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iPhone as a keylight! -

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CK1DFW

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Picked up my D3 yesterday and immediately fell into high ISO test mode. Incidentally, I think the reason we go there as new equipment owners is to test the limits of our gear and find it's operational boundaries. I don't know if I'll ever need ISO 6400 for a real shoot, but it is good to know it is there if you need it.

That said, I looked around our office for the darkest hole possible to test out my 50 f1.4 and the D3 at 6400. By the way, Program metering doesn't like the dark. It will make an exposure if you force it with the shutter button, but "Lo" is flashing in the viewfinder. I quickly changed over to manual and found the correct exposure after a few shots by 'metering' via the jumbo display. The shot below was literally shot in the dark. No lights were on in the room and the door was closed to the main IT room where this photo was taken. Inside the IT room is a small closet with equipment racks. The subject stood in the doorway of the closet facing the equipment rack. Notice the blue light in the background...that's a blue LED from a Dell Server about knee high to the subject. It puts out such little light, I didn't even see the blue on the background with my naked eye. I was surprised to see it render at all.

The crazy thing is that the subject's key light in this image is his iPhone! It's not even set to full brightness (about 75%). The warmer light is actually the monitor from a computer about fifteen feet away in the other room.

The image is a tad soft because it was hand held at 1/20th wide open @ f1.4.

Simply incredible!



http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2077811153&size=l
 
this picture will sell a lot of d3 cameras for nikon..

much more informative than the "hockey" promo that they sent out
 
mood-lighting with status-LEDs. Subject bathed in light from his phone. I shoot artwork for my gallery; looks like I can get rid of those 250w incandescents and just have someone stand by with a couple Bic lighters.
 
The truly unbelievable thing about the shot in the original post is that the room was that there was ZERO ambient light.

Only the key from the iPhone and the fill from a computer in the other room.

I can't wait to do some night time street photography. There's a whole new world that has been lurking in the shadows just waiting to be documented.
 
Where is all the light on his palm coming from (underneath the iPhone)? Are you saying that's reflection back from his face? I tried it with my iPod Touch and it's pretty damn dark.
 
There's a 17" LCD computer monitor about 15 feet away creating that "fill light" on his face and hand.

I wish I had a handheld meter to see what it read, but like I mentioned earlier, the camera's meter was reading "Lo".

I just played around with the shutter speed until it looked right.
 
This camera "sees" at least two stops deeper into the shadows than any other camera ever made. You could easily make a case for three stops.

It is possible we see a whole new genre of photography emerge called "Available Darkness". :)
 
Good point Philip.

I used to shoot editorial portraits for magazines in the early 90's and my minimalist lighting kit was four strobes and a very heavy power pack. Of course I was shooting 2 1/4 100ASA transparency film too. I look at some of the scans of those images today that were shot with a Hasselblad and Zeiss glass and I'm absolutely dumbfounded at what today's 35mm profile digital cameras are producing in terms of overall quality and sharpness.

Needless to say, if I was going to get back in the editorial portrait game, I could see making battery powered strobes the core of my location kit. Maybe even some lower wattage hot lights.

Cool stuff.
 
I already do that since 2000 when I started using a D1. I have a ´30 minute portrait kit´ that I use for editorial portraits. The idea is that making a portrait takes 30 minutes, including arriving, coffee, small talk, setup, shooting, break down and saying goodbye. The kit consists of two Metz 45CT flashes already mounted on stands with umbrellas and one 60 CT unit for overall lighting of the room or backlight effects. Takes me two minutes to set up or break down. Looks like this.










CK1DFW said:
Good point Philip.

I used to shoot editorial portraits for magazines in the early 90's
and my minimalist lighting kit was four strobes and a very heavy
power pack. Of course I was shooting 2 1/4 100ASA transparency film
too. I look at some of the scans of those images today that were
shot with a Hasselblad and Zeiss glass and I'm absolutely dumbfounded
at what today's 35mm profile digital cameras are producing in terms
of overall quality and sharpness.

Needless to say, if I was going to get back in the editorial portrait
game, I could see making battery powered strobes the core of my
location kit. Maybe even some lower wattage hot lights.

Cool stuff.
Click to expand...
--
Philip

 
reck said:
mood-lighting with status-LEDs. Subject bathed in light from his
phone. I shoot artwork for my gallery; looks like I can get rid of
those 250w incandescents and just have someone stand by with a couple
Bic lighters.
Click to expand...
LOL, you could actually use this setup. Amazing tool. I wish I needed it. : )

--
Have a Nikon day. : )
 
Nice work Philip.

Your kit sounds very interesting.

With the D3, I'm thinking maybe three LED flashlights would make a good kit. :)
 
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