The Party's Over

May 29, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Copyrighted Digital Photograph

An experiment in pushing the camera to its limit. Shooting parameters were:

Device: Nikon D800

Lens: VR 70-200mm f/2.8G with extender

Focal Length: 270mm

Focus Mode: AF-C

AF-Area Mode: Single

VR: ON

Aperture: f/4

Shutter Speed: 1/40s

Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority

Exposure Comp.: 0EV

Metering: Matrix

ISO Sensitivity: 2 EV over 6400

Mounted on Monopod with lens collar loose.

The situation

After hundreds of thousands of French protesters poured onto the Esplanade des Invalides, unusually consisting mainly of families with elderly parents, parents and children, younger, more aggressive and mainly male protesters took over the night watch. After corralling the most excitable faction, an amazingly calm army of riot police finally commenced the mass arrests which cleared the area. Photographing a distant, boisterous mob of people in a darkness broken by the grey smoke of teargas canisters, orange flares from protesters and the glare of journalist's camera lights is not optimum.

Technique

Technical solutions were to max out the camera's light sensitivity and increase the reach of the zoom to 270mm with an extender, with the whole setup mounted on a monopod. This set up and the available light from street lamps, the bus and photographers allowed a speed of 1/40s. This was adequate for the relatively calm situation and the fact that the journalistic flavour of the shot was not aspiring to pristine image perfection.

Given acceptance of overall imperfection as part of the character of the image imposed by the extreme conditions, post processing in Nikon Capture NX2 was not intensive. High graininess required more aggressive noise treatment, but the main issue was White Balance and darkness. The former was handled by choosing a Grey Point (on one of the uniforms of a Gendarme Mobile) and some Nikon "D-Lighting" applied to the whole image.

The story of an orderly end to a disorderly situation is revealed. CRS riot police form a lane to allow demonstrators to be led to the prison bus by the Gendarmerie, while press and TV journalists mill around in the space between and the detainees are frisked at the bus. Just another day in Paris.

Keywords: Extreme night conditions, Manif Pour Tous, Night, Nikon 70-200mm VR zoom, Nikon Capture NX2, Photeinos, φωτεινος

Comments

No comments posted.

Home»Blog

The Party's Over

Comments