shooting at dusk

Get a tripod. Wait until after sunset. Wait a bit longer.

When the light in the sky is as bright as the light

in the building, shoot lots. Keep that tripod steady

because exposures might be at least a second or two.

shooting in low light, with flash and without

I wanted to balance the dim light of the art 

with the flash, which is so much more powerful.

To capture the art, I needed ISO 1600, and a wide angle lens

at the widest aperture to get the light and 

so I could hand hold at the low shutter speed of 1/4 second.

I took some shots with no flash.

And with the flash shots, I bounced the flash off the ceiling so 

it was not so bright that it would burn out the background art.

Depth of Field

If you want to make sure the background is sharp

or make sure it is out of focus, you need to understand 

depth of field. That's determined by the aperture, as 

well as the lens length, and the proximity to the subject.

This is the basic grammar of photography.

I always spend a lot of time in a workshop showing 

how f4 looks a lot different from f16.

You can control what's in focus and what is not.

Don't just shoot on auto mode.