Firelight Photography

Tuesday November 12, 2013 at 5:43pm friends, photography Comments (0) »
Nick Nick, while hanging out at his birthday party.  50mm f1.4 iso 3200 1/60, lightened about 1.75 ev in post.  No NR.
Nick, while hanging out at his birthday party.  50mm f1.4 iso 3200 1/60, lightened about 1.75 ev in post.  No NR.

A group of us got together at Nick & Jen's (current) place for his birthday party on saturday.  Was cool to hang out with friends - something we find ourselves doing less and less.

As I am want to do, I brought my camera along.  I didn't really have any good opportunities to take photos of the party in general (I didn't bring my flash, and we were mostly inside with relatively poor light).  When we adjourned to the fire pit outside, however, I decided to see exactly what I could pull off in that extremely dark situation - and, by extension, what I would need to do a better job.

I took a handful of shots using my 50mm 1.4 wide open - something I almost never do.  It's generally a little soft at 1.4.  It sharpens nicely somewhere between 2.0 and 2.8.  Still, I was already at "high iso" (3200 equiv.) and at 1/60.  I really didn't have anything else to open up on my rig.

These pictures actually look surprisingly good, all things considered.  They're exceptionally grainy, of course - accented by the fact that I lightened them about +1.75 ev.  I don't mind a little grain - in fact, if you desaturate them a bit, it can add an interesting feel to some images.  This is a bit much, however.  Still, the IQ is higher than i expected.

And if I had a camera body with a couple more stops of ISO, I think I could have done more.  Incidentally, I read today that the 7D mk II is supposed to be out first quarter of next year...

~PS

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