in the dark.

Let's start simple. Using a wide aperture will let in as much light as possible - the

smaller the number, the brighter the image. The other big one is ISO, which is like putting

your camera on steroids: sure, you might get better results, but it can go horribly wrong.

ISO digitally brightens the image, but it's usually considered a last resort because the

higher the ISO is, the more grainy the image will be.

So we just need to buy a camera that is better at shooting in low light, right? Well, not

necessarily. Shooting at a high ISO means that the camera

is super sensitive to any kind of small bit of light.

Here shooting at ISO 6400 we have a decent exposure on our subject, but that lamp in

the background is now super bright. These christmas lights look very strange,

when we crank up the ISO, and here this bright window is pretty distracting.

The point is that with high ISOs, any little bit of light in our scene is gonna get amplified.

Instead, if we drop the ISO back down, then the overall image will be too dark, but if

we then set up our own lights to compensate for that, then suddenly our background lights

are looking a lot more natural. Here are some more comparisons between using

the ISO to brighten the image compared to using actual lights to brighten the image.

I used to think that I needed expensive fast aperture lenses because they're better at

shooting in low light, which is true, but what people often forget to mention is that

it's actually cheaper to just buy a couple of cheap lights instead of paying way more

for lenses that let in slightly more light. Getting yourself a couple of cheap fluorescent

lights can mean that you rarely go over ISO 400.

Plus, it gives you infinite possibilities for controlling the light to get loads of

different looks.

One example of that is if we want to shoot a scene that takes place at night.

It's tempting to try the typical style of lighting (from the front) but for a night

scene, I think this looks pretty unnatural. It's clear that we've set up some lights.

I watched a few films with night scenes in them, and I started to see a few trends.

They often use a lot of backlight, so you can see what's going on, but there's still

plenty of darkness. So JP our cinematographer placed our brightest

light behind the characters. The other trend I saw from hollywood night

scenes was to use plenty of light on the background, so we made that a priority, hiding lights

behind cars so we could see those buildings. Here's the full lighting diagram, feel free

to hit pause if you're interested in the extra details.

Okay, but what if there isn't enough time to set up lights, or if we're not allowed

to set up lights at the location, for whatever reason.

Well I think if we're struggling with shooting in low light and we can't set up lights, the

first thing that I think should go through our mind is: 'Do we really need to shoot

this scene right here, in the dark?' Maybe there's a different room we can move

to where there's naturally brighter lights. Maybe we can interview this person closer

to a window instead of in the dark corner.. Maybe we can move the whole shoot outdoors

and film in sunlight.. Even when you can't completely change location,

every room and every building will have a premium spot where there's the most light-

you just might need to find it. So in summary, we can use a higher ISO when it's

too dark, but there are many dodgy side effects. Why not just add our own light instead, or

move somewhere with better natural light. I definitely used to have the attitude of

blaming my camera for not being good enough at shooting in low light, when to be honest

I was just too lazy to set up lights, too lazy to find a better location.

And I think that's the difference: are we passively accepting the problem, or are we

actively looking for a solution. Filmmakers never have enough time, never have

enough money, and rarely have enough light - so we might as well start learning to work

with what we already have. My name's Simon Cade, this has been DSLRguide

and I'll see you next week.