More on Halloween night
Now that I’ve gotten a little rest, there are a few things I wanted to add about Halloween night. It was a big win for me technically. I shot with a 4 Megapixel camera (a Nikon D2H) vs. a newer, 6 Megapixel one (Nikon D70) that I know has great low-light shooting capabilities. Why? Well, two reasons. The first was that my “costume” was that of a local paper photographer and the D2H is huge freakin’ camera–it’s got a real “look at the size of that thing!” appeal to it and I wanted to use that for my costume. The second reason was that I wanted to challenge myself a bit–you know, can I get good pictures with this thing?
On the first reason, it worked like a charm. On the second one, while I was disappointed with the majority of my shots (and that is all a result of shot selection and composition–a.k.a., my fault), the technical part made me very happy (e.g., white balance, image quality, exposure under tough lighting conditions, etc.). I was looking to get my shots a little warmer (the Nikons shoot like Ektachrome by default), and try and get some atmosphere to them. I was going for something like Nikola Tamindzic (that link probably isn’t safe for work) who shoots all the party pics for Gawker. Now, I don’t think I got there, but by shooting at ISO 800 and slower shutter speeds (1/15th of a second mostly), and having spent some time with the manual to figure out the white balance fine tuning, I got results that were a step closer to what I’m looking for (it’s kind of like finding the right tone with your electric guitar–it takes a lot of experimentation).
It all came together for me in the frame that’s posted below. I got on the bus and, knowing that a picture would probably present itself, I made a couple of quick changes. I turned off my flash and jacked the ISO up to 1250. Since the bus was lit with fluorescent light, I chose to switch to auto white balance. I then took a quick exposure reading off one of the seats.
All of this means that when I said, “show me your bling,” I was able to lift the camera and snap. It happened in a completely relaxed way and, I think, is one of the reasons the shot looks the way it does (that and a little luck). The end, of course, was that I was rewarded with one of the best shots I’ve taken in months.