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Photography tips: How to take great photos of people at night and low-light

By Alvin Soon - 23 Dec 2017

When to use flash and how to make flash look better

5. When to use flash, and how to make flash look better

How do you know when to use flash, and when not to use flash? Here’s a simple rule-of-thumb to remember: There’s a difference between low-light and no light.

Most of the photos you see here were shot by finding the light, then facing the light. Even at night, there’s still some light to be found, especially in the city and indoors.

But sometimes, like this shot above, there’s just no light around. That’s when you have to bring your own light, i.e. use flash.

The shot below is what I got after I popped the flash. But here we see the reason why people don’t like to use flash: It casts a harsh light, and makes the background disappear.

Here’s where the ability to control advanced camera settings with a DSLR camera can help us take better photos with flash.

1. Increase ISO and shutter speed to bring the background back

In the shot above, my subject is lit by the flash, but the background is completely black.

That’s because the shutter speed is too fast at 1/60th of a second, and the ISO too low at ISO 400 to capture enough light to show the background.

So, how do you use flash, and have the background show up as well? One way is to increase your ISO and lengthen your shutter speed. Here’s what happened when I increased my ISO speed to ISO 1600, lengthened the shutter speed to 1/40th of a second, and shot with flash.

Here’s how to set your camera to do the same:

  1. Switch to Program (P) mode
  2. Increase your ISO setting, from ISO 1600 to ISO 3200
  3. Shoot and see! If the background is bright enough, you’re good

If the background still looks dark after increasing your ISO, then you’ll need to try lengthening your shutter speed:

  1. Switch to Shutter-priority (Tv) mode
  2. Your previous ISO settings should carry over
  3. Lengthen your shutter speed — try from 1/80th to 1/30th of a second
  4. If the background is too dark, lengthen your shutter speed more
  5. If your image is too blurry (from camera shake), make your shutter speed faster

Because your camera is set to Shutter-priority (Tv) mode, it will adjust the intensity of the flash accordingly to whichever settings you use, so your subject should always be well-lit.

Tip: When you start playing with slow shutter speeds, you have to remember to hold your camera steady, and ask your friends to hold still as you take the photo.

2. Use an external flash

Now, if you don’t like the look of direct flash, you can think of investing in a hot-shoe flash, which is a flash that attaches to your camera’s hot-shoe. Canon calls theirs Speedlites. You can change the direction of the flash using Speedlites, and by bouncing the light off a surface like the ceiling, you get diffused light that’s softer and not as harsh.

This photo below was taken with a Canon Speedlite 320EX. Because there wasn’t a ceiling to bounce the flash off, I had to aim it directly at my friend, which meant it didn’t look that much different from the on-board flash.

This photo below was taken with the same Speedlite, now pointed upwards, and a third-party reflector attached (a large Rogue FlashBender 2) to bounce the flash forward. The flash looks more pleasant, with softer gradients from bright to dark.

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