Does your footage look extremely grainy and horrible when you shoot at night or in low light? The first probably most significant reason for this is you’re using your cell phone. I can’t help you with this.
Cell phone cameras have small sensors typically. Because of this, your footage is going to suffer in low light. Sure Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro has some impressive low light video using their ‘Night Mode’ features, but still, you’re going to need a camera with a larger sensor to get decent low light video performance. But even if you are an amateur with a professional camera, there are certain tips you should follow to get the best overall low light video quality. Here are my top 7 tips to get much better video in low light:
1. Shoot in A Picture Profile
As I mentioned, I'm a Sony Alpa shooter. Various cameras have different ‘picture profiles’ or ‘modes,’ you can shoot in. With the Sony A7RII, if I'm shooting at night or in low light conditions, I use the picture profile 2 (PP2). I once shot in S-log 2 at night (not to be confused with PP2), before I knew any better. I learned this process adds significantly more noise to an image degrading the quality.
PP2 compliments night time shooting as it helps get the best footage in the shadows and blacks. There’s an excellent video by the YouTube channel ‘Make. Art. Now.’ by independent filmmaker, Josh Yeo. He tests all the picture profiles in detail, ultimately setting on PP2 for the best low light performance. Josh recommends adjusting PP2 to get the best night-time results. The particular settings he uses to improve PP2 low-light performance is the following:
- Menu - Picture profiles
- PP2 - Right on dial
- Black Level -2
- Gamma Still
- Black Gamma -2
- Color Mode - Pro
- Saturation -4
- Detail -7 (Make sure to sharpen in post)
2. Use a Prime Lens With a Lower Aperture
If you shoot with a lens with a lower aperture, like a 1.8 or lower, you're able to allow more light into the lens, making for a better overall image in the dark, with less noise and grain. By keeping your aperture lower during a darker shoot, you're able to rely less on upping your ISO, making for a cleaner image. Consider buying a prime with a low aperture. I use the 55mm f/1.8 ZEISS Prime lens on my Sony A7 RII, which is my 'go-to' lens for shooting in darker conditions.
3. Prioritize Available Light
As mentioned, light is key, especially when shooting at night. By using available light, your lens will allow for a better overall image. Even with a powerful mirrorless camera such as the Sony Alpha series, which is great in low light, your image will degrade without available light. Introducing noise will make your image will look grainy with many ugly artifacts. ISO, higher than like 3200 ISO, will produce a weaker and grainer image. So use light which is around you. It could be a street light, a light from a business sign or bring your own mobile light. Either way think light, especially when shooting in low light. It’s the greatest variable to getting a cinematic image.
4. Shoot in 23 Frames Per Second (FPS) & Don’t Shoot Slow Motion
I also once shot slow motion at night. Bad idea. The reason that it's generally a bad idea to shoot slow motion with a camera such as the Sony A7RII in low light is that when you’re shooting in something like 60fps you have to adjust your shutter speed as well (to 1/120). This cause less light to hit the sensor thus making for an overall grainer image. Your best bet is to shoot in 23fps, as you then are shooting with a shutter of 1/50. This will allow your sensor to get the most light and you will have to rely less on your ISO to make up the difference.
5. Use a Denoiser in Post To Ensure Noise is Prevented
I use excellent software by Red Giant, Denoiser III. It allows you to, as the name implies, denoise your video in post. When you’re shooting at night or in low light, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll gather much more noise than if you were shooting in lighter conditions. I will usually denoise my footage in post if I’m shooting in low light. This isn’t always needed as much of our footage is being consumed on cellphones with a small screen. In other words, with smaller screens noise is harder to pick up. Nevertheless, in order to get the overall best image, I guggest using a denoise plugin.
After applying Denoiser III, I often turn to another Red Giant software, a plugin called ‘Renoiser,’ which, as you guessed it, allows you to create a layer of noise to the image. Denoising your footage often softens the image. You’re also getting a much more digital look, which isn’t always ideal. By adding some grain back to the video, you’re also adding some texture, a much-needed look for emulating a film or a cinematic look. I use the grain called ‘Compression Proofing’ in Renoiser, as it allows me to counter some of the compression which occurs on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. According to Stu Maschwitz, using ‘Compression Proofing’ as part of the Renoiser plugin by Red Giant, allows for a much more favourable upload to sites like Instagram.
6. Shoot in 4K
Shooting video in 4K in darker conditions allows for more resolution and detail in the image. It is also going to allow you to punch into the picture (i.e. zoom into the image). When I shoot for Instagram, I’m often scaling my vertical footage 180%. By shooting 4K, the footage will have less overall noise, especially if I need to scale the footage in post. Take a look at the comparisons between 1080p footage and 4K footage in this YouTube video by Story & Heart.
7. Use 35mm APS-C mode
With the Sony Full Frame Alpha Series Cameras, you can shoot in APS-C/ Super 35mm crop mode. This allows you to get even better low light performance for your video, as demonstrated in this video by
My Low Light Settings:
Ideal Shooting Settings in Low Light:
- 1.8 aperture or lower
- 23 frames per second
- 4K
- APS-C/ Super 35mm crop mode
- 1/50 shutter speed
- ISO 1600 or lower
- Using available light or your own personal light
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