The Low Light Photography Field Guide

Multiple-Exposure Contrast

The high contrast caused by pooling of light is typical of many low light scenes, from a restaurant interior with spotlighting, to a city view at night.

In the days of film this meant either bringing in photographic lighting to open up the shadows and balance the contrast, or simply accepting the high-contrast result with all its accompanying loss of detail. Now, however, this problem can be solved, particularly with a tripod. For subjects in which there is little or no movement, or at least where any movement is not a significant part of the image, the solution involves shooting the same scene at a number of different exposures, with no camera movement between frames.

As we’ll see over the next few pages, there are ...