Indoor and low-light photography

Low-light situations are more common than you might think. Our eyes adapt constantly and make the most of every available light source, so when you are in a fairly bright room or outside before it is fully dark, you do not always realise how little light there actually is. Your camera, however, notices it very quickly, because it needs light to work properly. That is the very definition of photography: writing with light. When there is less light, it inevitably becomes harder to “write” the image, a bit like trying to write a letter with a pen that is almost out of ink. So today, we are going to talk about low-light and indoor photography. On a closely related topic, you may also want to read my guide to night photography.

You will come across these situations very often: interiors such as churches or museums, concerts, landscapes very early or very late in the day, indoor sports such as basketball or boxing, evening street photography, wildlife, macro photography… in short, any time or place where you cannot rely on good natural light and cannot fully control the light yourself. Studio photography is a special case because, even though it is usually done indoors, the photographer chooses and controls the lighting. Real estate photography, where you photograph properties for sale, is another good example.

You will quickly realise that taking good photos indoors or in low light is not always easy. Let’s look at the main challenges, the possible solutions for shooting in these conditions, and finally the camera gear I recommend for this type of situation.

I suggest reading the other articles on exposure in photography, as they will help you better understand how your camera captures light and why the situations discussed here can be tricky. Even though the problem is always a lack of light, the best solution will not always be the same. It depends on whether you are shooting static or moving subjects, whether you can add light, whether you have a tripod or a stable surface nearby, or whether you are shooting handheld.

You will therefore need either to collect more light or to add light when possible, and that often means choosing the right gear. The first option is your lens aperture: the wider it can open, the more light it can let through. That said, if you are in a completely dark room with no light source at all, do not expect miracles, even from a very bright lens. Opening the aperture wider also reduces depth of field, which is not always what you want. In some genres, you may not want to shoot at your lens’s maximum aperture, even though short focal lengths and distant subjects can still give you a fairly deep depth of field.

In that case, you will often need to lengthen the exposure time. By doing so, you allow the sensor to collect light for longer and therefore increase the total amount of light captured, even if the scene seems very dim. But again, in situations such as indoor sports, a long exposure time will often create unwanted blur, so you will be forced to use faster shutter speeds, which further reduces the amount of light gathered.

Your sensor also has a light sensitivity setting: ISO. In low light, increasing ISO helps compensate for an aperture that is too small, a shutter speed that is too fast, or a situation where you have already reached your lens’s maximum aperture and cannot make the exposure time any longer. Raising ISO allows you to expose the image correctly, but it also reduces image quality, especially by introducing digital noise.

Finally, when none of these solutions is enough, you can add light with accessories such as a flash. Or, if you are reaching the limits of handheld shooting, you can use stabilisation, either built into the lens or camera body, or a tripod, which remains the most effective stabiliser of all. In some situations, however, these accessories will be ineffective, unavailable, or simply forbidden.

In landscape and architectural photography, where the subjects are static, you do not usually need a very fast shutter speed. With a 24mm wide-angle lens, for example, you can often go down to around 1/25s handheld, following the classic 1/focal length rule to reduce camera shake. With focal length equivalence on smaller sensors, this exposure time remains roughly consistent: a 16mm lens on APS-C or a 12mm lens on Micro 4/3 can also be used at around 1/25s. For this type of image, it is usually better to avoid raising ISO too much, ideally keeping it below ISO 400, to preserve dynamic range, colours, and limit noise. Even so, you will often realise that you still lack light, despite using a relatively slow shutter speed.

You will also tend to use a smaller aperture, such as f/5.6 or f/8, to maximise depth of field and keep the whole image sharp. Of course, this does not help with the lack of light. You will therefore need to keep working with exposure time, for example by using a tripod, which allows you to set the shutter speed as long as needed. If you cannot use anything other than handheld shooting, a stabilised lens can help you extend the shutter speed by several stops. In the 24mm example, you can often go down to 1/5s or even 1/4s, sometimes close to 1s with the most effective stabilisation systems, provided you remain as steady as possible.

Autofocus can also struggle because it works best when it receives enough light. In dim conditions, it may hunt or even focus completely wrong. Since the subjects are static and the depth of field is generally wide, especially with short focal lengths, you can switch autofocus off and focus manually, which can save you in many situations.

Here, I am thinking of situations such as concert portraits, indoor sports, or wildlife in the undergrowth. In these cases, you will generally need to use faster shutter speeds, often somewhere between 1/125s and 1/1000s, or even faster. With long focal lengths such as 300mm, you should avoid using a shutter speed slower than about 1/320s unless the lens is stabilised. This is why this type of image often ends up with more noise and a lot of background blur. To compensate for the lack of light and the fast shutter speed, you will have to rely on the other two exposure parameters: aperture and ISO. If possible, prioritise aperture, because it captures more light while also helping isolate the subject. Then try to keep ISO as low as possible to limit noise and preserve image quality. This is why large apertures such as f/2.8 or f/1.4 are so useful, although beyond 300mm it becomes difficult to find anything brighter than f/4, especially without selling a kidney!

When it is allowed and the subject is close enough, a flash can also be very useful, as can reflectors to help redirect light. For posed portraits, especially in a studio-style setup, you can also add lighting such as softboxes. For distant subjects, however, you will often have no choice but to raise ISO and accept some noise. ISO 3200 or 6400 is still usable in many cases and on most cameras, from Micro 4/3 to full frame. Some bodies can even handle ISO 12800 without too much trouble. For focusing, if the subject is not moving too much and stays within the same area, manual focus can work. If the subject is more active and manual focusing would be too risky, you will need to look for bright, contrasty areas as close as possible to where you want the image to be sharp.

