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The challenges of low light in a duo shoot

Added 2023-12-12 18:00:09 +0000 UTC

The date was 1 December 2023. The location was Ashley’s home in the southwest of England. The day was very grey and dull, with drizzle and light rain. Natural light was limited and we could’nt even open the blinds much as the house was overlooked. My challenge was doubly complicated as I had not one but two models to shoot. When I shoot one model I often use aperture f2.8 - that, as I’m sure you know, means not only a narrow depth of field but also that anything outside becomes very blurred. That’s good for an arty type of shoot, although not so good for a glam shoot, when you want not just the eyes of the model but also the body of the model to be in focus. With two models, one ideally needs f8.0 or even f11.0 for both models to be in focus. Now going up f stops means that you need come down on shutter speed. Even without a heavy lens, I don’t dare to go below 1/100s - I was mostly using my Canon 50mm f1.4 on the Camom 6D mark II, which is a full frame camera. to fit both models. I also had a Sigma 35mm f1.4 art lens with me but that doesn’t work with the 6D so I had to attach it to the Canon 850D, which is a half frame camera.

I didn't want the ISO to be higher than ISO2500, as I am not keen on grainy images, so I fixed it there. I did use a soft box and my new Rotolight on full power, which gave me just about enough light to get away with nearly my desired settings, although an f-stop of 5.6 was the highest I could get away with, although I was also under-exposing slightly.

I was shooting in aperture priority mode, with one third of a stop under exposure. The last image in this post, I shot without realising that the shutter speed went down to 1/20 secs. It’s clearly blurred if you blow it up but, surprise surprise, both my models like it and I’m in difficulty. Should I send it to my retoucher and hope for the best? It’s probably just about ok for Instagram on a small screen. What do you think? Would any of you shoot with higher ISO in such low light conditions?