5 Ways to create emotive low-light photos in your home

Using light to enhance the mood and emotion of photos is one of my favorite elements of photography.

When I started to learn photography, I sought out the rooms inside my home that were the most brightly lit. I looked for many and large windows, with no coverings. I waited for the time of day when I knew the rooms would be full of sunlight shining through. Does this sound familiar?

Sometimes I liked the end result but I usually didn’t love it. I could never seem to achieve the look or vision I had in my mind. Over time, I discovered what was missing. I wasn’t controlling or isolating the light I had available. My desire to create work that was a bit moodier than what a brighter photo typically conveys took me years of learning my camera and practicing my settings, as well as learning to see light, before I finally arrived at the style I now love.

The one type of light that touches me most deeply and moves me to pick up a camera, is low light. Low-light photos can convey a strong sense of mood or drama. My desire is to create images that evoke a sense of atmosphere and a connection to that scene for the viewer.

There are several key considerations when creating and achieving strong low-light photos. Here’s my approach.

Where to shoot for great low-light photos indoors:

To achieve a beautiful low-light image, your goal is to shoot anywhere that light meets dark. It’s really as simple as that! It might take some practice to seek out these areas of contrast if you are used to looking for bright light, so here are a few tricks for training your eye to find low-light photography locations in your home.

1. Fewer windows is better for low-light photos.

Look for areas in your home that have no more than two windows or just one light source. This could be as simple as a hallway or stairwell with a window. In your kitchen, is there a small window above the sink? Or perhaps, a window above a bed or chair in a bedroom. Even the bathroom is an option!

If you have multiple windows in larger rooms, find ways to cover some of them to keep light from coming in to create a low light situation if necessary. Also, look for areas within the frame that contain light and natural reflectors which will help you bring life to your area of focus.

2. Use rooms with interesting and varied light.

I have several rooms in my home that I repeatedly use for low-light photography. My kitchen sink area in general has varied and beautiful light. The sun comes through the window above the sink, and depending on the time of day, the light can be intense in one area but fall off quickly in the rest of the kitchen. This is great for hiding clutter. In the morning and evening, the light can be really golden or blue.

I know the light well in my kitchen, and I know what camera settings I need to achieve my desired look. In low light such as this, I will often use my Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. The bokeh and sharpness of this lens are amazing.

3. Look for small pockets of light.

Last, look for areas in your home at certain times of the day where there are pockets of light. Look for well defined areas of light that shine through windows and cover small portions of a room or space. Using pockets of light allows you to guide your viewer’s eye to your intended focal point.

Shooting in a large space is fine, too. Remember that the closer your subject is to the window(s) the more defined he or she will be. On the converse, the further away your subject, the more you will obtain a subtle and smooth transition between lights and darks. The result is less contrast.

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Conduct a light study in your home.

The most important aspect in figuring out where to shoot indoors is getting to know the light that’s available to you. Study the way the light washes through a window at different times of the day in your favorite rooms throughout your home.

Three years into our new home and I still do light studies, making a mental note on a regular basis of how the light changes. This is particularly important if you want to shoot through all seasons.

Light changes as the sun sets differently or the leaves that used to cover the trees outside your window are gone. Light will be more intense and bright when there is a snow cover on the ground. On a lovely overcast day, light will be softer and more diffused.

By studying the light, it will become easier to identify when you should shoot at a specific location to create your desired photo.

Find the right subjects for your low-light photography.

I consider light to be the primary element within the frame, the secondary element is the subject. Whenever you find the perfect light, have a compelling or cooperative subject, you have the opportunity to create something special.

Do you ever take the time to just be present and feel with your heart and your eyes what’s in front of you? I encourage you to do this often!

When I first started noticing various forms of light around my home, I had an epiphany. I realized certain light stood out to me more than others because I felt a connection to the entire scene.

I like to recreate how something felt versus how something looked.

Try practicing low light photography with still life or non-moving subjects. Take your time so you can understand your settings first and get it right in camera.

I love using my Canon 85mm f/1.8 prime lens. However, in a smaller space and working with a subject or two that’s closer to me, I prefer the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. This allows me to shoot at a medium distance and a close up distance for two different portraits.

Pay close attention to areas where you have a light subject against a dark background or a dark subject against a light background. This contrast between light and dark is what will set your low-light photos apart from ordinary images.

How to shoot low-light photos.

There’s no need to wait for the sun to go down to shoot. You can create a low light location in the brighter areas of your home simply by shutting curtains or blinds and even covering them with a blanket or sheet. You are in control of how light or how dark you want the scene.

This pullback of the breakfast area is perfectly exposed, and demonstrates how the room really looked at this time of day. It’s neither bright nor dark. This room and the adjacent room have a lot of windows but because there are many tall trees, the light is minimal. The following low-light photos were all taken in the chair to the right side.

In order to achieve my goal in camera, I will often try to get the lighting in my final photo to look similar to how it does in real life. Then I make adjustments when editing to achieve a deeper and more dramatic final image. This can easily be achieved by deepening shadows or boosting the highlights.

Once you have set the scene, you’ll want to consider a few things. If shooting an intentionally underexposed frame, that will help ensure that there are areas that are not blown out. However, you must be careful that your blacks aren’t clipped. I like how underexposure brings forth more texture to your photo along with muted and subtle colors.

Also, how close is your subject to the light source? Too close and you can accidentally overexpose. Typically, when I meter for the brightest area in my frame, that will often produce the deep, rich shadows and light fall off that is inherent to low-light photos.

Blowing out skin and other important parts of your subject is never ideal and hard to recover in post. Besides watching your in-camera meter, turn on the highlight alert in your camera to see if you’ve overexposed an image. It’s easier to lift exposure if necessary by making a midtone adjustment than trying to recover in post. Sometimes using the dodging tool in Photoshop is just the right amount to make a small enhancement.

It’s important to practice with various settings. This will allow you to learn how bright or how dark you need to expose for your low-light photos.

Practicing in the same location during different times of the day is also helpful in taking low-light photos. By doing this, you’ll learn what settings and light set up work for your vision.

Words & photos by Celeste Pavlik

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