![\"_A1P6721-Edit\"](\"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A1P6721Edit_thumb.jpg\" "\\"_A1P6721-Edit\\"")
<\/a> Cologne Cathedral<\/p>\nYou may recall from the original post that I spoke of two things that go into every work of art \u2013 the artists Creative Vocabulary and the Interpretive Decisions he or she makes.<\/p>\n
In this instance, which focused on the technical aspects of getting the shot, the Creative Vocabulary consists of the capabilities of the camera and the knowledge to use them.\u00a0 The Interpretive Decisions are those decisions made in the moments that lead up to the instant the shutter is pressed.\u00a0 So let\u2019s step through what was going through my mind as I prepared to capture this image.<\/p>\n
Let me start by saying I was shooting a Canon 1Ds Mark III so the camera settings I discuss will be from among those offered by that camera.\u00a0 Your camera may have different terms for the settings or may have different settings in general.<\/p>\n
One of the first decisions I made was to push the ISO up to 1600.\u00a0 I did this because it was quite dark, I didn\u2019t have a tripod and wasn\u2019t allowed to use flash.\u00a0 One of the concerns at higher ISOs is noise but the current crop of digital cameras are quite good at minimizing noise.\u00a0 The Mark III has a full frame sensor so it\u2019s going to have lower noise than an APS-C sensor found on most other digital SLRs and way better noise properties than a digicam.\u00a0 Still, I wanted to minimize the noise even more so turned on the High ISO Noise Reduction feature.\u00a0 That function was found\u00a0 in the camera\u2019s menu.<\/p>\n
Another reason for shooting with a high ISO was because I was shooting hand held and needed a fast shutter speed.\u00a0 Now, I was using an image stabilized lens, my Canon 24-105 mm f\/4.0L.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great lens for hand held situations because it gives you a couple of extra stops of leeway.\u00a0 What does that mean in plain English.\u00a0 Simply this.\u00a0 The rule of thumb for getting sharp hand held images is to use a shutter speed that is at least as fast as your focal length.\u00a0 So if your focal length is 100mm you want to use a shutter speed that is at least 1\/100 sec.\u00a0 If your focal length is 200mm your shutter speed needs to be at least 1\/200 sec.\u00a0 Adding a image stabilized lens allows you to get away with a slower shutter speed.\u00a0 So if your focal length is 100mm you can get away with 1\/50 sec or possibly even 1\/25 sec.<\/p>\n
My preference is to give myself a little breathing room when it comes to shutter speed.\u00a0 So if my focal length is 100mm with an image stabilized lens, I prefer a shutter speed of 1\/100 sec.\u00a0 If I\u2019m not using an image stabilized lens I\u2019d prefer a shutter speed of at least 1\/200 sec.\u00a0 That way I just increase my chances of getting a sharp image if I\u2019m not completely steady\u00a0 when I press the shutter.<\/p>\n
In this particular shot the focal length was 24mm so I could get away with a shutter speed as slow as 1\/10 sec.\u00a0 With a little testing I realized that the interior wasn\u2019t quite as dark as I originally thought and that I could drop the ISO back to 800 and still get an exposure in the 1\/60 sec. range.<\/p>\n
The next thing that became apparent was that the windows were very bright compared to the rest of the interior.\u00a0 That is to say, the dynamic range was very great.\u00a0 Shooting HDR was not an option because I didn\u2019t have a tripod.\u00a0 But my Mark III has a menu option called Highlight Tone Priority which in effect gives the camera an extra stop of dynamic range.\u00a0 With Highlight Tone Priority turned off my crude testing indicated a dynamic range of 8 stops and with it turned on I can get 9.\u00a0 I also know that if my highlights aren\u2019t blown out I can recover more dynamic range in Lightroom.<\/p>\n
To keep the windows from blowing out however, I needed to apply quite a bit of exposure compensation.\u00a0 I ended up with \u20131 2\/3 stops.\u00a0 This skewed the histogram way to the left (shadows) but it wasn\u2019t so bad that I wouldn\u2019t be able to open up the shadows in Lightroom.<\/p>\n
As for the f\/stop, even with the high ISO I still needed to shoot wide open.\u00a0 But because of the short focal length (24 mm) I didn\u2019t need to worry about depth of field, as long as I didn\u2019t include anything very close to the camera.<\/p>\n
I normally shoot aperture priority and didn\u2019t feel a need to change that as long as I paid attention to the shutter speed.<\/p>\n
All that was left to do at this point was to compose the image, steady myself, hold my breath and gently press the shutter.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the final result of all the technical decisions.\u00a0 The image was captured at ISO 800, f\/4 at 1\/60 sec.\u00a0 The focal length was 24 mm.\u00a0 Exposure compensation was \u20131 2\/3 stops.\u00a0 The focal distance was 4.47 m.\u00a0 The histogram, which I always check after every exposure, was heavily skewed to the left as anticipated but there was no shadow or highlight clipping.<\/p>\n
There was a moderate amount of work to do in the post processing but the initial RAW file gave me everything I needed to create a successful photograph.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the before and after so you can see for yourself.<\/p>\n
![\"_A1P6721\"](\"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A1P6721.jpg\" "\\"_A1P6721\\"")
<\/a> Before<\/td>\n![\"_A1P6721-Edit\"](\"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/A1P6721Edit1.jpg\" "\\"_A1P6721-Edit\\"")
<\/a> After<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n