Low light photography 

is not necessarily just night photography, as many people assume. There could be different

amounts of light coming from various sources and whatever is less than daytime light outside, I consider low-light.

Indoors photography without much ambient light (as in many of our homes) as well as the light that is barely visible

to our eyes at night, is also considered to be low-light. In this article, I will provide tips on how to take pictures in

various low-light environments, whether indoors or outdoors.

Antelope Canyon, 5 second exposure @ f/10, ISO 200

Before we go any further, let’s first identify the varying levels of low-light and categorize them, so that we could

refer to them in examples. Although it is very hard to categorize the amount of light, due to the fact that it is a long

range of light between very bright and pitch black, just for the sake of making it easier to explain and refer to, I still

decided to divide it into three categories:

1. Visible: in daylight, when you happen to be in shadow areas behind buildings, under large trees or bridges.

2. Low Light: after sunset, when you can still clearly see everything around you, but you can tell that it is

getting dark or when you are indoors.

3. Dark: at night, when you can only see the brightest objects.

I’m sure you have come across all of the above situations at some point of time with your camera and perhaps even

found it challenging and frustrating to take pictures in those conditions. Let’s go through the above one at a time

and see what you can do to take good pictures in all low light conditions.

Have you had a situation where you were in a shadow during the day and tried to take a picture? This was one of my

frustrations when I bought my first DSLR, because I couldn’t understand why my pictures were coming out blurry. At

times, the images on the rear LCD of the camera would look OK, but when I eventually viewed them on the
computer screen, they would all be a little blurry. I had no idea why it was happening and really needed to find out

why.

As I later found out, apparently, our eyes can see a much broader range of light, which is known as “dynamic range”

in photography, than our cameras do. Therefore, even though you might think that there is plenty of light when you

are in a shadow area, in fact, there might be inadequate light for the camera to effectively capture the image.

Depending on your camera settings, there might be two consequences: a) you will have a blurry image and b) you

might have a lot of noise in your image.

Daytime low-light, 1/125th @ f/8, ISO 800

So, why do blurry images happen? The answer is in the camera shutter speed. If the shutter speed is too low, you will

get camera shake and/or motion blur from moving subjects. To avoid camera shake, you should always try to shoot

at faster shutter speeds. You might ask “what is a fast shutter speed?”. It depends on the focal length of your lens. If

you are photographing a subject with a wide-angle lens between 10-24mm, you might get away with shutter speeds

under 1/50th of a second, depending on your camera hand-holding technique. If you are using a telephoto lens longer

than 100mm, I recommend applying the hand-holding rule to calculate your optimal shutter speed. For most day-to-

day photography, a shutter speed of 1/200th-1/250th of a second should be fast enough to yield sharp results and

avoid motion blur.

But to shoot at fast shutter speeds such as 1/200th of a second means that you need to have plenty of light. In our

situation, we don’t have enough light, so what do we do? The first thing you will need to try to do is decrease

your lens aperture to the lowest number on the camera. Decreasing your aperture means more light will pass

through the lens into the camera body, which will allow you to shoot at faster shutter speeds. In order to do that,
you would have to either switch to “Aperture Priority” mode or manually override your aperture in whatever mode

you are using. Then, start lowering your aperture till you get to the lowest number your camera will allow.

The lowest number depends on the speed of your lens. Most consumer zoom lenses are limited to f/3.5 for maximum

aperture, while professional zoom lenses have an aperture of f/2.8 and some prime (fixed) lenses can go all the way

to f/1.2. How will decreasing aperture affect your shutter speed? Let’s say you were shooting at f/8.0 aperture and

1/125th shutter speed. Decreasing aperture to f/5.6 will double your shutter speed to 1/250th of a second, while

lowering it to f/4.0 will quadruple the shutter speed to 1/500th of a second, which is plenty to freeze motion. If you

have a fast lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 or f/1.8, just keep in mind that decreasing the aperture to the

lowest number will also decrease the depth of field, so you will have to make sure to acquire correct focus before

you take a picture. If you shoot Nikon, I recommend getting one of the following prime lenses, depending on your

budget: Nikon 50mm f/1.4G, Nikon 50mm f/1.8Dand Nikon 35mm f/1.8G (DX only). There is a similar selection for

Canon Canon cameras: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM.

