Customer Reviews

Night and Low-Light Techniques for Digital Photography

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There are enough differences between film and digital media and cameras that different approaches exist with regard to photographing under specialized conditions. Conditions of night and low-light certainly fall into that class, and these are the conditions that this book tries to address.

Cope's approach is subject-centered, that is, he examines photography from the point of view of what is being photographed rather than from an equipment point of view. He begins with a brief discussion of light and color, in which he focuses on white balance. White balance is a control that many digital cameras have that allows for adjustments for color temperature of light. Then he moves on to a consideration of landscape photography, with an emphasis on sunset and sunrise. He next discusses photography in an urban environment, and then special events, like concerts, Christmas and fireworks. After discussing portraits, he talks briefly about the tools available for digital photography including cameras and photo-editing software. There are a few appendices including ten tips for low-light photography and a discussion of reciprocity failure. His book is essentially a catalog of reduced-light photographing conditions.

As a user of a digital single lens reflex, I was looking for tips on how to use my camera in reduced light conditions. Specifically, I was interested in what I consider to be the most useful of digital functions, the histogram (a display on many cameras showing the distribution of tonal values in a picture) and the highlight function. I realize that low-end digital cameras may not have these functions, but I also think that people in the market for this book will have cameras that are so equipped. I also know that these functions can be particularly useful for reduced light photography although they have certain quirks. Yet this book had only a brief reference to the histogram function in the description of camera controls, and none to the highlight function.

Instead of concentrating upon using the special capabilities of digital cameras in reduced light situations, the digital aspects were usually only mentioned in post-capture processing, and then at a level of detail that was too general to be of much help. (However, he did spend more time on blending modes in Photoshop than most authors of similar work.)

Another example of his approach was in the discussion of reciprocity failure, a phenomenon of film, resulting from long exposures. He does acknowledge that a similar phenomenon exists for digital cameras in the form of noise. But he fails to discuss any way to deal with the problem. Yet many cameras offer an optional noise reduction function (although at a cost in terms of how quickly one can make exposures). Moreover, some editing software also offers post-capture noise reduction.

In another review, I faulted Lee Frost's "The Complete Guide to Night and Low-Light Photography" as being outdated because it did not consider digital methods, but I think the digital photographer would be better served by reading that book than this one.

Lots of talk, but when it really comes down to it, I don't know anything new that will actually help my photography.

For the cost of the book you can pay for one month of an internet connection and get all the extrememly "basic" information you need. Cope offers nothing beyond the very minimal information you can get from just fooling around with your camera for an hour.

There are much better books out there and the web for the price.

I found this very helpful. I'm new to digital photography and bought a very versitile camera, the Sony A 100. This book has already helped me and I'm not finished with it. Most of it has, so far, been related to night time photography with little attention to astro photography which I am very interested in doing. I don't regret buying it.