Black and White Photography

speed in manual mode, then take your exposure at those settings regardless of

what your camera meter says when you’ve moved back to take the picture.

Still another way to handle a backlit scene is to physically add light in front

of your subject, so it will be in better balance with, or even overcome, the

strong light coming from behind. You can do that by using flash, hot lights, or

a reflector panel positioned in front of or to the side of the subject.

Backlighting is so common that many cameras, especially automatic pointand-

shoot models, offer a backlight option. When you activate it, usually with

a switch on the body, the camera automatically provides more exposure than it

otherwise would to provide better exposure of your backlit subject.

Low light. In theory, you can take a picture in almost all light conditions, even

when the light is very low. But in practice, dimly lit scenes often present a real

challenge. After all, exposure depends on the amount of light that reaches the

film. And if there isn’t much light, your film can easily be underexposed—and

very often is—even if you seem to be doing everything right when metering

your subject and setting your f-stop and shutter speed.

You can often get around this problem by adding light to the scene, using

flash or other artificial lighting. This should improve your chances of achieving

good exposure, but it also will change the mood of the picture. Ambient or

existing light can be atmospheric, mysterious, and subtle, whereas light from
an on-camera flash can be bright, flattening, and generic. Also, there are times
when for practical reasons you can’t use auxiliary lights or when you simply
don’t have any lights available. Here are some hints on how to photograph
effectively in low-light situations without using additional lighting.
Use fast (ISO 400) or ultrafast (ISO 1600 or 3200) films, because they require
less light than slower-speed films to make a good exposure. Use both a
large lens aperture and a slow shutter speed to let in as much light as possible.
Keep in mind the potential disadvantages. Using fast film usually leads to
grainier results; large lens apertures create shallower depth of field; and slow
shutter speeds increase the chance that you will blur the subject.
One solution to increased graininess and limited depth of field is to put your
camera on a tripod, so it won’t move during exposure. This will allow you to
use long shutter speeds, which in turn means you can use slower-speed films for
finer-grain results. Long shutter speeds also allow you to set smaller lens apertures
for greater depth of field. However, this will limit your ability to capture
moving subjects without blur.
When handholding the camera in low light, you will generally have more
success with fixed-focal-length lenses than with zoom lenses. This is because
they almost always have a larger maximum aperture than zooms. Also, normal
fixed-focal-length lenses (about 50mm for 35mm cameras) almost always offer
wider maximum apertures than fixed-wide-angle or fixed-telephoto lenses.
Note that some light meters are more likely to provide inaccurate readings in
very low light conditions than they are with brightly lit scenes. They may effectively
underestimate the amount of light you will really need. If you are not
using a tripod, consider ignoring the light meter altogether. Just use fast or
ultrafast film, open your lens to its maximum f-stop, and set your shutter for
the slowest speed you can safely handhold without moving the camera—
usually 1/30 or 1/60. Don’t worry about overexposing the film, because in low
light it’s much more likely that you will underexpose your film.
Despite your best efforts, you may still end up underexposing your film. If
you suspect you might be underexposing, you can compensate somewhat by
overdeveloping your film, a technique called pushing film, which is discussed
later in the text.