Photography is an art, even in photojournalism where it’s ethically frowned upon to stage or pose an image.

So, how do I and others like me do it? It’s all about composition and knowing your equipment and understanding its limitations. It’s also about experience.

My greatest challenge is shooting in dark places. The worst two indoor places I’ve had to photograph in locally as far as lighting is concerned is the Folsom Community Center and at the El Dorado Hills Community Services District Pavallion, where meetings and gatherings take place. To the human eye they’re fine, but to a camera, they’re both unforgiving caves.

If you’re going to shoot with a flash, that’s fine, but most tend to shy away from using flash, and I include myself in that group. Personally, I don’t like the harsh shadow images that flashes produce, and I do have a diffuser for my flash, when I do use it, but there are times when you’ll still get those shadows, which look entirely unprofessional. To boot, you’re influence is also evident in the image since you caused the shadow to be there where it normally wouldn’t.

So, how do I get the images that I get at sporting events that are in dark places outside at night, such as Friday night football games? It’s all about the equipment, understanding it and not pushing it beyond its limits. Lenses are really the key to low-light shooting, but it also costs some pretty good money to get the lenses that make this possible.

Good lenses for shooting in the dark are usually 2.8 or faster. Generally these lenses are more expensive – in the thousands of dollars range, but they help get the job done in school gyms and such.

One thing I do, but most photographers I’ve talked to won’t do, is max out my ISO speed, and shoot at 3200, the highest my camera will go. ISO speed determines how sensitive your camera is to light. The higher the number, the better your camera performs in low light situations. If I were to set my ISO at 3200 in the daylight, my images would blow out and be over exposed in most circumstances. The downfalls of using a high ISO speed such as 3200, and why most photographers that I’ve talked to stay away from it, is noise. The easiest way to describe it is digital grain.

Because I’ve learned how to use the 3200 setting, I’m not afraid to use it, and I make some really good images while using the setting. You’ve seen them – any night football shot that we’ve published by me has been shot at 3200, as well as most images made inside the Folsom High School gym, and absolutely all the images I’ve made in the Oak Ridge High School gym. Vista del Lago also needs the use of the 3200 speed too.

One of the drawbacks though is using a slower shutter, and you can’t entirely stop the motion and some motion blur will come through. I don’t mind this in certain cases, as it shows the action, but other people do. It’s art, so it’s subjective. At Folsom High under the football field lights, I won’t push the shutter past a 400th of a second. The images get too dark for me, and I get more noise that way too. At the FHS and Vista gyms, I usually won’t push past 320th of a second, and sometimes those don’t come out either. At Oak Ridge, it’s a crapshoot. I generally won’t push past a 250th of a second, and sometimes they’re still too dark. Sometimes I’ll drop down to a 125th of a second in that gym, but there’s way too much motion blur that goes on in those shots most of the time. Every once in a while I’ll get something we can use. We come back with a lot more images than you see in print or on the web. We have to wade through the garbage, and you only get to see the best stuff, but sometimes, we’re forced to say, “It is what it is.” I hate that phrase because it generally means it’s not that good, but it was best we could do under the circumstances.