R-D1s in very low light

[Lloyd Chan]

A candlelit wedding dinner presented a very challenging shoot with the R-D1s and 50 Summilux ASPH. Below examples were wide open @1600, 1/15s. The results were better than expected and I thought to share them here. First by candlelight only, second by mobile-phone display light/candlelight.

[bellyface]

yes that is lovely

I too am finding the low light shooting on the R-D1 to be real nice... lens choice is crucial of course, my nokton 40mm @ 1.4 is beautiful. This brings up a slightly different subject, lens choise for these kind of shoots. I think I might invest in some fast lenses, cause more of my photography is capturing expressions in available light...

[Geo]

Really nice shots Lloyd; in fact that bit of grain looks very good.
The R-1 is an excellent camera for low light, something that I did not expect
at all.
Geo

[Carzee]

The pic using the mobile phone "ring flash" looks best in monochrome imho.

[louisb]

Amazing, did you do any post-processing because if not then they are outstanding. I've done some low light work and been amazed but I had to convert the pictures to b&w to get what I thought was an acceptable image. Well done.

LouisB

[Lloyd Chan]

Very little post was applied. I find that most of the high ISO noise is in the R-D1 is found in the blue and magenta channels. After RAW conversion, I created a layer mask in Photoshop for "hue and saturation" and reduced the "lightness" of the blue and magenta channels (by between -50 and -75). This seemed to smoothen out the image without resorting to noise-reduction software.

[jlw]

Those are terrific results, and I'll bet the subjects loved them. Considering that it was routine procedure in the '30s-'50s, it's surprising now how many people don't realize that it's even possible to take pictures indoors without blasting them with flash -- when they see images like yours, they tend to be flabbergasted.

Lately I've been doing a lot of low-light shooting using my R-D 1 for 35 and 50 lenses and a Nikon D80 with an 85mm lens, both at EI 1600. After every session, it's been kind of depressing going through the D80 images and seeing how "sandpapery" they look compared to the R-D 1 images, even if I sample them down to equivalent sizes. (Some of that could be the inherent noise difference between 10mp and 6mp... but images from the 6mp Nikon D100 I used to use also looked rougher than the R-D 1 images, so I doubt it.)

Too bad the R-D 1 has been such a star-crossed adventure for Epson, because I think there's something special going on in the R-D 1's proprietary "EdiArt" chip...

[mwooten]

Lloyd,
Great photos! And thanks for the P-shop tip on reducing the blue channel noise.

Michael

[triplefinger]

This one is from a rock show at the whiskey a couple weeks ago. My J-3 wide open. I only adjusted the white balance in Aperture. I got a bunch of good ones...

asa1600

Mike

[0bli0]

Originally Posted by Carzee

The pic using the mobile phone "ring flash" looks best in monochrome imho.

LOL! that's quite clever.... yes, i think that one look better in mono as well.

great shots overall Lloyd.

[Terao]

The mobile phone ring flash is the low-light photographer's friend

Nokton 40mm @ f/1.4, ISO1600, way too dark!

[kds315]

I'll second the opinions expressed above - the R-D1 is great at ISO1600. These shots were done using a 4/90mm Minolta CLE at f4 and f5.6 :



....more here: http://www.pbase.com/kds315/rd1

[abumac]

The Monument for the victims of the bombs from 11-4-2004 at Madrid/ 1600 Asa. Its a really good camera. I bought it a couple of days ago.

35563d1177921937-gedenken-den-11-maerz-monument.jpg

[galavanter]

I don't comment on photos very often because I never know what to say. However your image, the tragedy, the monument, combine to evoke some truly powerful emotions. It made me think of the first time I walked down into the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., and at the same time I'm reminded of a science fiction movie (poster?), the title of which I can't recall. Otherwordly experiences in both cases. I really hope this was published, it certainly deserves to be.The fact that you used an R-D1, well I'm thrilled but it also doesn't seem very important now. But do post more of your work with the camera. Congratulations on a very remarkable photograph.

I want to add this link which provides a little background and includes a small photo of the monument viewed from ground level:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6439825.stm

Great Thread!