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there's just something about shooting at
night shooting in low-light situations
that becomes invigorating difficult
challenging and scary I remember a time
where I got my first gig and it was
shooting in a low light situation
shooting a storefront outside of the
store and when I started I was just like
everyone else I didn't know much it was
my first paying gig and I totally bombed
it but it's because I understand what I
know today and that's gonna share with
you guys today this is how to shoot
video and low-light situations
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salutations everybody and welcome to my
channel if you're new here I'm
professional videographer that supports
the small youtuber community to make a
better quality video if that's something
that interests you I would totally
consider subscribing so today we're
talking all about how to shoot video in
low light situations how to shoot video
at night ask any cinematographer any
videographer any VP shooting at night is
tricky and it's extremely difficult if
you don't know how to do it properly so
tips I'm gonna share with you guys today
are not only going to allow you to shoot
really good video at night but they will
also make you feel very comfortable with
your camera in general for this tutorial
we're gonna go over what types of lenses
you need to choose understand their
apertures and why that's important we're
then gonna go over the proper settings
you're gonna need to shoot video in
low-light situations then how to use the
available light that's around you and
then at the end there's actually a
low-light hack that I can give you that
kind of helps you when you just are
desperate and you don't want to salvage
all your footage this hack will totally
help you as well let's go and move into
topic number one which is choosing the
right lens so what does it mean to
choose a right lens well it's a quick or
fast lens as some may say a quick or a
fast lens is a lens that has a large
maximum aperture it's the setting that's
most commonly attached with a little F
in the beginning and then a number and a
decibel and a number after that fun fact
the F stands for f-stop in which your
parents aperture is actually measured in
diameters within the f-stop scale its
measured in thirds just like pretty much
every other setting on your camera and
thus your f-stop is just your aperture
measurement the measurement of aperture
is similar to kind of like a golf score
to where the lower you go the better
you're doing or for aperture the lower
your f-stop the more light you're
bringing in
for instance here you can see this shot
this one you're looking at a F 1.8 and
here you're looking at at F of 2.8
within that scale there is an aperture
range you want to stick to when you're
shooting in low-light situations which
is anything within f-stop 1.2 - f-stop
2.8 that is your sweet spot now a 1.2
aperture is the best for low-light
situations but those lenses are pretty
expensive and it's kind of an overkill
if you're doing YouTube so for us
youtubers you want to stick to a 1.4 is
kind of like your target when I need a
1.4 aperture I use the Sigma 35
millimeter wide-angle lens that is by
far my favorite lens I actually don't
own one
ranked it out all the time when I need
to and that's totally gonna be my next
investment by the way I'll link that one
down in the description below so you can
check that one out for yourself now
referring to a lens with a maximum
aperture of 1.8 canons 50 millimeter 1.8
is literally the best and most
affordable lens you could ever use for
low light situations and a bunch of
other stuff it's most popular name is
the nifty 50 and the reason being is it
does so much including supporting your
low-light shooting right now it's going
for around $125 on Amazon at the time of
this recording so as far as lenses goes
and that type of price that's really
good I'll link that one down below as
well and the last aperture you're really
gonna try to shoot for is a 2.8 cannon
has a 24 millimeter wide angle lens
which is actually what I'm using right
now that is absolutely awesome it's
actually my favorite cheap lens now
anything above a 2.8 is where it gets
super tricky looking at the kit lens you
really only have the maximum aperture of
a 4.0 so if you're able to do so I would
totally invest in either one of those
three options that I mentioned all the
links below so you can check them out so
here you can see a kit lens and it's
open as you can see if I adjust the
aperture here do you see how small the
hole is getting and then how bigger it's
becoming and your lenses aperture is one
of a few things that determines how much
light is touching the sensor within your
camera which lives in here we'll get
into the set so the easiest way to think
about that is the lower the aperture the
bigger that circle gets and more light
is able to come into your camera or your
sensor now that's a good segue to talk
about the proper camera settings you're
gonna need to understand for low-light
situations a quick disclosure regarding
the proper camera settings do your best
to go manual don't let the camera do the
work for you because most cameras don't
do that great of a job especially in low
light situations plus going manual
allows you to control certain things
like the 180 degree shutter roll and not
relying too much on your ISO first let's
understand the shutter speed shutter
speed is essentially how long your
shutter is open to let in light into
your sensor now that sounds familiar
right I did say that when it comes to
aperture in the iris you know this is
the part where it kind of gets confusing
so I'm going to show you another way
there are total of three elements you
need to worry about when it comes to
shooting in low-light situations two of
them are actually organic to the camera
and lens itself and the other one is
digital aperture is your first organic
one which has to do with the lens and
shutter speed which is what we're going
to learn right now is your second the
digital one is
so which we're gonna learn about in a
sec now when it comes to most canon
cameras the shutter speed is the solid
number to the left
whereas aperture is right next to it you
can see here that this camera is set to
a 50 now you probably ask yourselves
what the hell does that 50 mean shutter
speed is actually measured in fractions
of a second so that 50 is 150th of a
second so what that means is your
shutter is actually opening for that
particular amount of time let me show
you that end a better way here's a
mirror right here that reflects light
and allows you to look at your image in
