St. Paul, Minnesota Winter
Carnival 1992 Ice Castle
Plaubel Makina, Anticomar
100mm f/2.9
Agfacolor Optima 100, 10
sec, f/2.9
This terminology is
self-explanatory; photography with whatever light is available. During daylight hours, this is no
problem. Difficulties arise when light
levels are quite low. Under such
circumstances faster lenses or higher ISO settings often become a
necessity. With film, higher ISO
settings generally are accompanied with coarser grain and ISO 3200 is a limit
that is hard to overcome. Here digital
technology offers considerable advantages with some cameras offering ISO levels
many times higher.
This has created another
performance evaluation besides camera resolution in megapixels. Some individuals are definitely of the
opinion that a camera isn’t worth considering unless it excels at super high
ISO levels. There is definitely an
advantage to be had, but are levels of 100 thousand ISO or more really necessary
or helpful for that matter?
I have been involved in
several discussion about this and thus have come across examples where anything
less than 10 thousand ISO just doesn’t cut it.
My enthusiasm of this is far more measured, but then I don’t photograph
black cats in a coal mine very often.
"Boltergasse"
Barntrup, Germany
Linhof Technica 70,
Schneider Symmar 100mm f/5.6
Ilford FP-3 10 minute
exposure
Lou Bellami, Penumbra
Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota
Leica M6, 135mm f/2.8
Elmarit-M
Ilford XP-2 Super, ISO 800
The beginning of my
photographic education is solidly anchored in the film days. Over the years I have certainly done my share
of available light photography, yet rarely did that necessitate ISO levels
higher than 800 or 1600. As a matter of
fact, I am hard pressed to imagine a photographic situation where anything
substantially higher is necessary, although I should add that the coarse grain
of very fast films is often used as an artistic element.
Children's Day Minneapolis
Institute of Arts
Leica Digilux 2
ISO 400
Newton Fork Ranch, Hill
City, South Dakota
Leica Digilux 2
ISO 100
Lake City Marina, Lake
Pepin, Minnesota
Leica M8, 15mm f.4.5
Voigtländer Super Wide Heliar
ISO 160, 1/362 sec f/8
Weilburg, Germany
Leica Digilux 2
ISO 400, 1/4 sec f/2.1
Leica M5, 50mm Noctilux
f/1
Kodachrome 25, f/1, 1/30
sec
I have always tried to
keep film grain as small as possible which is the very reason why I used to
shoot quite regularly with film speeds of ISO 25. Obviously, that is quite limiting. Combining small grain with a variety of film
speeds led me to chromogenic films, mainly Ilford XP-2 and its successor, the
XP-2 Super. Unlike other black and white
films, these have the advantage of offering a relatively wide range of ISO
settings without the need of developing adjustments. I regularly used the XP-2 and XP-2 Super at
ISO ranges from 100 to 800. This would
be of no consequence if there were no apparent difference. However, at lower sensitivity setting these
films display a noticeably finer grain.
Since no development adjustments are necessary, there is the advantage
of being able to change the film sensitivity as needed and take advantage of
the finer grain at the lower speeds, all on the same roll of film.
Office Building
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Leica Digilux 2
ISO 100
Brentwood Estate,
Alexandria, Minnesota
Leica Digilux 2
ISO 100
Private Japanese Garden,
Plymouth, Minnesota
Leica Digilux 2
ISO 100
"Tecco"
former principal violinist
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul, Minnesota
Leica R4. 28mm f/2.8
Elmarit-R
Ilford XP-2 Super, ISO 800
Of course such
considerations are of not much consequence with digital cameras. Here we can change sensitivity setting at
will, although the greater noise at relatively high settings, which does look
very much like film grain, is something to consider. Thus I still follow my old habit of using
relatively low ISO settings in order to get the most out of my cameras and
lenses. With my digital cameras that
generally is ISO 100 or 200.
Available light
photography is considered by most as photography under relatively low light
levels. This naturally can result in
fairly slow shutter speeds unless higher sensitivity settings are utilized. Of course a tripod can be of great help when
slow shutter speeds are necessary, although no tripod can overcome the need for
faster shutter speeds with fast moving subjects. I also consider a tripod very restrictive in
the way I can use a camera. I much
prefer to use my cameras hand held.
