Category Archives: Light

Let there be light.

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Please. Light. I dream that one day the newspaper will send me to shoot something where there is actual light.

Tonight, two shoots where no flash was allowed (or possible). I started with a recital. Church. Not possible to move – I had to stay where  I was and not in the best place. And no flash.

So that meant that to get acceptable shutter speeds (1/125th sec on a 200mm IS lens, which ias as low as you can go, really) I had to use 1600 ISO at f/2.8, which is just OK on the 1D MkIII:

Not too bad. Thank God for f/2.8 lenses. Why do I pay $2,000 for my lenses? This is why.

Then it got worse. Rush to get to the next appointment: Tennis. And indoors. And in very low light. To see the ball and to freeze action I needed 3200 ISO – and even then at f/2.8 I was only able to get to 1/320-1/400th second, never faster.

Big time noise. But…  I (and hence the newspaper) got what I went in for.

And tonight I will dream of venues with light.

 

Stage

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When you shoot someone on a stage, it’s all dark and stuff, right, so you need to go to, like, 3200 ISO? Dude!

Well, yes and no. It can be dark, but usually that is not the real problem. The person on stage is usually quite well lit. Like professor Richard Dawkins when I shot him recently in Toronto:

MVWS9278

As you can see, prof Dawkins himself is well lit. This meant I was able to use my 1Ds MkIII and 50mm lens to shoot at 1/100th second, 400 ISO, and f/2.8. That is not super-fast: 400 ISO, not 1,600. And f/2.8, not f/1.4.

The bigger challenges are:

  • Metering. The dark background might very easily have caused the camera to overexpose prof Dawkins.
  • Consistency. The light can go up and down; or rather, as you swing the camera to include more or less Dawkins and less or more background, the exposure will change, and perhaps drastically so.
  • Focus is tough in low light.

So the solution is to:

  • Spot meter off the person and go up a stop, or meter using the “manual” meter.
  • Use MANUAL mode. After metering and adjusting visually (using LCD and histogram), leave the setting there. As long as the person does not move into different light, you’ll be fine.
  • Focus carefully with one focus point. Test before the presentation starts!
  • Shoot RAW so you can make small adjustments later where needed.

That way, your stage shoots will be just fine.

Event shoot

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The other day I shot an event. So that meant dark light, high walls, hard to bounce.

“Crisp” means “bright pixels”, so you will sacrifice some crispness when it is dark.

Still – I never point my flash at subjects when it is the main light. So instead, I bounce. I use the wall or ceiling – but when that is too far (and at 800 ISO “too far” is quite far!), I use a Honl bounce card, or a Fong lightsphere, or I just bounce off my hand:

MVWS0730

Um yeah, the theme was “70’s”.

  • I was using a 1Ds MkIII and a 16-35mm f/2.8L lens.
  • I did not want too much noise so I stayed at 800 ISO.
  • I used 1/30th second, f/2.8
  • A wide angle lens means that even at f/2.8, I get nice depth of field.
  • And the slow exposure means I get some nice background light.
  • Flash pointed behind me to the right, and bouncing (I saw a wall not too far).

Everyone else got dark backgrounds; I get this. A fast lens (f/2.8) is quite essential.

 

Eye

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Portraits? Then use a 50mm f/1.8 lens (affordable, fast, sharp) and shoot in Aperture (A/Av) mode with it wide open (preferably by window light).

Look at this recent available-light shot of a student:

MVWS0799

This gets you the dual advantages of low-light ability (no flash needed!) and blurry backgrounds. As long as you make sure the closest eye is the sharpest.

So, set your camera to the widest aperture (the smallest F-number), use high enough ISO (indoors this might be 400-800 ISO), and use one focus spot, and aim that spot at the closest eye. Click!

Back light

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When you see back light, you may want to try to use it if you can. That way you do not always get the same old same old.

When I was struck by strong sunlight coming my way at the show the other day, I shot this. I lined up the sun with the edge and used exposure compensation (“the +/- button”) of -2 stops to darken all but the rims:

IMG_2578

f/2.8, 1/640th sec, 32mm, on a 7D.

So what’s the scene?

These people are in fact merely lining up to get some free goat cheese samples. But this light makes it look a tad more dramatic, no?

Fire

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Do not forget to use motion in your pictures. Like this:

So I took that today with one hand – the other was holding a McDonald’s coffee, outside Henry’s School of Imaging in Toronto. I was about to go back in to do course two of the day.

Now, normally I would have gone to “Tv” mode (“S” on Nikon: shutter-speed priority). But with one hand and no time to lose that was impossible. So I rapidly did the following:

  1. Pop up the pop-up Flash.
  2. Zoom out to 16mm.
  3. I looked through the viewfinder at the street as the truck was approaching.
  4. I was in Av (Aperture priority) mode. So without the option of changing that while holding the camera with just one hand, I simply turned the Aperture setting up to to f/22, which I saw was what I needed to get to a shutter speed near 1/15th of a second. (I got to 1/20th: at that time time ran out and I left it there).
  5. Press the shutter!

All took about, oh, two seconds. And I hope you agree that is not a bad fire truck photo.

ISO Rule of thumb

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What ISO setting to use? High is good for shooting without blur or shooting in the dark but gives you noise (“grain”). What is optimal?

The following may help.

If you do not use AUTO ISO, my rule of thumb for starting points is:

  • Outdoors, or when you are using a tripod: 200 ISO
  • Indoors: 400 ISO (whether or not you are using flash)
  • Problem light, such as museums or hockey arenas: 800 ISO

You can vary from there of course, but you will not be far off.

Here’s an 800 ISO handheld image (it won me a media award):

Let there be light

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Yes.. but what type of light?

One reason light is such a complicated subject is that there are so many ways of describing it; so many different aspects to light. You might think “it’s just photons”. Yes, but you can usefully talk about the light’s:

  1. Direction
  2. Intensity
  3. Dynamic Range
  4. Hardness
  5. Colour intensity
  6. Polarization

And also, in a picture, about such things as:

  1. Colour contrast: harmonious vs. contrasting colours
  2. High-Key vs. Low-Key light

All these properties can vary, so all these are useful ways to describe light.  “What is the light” should really talk about all six of the top ones… can you see the complexity yet? So we classify them together as “type”. This helps.. a bit. But it is an oversimplification.

In the coming months I will talk about these. For now, try to think in these terms and try to see how the property in questions changes your photos. As an experiment, you may want to do a high-low photo for each property.

New strobes

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I have bought a few new strobes: 400 Ws Bowens “Gemini” strobes.

They come with two light stands and silver/white reflective/shoot through umbrellas, which is good. And these strobes work wonderfully.

These replace my older strobes, most of which died. That brand shall remain nameless while the maker has a chance to get back to me: I emailed twice and await a response. Fully 75% of the eight lights from that brand that I have owned died or started acting strange (like flashing by themselves, or refusing to flash at lower power settings). We’ll see if there is any response – only fair to give them that chance before I comment further.

Bowens, meanwhile, are good.

When to look for black and white?

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It seems almost too obvious, but one time you may want to consider going to black and white is… when you see strong blacks and whites. Like in this shot I made at a recent wedding:

MVWS9604

Strong blacks, strong whites, nice greys, and an off-centre composition. That makes this shot, wouldn’t you say?

Assignment: shoot one photo in black and white today. You can shoot in B/W in your camera or do it in Lightroom/Photoshop/etc.