the viewfinder and now if we lift it
that is your show please for the love of
God don't try that at home now there is
a difference in how you use shutter
speed when it comes to video and photos
when it comes to video we have to be
very particular and how we use it
because there is a high range and a low
range which creates two completely
different effects let me show you now
here I'm using a really high show speed
so I'm getting this weird effect that's
called the staccato effect there's not
much motion blur as you can see so
you're getting this weird look this very
interesting detail look where as here
I'm using the lower end of the shutter
speed setting at 30 so now you get a
bunch of motion blur and with this
comparison you can see that they do two
different things and that's is what
shutter speed does for you now that
should be completed your crash course in
shutter speed let's go and talk about
the 180 degree roll and why you need to
know it for low-light situation shooting
so you've seen both ends of the spectrum
you know what it looks like when
shooting with a high shutter speed and a
low shutter speed there has to be some
balance some type of sweet spot that's
exactly what the hundred and eighty
degrees shutter rule gives you it's the
mathematical formula that allows your
camera to shoot similar to what the
human eye sees the name itself is kind
of old-school it's named out with a
hundred and eighty degrees situation you
had with film cameras so don't worry
about that and yes you did here be right
if there is a mathematical formula to it
but luckily it's not complicated so how
do you get it well you refer to your
frames per second what FPS are you
shooting it take your FPS times it by
two and that equals the shutter speed
you need to use for instance right now
I'm shooting at a 24 fps what I would do
with that is times it by two then adjust
the shutter speed to that number or the
closest number to it and yeah depending
on what FPS you're shooting and you're
not always going to get the exact number
so when you're shooting at night it's
super important to understand this rule
so if you're gonna break the roll
purpose just make sure you lower your
shutter speed and the last thing to talk
about is that digital setting I refer to
which is your ISO if I remember
correctly it stands for the
international standards organization
it's named after the organization that
defined the standard for light
sensitivity for what it's worth when it
comes to ISO you want to make sure you
use it as your last line of defense the
reason being is when you use it you
actually are paying a price and that is
grain or digital noise think about it
like this you have mechanisms in your
camera in your lens that help you obtain
light your aperture in your show speed
which we already learned your ISO is a
digital process that tries to make up
something that's not there and there in
fact it doesn't always do the greatest
job of course higher end cameras do a
better job because they have better
sensors to boost up the ISO however at
the end of the day if you use too much
ISO you will absolutely tell and get a
grainy shot like this just think of it
as a digital brightness mechanism it's
fake it's not organic like your aperture
in your shutter speed now I'm not trying
to completely knock it it can save you
in certain situations yes it can also
destroy your footage but if you master
aperture and shutter speed settings you
probably don't need a reliant into much
take for instance the intro that you saw
in this video I did not go above 400 ISO
so just do your best to pay attention to
your aperture settings and your shutter
speed settings first before relying on
ISO dealing with low-light environments
from a cinematography perspective as
long as you're able to capture an image
that your audience is able to decipher
and understand what's going on you've
done a good job look at some of your
favorite movies like The Dark Knight
Rises or alien these scenes have very
low light and are pretty dark yet you
can clearly understand what's happening
this is a great example of less is more
Plus this type of look creates some sort
of suspense and forces the audience to
question what's happening within the
frame and it's because there isn't much
shown and the last thing to understand
when it comes to your camera settings is
manually focus most cameras have trouble
focusing at night normally what happens
is you focus on one thing and it
continues to try to jump because it's
trying to find the nearest light source
so keep that in mind and those are the
key elements that you need to know when
it comes to low-light shooting choose
that right lens understand the aperture
and match it appropriately with the
shutter speed using the hundred and
eighty degree roll one applicable which
is pretty much like all the time just
saying now most videos you're gonna find
on YouTube we're gonna tell you just to
try to find light or use light they do
get in
some of the ISO and aperture I totally
went a lot more in detail with it but I
think it serves a good point however if
you do have light sources available use
them effectively like silhouettes use
cool backlighting take storefront
lighting and use it to reflect yourself
these are other things you can totally
do as well now to top it all off let me
quickly talk about that low-light hack
you can use in post now as this is a
simple one there is some science behind
it some people will love the artsy look
of it some people won't even find it
helpful at all if you have greeny
looking footage and you use your ISO too
much what you can actually do is set
your footage to black and white
let me explain when you grayscale
footage and you make it black and white
it actually removes chroma noise in
which noise is more detectable from a
color spectrum if you lower that color
spectrum to only two to three colors
black gray and white you get less noise
like this there are tons of other things
you can do in post and if you do want to
learn more about those particular things
let me know in the comments below
and if I do get enough requests for it
I'll totally make a video on how to
salvage bad low-light shot footage in
post and that's it guys now that you
have this information go out and shoot
something at night make it amazing and
let me know when you do in the comments
I would love to see it and if you found
this video valuable smash that like
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because I don't know when I'm gonna blow
next and I will see you on the next one
go have fun and shoot something in that
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