Fast prime lens - Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S

Does your lens have VR (Vibration Reduction) or IS (Image Stabilization)? If no, that’s too bad, because VR/IS truly

does work! The latest “VR II” technology by Nikon can allow you to shoot up to 4 times slower when it comes to

shutter speed without adding any blur to the picture (realistically, it’s more like 3 times) compared to non-VR lenses.
So, let’s say that with a regular lens you need 1/250th of a second to get a sharp picture. With a VR/IS system, you

could lower the shutter speed all the way to 1/30th of a second or more and still get the same sharp image! Many of

the consumer zoom lenses such as Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR and Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II come with VR

technology. While it is certainly nice to have VR in such versatile lenses, unfortunately, these lenses are also slower

and not as sharp as prime lenses such as the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G. Zoom lenses with a fixed aperture and VR/IS

technology are professional, expensive lenses such as the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II (read my Nikon 70-200mm VR

II review) pictured below and are also great choices for low-light photography.

Fast lens with VR II - Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

What if you have already decreased your aperture to the lowest number and you are still getting slow shutter

speeds? The answer then is to increase the camera ISO (sensor sensitivity), to make the sensor collect light faster. If

you are shooting at ISO 100 and your camera is telling you that the shutter speed is 1/25th of a second, you will need

to increase your ISO to 400 to get the shutter speed of 1/100th of a second. How did I calculate that? Basically,

doubling your ISO doubles your shutter speed. So, increasing the camera ISO from 100 to 200, increases your shutter

speed from 1/25th of a second to 1/50th of a second. Then, increasing it further more from 200 to 400 increases the

shutter speed from 1/50th of a second to 1/100th of a second. Technically, the shutter speeds in the cameras a little

different (1/30th, 1/60th and 1/125th of a second), but I used the above numbers to make it easier to understand. The

main thing to remember, is that doubling ISO doubles your shutter speed.

 Standing in the shadows, 1/25th @ f/8, ISO 1600

Be careful with increasing your ISO to a big number, as higher sensor sensitivity means that more grain/noise will

appear in your images. Most modern cameras can handle noise levels up to ISO 800 pretty well, while top-of-the-line

full frame professional cameras can produce very little noise even at ISO 3200 and above.

Let’s now move on to a more complex situation, where the amount of light is quickly diminishing after sunset or you

are shooting indoors in a poorly lit environment. Obviously, the first thing to try is to decrease your aperture and

increase your ISO, as it says above. But then you get to the point where you are maxed out on the aperture and have

already reached ISO 800 and you are still not able to get sharp photos. What do you do then?
 Sunset, 1/10th @ f/4.8, ISO 200

The closer you are to the light source, the more light there will be for your camera to use. Large windows are great

sources of light, so open up those curtains and blinds and let the light get into the room. I forgot to bring the flashes

when we were photographing the below group, so we quickly found a solution by opening up a large gate and

letting lots of exterior light in.

Rocky Mountain Roller Girls in ambient light (no flash)

That’s right – learn to stabilize yourself and hold your camera better. Use your left hand to support the camera by

putting it with your palm facing up in between the camera lens and the camera body (or wherever the center of the

weight is). Pull your elbows towards your body. If you can, sit down with your right knee on the ground and use your

left leg as support by resting your left arm on it. Gently squeeze the shutter button and see if you can get a sharp

image. Practice this and other techniques and you will be able to shoot at very low shutter speeds without

introducing camera shake.

What is better, a blurry image or a sharp image with more noise? I prefer the latter. Push your ISO to a higher number

and take a shot. See if the level of noise is acceptable to you. There are plenty of noise-removal programs out there

such as Noise Ninja that can help you clean up an image. Try them out and see if the final result after post-processing

is good enough for your needs. Although I personally try to stay below ISO 800, sometimes I push mine to ISO 1600

or even 3200, when needed. On my full-frame Nikon D700 body, I can push up ISO to 6400 every once in a while.

I personally always shoot in RAW, because I can recover some detail from a picture if I overexpose or underexpose it.

With a JPEG image, you have very limited options to recover an image. In some cases, I intentionally underexpose an

image by using the exposure compensation button, which increases camera shutter speed. I typically allow 1-1.5

stops of negative exposure compensation…anything above that might not allow me to recover the details I need.

Try it – it really works! Some photographers give advice to bracket exposures, but I personally prefer to use exposure

compensation instead.

