. Either could be easily post-processed with acceptable results.
A few other things to remember:
1) The higher the ISO the more noise: graininess and speckles (color) in the solid color areas. The newer digital cameras generally give satisfactory results at higher ISOs i.e. 1600 and 3200. I do caution students that when using higher ISO’s getting the correct exposure becomes more important. In the photos below you will see more graininess, speckles, and an overall softer focus in the ISO 6400 vs. 1600 despite the faster shutter speed. With higher ISOs, the photo’s quality will not be as good as at lower ISOs.
2) You need to also be aware of the shutter speed of your camera. Yes, newer digital cameras have improved image stabilization. However, I still recommend to my students’ as a little bit of extra insurance, don’t attempt handheld photos at shutter speeds less than 1/50 sec. when using your camera’s normal lens. Normal lens? Today’s DSLR cameras are often supplied with a lens with a focal length in the range of 18 mm-55 mm. When using the normal lens 1/50 sec. is a safe lower limit. When using a telephoto lens, the rule is not to use a speed of less than 1/ focal length. So, you if have a lens with a focal length of 70mm-300mm, you would want to use a speed of 1/70 sec. to 1/300 sec. depending on the focal length you have set. To simplify things for a 70mm to 300mm don’t use a speed less than 1/300 sec.
3) Most important, always check your settings before taking the next photo. After going through a sequence of setting changes as you see above, it’s very likely the final setting will not be correct for your next photo.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me
photos available for purchase at FineArt America
© Tom Wiggins Photography 2015-2023