Low light street photography with the Canon G12

Let’s first take a look at the settings…

• Camera: Canon G12
• Shooting mode: Program (P)
• ISO: 500
• Aperture: f/2.8
• Shutter speed: 1/60
• Focal length: Wide-angle

This shot was taken in Program mode (P). The G12 selected the lowest available aperture and matched it with a fast enough shutter speed to get an accurate exposure.

When shooting hand-held street shots in low light, it’s important to shoot at or above 1/60 even with image stabilization enabled in order to prevent camera shake.

If you’re shooting moving subjects, then you’ll have to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster. If you’ve got a tripod handy, you can lower the ISO to 100 which will give you cleaner looking images. By lowering the ISO, you’re also slowing down the shutter speed. Slower shutter speeds can lead to blurry images, so try enabling the self timer to get your hands off the camera. You can read more about the self-timer feature on page 56 of the G12 manual

When shooting vertically, try angling the G12 so the subject is pointing up and to the right.

The up and to the right technique turns an ordinary image into a photograph that’s visually appealing. The photographer did a great job getting low and angling the street lamps, which creates a sense of depth and size. Had the photographer shot the street lamps horizontally at eye level, it wouldn’t be as captivating.

Hope you enjoyed this G12 tip-torial…happy shooting!