11/23/08 - Low-Light Photography

Shooting in low light situations provides opportunities for creative photography. Yesterday morning I went down to Brant Rock at 5:00 with a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to use the low-light of pre-sunrise to allow an extremely slow shutter speed to convert the wave action into a milky smooth sea against the rocky jetty leading out to Brant Rock.

I set my tripod at the top of the stairs leading down from the sea wall to the beach, looking down onto the jetty. This particular image was shot at f/22 and 14 seconds and and ISO of 100. The result is an image that looks like it was taken an hour later (it was pretty dark at that moment), and the sea is smoothed out, creating a dramatic scene.



The next image was taken from the same vantage point, by turning the lens 90 degrees to the south. The objective was to leave the shutter open long enough to show the glow of the light reflecting off the seawall, while not over-exposing the ambient sunlight or the light in the windows. It was shot at f/22 and 17 seconds at ISO 100.



Finally, as the light brightened, I saw an opportunity to create what I hoped would be a dramatic black and white. f/22 and 6 seconds at ISO 100.