My Pilates teacher once said that a lot of people have determination, but few of them have persistence. Unfortunately I have been proving her right since my website building has been static for a long while.
We moved to Chicago from NYC in 2013 after Thanksgiving. From April to August 2014 we were away on vacation. Oct 2014 we were busily moving into a new place. Today, after all the moving and traveling and holiday craze, seems like a good day to restart. I will try to regularly check in from now on. ;)
At the end of 2014, we went to the show Medieval Times. Every show presents a different set of challenges to photograph. For this show, I found the biggest challenges in distance to the subject and in shooting in low light condition.
The stage is oval shaped, with seats surrounding it. We were seated near one side of the curve, thus not very close to the center of the stage. The lighting was constantly changing between very dimly lit to bright indoor lighting to suit the mood of the show. I had a 24-105mm mid telephoto lens, and my ISO was adjusted between ISO 2400 to ISO 4000. I find that the quality of the images dropped below acceptance when ISO was beyond 4000 in this case, due to the small size of the subject in the image and decrease in clarity.
Here are my findings from the show,
1. Try to get CLOSE to the subject as much as you can.
Exposure is controlled by 'three legs': F number, Shutter speed and ISO.
Because of the fast pace of the show and the low light condition, I didn't have a lot of wiggle room with any of the three legs.
F4: F number at the smallest to let in the most light
1/200: barely fast enough in this case to freeze the motion
ISO 4000: highest ISO I could accept in this case due to increased noise and lost in details
Tip: The images are much more appealing when no further cropping is needed. The more cropping there is, the more grainy the images appear. (The lost in details accompanying a high ISO becomes more obvious.)
Conclusion: For close ups of action scenes, the closer you are to the subject / the closer your lens can bring you to your subject, the more powerful images you will have.
We moved to Chicago from NYC in 2013 after Thanksgiving. From April to August 2014 we were away on vacation. Oct 2014 we were busily moving into a new place. Today, after all the moving and traveling and holiday craze, seems like a good day to restart. I will try to regularly check in from now on. ;)
At the end of 2014, we went to the show Medieval Times. Every show presents a different set of challenges to photograph. For this show, I found the biggest challenges in distance to the subject and in shooting in low light condition.
The stage is oval shaped, with seats surrounding it. We were seated near one side of the curve, thus not very close to the center of the stage. The lighting was constantly changing between very dimly lit to bright indoor lighting to suit the mood of the show. I had a 24-105mm mid telephoto lens, and my ISO was adjusted between ISO 2400 to ISO 4000. I find that the quality of the images dropped below acceptance when ISO was beyond 4000 in this case, due to the small size of the subject in the image and decrease in clarity.
Here are my findings from the show,
1. Try to get CLOSE to the subject as much as you can.
Exposure is controlled by 'three legs': F number, Shutter speed and ISO.
Because of the fast pace of the show and the low light condition, I didn't have a lot of wiggle room with any of the three legs.
F4: F number at the smallest to let in the most light
1/200: barely fast enough in this case to freeze the motion
ISO 4000: highest ISO I could accept in this case due to increased noise and lost in details
Tip: The images are much more appealing when no further cropping is needed. The more cropping there is, the more grainy the images appear. (The lost in details accompanying a high ISO becomes more obvious.)
Conclusion: For close ups of action scenes, the closer you are to the subject / the closer your lens can bring you to your subject, the more powerful images you will have.
2. Try MOODY shots
Because of the big distance from most of the actions, and that I don't have a longer telephoto lens, my images of fighting scenes didn't stand out. My favorite pictures from the show were the moody, dreamy ones where the subject, lighting, shadow and the occasional smoke played well together.
So next time when you go to a Medieval show, it may be worthwhile to invest in a VIP seating area or to bring a longer, heavier, faster lens. But even without all that, stunning shots are still possible with good technics and discovering eyes.
Because of the big distance from most of the actions, and that I don't have a longer telephoto lens, my images of fighting scenes didn't stand out. My favorite pictures from the show were the moody, dreamy ones where the subject, lighting, shadow and the occasional smoke played well together.
So next time when you go to a Medieval show, it may be worthwhile to invest in a VIP seating area or to bring a longer, heavier, faster lens. But even without all that, stunning shots are still possible with good technics and discovering eyes.
