> 4 minute read

Making Handheld Photos in Low Light

Tripods are great for avoiding camera shake, but they can rob you of your spontaneity. Here are a few ways to keep making images handheld when light levels get low.

In low-light conditions, when shutter speeds get long, supporting your camera on a tripod is often the only way of guaranteeing maximum image quality. This is because any accidental movement of the camera while the shutter is open will give rise to blur from camera shake, which can be intensely disappointing.

Usually photographers use a tripod to support their cameras in the dark, although there are other options, like monopods, beanbags, and clamps. But it’s not always convenient to work in this way: it takes time to set up a tripod, which makes this a poor strategy for spontaneous photography. Plus, a tripod won’t stop moving subjects from blurring, it only eliminates blur from camera movements.

The alternative is to continue to make images handheld, using clever tricks to avoid blur from camera shake. Let’s look at a few strategies, and when they will be most useful.

Using Large Apertures

One way of shortening shutter speeds to make the camera handholdable is to use a larger aperture to let in more light. Chances are, if you’re already struggling to achieve a decent working shutter speed, you’ll already be at the maximum aperture limit of your lens, but you could consider a prime lens with a much wider aperture that’s designed for low-light conditions.

For example, the FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R and XF56mmF1.2 R prime lenses let in roughly two to three times as much light as the XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS, used at equivalent focal lengths. That’s enough to take a shaky 1/15 sec shutter speed to a handholdable 1/125 sec, which will also freeze moderate subject movement.

Depth-of-field is much shallower at such apertures, so you’ll need to be accurate with your focusing. But wide apertures (also called fast apertures, because they enable you use fast shutter speeds) are a great way to photograph handheld in low light.

Raising ISO Sensitivity

Also linked to shutter speed is ISO sensitivity. Raise this from your camera’s base ISO 200 or ISO 160 setting and you’ll be able to transform long shutter speeds that need a tripod into faster ones that don’t. For example, if you’re photographing a street scene at night, and are faced with an exposure of 1/15 sec at F4, ISO 200, increasing to ISO 800 will change the shutter speed to 1/60 sec, which you should be able to handhold without camera shake.

Boosting shutter speeds in this way doesn’t come for free, however. As ISO is increased, so is the level of digital noise in the picture: speckled artifacts that look a bit like grain in analogue film. This is not always a problem (and can actually lend pictures some gritty atmosphere) but bear in mind that at really high ISO settings, you may be compromising more on image quality than you might like.

Image Stabilisation

Raising shutter speed is not the only way to create images handheld in low light. If your lens has Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) or your camera has In-Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS), then you’ll be able to hold your camera steady at much longer shutter speeds than normal.

These systems use sensitive gyroscopes to detect any accidental camera movement. In the case of OIS, a lens element is then moved to compensate for the movement. For IBIS, the camera’s sensor is moved.

OIS and IBIS work very well, and can even work together for even more robust protection against camera shake. You can expect to be able to handhold shutter speeds up to six and a half stops longer than normal when using them. However, remember that while image stabilisation can offset camera shake, it won’t affect motion blur caused by subject movement.

A Combination…

Each of the three methods we’ve talked about here has its advantages and disadvantages. In the real world, the best strategy of all is to use them together. Select a wide aperture, but not so wide that it restricts depth-of-field too much. Choose a high ISO, but not so high that it compromises image quality. And switch on image stabilisation to gain yourself even more stability.

You can also make a big difference by thinking about how you hold your camera: make sure your left hand is cradling the bottom of the camera, your elbows are tucked in and your feet are slightly apart. Don’t hold your breath – you’ll tremble – but make the picture by gently squeezing the shutter release while you exhale.

Used together, these techniques will get you creating fantastic pictures in low light, which capture all of the atmosphere that such conditions can have.

Your Next Steps

• CHALLENGE Go out on the streets after dark and create some nighttime street photography. Use the three methods we’ve outlined here to photograph handheld and post your favourite images to social media with the hashtag #learnwithfujifilm. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels.