Does Low Light Suck Life Out of Your Videos?

One of the toughest obstacles for videographers is filming in low light. While I was researching tips for our readers yesterday, I stumbled upon this video, where Israel Hyman of IzzyVideo sums the issue up best: Low light “sucks the life out of your image. You end up with grainy, undersaturated, low-contrast, muddy video footage. The lack of light destroys your image.” You’d obviously add light if you could. But if you can’t, he offers these suggestions to brighten your video:

Increase the camera’s aperture

Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens that regulates how much light passes through to the camera. Aperture is usually measured in f-stops. The lower the f-stop, the higher the aperture, so you’ll want to use the lowest number as possible. Hyman recommends an f-stop of 1.4 if your camera has it.

When you’re shooting in low light, you shouldn’t use zoom. Hyman says, “As you telephoto (zoom in), many times the aperture will shrink and reduce the light that enters your camera, darkening your image.” If you need to get closer to your subject, get off your feet and move the camera closer. 

Slow down the shutter speed

Another way you can allow more light into your camera is by adjusting the shutter speed. The longer the shutter is open, the brighter the image will appear. Careful, though: if you reduce the shutter speed too much, any motion in the video will be blurred.

Change your frame rate

Some cameras allow you to manually adjust the frame rate, or how fast the frames of video are captured and transmitted. The most common speed is 30 frames per second (FPS), but Hyman suggests lowering it to 12 FPS or even 6 FPS in low-light conditions. Results are best for inanimate objects, since motion appears blurry.

If none of the above does the trick, you can increase the camera’s gain (also called “sensitivity” or “ISO”) as a last resort. While it might brighten up the image, this method also adds noise to it. You can use filters during the editing process to reduce the noise, but the end result won’t be as good as some of the above options.

If you know you’ll be shooting regularly in low-light conditions, you may want to invest in a camera better suited for the job. Here are some camera reviews for all budgets.

While you might not be able to film in ideal lighting conditions, use these tips to brighten images and bring life back to your videos. 

Image: IzzyVideo