Sunset Gazebo, captured in RAW

In low-light environments, the camera might start to lose its autofocus capabilities. That’s what happens when there

is not enough light – the camera cannot differentiate between objects anymore, just like if you were to point it at a
plain white wall. Many DSLR cameras are equipped with an “AF assist” light in front of the camera that lights up just

like a flashlight when there is not enough light to illuminate the subject. If you have such functionality, definitely turn

it on in dim environments. On Nikon DSLRs, switch your camera from continuous mode (“C”) to single (“S”) mode to

turn on this feature. When you focus on a subject, make sure that it looks sharp in the viewfinder. If it is blurry, try to

re-acquire focus by half-pressing the shutter/autofocus button. In many cases you won’t be able to tell if the camera

was able to focus correctly on the subject until you take the picture. In that case, make sure to zoom in and check for

sharpness of the image on the rear LCD of the camera.

A full frame sensor is expensive, but very helpful in low-light situations. The Nikon D700 (FX/Full Frame) has

approximately the same amount of noise at ISO 3200 as the Nikon D300 (DX/Cropped sensor) at ISO 800. It truly

does make a huge difference in low-light environments. During my last trip to Vegas, I shot many of the images at

night hand-held with the D700. If I had a DX sensor, I would have needed a tripod to get similar images, because I

was already pushing the low-light capability of the D700 at that point.

Fireworks, captured on a tripod

And last, but not least, try using a monopod or a tripod that will really help with keeping your gear still. A monopod is

helpful in some situations, but I personally prefer using a tripod for most of my low-light photography. With a tripod,

you could set your ISO to the lowest number to decrease the amount of noise and shoot at very slow shutter speeds.

Obviously, slow shutter speeds mean that you would get a lot of motion blur in your images, but in some cases it is

not a problem and sometimes it even looks cool! Make sure to use a sturdy tripod, not one of those cheap plastic

ones.

In poorly lit environments and at night, many of the above tips are useless, because you have no light to work with.

Hand-held photography is simply impossible at night (unless you want to create a really bad-looking effect of motion

blur). A good, sturdy tripod is a must for night photography, because you deal with very slow shutter speeds and

every vibration matters. It is best to use a remote control or a cable release system with your camera in those

situations, but if you do not have one, try using your camera timer. It is not as good of a solution as remote control,

because you still have to press the shutter button, which temporarily vibrates the setup. Just use a longer time

period for your timer and you should be good to go.

If your subject is too dark, use a flash light to add some light to it. Light painting is pretty cool and you can get some

really nice shots by painting with the light, especially if you use different colors.

Light Painting, 30 seconds exposure, f/6.3, ISO 200

When it is too dark, autofocus will not function. If your subject is close, try to use your “AF Assist” light in the camera

to get good focus. If your subject is further away, try using a flashlight to illuminate your subject and allow your

camera to focus. If your subject is far away or you do not have a flashlight, you will need to manually focus on your

subject. Most of the time, setting your lens to “infinity” focus works great, but in some cases you will have to try to
take a picture, then adjust the focus as needed. Once you acquire focus, make sure to turn off autofocus so that the

camera does not attempt to focus again. Obviously, do not move your tripod after focus is acquired.

If you do not know what reciprocity means, I highly recommend reading this article about it.

I don’t have to say much here – just practice as much as you can and you will get better in no time!

Low-light photography is a lot of fun and you should definitely play and experiment with your camera in different

lighting conditions. If you learn how to take pictures in low light, you will have an opportunity to take some amazing

pictures that have a different feel to them compared to everyday pictures in daylight :)

TIP:

When there is only a small light source and a lot of darkness, your camera will register for "a lot of
darkness" (actually it will "think": "Hey, it is waaaay too dark out here for me to take a decent
photo"). With auto focus settings this will lead to the fact that your auto focus can NO longer focus.
There is way too little for it to see. Then it's time to quickly switch to manual focus and focus on the
available light sources. Exposure will need to become a bit of a guess, I assume, since your camera
will always keep thinking "it is too dark for me here". Assuming that you work with a tripod, you can
test large apertures and comparatively short shutter speeds (which will still be a lot longer than those
you get during daylight, of course), or - which will give you better defined light - a smaller aperture
and even longer shutter speeds of up to 20 or even 30 seconds. You then best even set the camera on
timer (if - like me - you don't have a remote control) and have it take the pic all by itself without you
touching it, and letting it expose for those 30 seconds (which turns into a long time, you'll wait and
see - my daughter swims the length of the Olympic sized pool in that time). After that it will turn into
a bit of a game, which makes it extra pleasing, more so when you get a good result and begin to see
more in the photo than you were able to see with your own eyes.  But it means, of course, that you
go ALL manual, since the automatics inside the camera will forever only register "darkness-darkness-
darkness"!
 HOW TO TAKE SHARP PICTURES

One of the things that makes photography frustrating, is softness and blur in pictures. Sharp photos are much more

appealing than soft images. It is very disappointing when you take a picture at a special moment and images come

out soft/blurry or out of focus. In this article, I will go through the techniques that I use to make sure that my images

always come out tack sharp.