In other situations, you will need to combine several solutions, as in night street photography. At one moment, you may be photographing architecture without worrying about passers-by, and a few minutes later you may want to shoot portraits that show city life. In that case, you may end up walking around with a tripod, a fast stabilised lens, and constantly juggling ISO and shutter speed.

Macro photography can also become a low-light situation. Even when there is light, moving subjects, and sometimes even static ones, often require a fairly fast shutter speed. The extremely short depth of field forces you to stop down the aperture, for example to f/11, and noise can quickly become a problem. You will want to avoid raising ISO too much, but that is exactly how you quickly run out of light, especially because you are very close to the subject. In some cases, you and your camera may even cast a shadow over it. A tripod is very useful here too, but for many subjects, adding light with a ring flash will be necessary. A standard flash is often blocked by the lens hood or even the lens itself, which is why placing the flash in front of the lens is so useful.

Here’s what I recommend:

• Mode: A/Av for static subjects (aperture priority), S/Tv for moving subjects (shutter priority). You will often need full control over your settings, so it is worth learning how to use manual mode (M),
• Autofocus: AF-S for static subjects, AF-C for moving subjects, manual focus if there is not enough light for autofocus to lock properly,
• Aperture: smaller apertures (f/5.6–f/8) for wide scenes such as landscapes, larger apertures (f/1.4–f/2.8) for single subjects and background separation,
• Exposure time / shutter speed: long exposures, up to several seconds, for static subjects; fast shutter speeds, from around 1/125s to 1/4000s or faster, for moving subjects,
• ISO: as low as possible, but for active subjects you will often need to raise it, sometimes quite high, to avoid motion blur.

A quick reminder: on your DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can usually shoot in RAW or JPEG. RAW gives you much more flexibility in post-processing. You will need editing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom to open and process your RAW files, but in my opinion it is well worth it. You can recover underexposed images more easily, reduce noise, correct a failed white balance, and more. Even though most of the work should be done when shooting, this extra flexibility is worth keeping in mind.

I am mainly talking here about camera bodies and lenses. Of course, it is impossible to list every possible reference, because it depends too much on your use, your budget, and the situations you photograph.

Camera body: you need a camera that performs well in low light, both in terms of ISO performance and autofocus. From Micro 4/3 to full frame, if your budget allows, it is worth choosing a reasonably advanced body, because entry-level autofocus is often less effective in low light, especially if you do not have wide-aperture lenses. For static subjects, cameras with in-body stabilisation, such as many recent Panasonic, Sony, and Olympus models, can be very useful.

Lenses: you may need a fairly wide range of focal lengths, from wide-angle lenses for landscape and architecture to telephoto lenses for wildlife, short telephotos for macro, and standard focal lengths for street photography. Choose stabilised lenses for situations where you use smaller apertures and slower shutter speeds, such as many 16-35mm f/4 lenses, as well as telephoto lenses like 70-200mm f/4. Choose wide-aperture lenses for situations where you need faster shutter speeds, such as a 24-70mm f/2.8 or an 18-35mm f/1.8 on APS-C. Prime lenses are less versatile, but they generally offer larger apertures, such as 24mm f/1.4 or 85mm f/1.8. You will need practice and a good understanding of your needs, because you will be limited to a single field of view.

The longer the focal length, the harder it becomes to find large apertures, especially at affordable prices. If you are interested in telephoto lenses reaching 600mm, you will often have to settle for relatively small variable apertures, such as 150-600mm f/5-6.3. Overall, up to 200mm, you can still find affordable lenses with an aperture of at least f/4. Here are a few references, listed according to the types of photography mentioned in this article:

For macro lenses, I can particularly recommend the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 VC (DSLR), the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 OS macro (DSLR), the Fuji 80mm f/2.8 OIS macro (APS-C mirrorless), the Tamron 60mm f/2 (APS-C DSLR), or, for Micro 4/3 mirrorless cameras, the Panasonic Leica 45mm f/2.8 OIS macro or the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro.

For static subjects:

Tripod: Do not forget to budget for a tripod. A good, stable one will cost at least around a hundred euros. It must be able to support the weight of your equipment, so pay close attention to the tripod’s maximum load capacity. In general, check the weight of your gear and multiply it by two to know which maximum load is safest, while keeping some margin in case you later move to heavier equipment. Manfrotto and Vanguard tripods are generally good-quality options.

For moving subjects:

Flash: When your subjects are close enough and you are allowed to use it, a flash can be a valuable ally for adding light and freezing action. Choose a proper cobra flash, because the one built into your camera, if it has one, is usually not very powerful and sits too close to the lens. For macro photography, use a ring flash around the front of the lens to avoid cast shadows. Brands such as Meike and Neewer offer very interesting cobra flashes at affordable prices. For ring flashes, I recommend looking at the Aputure brand.

I hope this article has “enlightened” you, which is useful when you lack light, haha! Remember, I cannot shoot for you, and one article, even this one, is not enough to master every low-light situation. You will need to practise, test, learn, and understand the principles of photography to take better pictures in these conditions, as in any others. With a bit of practice and good control of your camera, you do not need to be a professional photographer to manage these situations properly. Who said learning photography would be easy, right? In the meantime, I can also teach you how to create a nice background blur or bokeh.

See you soon and happy shooting.

Written by Sylvain PONS

I've been passionate about photography since 2010, learning as I went along. Today, I dedicate myself to guiding others in their choice of camera gear and sharing a variety of tips to improve their photography skills.

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