In low light, should I raise ISO or use exposure compensation?
Asked 5/20/2014
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2 answers
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When ambient light is low and I don’t have a tripod, what’s the best way to make the photo brighter? I usually open the aperture as wide as possible and slow the shutter to about 1/10s. If that still isn’t enough, I raise ISO to around 300 because beyond that I start noticing noise. After that I sometimes dial in positive exposure compensation, even up to +5, and only use flash as a last resort. Is exposure compensation preferable to increasing ISO, or does it just change shutter speed/aperture in auto modes?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
15
You misunderstand how exposure compensation works.
Exposure compensation is not an actual physical thing the camera uses to control light - there are only 3 real things that control the amount of light: Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO.
Exposure compensation is a way to tell the camera in one of the auto/semi-auto modes you want to override the light meter reading.
In A/Av mode the exposure compensation changes the shutter speed (and maybe ISO, depending on how you set things) in S/Tv mode it changes aperture (and again, maybe ISO) in P mode it can change any of the 3.
If you are in full manual mode exposure compensation does nothing because it has no auto setting to adjust.
So, to answer your question, if you are already shooting wide open and at the slowest acceptable shutter speed all you can do is increase ISO or add flash, the exposure compensation feature has nothing to adjust to help you here.
BTW, don't be afraid of ISO, the modern camera can handle ISO values much higher than reading photography sites will lead you to believe and even when you push it too far there are excellent noise reduction tools out there.
Originally by user2481. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2481
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Exposure compensation is not a separate way to brighten a photo. It only tells the camera to change one or more of the real exposure controls: shutter speed, aperture, and sometimes ISO, depending on the mode.
So if you’re already at your widest aperture and the slowest shutter speed you can hand-hold, adding positive exposure compensation will usually just make the shutter slower (or change ISO if auto ISO is active). It does not avoid the tradeoffs of exposure.
Practical approach in low light:
- Use the widest aperture you can accept.
- Use the slowest shutter speed you can hand-hold without blur.
- Then raise ISO as needed.
- Use flash if appropriate.
In other words, once aperture and shutter are at their limits, ISO is the remaining control. Also, ISO 300 is very low by modern standards; many cameras produce acceptable results at much higher ISO values. A bit of noise is often preferable to motion blur or missed focus, and noise is usually easier to deal with later than blur.
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