Let’s start with the reasons why an image might come out blurry:
1. Slow shutter speed could cause camera shake, which would produce a blurry image

2. Poor focus acquisition would result in a soft image

3. Your subject could be moving and causing a motion blur

4. You might have a bad lens or a lens that is not capable of producing sharp photos
5. Your ISO could be set to a very high number, resulting in lots of noise and loss of detail

Sharp Photo

In order to resolve these issues, you need to address them all at the same time, which will help achieve optimal

sharpness.
1. Start with setting your camera to the lowest ISO “base” value (in my Nikon camera it is ISO 200).

Remember that the camera base ISO will produce the highest quality images with maximum sharpness. The
 higher the ISO (sensor sensitivity), the more noise you will see in the image. I suggest reading my article

on understanding ISO.
2. If you have an “Auto-ISO” feature in your camera, set it to “On” with the following settings: ISO sensitivity

auto control: “On”, Maximum sensitivity: 1600, Minimum shutter speed: 1/100. What this does, it basically tells the

camera to automatically change the sensitivity of the sensor based on light availability. If the amount of light

entering the lens decreases and the shutter speed goes below 1/100 of a second, the camera automatically

increases ISO to keep the shutter speed above 1/100 of a second. If you have shaky hands, I would recommend

bumping up the “Minimum shutter speed” to something like 1/200-1/250 (I will go through proper camera hand-

holding techniques so that you could shoot at even lower shutter speeds in a separate article). If you do not have

Auto-ISO, then you would have to adjust it manually in low-light between the lowest value and ISO 1600. Why ISO

1600 is the maximum I recommend? Because anything higher than that in an entry-level DSLRs produces too

much noise, which has a negative impact on overall image quality. On older-generation DSLRs such as Nikon

D40/D80/D200, you might want to keep the maximum ISO to 800.

3. Hand-holding rule: If you have a zoom lens that goes beyond 100mm, I would recommend applying the

general hand-holding “rule”, which states that the shutter speed should be equivalent to the distance in mm of

the lens. For example, if you have your lens zoomed at 150mm, your shutter should be at least 1/150 of a second.

Keep in mind that this rule applied to old 35mm film cameras, so if you own an entry-level DSLR with a crop factor

(not full frame), you need to do the math accordingly. For Nikon cameras with a 1.5x crop factor, just multiply the

result by 1.5, whereas for Canon cameras, multiply by 1.6. If you have a zoom lens such as the 18-55mm (for Nikon

DX sensors), set the “Minimum Shutter Speed” to the longest focal range of the lens (135mm), which is 1/200 of a

second. Here are some examples:

o 50mm on Nikon DX (D3000/D5000/D90): 1/75 (50mm x 1.5)

o 100mm on Nikon DX (D3000/D5000/D90): 1/150 (100mm x 1.5)

o 150mm on Nikon DX (D3000/D5000/D90): 1/225 (150mm x 1.5)

o 200mm on Nikon DX (D3000/D5000/D90): 1/300 (200mm x 1.5)

o 300mm on Nikon DX (D3000/D5000/D90): 1/450 (300mm x 1.5)

 Flower
4. 99% of the time, I shoot in Aperture-Priority mode and set aperture to the lowest value when I shoot in low

light. In aperture-priority mode, you tell the camera what the lens aperture should be (the “f” number, for

example f/3.5), while the camera automatically meters and guesses what the shutter speedshould be to properly

expose the image. So, set your camera to aperture-priority mode and lower the aperture to the lowest possible

number.
5. Set your metering to “Matrix” on Nikon or “Evaluative” on Canon, so that the whole scene is assessed to

estimate the correct shutter speed.

