Brief Scenes

What ISO and exposure settings should I use in low-light no-flash situations?

I have a small Canon SD400 digital camera that has limited manual settings. I can set the exposure anywhere from -2 to +2, and the ISO can be set to Auto, 50, 100, 200, or 400.

Your camera was introduced about 4 years ago, so the higher ISO ratings will probably give you some “noise” which means some pixels will be inaccurate/white. This should diminish with lower ISO, and the best for your camera would be 50. Thus, it would be best to test pictures at the 4 settings in bright and low light conditions, look at them on your computer, and see what is acceptable to you.

Shutter speed should be as short as you can use in combination with the ISO. As you know, the slower, the more likely to get blur from both camera and subject movement. Do a test to see what the lowest shutter speed you can hand hold (Try with many shots at each speed). Look for something you can rest the camera on, or you can lean on, so you can use a slower speed. Learn how to hold your body so there is a minimum of blur. Another tip is to press the camera against the skull, and hold fingers against the skull, as is recommended for using binoculars.

At a concert, you probably will have to hand hold the camera, and you would want a larger image. Zooming in to the maximum 3x will give you a fairly small aperture. In combination with the low light, you may have to sacrifice some quality from an ISO 400, in order to use the fastest shutter speed you can while the lens is at its widest aperture. Use optical zoom only; you can get closer with computer software.

Taking nighttime cityscapes you can use a tripod and have more control over lens extension, shutter speed, and aperture in manual mode. Try the Night Snapshot shooting mode, and see if that is better than making the manual adjustments.

Testing with digital costs nothing, so try the same scene, make notes (unless your computer software gives you the information), and vary settings to see what works best. Test the white balance settings also – in night photography the color changes dramatically with the different artificial lights.

Your manual is worth studying. What you want to do is ambitious unless you know photography well. But it is worth experimenting, and will serve you well in many situations.

What does the ISO setting on my camera do?