Available Light Offers a Chance to Be Creative

As winter approaches and the days get shorter, the number of hours available for daylight photography shrinks. One way to approach the problem is to pull out your strobe and shoot away; however, a flash isn’t the only way to counter the sun’s early retirement each day.

Shooting available-light pictures at dusk gives you a chance to be creative. In fact, it may be some of the best light of the day. Panning with your subject for action shots or simply holding the camera very still for stationary targets are both great ways to deal with the fading light.

Panning--moving with your subject and shooting at a low shutter speed--is a basic technique that is rarely used. Photographers usually learn how to pan with a subject in basic photo classes, but then forget about it.

Practice here is imperative. Your best bet is to practice first with your camera unloaded, gently squeezing the trigger but never stopping the camera as you move with the subject. A successful panning shot has the subject stopped in action, but the background is blurred and out of focus. This adds a new, creative look to your photographs while at the same time emphasizing your subject.

Horse racing, car racing, your child on a swing or riding his bicycle--any action where the movement is going across your plane of vision--is a great place to try this technique. Start at a shutter speed of 1/15 or 1/30 of a second and set the aperture accordingly. Trying different shutter speeds will vary the results. If your camera is completely automatic, giving you absolutely no control, your chances of getting the desired effect will be difficult.

Next, you need to prefocus at the location where you think your subject will be at the time of your exposure. Move your camera but keep the subject in the viewfinder at all times.

Another way to take advantage of low light is simply to hold the camera still as you press the shutter button. This will work only if your subject is stationary. While this sounds incredibly simple in its premise, a lot of blurry, out-of-focus-looking photographs are caused by camera movement.

Again, practice with an empty camera. Just relax and then gently press the shutter button. It’s usually the excitement or quickness of the event that makes it difficult to hold the camera steady as you fire. Resist your natural instinct to press hard.

For those really low-light, slow-shutter-speed situations, support yourself against something solid, such as a building, car, chair or table, which will allow you to steady the camera.

Remember, the shorter the focal length of your lens, the easier it is going to be to handhold. You should be able to keep a camera steady by hand-holding it at 1/30th of a second. Even at 1/15th or 1/8th, you can keep a photograph sharp.

Shooting with a heavy tripod and using a cable release would certainly improve your photographs, but it’s just not practical and you would loose the spontaneity in your photos.