Tutorial: How to take Photos in total darkness with iPhone

iPhone Photography

Apr 13

Sometimes, when exploring a lost place, I find rooms and corners that probably haven‘t seen any light for decades. When I started with urban exploration with iPhone, I tried to find ways to take photos in almost total darkness with iPhone. After a few failed attempts and seeing pictures of light paintings, it struck me. Just take a long exposure with iPhone and use a flashlight!

So, in this blog post, I‘ll show you a simple way how to take photos in almost dark rooms with iPhone. And here‘s what you need:

A tripod for iPhone
Slow Shutter Cam App
A flashlight with adjustable intensity like the Olight S30R III or Olight S1R that I use.
Remote Shutter Release, e.g., Apple Watch

And before we start, here are some sample shots. They are not perfect yet, but I think you‘ll get the point.

How to photograph in almost total darkness

To take photos in darkness, I use the Olight Baton S30 III flashlight, which served my well for years while exploring abandoned places, set to 500 Lumens.

First, make sure Slow Shutter Cam App is configured correctly:

Set it to Light Trail Mode
Adjust the first slider, Light Sensitivity, to the around 1/16th
Set Shutter Speed to Bulb
Manually set ISO to about 100.
In the main screen of Slow Shutter Cam App, tap to enable exposure and focus lock

Then, set up your iPhone, tripod, and compose the frame using Slow Shutter Cam App. Use your flashlight as a composition aid, but don‘t tap to focus yet.

Once you‘re ready, tap to focus but keep illuminating the area that you focused on with your flashlight. If you move the light away from the area you focused on, Slow Shutter Cam App may lose the focus.

Next, press the remote shutter release and immediately start to paint the room with light, basically using your flashlight as a brush. Avoid painting over the same areas twice unless they‘re too dark.

Use the screen of your iPhone as guidance. As you’ve set Slow Shutter Cam App to Light trail, you can see the areas you may have missed right on the screen.

Make sure you paint at a constant, slow velocity. If you move too fast over certain areas, these areas may be darker in the final photo.

So, here‘s an unedited photo that I took this way. It turned out a bit too bright, but still usable.

Next, let‘s have a look at how to edit the photo in Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

How to edit a light-painted photo in Lightroom Mobile

As you can see, the photo does not have much contrast, and it‘s a bit too bright. By just reducing the exposure, you would just turn it into a dark photo, that still does not have much contrast.

You could play a bit with the contrast sliders, but the most straightforward way is to use the Dehaze adjustment in Lightroom Mobile. Move the dehaze slider a bit to the right until the photo looks right to you.

Next, add a bit more contrast using the clarity and contrast sliders and adjust all other settings to your liking. Viola, there‘s the final photo.

Photo taken in total darkness edited with Lightroom

If you have a look at the sample photos I posted at the beginning, you‘ll see that there are some darker areas. These are the areas where I moved too fast. For such areas, try to use the shadows adjustment or selective adjustments in Lightroom. Of course, you can also use that in an artsy way to basically dodge and burn the scene while you take it.

I still need to practice a bit more, but I think you get the point of how this photo technique works that will help you to take photos in almost total darkness, where even the night mode camera apps will fail.