Mocking Bird » Shooting in Dark Winter Light

Lighting Experiments

Amanda — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:00:35 +0000

When I started my Winter Shooting Challenge Series, I briefly spoke about one piece of equipment I had purchased to help out with the low light problem on wintery PNW days. Oh, yes, I did just write PNW. If I’m going to be a Vancouverite, then I’m damn well going to start using terms like “Pacific North West”. I digress!

So the piece of equipment that I purchased was the Lowel Ego Light from Amazon. I have used it with my digital camera and my Polaroid cameras and I’m pretty pleased with how well it works. I wanted to share some of the results of my picture taking with this little light.

I shot the Polaroid above on a fairly overcast day. I set my shot up on the kitchen table next to a window to allow as much light into the shot as I could. However if I had shot it alone, I would have ended up with a blurry picture. I set the lighting system up on the opposite side to the window light, turned on the light and fired away my Polaroid. I was pretty pleased with the result.

This digital shot was also shot under similar circumstances. However, it was shot in a different room in the house and I should have used the reflector on the opposite side. As you can see, I got some heavy shadow beside the nest. In my next shoot, I will make sure to use the reflector to see if that helps with shadow.

If you are someone who likes to shoot indoors or late at night after the sun has gone down, then this little item may be something you could use. If you don’t want to fork out the cash, then you could probably fashion yourself something similar with items around the house. Don’t ask me how to do that however, I was lazy and bought one!

Have you got any lighting tricks you like to use when shooting indoors?

p.s. I finally got back a roll of black and white film that I shot in the snow. More on that later.

How To Shoot In Dark, Winter Light: Equipment

Amanda — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:14:01 +0000

To start off our Shooting in Winter Light feature, I would like to discuss the art of changing one’s attitude and how to use the equipment you have in your own home. I’m not one of those photographers who goes out and buys every new camera and lens as soon as they are released. Photography is one hobby where you could easily get sucked up into the endless turnover of new technologies. I refuse to buy into that nonsense.

{ CAMERAS and LENSES}

YOU make the photographs, you tell the stories, not your supply of expensive lenses and flash equipment. Now that I have that out of the way, let’s look at what I do have available. My main kit consists of:

Canon 40D, Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 135mm 2.8, a couple of zooms

Nikon FM3a, Nikkor 28mm 2.8 AIS (yes, just the one lens)
Yashica FX3, Contax 50mm 1.9
Polaroid SX70, Polaroid SLR680, Polaroid Spectra

Of course, I have many more film cameras but these are the ones I use the most.

As I have mentioned before, I don’t use flash. I shoot in natural light, so finding that light at this time of year is tricky. Luckily with my DSLR, I use the brilliant Canon 50mm 1.4 which manages to find light where there isn’t much. If you are wanting to shoot in low light, I cannot recommend a lens like this enough. The 50mm 1.8 is the most economical, value for money lens you can buy. I used that lens for a long time before upgrading to the 1.4. The Sigma 30mm 1.4 is more pricey but a wider angle.

{ ISO SETTINGS & WHITE BALANCE }

I always like to shoot with my ISO on 100 as I find you get the best picture quality at that level. This is the first change I am going to have to make. With a dark, overcast sky, an ISO of 100 may give me blurry shots, so I need to start setting it a little higher. Even if you use a point and shoot, you can still manually change your ISO settings. Depending on how dark, you may want to set it to 400 to see how you go. Play around with what gives you better quality without it looking noisy. DSLRs handle ISO noise pretty well these days. However, to combat the common noise problem, there are software programs out there to help such as Noise Ninja and Neat Image. I use Neat Image myself.

Play with your White Balance settings. Most cameras give you the option to change them, use this feature. It will make a world of difference to your photos. The Auto setting can often leave your photos flat. The cloudy setting will warm up your photos, whereas the tungsten can be used indoors to take away orange colour casts from lighting. You can also change your K settings. This is a good in depth article on White Balance. If you really want to have control over the lighting, the best thing to do is to shoot in RAW.