6. After you set the right metering mode and your lens to aperture priority, point it to the subject that you

want to photograph and half-press the shutter. Doing so should show you the shutter speed on the bottom of

the viewfinder. If the shutter speed is showing 1/100 or more, you should be good to go. Snap an image or two

and see if you are getting any blur in your image. I typically review my images on the back of the camera at 100%

and make sure that nothing is blurry. If the shutter speed is below 1/100, it means that you simply do not have
 enough light. If you are indoors, opening up windows to let some light in or turning the lights on will help to

increase your shutter speed.

7. If you are still getting blurry images, try to hold the camera steady without shaking it too much and take

another picture. If it doesn’t help, try increasing the “Minimum Shutter Speed” value to a higher number in your

“Auto-ISO” settings. For those without the “Auto-ISO” feature – try to bump up your ISO all the way to ISO 800

or even 1600 and see if you can get faster shutter speeds.

8. While hand-holding your camera, there is a direct correlation between the camera shutter speed and blurry

images. The lower the shutter speed (below 1/250 of a second), the blurrier the images. Why? Because while

hand-holding a camera, factors such as your stance, breathing, camera hand-holding technique all play a huge

role in stabilizing the camera and producing shake-free images. Think of it as holding a rifle on your hand. You

wouldn’t want to move around while trying to shoot – you need to stand as steady and stable as possible, pull the

stock tightly into the shoulder, exhale and then shoot. The same technique works great for your photography,

especially when you have to deal with slow shutter speeds. As I said above, I will post another “how-to” on

proper camera hand-holding techniques, but for now, I recommend holding the camera just like you would hold a

rifle (except your right hand goes on the shutter instead of the trigger), with one of your legs on the front and

your body balance spread across both legs. I personally exhale when I shoot very slow shutter speeds and it does

help me to get sharper images, so try it and see how it works for you. The difference between shooting a camera

versus a rifle, is that you can at least adjust the shutter speed to a higher number and avoid camera shake,

whereas you cannot do the same on a gun.

9. Learn how to focus correctly and deal with focusing issues. This one is very important, as your camera focus

directly impacts image sharpness. The first thing you need to learn is how to differentiate between a camera

shake/motion blur and a focus problem. When a subject in your image is soft or out of focus, while something

else in the foreground or background is perfectly in focus and sharp, it is a focus issue. If the whole image is blurry

and nothing is sharp, it is most likely a slow shutter speed or improper camera holding technique that is the issue.

If you are having problems acquiring a good focus, here are some things that I recommend for you:
o Lack of light can cause auto-focus malfunction, resulting in inaccurate focus acquisition by the

camera. Make sure there is plenty of light for your camera to properly focus.
o The center focus point is generally the most accurate in cameras. If you are having problems

acquiring focus because your focus point is elsewhere, I recommend moving it back to the center. Many

cameras allow having a separate button for focusing, without touching the shutter. I set my camera this way,

focusing exclusively with my thumb, while pushing the shutter trigger with my index finger. This way, I can use

the center focus point (which almost never has any issues with acquiring correct focus), acquire correct focus,

then recompose without moving my body and then shoot. If you have such a feature in your camera, I
 recommend enabling it in low-light situations. In all other cases, leaving the shutter to both focus and shoot is

the best option for convenience reasons.

o The camera auto-focus system works by looking at the contrast around the focus area. For

example, if you try to focus your camera on a clean white wall, it will never be able to acquire focus, because

the camera will not see any areas of contrast. On the other hand, if you have a white wall with a dark object

on it and you put your focus point in between the wall and the object, your camera will instantly acquire

correct focus. My recommendation is to place the rectangular focus area to an area with the most contrast.

Examples are: edges of objects, lines separating different colors, numbers and letters printed on objects, etc.
o Focus multiple times until you can clearly see in the viewfinder that the object is in focus. For this

one, you need to have a good viewfinder and a good vision. Some entry-level DSLRs have a very small

viewfinder, making it hard or sometimes even impossible to see if you are getting correct focus.

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do if you cannot tell if the subject is in focus by looking into the

viewfinder, so just take multiple pictures while constantly re-adjusting the focus and review images on the

camera LCD.
10. Make your subject freeze. If you are photographing a person, have them freeze and not move while you

take their picture. When you work with slow shutter speeds, even if you do everything right, your images might

still come out blurry just because your subject moved while the shutter was open. This is calledmotion blur.

Sometimes people like the effect of the motion blur, especially for high-speed objects like cars. To reproduce this

effect on your camera, set your camera to Shutter-Priority mode, then set your shutter to 1/100 of a second or

less. Ask your subject to move his/her hand quickly, while not moving the body. The result should be a sharp

picture of the person’s body, while having a motion blur on his/her hand.
 An example of motion blur

As you can see from the above image, everything in the image is sharp, while the fan is blurred through motion blur,

that I specifically created by shooting the image in low shutter speed of 1/20 of a second (the image was shot hand-

held).

