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| 1/2s | ISO 50 | 1/6s | ISO AUTO | 1/6s | ISO AUTO |
[Created: 01/Dec/2007]
[Last modified: 29/Dec/2007]
I need to practice photography more. I've been slacking off, and I really want to do justice to the cosplayers who so kindly allow me to take pictures of their costumes. My camera is quite primitive, but that will be fixed soon enough once I purchase better equipment (early next year, I hope). A more expensive camera, however, will not magically better my pictures, I need to practice!
I've decided to go the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) every Friday night in order to improve my technique (isn't singlehood wonderful...? Sigh ^.^;). Anyway, this will be an ongoing series, we'll see how it goes...
I'm currently not too concerned with camera settings... they're really not that useful on a point-and-shoot (Canon S1 1S). I'm going to focus on framing and testing the limits of low-light conditions (the museum is not very will lit, and I don't want to use flash because of the glare, the reflection off the glass, and the fact that it's generally annoying).
My camera is quite noisy. ISO 50 is barely acceptable, but the exposure times are really long. The first picture on the left I took with the camera resting on a chair. I don't like to use a tripod, so I usually improvise. The second image was a challenge, as the autofocus kept refusing to work (the S1's autofocus is notoriously bad under low-light conditions, and the manual focus is a joke). Anyway, it finally worked, but then the exposure time was 1/6 of a second, which I had to hold standing up and pointing down, bracing the camera the best I could. I'm amazed it came out more or less OK. Sadly setting the ISO control to AUTO doesn't seem to record the actual value used. The last picture I took standing up, without any support. I discovered that 1/5s is the absolute maximum exposure time I can hold steady. At first it was a hit-or-miss affair, but after a while I could nail it pretty consistently. Note that the S1 has image stabilization, which does help.
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| 1/2s | ISO 50 | 1/6s | ISO AUTO | 1/6s | ISO AUTO |
The first picture was a challenge to take under very bad lighting conditions, and ultimately I had to crank up the ISO to 400 with the expected results. The reason I was interested in this print is that, although I don't usually like the typical stylized Japanese portrayal of people, I thought the woman in this image appears to be very beautiful. Well, she also reminds me of a girl I like (it's unrequited, alas *^.^*). If you ever read this, めぐみちゃん, please disregard the context of the image, I mean no offense, I just think you're pretty too ^.^;
Ahem, anyway, moving on, the middle picture shows another limitation of my P&S: basically zero control of the depth-of-field. I'd love to get rid of those messy backgounds (yes, I could use the GIMP, it's just not the same). Fortunately this isn't much of a problem in the last picture. I like the composition, although higher depth-of-field (2.8 in this case) would have been better, but then there's the low-light thing again.
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| 1/20s | ISO 400 | 1/6s | ISO AUTO | 1/6s | ISO AUTO |
After a bit of practice I could hold steady for 1/5 of a second. I like the chiaroscuro of the dragon, and the depth-of-field issue can be ameliorated somewhat by taking close-ups. Even though the last picture was taken under better conditions the limitations of the P&S I think are apparent in the image quality.
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| 1/5s | ISO AUTO | 1/5s | ISO AUTO | 1/15s | ISO AUTO |
I hate "orphan" images! Anyway, it's not too bad, click on it if you're curious.
That's it for now. To be continued next week...
Note: I'm now adding the aperture information.
I like the shadows in the first picture. The bigger sculptures are generally not encased, and hence bothersome reflections don't exist (many a photograph has been ruined because of them, what a pane! :). I decided to take advantage of the glass reflections in the middle picture, I rather like it. It's fairly obvious that due to the low light conditions the aperture should be maximized (it doesn't seem to affect the DOF much in these P&S).
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| 1/10s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 | 1/6s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 | 1/15s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 |
The middle photo is the first "circular" one I've made, but of course it just lends itself perfectly, and the colourfulness makes it a good subject. The third picture is why I'm practicing: this hall is usually crowded, and very dark. The camera's AUTO setting required an exposure of over a second, no way I could hold that standing up. I quickly switched to Av and set 1/5s, which I had previously discovered is my lower limit. People were starting to show up so I leaned against a column, pressed the shutter button, and hoped for the best.
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| 1/8s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 | 1/15s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 | 1/5s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 |
Not much this time, I've covered much of the museum's first level, so I'll be moving up. Also, the dinosaurs are coming back!
Had dinner with a very charming lady, the dinosaurs will have to be patient :)
Playing around a bit with high ISO values, but images are pretty noisy. I can take my time with each picture, though, so it's not really necessary to do this. I like the colours in the third shot, although the blurriness is obvious at the larger size (but not that terrible, considering it's a 1/4s exposure taken standing up with the camera pointing upwards).
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| 1/6s | ISO 400 | f/2.8 | 1/8s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 | 1/4s | ISO AUTO | f/2.8 |
I'm pressing the camera against the glass, which allows me to set the lowest possible ISO and slow down the shutter speed to 1/2s. I rather like how the roman figure came out.
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| 1/6s | ISO 50 | f/2.8 | 1/8s | ISO 50 | f/2.8 | 1/2s | ISO 50 | f/2.8 |
Oh, I really like how the crystal-entrapped salamander picture turned out! The second picture reminded me of M. C. Escher, albeit thousands of kilometres removed and predating him by a few hundred years.
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| 1/10s | ISO 50 | f/2.8 | 1/10s | ISO 50 | f/2.8 |
Not that many pictures today. There were a lot of people, and batteries ran out soon after I started. I know, I always carry spares, but didn't bother on this occasion. I like how these turned out, though, even if they are somewhat creepy.
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| 1/60s | ISO 50 | f/3.2 | 1/60s | ISO 50 | f/2.8 | 1/60s | ISO 50 | f/3.2 |
Also, a picture of a butterfly.
Comments and/or suggestions? marco@reimeika.ca
