Yesterday I shot 144 photographs (not including ones I deleted because they were obviously blurry).
- Update Wed Nov 12 09:40:25 2008: I almost forgot— I took my first (usable) Manual mode photographs yesterday. I would only describe the experience as the most terrifying three minutes I have spent photographing. This will be a separate journal entry.
- I used Sports mode to shoot from the moving train, which seemed to work well for the most part.
- I shot some photos of a party going on in the Interior design building across the street. I used LiveView 10x multiplier to get a close-up of what was going on and used it to manually sharpen the focus. I rested the camera on a window sill.
- I also did some night photography on the way home (it was cold and my fingers were cold because of the wind (I wore wool-cashmere fingerless gloves), but the camera performed admirably). At the end of the day, I still had 50% charge.
If you held yourself up to the light
And the embers never fade in your city by the lake
—Tonight, Tonight
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The first thing that is obvious is that the photos are underexposed; since the camera over-exposes in daylight, the camera had -1.3EV exposure compensation set. The next thing that is apparent is the lack of noise at 400 ISO. Program Mode, ISO 400, WB: flou. [4 of 18] | |||
All the photos were taken with the camera braced agains a lamppost. I selected the aperture (2.8-5.6), WB, and the ISO and let the camera calculate the shutter speed (which ranged from 1/8-1/15). I wasn't checking the histogram in the reviews, but if I had, I would have noticed the photos were underexposed. It took 4 tries to get the McDonalds photograph without blowups; by the 4th photograph, the pair of girls hugging in front of the restaurant had left.
Update Sat Nov 15 15:00:57 2008: Perhaps subconsciously, I decided to re-watch The Godfather, Part II this afternoon. The film is famous for not only being better than the original, but for Gordon Willis' "under-exposed expressionism".