Lowlight Photography with and without flash

[Nomadr]

i would say low light is without flash, my only concern with low light is that the centre of attention has some light on it,otherwise it will just be in shadow,I prefer to get some movement blur in my animated shots so its always a fine line guessing the best shutter speed to use,in this shot i knew it was going to be fairly dark with acrobats flying all over the place so i opted for 1/200th and iso 4000.got a nice balance of blur with a little sharpness.cheers martyn

[Shadowman]

Hi John,

Natural light only, strong, setting sun on a very frosty day, giving the very bright, slanting light - around 3.30 pm. It was dark, 20 mins later. Took a mean of incident (on the bench) and reflective metering (bench area), Weston Master V. Minimum PP, removing dead twigs/branches in the background.

PS the bench was in my local park, in a small copse, with only one, small opening, off tae the right of the photo.

Robert,

Thanks for the additional information.

[Shadowman]

Can you have "LOW light" photography with flash, surely it defeats the object as flash is not a low light

If I were shooting a low key image then flash would be acceptable. The key is not overdoing the flash.

[Shadowman]

i would say low light is without flash, my only concern with low light is that the centre of attention has some light on it,otherwise it will just be in shadow,I prefer to get some movement blur in my animated shots so its always a fine line guessing the best shutter speed to use,in this shot i knew it was going to be fairly dark with acrobats flying all over the place so i opted for 1/200th and iso 4000.got a nice balance of blur with a little sharpness.cheers martyn

However, flash is a light source I just need enough light to be able to record an acceptable image. It's no different than using light from a light post or a strobe, you just don't want the light to dominate the image.

[Shadowman]

Blossom shot with flash.




f/5, ISO 200, 1/4sec

No Flash-edited in PSE8

[tbob]

Since I shoot prairie landscape it would be very difficult to use flash, unless some rogue nation is willing to lend me a thermonuclear device. I don't do many after dark shots. I often shoot after sunset or before sunrise, but usually the foreground is quite dark and a silhouette only. This is one of the few times i was willing to accept the noise from high iso.

f2.8 1/25 sec iso1600 nikkor 70-200mm Nikon D700

[jcuknz]

Resource not resort ... finger problems and not checking as I should

[jcuknz]

"Can flash be low-light"
I suggest that flash is a light source as any other and how it is controlled it can be low-light or uncontrolled wash-out light

[Shadowman]

Since I shoot prairie landscape it would be very difficult to use flash, unless some rogue nation is willing to lend me a thermonuclear device. I don't do many after dark shots. I often shoot after sunset or before sunrise, but usually the foreground is quite dark and a silhouette only. This is one of the few times i was willing to accept the noise from high iso.

f2.8 1/25 sec iso1600 nikkor 70-200mm Nikon D700

Flash could be used with your prairie landscape shots if you wished, you could control the intensity of the flash so that the effect is not equivalent to a thermonuclear reaction.

[tbob]

Fill flash is a tool I need to learn. The first step is remember to pack the flash. Never seems to make it into my gear when I leave the house.

[Shadowman]

Fill flash is a tool I need to learn. The first step is remember to pack the flash. Never seems to make it into my gear when I leave the house.

I finally took my external flash with me last weekend but ended up using the on-camera flash for most of the shoot. It seems that even when you plan ahead actual events and circumstances prevail.

[HaseebM]

I took this well after sunset with the available ambient light. I am used to long exposures for astrophotography but very rarely use long exposures for terrestrial imaging.

[Shadowman]

I took this well after sunset with the available ambient light. I am used to long exposures for astrophotography but very rarely use long exposures for terrestrial imaging.

Nicely done, although with a bit of fill light you could get some detail in those shadow areas. However, it really isn't needed for this particular shot.

[Shadowman]

f/5.6, ISO 400, 1/180sec, 24mm used flash

[Shadowman]

First time in a while I've considered using flash in low light situation. I had to do some red-eye recovery.
1/80s, ISO 1000, f/4 shot with Olympus PEN EPL1.

[Shadowman]

Cheesy Chicks truck vendors. Was so tempted to use flash.




1/100sec, f/4.7, ISO 1600

[4wmyzun5ubx]

Nicely done, great composition.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, great composition.

Thanks

[Shadowman]

Shooting handheld: 1/13sec, ISO 1600, f/2.8 no flash

[Shadowman]

I'm nowhere near finished editing but wanted to get opinions on the shot so far.

f/1/8, 1/125sec, ISO 2500-edited with NIK Dine2 for noise removal (used Ctrl pts on face, background). No additional sharpening applied yet. Cropped a bit off the right. No flash.