Tuesday, June 28, 2011

From Iraq With Love (more fun with low light)

8 years ago I bought a roll of Fuji Neopan Professional 1600 to see what shooting in "low light" was like. The results were awful at best. Low light meant "tripod," and it also usually meant "absolutely no movement." It's pretty cool to be able to get quality images using ISO speeds at or above 1600. And by above I mean 6400.
Soldiers prepare to mount a .50 Cal M2 machine gun. 1D Mk III, Sigma 50mm, 1/160th, F/1.4, ISO 2000
Pre-Combat Inspections. 1D Mk III, Sigma 50mm, 1/40th, F/1.4, ISO 2000
Cigar Thursdays. 1D Mk III, Sigma 50mm, 1/30th, F/1.4, ISO 6400.
To give you an idea of how dark it was when I shot the last image, I didn't even have enough light to manually focus, much less even see the distance markers on the top of my lens. Through that window was a single fluorescent bulb about 20 feet away on the ceiling. Ironic how shooting digital now can be more challenging and yield creative results that you can't even physically achieve with film.

8 comments:

John Schlepp said...

But you are forgetting one major thing. Film is ALWAYS better.

Collin Avery said...

you are right Schleppenstein

John Schlepp said...

Word Aver-nator

Sean Foulkes said...

The equipment that gets you from point A (your idea) to point B (your images) is ALWAYS better.

John Schlepp said...

I don't think you're getting it. . . . .

Sean Foulkes said...

Must be an inside joke. And, it's really hot here.

John Schlepp said...

When are you coming back into the loving and tender arms of the MSU photo department?

Sean Foulkes said...

Umm, cross your fingers for labor day weekend. Give or take a few days.