leebase
Mar-30-2005, 08:44 PM
There's been some discussion recently regarding flash, high ISO's, and fast lenses. I thought I'd show some examples of the tradeoff's.
Why does one need fast lenses when you can just use flash or bump up the ISO? If one is using flash, why shoot at high ISO's?
So...here's the first comparison. Same shutter and aperature, both use flash....one at ISO 100, one at ISO 3200
First the ISO 100 shot:
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/41458738/medium.jpg
Next the shot at ISO 3200:
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/41459378/medium.jpg
Notice the difference in the feel of the image. The first one is darker even though the subject (salt shaker) is well lit. The second image has a much more natural feel to it....and there's more noise.
And now a shot at ISO3200 and f1.8
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/41459567/medium.jpg
I think I over exposed this one a tad. But as you can see...it's lighter still. If the room light were dimmer than it was, this may have been the only one that allowed the natural light look. But there's a cost. Notice how much more blurred the second shaker is.
None of these photos is "right". They are merely different. I present these photos only to illustrate what the options are and the different looks achieved.
While the first photo isn't all that bad considering the subject...when you are in a large room and the lights dim...taking shots of people...with low iso and small aperatures you get photos like this:
http://leebase.smugmug.com/photos/10570894-M.jpg
Not a bad photo...but one that doesn't show anything about the setting. This particular photo is ISO3200 but the aperature was f8. Now it was dark outside....but you get shots that look very much like this indoors with small aperatures and low ISO's.
In this following photo shot the same night...I opened up the aperature to f2.2, and the ISO is stil 3200
http://leebase.smugmug.com/photos/10570906-M.jpg
Now you get _some_ sense of the setting.
If you have "slow" lenses, you have less options to get the ambient light look to your photos. But shooting wide open with large aperatures give you narrow DOF. Which can be good....or can lead to shots like the following:
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/27268018/medium.jpg
where only one of the subjects is in focus due to the narrow DOF.
IS will help you shoot with smaller aperatures and their correlating slower shutter times and still not mess up the shot with camera shake. Unless your subjects move -- as people tend to do.
Trade off's. No "right" answer...no "right" look.
Lee
Why does one need fast lenses when you can just use flash or bump up the ISO? If one is using flash, why shoot at high ISO's?
So...here's the first comparison. Same shutter and aperature, both use flash....one at ISO 100, one at ISO 3200
First the ISO 100 shot:
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/41458738/medium.jpg
Next the shot at ISO 3200:
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/41459378/medium.jpg
Notice the difference in the feel of the image. The first one is darker even though the subject (salt shaker) is well lit. The second image has a much more natural feel to it....and there's more noise.
And now a shot at ISO3200 and f1.8
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/41459567/medium.jpg
I think I over exposed this one a tad. But as you can see...it's lighter still. If the room light were dimmer than it was, this may have been the only one that allowed the natural light look. But there's a cost. Notice how much more blurred the second shaker is.
None of these photos is "right". They are merely different. I present these photos only to illustrate what the options are and the different looks achieved.
While the first photo isn't all that bad considering the subject...when you are in a large room and the lights dim...taking shots of people...with low iso and small aperatures you get photos like this:
http://leebase.smugmug.com/photos/10570894-M.jpg
Not a bad photo...but one that doesn't show anything about the setting. This particular photo is ISO3200 but the aperature was f8. Now it was dark outside....but you get shots that look very much like this indoors with small aperatures and low ISO's.
In this following photo shot the same night...I opened up the aperature to f2.2, and the ISO is stil 3200
http://leebase.smugmug.com/photos/10570906-M.jpg
Now you get _some_ sense of the setting.
If you have "slow" lenses, you have less options to get the ambient light look to your photos. But shooting wide open with large aperatures give you narrow DOF. Which can be good....or can lead to shots like the following:
http://www.pbase.com/leebase/image/27268018/medium.jpg
where only one of the subjects is in focus due to the narrow DOF.
IS will help you shoot with smaller aperatures and their correlating slower shutter times and still not mess up the shot with camera shake. Unless your subjects move -- as people tend to do.
Trade off's. No "right" answer...no "right" look.
Lee