Diwali 2018: Here are four tips and tricks for taking better low light photos with your smartphone

Tips for Diwali photography: Adjust shutter speed, ISO level for better exposure

To get good shots at night, good exposure is required to brighten the image. Exposure is basically determined by three setting points: aperture, ISO, and shutter. While these modes earlier pertained only to high-end cameras, smartphone manufacturers have now begun implementing it on mobile phones under the moniker ‘Pro mode.’ This mode allows you to tweak the exposure value, shutter speed and even adjust focus manually.

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Adjusting shutter speed is necessary since it determines the length of time the image sensor is exposed to light. For a brighter image in low-light, you can use longer shutter speed, for instance, 1/200th second, 1/100th second that will allow more light to fall into the sensor. Plus, you can also increase the ISO level as well for decent shots in a dark environment. However, we would recommend keeping ISO at a reasonable level to avoid noise creeping in the frame.

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Tips for Diwali photography: Keep your device stable

If you want to shoot fireworks, chances are that a DSLR might deliver a better result with good details, exposure and colour balance. But capturing the same effects with your smartphone can be a tricky affair. While it requires patience to wait for the right moment and snap the shot, one needs to keep the device stable to avoid shaky images.

There are certain smartphones that come with dual-OIS or OIS and EIS but these image stabilisers are not as powerful as a DSLR’s Vibration Reduction (VR) or Image Stabilisation (IS) lens. To save the shots from getting blurry, you can use a mobile tripod or a glif stand. Since low-light shots require longer shutter speed these tools will come handy to get sharp photos at night.

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Low-light photography tips for Diwali: Compose your frame, use exposure correctly

If the stock camera app on your smartphone has a Night mode option, you can use it for taking low-light scenes.

Composing a frame is necessary while shooting photos. Although we make a note of it while using a DSLR, we often forget while capturing photos with our smartphone. When shooting fireworks or sparkler, it is better to compose the frame first rather than moving your smartphone to and fro to get the shot. You can keep the device on a tripod adjust the angle and then simply press the shutter button to capture the exploding light. You can create light trails of the sparkler as well by the keeping the device steady at a point, adjust the ISO, and set the longer shutter speed.

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Tips for Diwali photography: Use night mode, not flash

To get brighter shots in low-light, we often switch on the LED flash paired with our phone’s cameras. The LED flash does help to illuminate the subject, though the colours tend to get washed off and the image rather appears flat. To avoid such a situation, we would recommend sticking to the light present on location, wherever possible.

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If the stock camera app on your smartphone has a ‘Night mode’ option, you can use it for taking low-light scenes. The mode tends to soften the image to an extent, however, it brightens the image that you might otherwise miss it while shooting it with auto mode.