12800

A quick snap from my Canon 1D Mark IV taken at 12800 ISO. I applied very slight noise reduction in Lightroom and upon export, reduced the size to 1200 pixels wide.

If I had not mentioned it, would you be able to tell that was taken at such high ISO?

For high ISO shots, it is imperative that you light the shot well. Remember Willems’s Law: “Bright Pixels are Sharp Pixels”.

I shot that with the 1D Mark IV, at 12800 ISO, with the 100mm EF [corrected!] Macro lens, and shot at 1/60th sec handheld at f/2.8. A slow shutter speed like that (lower than one divided by the lens length) needs a steady hand and a bit of luck – oh and shoot ten pictures to get a few very sharp ones.  Better still, use a tripod.

Wide

What lens to put on your camera?

Sometimes it is difficult to decide. But sometimes it’s easy.

Social events are easy. When shooting such events, where there are people socializing, eating, drinking, I recommend a wide angle lens between at least 24 and 35mm “35mm equivalent” (greater range is ok of course).

Meaning that if you have a full frame camera, use a lens in that range. If, as is more likely, you have a crop camera like a Nikon D5000 or Canon Digital Rebel, you use a lens 50-60% smaller to give the same effect, i.e. a lens in the 16-24 range. Like a 17-40.

At yesterday night’s event with Wendel Clark, ex Leafs captain (below) I used a 16-35 wide angle zoom on my 1.3 crop camera (I used the new Canon 1D Mk IV).

I do this a lot, and so can you.

Remember to get close to people.

Another option is to use not a zoom, but a wide angle prime lens. On my full frame camera I use a 35mm f/1.4 lens quite often for these events.

The pictures that the three above are part of will be on Oakville.com in the next few days.