It's all light

The opening ceremony of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, was a spectacular event watched by millions around the world.

Held in the new Khalifa Stadium, the ceremony was the most elaborate ever staged for a sporting event in the region.

Performers from almost all over the world entertained the crowds with incredible displays of dancing and acrobatics; and the finale saw athletes from over 50 countries fill the arena to mark the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the Asian Games.

"I took this picture from high up in the stands of the stadium as the dancers performed to a traditional story which narrated the history of the Arabian Peninsula," says Gulf News photographer Karl Jeffs.

"Conditions for taking photos were not ideal as the light levels were quite low and I was too far from the performers to use flash. So I took advantage of this by using a slow shutter-speed to slightly blur the movements of the dancers and give the photo an almost ethereal look, much like a painting."

When light levels start to fall while shooting outdoors, amateur photographers tend to switch to flash. I learnt by accident that if you don't, you may get a really artistic looking picture. In fact, switching to flash may even spoil the mood of the picture you're about to take. You can continue shooting pictures using natural light with the right subject and a little bit of creativity. Experts advise experimenting with increasing the exposure level of a shot made at low ambient light levels to restore its brightness, increasing the saturation of colours to make a scene come alive and decrease the aperture to induce slow shutter speeds and capture the movement as a blur.