Here is another example of motion blur that I shot at night on a tripod (shutter speed is 2 seconds):
 Another example of motion blur

11. Make sure that your vibration reduction (VR on Nikon) or image stabilization (IS on Canon) is set to “On” on

your lens, if you have it. Many of the consumer zoom lenses have some sort of anti-shake/vibration reduction

technology in them, allowing one to shoot at lower shutter speeds and still get sharp images. If you have one of

those lenses, go ahead and try lowering your shutter speed to a lower value. You can even lower down the

“minimum shutter speed” in your Auto ISO settings to something like 1/50 of a second and still get sharp images.
12. Get a good fast prime lens such as the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX or 50mm f/1.4 / f/1.8 lenses. These prime lenses

are relatively inexpensive, ranging between $100 to $400 for the f/1.4 model. Very few zoom lenses can achieve

the same optical quality as the prime lenses, because prime lenses have simpler design and are optimized to

perform for only one focal range. Although you lose the ability to zoom in and out, prime lenses are much faster

than most zoom lenses and are excellent choices for low-light and portrait photography. Because of the

shallow depth of field, they are also capable of producing pictures with beautiful bokeh (nicely blurred
 backgrounds). When I got my hands on my first prime lens, I just could not believe how much of a difference it

made in terms of sharpness. If you have never used a prime lens before, give it a try and you will not regret it.
13. When photographing people or animals, always focus on the closest eye to you. This is very important,

especially when dealing with large apertures between f/1.4 and f/2.8. As long as the eye of the subject is sharp,

the image will most likely be acceptable. Take a look at this photograph of my son Osman:

Bad focus example

Normally, I delete images like this, but I’m glad I kept it for this article. As you can see from the above image, I

failed to acquire correct focus on Osman’s eye and somehow focused on his hair instead.

Now, compare it to this image:

 Good focus example

Such a big difference between the two. The second image looks much sharper, although I was using the same

camera settings.
14. Aperture also plays a big role in achieving optimal sharpness. For landscape photography, I mostly use

apertures between f/8 and f/10, while for portraits, I use apertures of f/1.4 to f/8, depending on what I want to do

with the background. Most lenses are sharpest between f/5.6 and f/8, so if you are shooting during a bright sunny

day, try increasing your aperture to a number between f/4 and f/8 and see if it makes a difference. Just keep in

mind that playing with aperture changes the depth of field and will have an impact on the lens bokeh.

15. Clean your lenses! An amateur photographer approached me once and asked for advice on what he could

do to bring more contrast and sharpness to his images. When I saw the front element of his lens, I immediately

made a suggestion to clean his lens. It was so dirty that I couldn’t believe he was still able to take pictures. A dirty

and a greasy front element of the lens is a guarantee to inaccurate camera focusing and poor image contrast. I

will soon post a quick “how-to” for lens cleaning, but for now just go to a local camera store and ask for a good
 lens cleaning solution along with microfiber cloth. Put a drop or two of the solution on the microfiber cloth and

gently wipe the front of the lens element starting from the center of the lens to the edges, in clockwise

movements. Do it multiple times until the front element looks very clean.
16. Get a tripod for low-light situations. For shooting lightning storms, fireworks, city lights and other cool stuff

at night, a sturdy tripod is a must! Don’t buy a cheap tripod designed for point and shoot cameras, but rather

invest in a heavy duty, sturdy tripod that can handle your DSLR. Having a self-timer mode or a cable/wireless

shutter release is also very helpful, to minimize camera shake. The below image would not be possible to capture

without a tripod:

Waterfall, shot with a tripod

17. Shoot in bursts. Set your camera to AF-C (Auto Focus in Continuous Mode), then photograph your subject in

bursts by just holding the shutter button. Shooting moving subjects continuously (especially children) helps

improve the odds that you’ll get a shot that is spot-on. Firing off 3 or 5 shot bursts can also help freeze the motion

of your subject, especially when with a bit of panning. Sometimes you’ll get just enough of the face (of say a
happily-running kid) in focus then everything else gets blurred because of the motion, leaving you with a nice

isolation that highlights the emotion of that moment. This valuable tip was provided by our reader Eric.