Harry Benson, the legendary Scottish photographer, sat down with NYT’s Gadgetwise blogand shared some tips on taking photos in low-light situations.

Benson’s photographs include celebrities such as Michael Jackon, every president since Eisenhower, and the legendary photo of Ethel Kennedy going straight for him right after Bobby was shot.

Here’s what he recommends for good low-light shots. For the record, Benson uses a Canon 1D Mark III, with the 24- to 105- millimeter lens. For low light, he goes to Canon f/1.2L 50-millimeter 1.2. But the following tips should work even if your camera, and lenses, are not quite as awesome as his.

• Use program (P) mode to get best results and capture detail in every corner.
• Don’t set ISO at the very top. Don’t go beyond 1000 because it gets noisy.
• Don’t trust autofocus in a dark situation — it takes too long to make up its mind.
• When shooting a very important shot, use manual focus — especially in the dark.
• Don’t use flash. You lose a lot of humanity with flash.
• Film is unreliable. Digital frees up your brain from all the technical stuff

Most importantly, according to Benson, is not to be afraid. “You’ll be surprised just how good your photos will be. I’ve just been awakened to see what digital cameras can do in low-light. Be brave about it.”

Photo: wili_hybrid / Flickr