Of course, to avoid camera shake and unsteady cold hands, the use of a tripod is always going to get you sharper pictures.

{ FILM CHOICE }

Setting the ISO on your digital camera brings me now to film choices. My preferred film of choice is Kodak Portra 160NC. It makes beautiful skin tones and creates gorgeous, low saturated colours and tones that I love. However, once again, here is a change I will need to make. I now am going to have to start buying film with a higher ISO that allows me to shoot in the winter light. Thankfully Kodak make the same gorgeous film with a 400 ISO.

Films I would like to experiment with:

Kodak Portra 400NC and Kodak Portra 400VC
Kodak Black and White Tri-X 400
Fuji Pro400H
Ilford Delta 400 (Pretty sure I’ve used this before, as I generally shoot Ilford when I shoot BW)

I have used Portra 400NC indoors before and was very happy with the results. Now I just need to start using it all the time! I will be back here soon with some film comparisons to share with you.

{ LIGHT SOURCES }

Finding the light without a flash is going to be my biggest hurdle, especially when I can’t really make changes to my Polaroid equipment set up. This is where my one purchase comes in. I would like to introduce to you the Lowel Ego Lighting System. I still want to shoot indoors with available window light but when there isn’t much coming through the windows, I am going to employ some outside help. This lighting system is far cheaper than buying professional studio lights but still costs a little to set up. I’ve only just ordered it, so I will share my first shots with you as soon as it arrives.

If you still think this may above your budget, there are lots of different kinds of DIY lighting set ups you can make with things you have at home. Check these out:

Of course, you can always get yourself a flash. I find on camera flashes to be harsh and down right horrible, even on a DSLR. If you do want to go down the flash route, I recommend saving up for an external flash unit that you attach to the hot shoe on your camera.

These are some changes I plan on making to my photography in the darker months. In the next part of the series, I will be sharing some of my experiments with you and talking about shooting in the snow. Let me know if you try any of these tips and if you have success!

How To Shoot In Dark, Winter Light

Amanda — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:14:26 +0000

Since moving to Vancouver, I have had to deal with one nasty, ugly problem. Despite its mountains and ocean, its pine trees and snowy fields, its absolute and utter beauty, in the wintery months, Vancouver is one dark city. This is no big deal for most, but for a natural light film photographer like myself, it does cause a few problems. Now, I could very easily just pack up the cameras until next April, but for someone who craves photography, who needs to take photos every day, that is never going to happen.

I’ve never had to deal with this before as Sydney is more sunny than it is rainy and the light there is very easy to come by. This is a whole new learning curve, so rather than just staying inside with a hot chocolate, I’ve decided to find ways to make photography work for me in the dark, winter light. I hope this new school of education for me can be of some help for you with your own photography.

Firstly I need to make a few changes to my usual mode of shooting:

To think about my equipment (film types, camera types, flash vs no flash, reflectors, light sources, tripod).
To find different times in the day to shoot.
To apply my knowledge of Polaroid photography to all photography. I will explain why.
To shoot things I would never have thought to shoot before i.e. people in the rain, beaches with an overcast sky.
To accept and find beauty in the dark, winter hues.
To set up an indoor studio.
To buy thin, warm gloves and protection for my cameras.

I have to make these changes because I am used to having light pretty much whenever and wherever I want it. I shoot with natural light as I find flash to be too harsh and it really can destroy a photo. The only time I think flash is necessary is when your are shooting indoor portraits and parties with your point and shoot.

In the coming weeks, I am going to offer you my ideas about those points above. Do you have any questions that you would like to share about this kind of photography? I look forward to sharing what I learn with you!

Subscribe to the RSS so you don’t miss coming Winter Light posts.

In the meanwhile, here are a few inspirations from winter photographers on flickr.