Photographing in the dark - when a flash really makes the picture better

The campfire crackles. Sparks rise in the sky. A shooting star passes by. These images are easy to capture with the human eye. But with a camera?

Hand-held shots at night and at dusk tend to be blurred. But if you now attach a flashlight to provide the surroundings with light in the dark and to illuminate the object, you may destroy the entire atmosphere. So what to do to get the perfect low-light photo?

If you own a modern camera, you can lean back: "The sensors of modern cameras are so bright today that photographers hardly need to use flash, especially if fast lenses are used," says Sophia Zimmermann from the specialist magazine "c't Fotografie". A flash would destroy this mood with hard light - the photo looks artificial.

Cameras that are no more than about five years old usually capture dim light, such as in restaurants, churches or a scene around a campfire, in an atmospheric and sharp way all by themselves. This also applies to smartphones.

"In modern smartphones with an integrated night mode, several photos are automatically taken one after the other and the integrated software calculates them into one photo that is relatively well lit," says Zimmermann. Even photos of the night sky can be successful with it. The amount of light to be captured can also be varied manually if necessary by adjusting the exposure time, aperture and ISO sensitivity of the camera. With the highest possible ISO number, the sensor absorbs more light.

But be careful: "Depending on the camera, interference signals can occur, such as background noise, which is why 'pushing' does not suit every motif," explains Zimmermann. Photographers call image noise the disturbances caused by blurry or incorrectly assigned pixels.

Current digital cameras with small sensors still shoot noise-free with ISO 3200, high-quality full-frame cameras with over ISO 6400. "This allows for atmospheric evening scenes, but not necessarily high-resolution portraits," says the expert.

Professional photographer Daniel Wollstein also uses artificial light carefully. “I usually do without a flash unit for events and reports. On the other hand, I consciously use flash for sports photography, portraits and certain still lifes,” says Wollstein. For fast movements such as sports, flash light freezes the movement in low light conditions.

Photography is a game of light and shadow. Without light, no structures can be worked out on the object, details and facial features remain unrecognizable. The distance from the light source is responsible for the intensity, size and harshness of the shadows.

When used consciously, flashing light offers a number of advantages. “A flash controls the direction of the light manually. This allows photographers to determine the direction of the light themselves and use it creatively, which is ideal for portraits,” says Wollstein.

However, the professional photographer avoids mounting a flash unit on his camera. That usually seems “very hard and flat,” he says. "For portraits, I tend to use a head light and a side light to create a mood," explains Wollstein. However, since flash devices generally offer more power than permanent light sources and they can be controlled better, professionals prefer to use flash systems for photo shoots.

Andreas Lindlahr, a professional photographer from Hamburg, advises amateurs to use the flash with caution. This includes, for example, a subtle flash that a viewer of the later photo does not necessarily recognize, or a backlight flash to weaken a harsh light-shadow contrast. However, correct flashing requires a lot of practice and has to be recalibrated for each new photo situation.

Inexpensive clip-on flashes that can be operated manually are available for less than 100 euros, says Zimmermann from "c't photography". However, Andreas Lindlahr advises investing the money in a tripod.

Because: "No photographer works without blurring." Long exposure times can be achieved with a tripod without the photo blurring. Depending on the subject, a flash is thus superfluous.

Even small tripods for smartphones help to take sharp photos with a slow shutter speed of up to three seconds - usually long enough to document the magical evening by the campfire.

However, a tripod only replaces the flash in certain situations, such as a portrait or still life. A long exposure time catches enough light and the object is sharp - but only if it is not moving.

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