How do you all take pictures in low-light? for eg:
1) indoors (outside bright, but in the building is dark and the lighting doesnt help much)
2) Places where the lighting is generally bad.. (pubs for example)

I prefer not to use flash, as the flash would drain out the color of the skin..
and at places like these, setting High-ISO doesnt really Help much too..

How?

For now, I dont have a flash gun, so I set the exposure of the Flash to be lower..drop it a step or 2.. But still need to keep my hands steady as the photo will be blurry.

OR, use a slow sync flash..

Any other technique?

use a tripod

low light =

1)high iso
2)slow shutter
3)steady hand/tripod/monopod/addtional support like beanbag, wall, railing bla bla bla
4)big aperture
5)wide lens

i generally use iso400 f3.5 1/15 28mm for low light situations...

This post has been edited by aaeem: Feb 23 2007, 03:08 PM

practise robot hand technique

use manual
use smaller aperture
use slow shutter speed

practise practise

later on 1/6, 1/2 kacang putih nia handheld

But the People shots will look blurred rite? coz the shutter speed will be slower ?

Hard lar.. hand blardy shake like suffering from over-wanking

Here is how I do.

Use AV mode (aperture priority), open aperture gao gao. Let's say f2.8. Point at the background, the system will return you the right amount of shutter. Let's say 1/8. Asume this setting is best exposure for the background.

Now switch to full Manual. Set aperture to f2.8 and aperture to 1/8. You know this exposure will get good background.

Use autofocus to focus on your subject (let's say human or alien). The subject should be dark with the value you set, so we have to use flash (built-in or external), which will luminate the subject well based on the focusing distance. dSLR has lots of advantages because of the more detail focusing distance, which is important to flash that can be detected compare to compact camera.

FYI, the flash will not only luminate the subject, but also freeze the subject motion, which will appear sharp.

Compose well, get rid of unwanted subjects, hold your breath and snap it.

And here you will get proper subject + background.

If you have white ceiling, you can choose to bounch the flash also. I recommend Omnibounch for best results

Hope it help. Just my 2 cent.

This post has been edited by TheVoIP: Feb 23 2007, 03:31 PM

Using shutter priority also will work. Just set the shutter speed in Sv mode to the most comfortable handheld speed you can manage. For me, and for subjects within a 20m range, 1/30sec is the minimum handheld. With monopods or slingbags to brace your camera, you can get away with even slower shutter speeds without having to bump up ISO.

If you have a Pentax DSLR, you can even do a SAv mode -camera adjusts the ISO for you to match the fixed shutter and aperture parameters.

Nahh..I dont have a DSLR.. im only using a semi-pro.

I will try out those techniques... Normally on ISO400 and the Biggest aperture, I can only get 4/8 shutter speed only. After snap, look fine..but when I download to da pc..Whoah...

Yea, I thought of investing in a external flash.. How much would 1 cost? My cam has a "Dumb" hotshoe..shouldn't cost that much right?

for no.1, are you talking about the person standing by a window where theres sunlight going in?

in that case,flash,reflector, or shoot twice and blend in ps

iso 400 is too low, you have fuji s9600, should go for at least iso1600.

damn my len doesn't go to dat low .. f3.5

wat brand is ur camera? dont use handphone leh

yea, but noise lvl's are kinda bad at 1600..especially when u enlarge the picture
I haven't tried shooting in RAW mode yet..

ok, lemme give a few scenario's..
Considering u dont have a flash gun, no tripod/monopod, and no 50mm lenses that can go f1.4...those are cheating btw

1) I'm inside the house's Living Room, My object is in front of me, and my object is behind the the big-assed window (means I'm facing the bright window), and its a bright day outside.
-When I snap, the object will appear dark (coz the light from the back screws up the sensor).
-If i use flash, the object will appear Washed-out (unless I lower the flash exposure)

2) I'm in a bar (sumthing say like TGI's or Chillis). Its dark and have very bad lighting for camera's.
-Using high-ISO doesnt help (object still suffers from blur and its way too dark)
-Flash on full force will create 'shadows' behind the subjects.
- currently i'm using slow-sync flash to get an OK picture in dark places. But hands must be steady coz its still prone to shake.

1.) This is difficult unless your subject is static, you camera is static, and you know how to do the HDR (High Dynamic Range) trick with Photoshop. The difficulty lies in whether to shoot overexposed or underexposed, depending on your aesthetic vision for the photo. Do you want to show the object in its full glory and the window is just so happens to be there, or do you want the window to show the object in a mysterious silhouetted view? In high contrast photos, you cannot get proper exposure for all objects in the frame.

2.) Use slow speed with a moderate ISO (say, 400 or 800). Ask your subjects to pause to pose. Throttle down your flash output intensity if direct flash, otherwise the preference is to bounce the flash from the ceiling and/or use a diffuser.

1) if you camera has backlighting mode, use it.
2) no other choice, you have to use high iso (3200) in this condition to eliminate hand shake and motion blur.

for all the conditions u put,
i would say u wont be able to take nice pictures in low light

with today's technology with those restrictions = no nice pic
thats the most suitable answer imo

its not cheating, u must understand the limitations of your cam and lens, u might think that today's technology is advanced but its not, today's cam are still no match for our eyes.

1.as i posted earlier, the best way is to use flash or a reflector. or blend it in photoshop or create a HDR image. if u don wanna do any of ideas, my best suggestion : change your scene dont do the impossible cams dont have the dynamic range to take such high contrast pics

2.use fill-in flash

wat abt shooting candid shot? ppl will be moving around and u'll get blurry image though ur hand steady.

using the built in flash seems to be the only answer if that is the case... i tend to be caught in that situation also... most of the time i'm forced to use built in flash.

Found a Sunpak Flashgun for my cam. Not the intelligent kind as my can got only 1 connnector on the hotshoe.. not TTL type..

Was offered rm90 for it. Think its worth it? Can take wideangle to telephoto shots. But the head can only point up and down..no swivel..is that a big issue?