Cindy Hillger, Don Shelby
Live Newscast WCCO TV
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Leica M6, 50mm f/2
Summicron-M
Ilford XP-2 Super, ISO 800
Venice
Leica M8, 28mm f/2.8
Elmarit
1/20 sec ISO 2500
Venice
Leica M8, 28mm f/2.8
Elmarit
1/15 sec ISO 1250
Venice
Leica M8, 28mm f/2.8
Elmarit
1/11sec ISO 1250
For that reason I still
employ the old formula that I learned in the film days, to use as the slowest
shutter speed a setting which is the equivalent of the focal length of the
lens. With other words, the slowest
shutter speed that the average person can safely hand hold with a 50mm lens is
1/50 (1/60) sec. Subsequently, 1/250 sec
would be the slowest with a 250mm lens, 1/30 sec with a 28mm etc. This approach has served me well over the
years. Obviously there are times when
this would lead to underexposure. In
those cases, bracing on a solid object will allow handholding the camera at
lower shutter speeds.
Would higher ISO settings
be of an advantage? Of course! As long as the image quality does not
substantially deteriorate, why not? But
I would not make high ISO capabilities a major factor when deciding on a
camera. As long as my camera equipment
offers good performance at ISO 1600 or 3200, I feel unrestricted.
Finally, I must comment on
another advantage of digital cameras.
With relatively long exposure times, they don’t display reciprocity
failure. This is a definite problem with
most films and, unfortunately, it differs from film to film. As a rule of thumb, we can safely assume that
reciprocity failure is of no consequence with exposure times up to one
second. After that the exposure response
is not linear anymore and films require an increase in exposure. Unfortunately, there is little choice than to
consult the reciprocity information that should accompany the film.
Don Stolz
Old Log Theater,
Excelsior, Minnesota
Leica M6, 50mm f/2
Summicron
Ilford XP-2 Super, ISO 800
All in all, photography in
low light is no problem, as long as we take the necessary measures to overcome
the problems associated with this.
Digital photography has the added advantage of allowing to experiment
without adding to the cost of film and processing. The results can be outstanding photographs,
much beyond the usual daylight snapshots.
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If I had not seen the picture with the race car, I would have said you are nuts shooting Kodachrome under those lighting and movement conditions.
ReplyDeleteWell, that happens when you have Kodachrome 25 in your camera from shooting during the day. Of course the Noctilux at f/1 and panning didn't hurt at all either.
DeleteCouldn't you push process the Ilford XP-2 or XP-2 Super to ISO 1600 or 3200?
ReplyDeleteNo. Push processing does not render any increase in film speed. There are no visible advantages.
DeleteWolfgang Weber wrote:
ReplyDeleteHow can the Ilford XP 2 be used over such a wide exposure range without the need of development adjustment?
The short answer is wide latitude. The Ilford XP 2 and other chromogenic films display an unusually wide range of exposure latitude. While the nominal film speed of the XP 2 is ISO 400, the film can be overexposed by a considerable amount without any harmful side effects. As a matter of fact, overexposure will lead to noticeably finer grain. General recommendations are not to shoot with speeds lower that ISO 100, but in tests I have received usable results at speeds of ISO 50 and even ISO 25, but the film did get rather dense and thus more difficult to print. The reverse essentially happens with underexposure. Rating the film at ISO 800 will usually render very useful results, but with an increase in grain. At higher speeds there is a definite loss of shadow detail which makes use of higher ISO settings questionable at best. In general, the advantage of the film lies in the fact that you can change ISO settings in mid roll without the need of any development adjustments and thus being able to take advantage of the finer grain and better tonality at lower ISO settings when the situation allows you to do so.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't you bump the ISO setting on your M8 to 2500 in the Venice shots?
ReplyDeleteI certainly could have, but noise at ISO 2500 is relatively noticeable and I felt comfortable shooting at ISO 1250, thus taking advantage of the lower noise level.
ReplyDelete