that little sliver of light (a low light how-to)

I wasn't planning to take or post any photos today... in fact, the only picture I planned to take was an iPhone shot of Livia's ankle bracelet, because, well... is there anything cuter than a toddler with an ankle bracelet? ;-) After I took a handful of iPhone shots, I decided to get out the real camera. If I knew I was going to post these, I would have tried to be a little more creative but I'll have to save that for another day.

On a side note, I am loving the switch from PC to Mac... but I'm still having color issues. My calibration software arrived in the mail today, so I'll see if that helps. There is definitely a difference between my iPad and Mac (not to mention an even bigger difference compared to my PC and an outrageous difference compared to hubby's laptop). But you know me... I don't like to mess around with color too much; whatever it is, it is. Except for the b&w's, most of the shots below are close to SOOC. In Lightroom I added +3 magenta and +6 brightness and called it a day.

We started with a bit of a dress riding up/wardrobe malfunction but I didn't think you could see anything too terribly revealing, and I loved the way the light was so dramatic. (We were in a totally dark basement with one shade pulled up, above her to the right of the camera).


You can get a better idea of how I positioned her in this shot. The window is now behind her. (I don't want to draw attention to bad color issues, but on my screen I see a hint of green in her hair which drives me crazy, but not enough to mess with it. I'll let you know what happens after I calibrate. My Mac in general is darker and greener than my PC so I'm totally confused by the whole thing).












To take low light shots like these, you need a room that is completely dark, with just a tiny patch of light. That little sliver of light is key to low-light photography. It was totally cloudy out today, so it doesn't have to be a patch of sun; just a small area of light. I shot these in AV mode (and used the evaluative metering mode) and underexposed by maybe 2 stops or so? I can't remember for sure, but that's close. There's no set number of stops to underexpose by, it depends on your lighting situation and the effect you're trying to achieve. I've found that I like to start around -2 stops, and go from there.

If you have any questions be sure to let me know, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! xo