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The Blacksmith in low light.
Thelensspot
Registered Users Posts: 2,041 Major grins
"Photography is partly art and partly science. Really good photography adds discipline, sacrifice and a never ending pursuit of photographic excellence"...ziggy53
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Cheers, Sara
Congrats on 2000 posts !
Cheers, Don
Product Photography
My Acreage Bird Photographs
Gallery: http://cornflakeaz.smugmug.com/
I rest my case, Don.
Thanks, Don.
Gallery: http://cornflakeaz.smugmug.com/
Thanks, Sara!
Good points, Don but the problem the blacksmith shop environment presents is the stark contrast between the flame (which can generate a heat of 3000 F in the center of those coals and a very bright light) and the dark environment which exist otherwise in the room (no lights except window light). In addition, if you are interested in freezing the motion of the subject (he is constantly moving) in order to get sharp facial features ...you also must sacrifice low shutter speed which would have been a luxury and settle for a very wide aperture (f 5.6 on this lens at 100mm) and high ISO (12800 for this shot). The lowest shutter speed I use when trying to "freeze" the subject is 1/60 and at that setting you still must wait for a moment when the body movements of the subject are at times paused...in this shot he had essentially stopped moving his left arm (which he is using to work the forge bellows) for a moment so I took the shot. Given those settings and the fact that I wanted to capture all of the hanging tongs and anvil behind him, your going to get a very bright fire and exacerbate any other object that might be lighted. The light you noted on the bricks behind his head is due to the window light which emanates from out of the scene to the left. The look of the fire "untouched" is simply a bright globe of light with minimal resemblance to flame. I actually left the light alone on the brickwork behind his head because for me it adds a sense of depth to the picture. If the background environment is not desired in the shot...you can shoot at more limited exposure settings and get a nice image of just the fire and lighted surfaces of the subject with essentially no background which I have done as well.
As always ...thanks for taking the time!
Gallery: http://cornflakeaz.smugmug.com/
Good point but they generally discourage flash photography in the trade shops for obvious reasons.
I agree with Cornflake on his comment about the blown out flame, regardless I think it is a great pic. 12800 ISO, seriously? Wow.
www.mind-driftphoto.com
Cristóbal...as ALWAYS your thoughts are very much appreciated and highly valued! Thank you.