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As the Bouquets Fade
22 April 2015
We hadn't gone there to shoot them in the first place. And when we looked them over for last Friday's Slide Show, we were disappointed by a few (like that violin) that just weren't sharp. So, you know, we had to go back.
But by the time we returned on Sunday, it was the last day to see the show. And already some of the more delicate petals were shriveling up under the hots lights. We suspect the peacock head was kept out of the light just so it would hold up, in fact.
Some of the rooms are quite bright with white walls and almost natural lighting. But others are dark, relying on spotlights to illuminate the floral displays while protecting the art.
But we do have the feeling we were walking a tight rope at the higher ISO sensitivities and slower shutter speeds that post processing couldn't help with.
We usually shoot the show using Aperture priority, so we worry just about the depth of field after setting ISO high enough that our shutter speeds aren't too slow. That's usually at least 400 and 800 much of the time.
This time we made a slight change, letting our ISO float up to 1600, if necessary.
But that caused it's own issues.
It never came into play in the bright rooms and in the dark rooms it overcompensated. So it wasn't a very big help.
In fact, what we found helpful in the dark rooms is what ancient man found helpful. Manual mode.
In Manual, we got away with ISO 450 at f5.6 and 1/60 second for our lead image, for example. But more typically, we were shooting with ISO 800 at those settings.
That violin, though, continued to challenge us. For one thing, it was a very popular display and in a tight corner (OK, that's two things). So when we did get a clear view, we had to act fast.
But it seemed unusually dim for a room with light walls. We shot with ISO 1100 at f4 and 1/60 second to get the image in this slide show. Even then, some of the shots were not sharp.
This set was processed in the new Lightroom CC 2015. We made our usual adjustments but we got brave (after watching one of the new Jardine videos) and kicked up the Saturation and darkened our Blacks just a tiny bit both.
We think the Saturation compensated for the older 50mm lens design in a way Clarity doesn't. And the Black probably compensated for the floating ISO.
But we do have the feeling we were walking a tight rope at the higher ISO sensitivities and slower shutter speeds that post processing couldn't help with.
What fun, though.
