Words & Pictures Peter Bargh 

It's that time of year when you leave for work in the dark and return home in the evening in the dark, so it's understandable that your camera may only surface at the weekend. But it doesn't have to be this way. Many cameras, whether compact 35mm, digital or SLR, have a shutter speed range that will allow low-light pictures to be taken so you can venture out in the evening. The only requirement is a little knowledge of metering and some form of support to ensure that you don't get blurred pictures as a result of camera shake.

The first thing to do is check that you can override the camera's automatic flash. Most 35mm and APS compacts have a symbol that has a lightning bolt within a circle with a 45 degree line through it - just like a no entry road sign. This turns off the flash and ensures the camera makes use of its long exposure setting. You can check to see what the long shutter speed is in your camera's instruction book. Digital cameras have a similar mode, although on models like the Nikon Coolpix 995, Sony DSC-F707 and Minolta Dimage 5 and most makes of SLR you just leave the flash in its down position and ignore the warning light telling you to activate flash.

Blackpool is famous for its illuminations and fortunately it has a pier so you can get far enough back to shoot the illuminated tower and the sea front. Rest on the railings and step the shutter down one stop to allow for the large area of darkness that will fool the meter.

If the camera does have a flash off feature and you turn it off you'll find the shutter clicks once to open and again to close when you press the shutter button. While it's open you have to keep the camera perfectly still, which is usually impossible if you are hand holding it. There are many supports available to ensure the camera stays still. These range from compact to large tripods, plus clamps and grips. You can also use a bag full of beans or tiny polystyrene balls. These mould to the shape of the camera and provide a surprisingly solid support, but you do need the added assistance of a wall or tree to support the bag.

With the camera held firmly in place you can fire the shutter and make the most of the long speed. But don't think it's always that easy. Often night photography has huge areas of the scene in darkness with occasional illuminated areas subjects, such as spotlit buildings, moonlit trees, fireworks, fairground illuminations, neon signs etc. The camera's exposure meter isn't used to such scenes and may need some manual help. It's here where the benefits of digital become evident. You can take a picture on auto and preview the scene. If it looks too dark, or the illuminated area is too washed out you simply manually adjust the camera's exposure using the compensation setting and try again and repeat until you have the right balance.

Try shooting cars from a pedestrian bridge that crosses over a motorway bridge. Use a long shutter speed (ideally B where the shutter can be locked open) and you'll produce graphic lines as the cars pass below you. If there's a break in traffic hold the lens cap over the lens until another car appears. And remove the cap just before the car enters the frame.

SLR cameras often have more scope when it comes to overrides but you have to have the experience to set this, because you can't see what you've done until the film is processed, and then it's often too late. The best thing to do is make notes that you can refer to in the future.
If the camera has a spot meter you can take a reading from the illuminated area and expose for that to avoid a really dark picture.

Use a slow shutter speed at a fairground instead of flash and your pictures will be a wash of vivid colours. Here the static bulbs are complimented with a whirling collision of colour from the revolving ride. The low angles and creative viewpoint has helped here. Try to aim for a speed that blurs but just enough so you can still see detail. Here 1/8th sec was just right.

There is a range of illuminated scenes that are similar wherever they are photographed so we can give exposure values that you can use as a guide in the table below. We'll base the settings on ISO100 and you can compensate for different film speeds. The CCDs used in digital cameras are also rated at ISO100, but can sometimes also be rated up to ISO800.

Fireworks	1sec	f/2.8
Floodlit building	1/2sec	f/2.8
Subject lit by firelight	1/2sec	f/2.8
Typical street scene with normal illumination	1/2sec	f/2/8
Shop window	1/8sec	f/2.8
Brightly lit street scene (maybe with Christmas lights)	1/15sec	f/2.8
Neon sign and brightly lit theatre districts	1/30sec	f/2.

Use these exposure settings as a guide and when using ISO 400 speed reduce the aperture down by two stops, so f/2.8 becomes f/5.6, or increase the shutter speed by two full settings, so 1/2sec would be 1/8sec.

Neon lights, whether Las Vegas or the local amusement arcade, provide excellent colourful subjects. Take care not to meter off one of the bright lights or the rest of the scene will be too dark. Also avoid metering from a dark area or the lights will be over exposed. Try to fill the frame with an interesting crop. A telephoto lens helps if the lights are at the top of a building or structure.

One final thing to be aware of is colour casts on colour film. Most film is created to take good pictures in bright daylight so when you shoot under artificial light you will get a colour cast. If the lighting is tungsten the colour will be yellow, and in fluorescent light it will be green. Filters are available to screw onto the lens of an SLR camera and can be held over the front of a compact camera. 

Once again digital cameras have useful ways around this. Look on the menu of a many digital cameras and there's a white balance control. This is set to auto by default and can be fooled when the lighting is a mixed, so there's an override where you can preset the type of lighting you're shooting in. Some cameras just have a series of presets - shop windows and underground lighting is usually fluorescent, while floodlit buildings, street lamps and interiors of stately homes will often be tungsten. Some of the more advanced models have a manual setting where you point the camera at a white part of the scene so it can tell what colour light is reflected and compensate perfectly. You can take the shot and preview to check you're happy with the colouring. You don't have to filter the light to obtain daylight colouring, sometimes it's more effective if you include a colour cast.

Church interiors will be very yellow if you don't add a filter or adjust the digital camera's white balance. Here the shot has been deliberately left to show the warm colour against the cold blue evening light coming through the window.

Tip
When taking pictures in low light using a digital camera you are often stretching the capabilities of the camera's CCD. This results in noise (small irregular pixels appearing in the dark areas) Some of the newer digital cameras have a noise reduction system that can be preset to improve the photos.

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