Here are some tips for filming in low light, when you don’t have a camera that can see
in the dark.
Let’s start simple. Using a wide aperture will let in as much light as possible - the
smaller the number, the brighter the image. The other big one is ISO, which is like putting
your camera on steroids: sure, you might get better results, but it can go horribly wrong.
ISO digitally brightens the image, but it’s usually considered a last resort because the
higher the ISO is, the more grainy the image will be.
So we just need to buy a camera that is better at shooting in low light, right? Well, not
necessarily. Shooting at a high ISO means that the camera
is super sensitive to any kind of small bit of light.
Here shooting at ISO 6400 we have a decent exposure on our subject, but that lamp in
the background is now super bright. These christmas lights look very strange,
when we crank up the ISO, and here this bright window is pretty distracting.
The point is that with high ISOs, any little bit of light in our scene is gonna get amplified.
Instead, if we drop the ISO back down, then the overall image will be too dark, but if
we then set up our own lights to compensate for that, then suddenly our background lights
are looking a lot more natural. Here are some more comparisons between using
the ISO to brighten the image compared to using actual lights to brighten the image.
I used to think that I needed expensive fast aperture lenses because they’re better at
shooting in low light, which is true, but what people often forget to mention is that
it’s actually cheaper to just buy a couple of cheap lights instead of paying way more
for lenses that let in slightly more light. Getting yourself a couple of cheap fluorescent
lights can mean that you rarely go over ISO 400.
Plus, it gives you infinite possibilities for controlling the light to get loads of
different looks.
One example of that is if we want to shoot a scene that takes place at night.
It’s tempting to try the typical style of lighting (from the front) but for a night
scene, I think this looks pretty unnatural. It's clear that we've set up some lights.
I watched a few films with night scenes in them, and I started to see a few trends.
They often use a lot of backlight, so you can see what’s going on, but there’s still
plenty of darkness. So JP our cinematographer placed our brightest
light behind the characters. The other trend I saw from hollywood night
scenes was to use plenty of light on the background, so we made that a priority, hiding lights
behind cars so we could see those buildings. Here’s the full lighting diagram, feel free
to hit pause if you’re interested in the extra details.
Okay, but what if there isn’t enough time to set up lights, or if we're not allowed
to set up lights at the location, for whatever reason.
Well I think if we're struggling with shooting in low light and we can't set up lights, the
first thing that I think should go through our mind is: ‘Do we really need to shoot
this scene right here, in the dark?’ Maybe there’s a different room we can move
to where there's naturally brighter lights. Maybe we can interview this person closer
to a window instead of in the dark corner.. Maybe we can move the whole shoot outdoors
and film in sunlight.. Even when you can’t completely change location,
every room and every building will have a premium spot where there's the most light-
you just might need to find it. So in summary, we can use a higher ISO when it’s
too dark, but there are many dodgy side effects. Why not just add our own light instead, or
move somewhere with better natural light. I definitely used to have the attitude of
blaming my camera for not being good enough at shooting in low light, when to be honest
I was just too lazy to set up lights, too lazy to find a better location.
And I think that’s the difference: are we passively accepting the problem, or are we
actively looking for a solution. Filmmakers never have enough time, never have
enough money, and rarely have enough light - so we might as well start learning to work
with what we already have. My name’s Simon Cade, this has been DSLRguide
and I’ll see you next week.