Shooting 360 videos in low light has never been easy, but larger sensors are popping up in cameras like Insta360 ONE RS 1-inch 360 Edition Camera is increasing the ability to shoot at night. Here are some tips for getting the most out of any 360 camera you have in low light.
Coming to you from 360 video creators and YouTubers Ben Claremont Here are some tips for those shooting 360-degree videos in low light. Most of these techniques will be familiar to photographers, but 360 videos are a bit different because they lack things like variable aperture.
Claremont talks about a tried and true technique that I have used in sports and general photography for many years, and that is to underexpose your image a bit so you can create shadows. but still keep the bright spot. In his case, with the Insta360 ONE RS 1-Inch 360 Edition, the sweet spot seems to be around -2 EV. In sports, I like to de-expose a stop or two just to get a faster shutter speed and avoid motion blur (which Claremont also does), with the full purpose of increasing exposure in the process. post-processing.
I also tend to keep my camera underexposure by about 2/3 stops on any semi-automatic modes like aperture or shutter priority, just to check the highlights. Like the 360-degree scene in this video, it’s harder to control the blown highlights than to raise the shadows a bit.
One of the recent developments is the larger ISO capabilities of modern 360-degree cameras. Claremont points out that the 1-inch sensor on the One RS can reach ISO 3,200 and looks pretty clean. I remember the first time I experienced the Nikon D3, it was a revelation to shoot at ISO 6,400 compared to previous cameras that struggled with ISO 1,600. The same is true for 360 cameras.
The biggest lesson from all the tips here is shooting to edit. Note that you will be editing the footage afterwards which will give you a better understanding of how to manually position the camera to capture the optimal scene.
Watch the full video above for more tips from Claremont and a bonus at the end.
