Keys To Shooting Hunting Images In Low Light

Hunting requires early mornings and late nights. That means time afield when light is non-existent or very minimal. These are times when your camera struggles to pick up enough light. Here are some keys to achieving better low light images:

1. Utilize Lenses With Low Apertures

-To shoot slow shutter speeds in these conditions will often be best suited by using a prime lens. A prime lens has one focal length, AKA there is no zooming. Often these lenses come in 1.2 - 2.8 apertures on the low end. There is a considerable amount of light gathering between my 50mm prime at 1.4 and my 24-70 zoomed to 50mm at 2.8. Having a prime on you will allow you to shoot with less light, plain and simple. Another consideration for this is the focal length of the prime. A 100mm prime will require a much higher shutter speed (less light hitting the sensor) than a 20mm prime. I could potentially shoot a crisp image on my Nikon with the 20mm prime in the 1/5s range. With the 100mm I’d be looking more around 1/80s or maybe 1/50s.

Shot handheld with a 17-35mm lens at f2.8 and 1/6second.

2. Use A Tripod

-This seems obvious but is super key to great images in low light. This applies both to long exposures and also extreme low light shots. The stability of the tripod allows much, much lower shutter speeds and thus more light to hit your sensor. A good photo tripod will let you orient your camera in a vertical position so you can shoot both vertical stills as well as the traditional horizontaly framed shot. I like to use tripods that I can swap my spotting scope and camera on. The Vortex Summit XLT has been my go-to for years (https://vortexoptics.com/catalog/product/view/id/3663). It’s now discontinued but it’s legs are easily adjustable, it works great for both my camera and spotting scope. It is a bit heavy, but the ability to film via my Phoneskope & spotter off this setup as well as shooting photos with a sturdy base is worth the weight for me.

Now if you don’t have a tripod I’d say begin to improvise. If you are shooting something where you won’t be holding the camera you can use rocks as a platform, a sweatshirt/jacket/backpack, or other items to provide a stable place for your camera to sit. if you’re shooting handheld find a way to brace yourself for extra stability. You can lean up against a tree, use a tree branch or sit on your butt with your elbows on your knees. Just know stability helps a lot.

Crossing a river in New Zealand. Long exposures can capture unique moments and show it in a way our eye can’t naturally see.

3. Know Your MAX ISO

-ISO is basically how sensitive your camera is to light. The higher you adjust this the more grain you will see in your images. This shows up very well in dark or black areas of the frame as well as in skies. Since we are shooting in extreme low light, ISO values will usually be higher than normal in an attempt to better expose the scene. Each camera is different in how sensitive it is to light so you’ll need to test this with your camera. A good way to do this is to go out on a dark night and shoot ISO settings from 1000-10,000 or higher. Then go back and upload your images to Lightroom and first study the amount of grain at each setting and try to determine where you think a good cutoff might be. Now before you make your mind up go in to each image at varying ISOs and start editing the image. Specifically with regards to exposure, blacks, and shadows. Adjusting these in an image that has been shot at a high ISO will start to add extra grain to the image and you will see a quality and sharpness loss. Seeing how much room you have to work with an image will help you decide what ISO level to keep you photos under.

Documenting the hunt during all times of the day is key to successfully capturing all the moments of a hunt.

4. Make Sure You Hit Your Focus

-If your image isn’t in focus it doesn’t matter if you did everything else right, it won’t be a good image. Now unless it’s basically pitch black your camera might be able to do the job on it’s own. But you can’t always count on it. To get past this, being able to understand and read the focus window on the top of your lens will help you set it for specific distances. This is best suited for night photography where the camera will not autofocus on its own. To get around this you can do two things. One, if your subject is close to you you can use your headlamp, phone light, or flashlight to illuminate your subject and set the focus. After you do this make sure to set your camera focus to manual. That way when you start squeezing the shutter it doesn’t try to focus and mess up your settings. The second way is to make mental references during the day at set distances so you can set it quickly in the dark. Lets say I want to shoot a night shot of camp and the Milky Way. During the day I’ll set my focus for a shot focused on the clouds or other distant subject. Look down at the focus window on your lens and either make a mental note of where it’s at or take a photo on your phone. That way when you are setting up in the dark you can look at the window and spin your focus ring until it hits the desired mark.

Being able to shoot at ISO1250 let me alter the exposure of the foreground of this image in Lightroom, allowing the photo to show the elk skull laying in the grass in camp.

I hope that helped some of you out. Experience is always the best teacher so get out there and shoot some photos! And it can be photos of anything to get familiar with your camera and settings. Let us know if you have questions in the comments below.

Written By: Zack Boughton