Low light photography

[indranil80]

Dear friends

I am relatively new to the world of photography and had bought a Canon 500D about 4-5 months back. I am interested in low light photography (mainly cityscapes and landscapes -sunset,sunrise).

I request your suggestions for lenses that are best suited for same. Of course - best lens at minimum price

Thanks in advance

[Hankosaurus]

Hello indranil80.

Welcome to JJMPF. Pleased to meet you. You will find our fellow JJMPF Members here very interested in your progress in the hobby of photography.

One thought I have is that, within limits, you may have the capability you seek already. I will assume that your Canon came with a kit lens. With a really sturdy tripod and shooting somewhere around f8, you should be able to get very good shots of static images into the night. You will need a remote release.

For very little money you can also buy a fast 50mm lens. With this optic you can shoot right on the edge of darkness even without a tripod, given good shooting technique. Budget allowing, a fast 35mm lens would be very handy in the same sense, and would provide a more "normal" angle of view for your Canon.

Then there are some more costly, "really-right" solutions. Our fellow Members can elaborate better on those than I can.

Again, welcome aboard, Indranil.

Dear friends

I am relatively new to the world of photography and had bought a Canon 500D about 4-5 months back. I am interested in low light photography (mainly cityscapes and landscapes -sunset,sunrise).

I request your suggestions for lenses that are best suited for same. Of course - best lens at minimum price

Thanks in advance

[Proton]

if its city scape, landscape, u need a wideangle... Since you need best lens at min price... choose the 18 end of 18-55

If you want a tele, 55-250 IS is good (better than 75-300)... (70-300 also is available now)... 10-11 K ... 

Low light demands either high ISO or fully open aperture or  long exposure or sometimes combination of these... for city scapes you dont need fast lens ... you can work with long exposures with 18-55

[Bharat Varma]

"low light photography (mainly cityscapes and landscapes -sunset,sunrise)".
"best lens at minimum price"

What you are looking for is a decent tripod. The images your kit lens can make probably compare favorably with the best lenses, when your lens's aperture is set to F8, but for this you need a longer exposure and a stable tripod.

Get any tripod in the 2-3k range to start with (unless you want to save money in the long term - then put together a budget of at least 10-12k for a tripod which will probably serve you much longer on your photographic journey). The low cost tripod will go with your "minimum price" philosophy and will allow you to maximize the image quality that you can get from the camera and lenses you own.

[indranil80]

Thanks a lot Hankosaurus, Proton & Bharat,

Really appreciate the quick response. I am sure I will get to learn a lot from you guys and help me turn photography into a serious hobby.

[lightwave]

Agreed with Bharat. For your needs a tripod comes first.

[ArindomRC]

best lens at minimum price

Best and Minimum are  opposite words in the world of photography. Since you said cityscapes I can deduce that you want wide angle. In wide angles things are pretty costly. You can get a 11-16mm f2.8 tokina lens used for 25k , this will be a very good lens to start with. It is wide, have low distortion, and have host of uses , specially wide angles are very creative part of photography. Till now I have very limited knowledge of wide angles, You can also buy a tammy 17-50 f2.8 for 18k and try out the 17mm wide. Its again a very good low light photographic lens. It wont even need you to carry a tripod.

One advice, if you shoot really low light , not structures illuminated by light, you will have to purchase a tripod , you can shoot with your kitlens also

[indranil80]

Thanks to all for patiently responding to my query.

I have got another query regarding this subject:
1. How to use exposure bracketing (in case there is a source of light in the composed area eg a streetlight how do we bracket the exposure - which area do we point the camera to?)
2. Significance of white balance in low light

Thanks in advance
Regards

[Santanu]

One suggestion from my side don't buy cheap tripods..they would not provide stability ...other wise before investing much try with ur kit lens @18mm

[gdhiraj]

Step 1 - get a tripod as suggested by others for ur low light pics passion - vanguard have released some good enough  tripods around 5k which will get u started or evn modo by manfrotto is good enough for 500d with kit lens
STEP 2 - wen u start liking ur city at night in ur pics then buy 50mm f1.8 (about 6k) and start capturing those shadows and lights and most amazingly sparingly litup faces ..... good luck

[aloksinha2001]

Step 1 - get a tripod as suggested by others for ur low light pics passion - vanguard have released some good enough  tripods around 5k which will get u started or evn modo by manfrotto is good enough for 500d with kit lens
STEP 2 - wen u start liking ur city at night in ur pics then buy 50mm f1.8 (about 6k) and start capturing those shadows and lights and most amazingly sparingly litup faces ..... good luck

Err.... I love the 1.4s.... nothing to beat them for night photography.

In addition to the tripod - hope your camera provides for some slow shutter speed - 10-20seconds.

Next, you need to make sure, that you can shoot in raw mode. It would help in you using the PP methods to fullest.

Alok

Alok

[toofan]

alok: for the type of photography he is looking he need depth of field so 1.4. or 1.8 or 2.8 doesn't matters much.

1. Invest in a good tripod. Mind that if you have a good quality lens then also you will need a good sturdy tripod to take images at low light.
2. After a tripod is you still have money or you save some money in future then go for a wide angle lens for sure, they will provide you more better perspective to shoot scapes.

Exposure bracketing:
YOu could look at your camera manaul, it will shoot 3 images and will merge them into a single exposure.
or you could manually shoot several exposures with different exposures keeping the Aperture constant and then merge then manually.

Generally Autowhite balance works better but if shooting raw you could change it easily in RAW editing software.