The essence of light painting - as photography is also called otherwise - boils down to capturing a stream of light that has fallen on a film or a camera matrix, as a result of which more or less magnificent pictures are obtained. When the camera lacks the surrounding light, it usually uses the built-in flash, which is not always appropriate. But even without a flash, in low light, it is quite possible to take shots of acceptable quality.
Instructions
Step 1
The need to turn off the flash may appear for a variety of reasons, independent of each other. For example, flash photography is strictly prohibited in most museums and art galleries. When shooting during large concerts, the flash will play a bearish role, its power is still not enough to reach the stage, while the illuminated raised hands of the neighboring spectators usually do not represent any artistic value. Well, when capturing night and evening landscapes, the flash will simply be superfluous.
Step 2
If you find yourself in a semi-dark museum, whose servants kindly allowed you to take a couple of shots, turn off the flash on your camera. Switch to manual mode, open the aperture to the maximum. The larger the aperture opening, the slower the shutter speed is required for the camera. Thus, you will get quite decent pictures in not very good environmental conditions. If you have at your disposal a digital camera without the possibility of setting the manual mode, set it to the "portrait" shooting mode, in which, as a rule, the aperture is opened as much as possible.
Step 3
In very dark rooms or a concert hall, simply opening the aperture is unlikely to help, but high ISOs do the trick. Even the simplest cameras have the ability to increase ISO. Usually, setting the ISO value to 400 or 800 is sufficient. In the latest models it can even be raised up to 12800. Of course, this will to some extent affect the quality of the picture, because the higher the ISO, the more multi-colored grains and spots you will find in the resulting picture. But light graininess is easily suppressed in any graphics editor, and such unique pictures will remain in your memory.
Step 4
Landscapes in the dark require a long exposure, and hence the use of a tripod. If the tripod is not at hand, it can be replaced with an ordinary stand, a tree branch, or any object on which the camera can be placed. If there is nothing of the kind nearby, grasp the camera tightly with both hands and lean against a tree or wall. The main thing is to provide the device with maximum immobility during the entire time of the shutter operation. The light that gets on the film or matrix is quite enough for the landscape to turn out to be of decent quality.
