Untitled (Ella, San Clemente, October 2015) copyright 2015 Douglas Stockdale
This is the third in my series discussing my Friday Night Lights photographic adventures. As I stated in my last post, I made a camera change for last night’s flag football game. Still the same relatively slow zoom lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L lens, but now mounted on my Canon 5D MkIII in conjunction with my tripod being used similar to a monopod (tripod legs still folded together).
My very willing model, Ella, was not as much of a challenge to photograph compared to the action on the field, as she provides a best case evaluation of the camera/lens combination in this lighting condition. I waited until darkness, thus only illuminated by the lights on the field and without any fill-in flash to evaluate how my Canon MkIII sensor might perform with the ISO ramped up. I had the camera set to full auto with highest resolution JPEG capture, which the camera defaulted to a moderate ISO 1600 to obtain a 1/60th second exposure at a fully open lens aperture of f/4.0. I had composed this photo with lens set at 70mm, thus a decent pairing with the 1/60th shutter speed, especially in conjunction with the tri(mono)-pod.
I think that this photo passes night photography muster; the original JPEG file has plenty of sharp detail and the sky has only a tab bit of noise. This camera/lens combination is a much better choice compared using the smaller sensor of the Canon XTi.
Btw, Ella did a mighty fine job cheering her little brother’s team on to victory last night.
Cheers!
Singular Images 