{"id":5152,"date":"2023-07-26T09:12:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=5152"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:18:48","slug":"photographing-in-a-wine-cellar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2023\/07\/26\/photographing-in-a-wine-cellar\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing in a Wine Cellar"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was at a fabulous winery in Napa Valley, California.\u00a0 (If you\u2019re a wine lover like I am, you don\u2019t need me to tell you that Napa Valley is in California so my apologies.)\u00a0 The winery was Castello de Amorosa \u2013 the Castle of Love.\u00a0 It is a replica of a medieval Italian castle.<\/p>\n

Now let me clarify a misperception about the castle.\u00a0 A rumor is going around that the castle was dismantled in Italy and reassembled in Napa Valley.\u00a0 Not true.\u00a0 Some pieces of the castle were brought over from Italy but the bulk of it is local stones.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it\u2019s a beautiful and authentic replica of the real thing.\u00a0 It has a great room, chapel, a torture chamber, and honest to goodness wine cellars lined with hundreds of barrels of aging wine, which, by the way, is quite good.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t look for this wine in markets or gourmet restaurants however.\u00a0 The only place it is sold is at the winery.\u00a0 But if you would like to tour it, give me a call and I\u2019ll meet you there.)<\/p>\n

I was with a group, participants in the workshop I was leading, and we got a private tour.\u00a0 We all had our cameras at the ready and were photographing just about everything, even the torture chamber (especially the torture chamber?).\u00a0 The wine cellars were very dark, however, and the aisles extended for hundreds of feet.\u00a0 There were dim light bulbs sparsely scattered the length of the aisles.\u00a0 Some of the barrels had labels on them.\u00a0 Celebrities frequently bought an entire barrel of aging wine, so these barrels were set aside for them.<\/p>\n

I was eager to photograph the wine cellars but there was an exposure problem to solve.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a tripod, I\u2019m shooting hand-held, so I can\u2019t rely on a lengthy shutter speeds for a good exposures.\u00a0 So, each side of the exposure triangle posed a challenge and required a solution.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with shutter speed.<\/p>\n

What shutter speed should I use for handheld shooting?\u00a0 Well, that depends on the focal length of the lens.\u00a0 After all, the rule of thumb for sharp handheld images is 1\/focal length.\u00a0 OK, I knew that.\u00a0 The lens I was using was my go-to 24mm to 105mm lens.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to have to change my shutter speed every time I zoomed to a different focal length, so I chose a speed of 1\/120 sec that covers all the zooms up to and including the longest.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s really fast for a dark environment.\u00a0 But hold on.\u00a0 The lens has image stabilization which is good for 1 to 2 stops.\u00a0 In other words, I can increase the exposure time by 1 to 2 stops and still get a sharp image.\u00a0 So, being the cautious guy I am, I chose 1\/60 sec.<\/p>\n

But wait, I normally shoot Aperture Priority where the camera chooses the shutter speed.\u00a0 Gotta switch to Manual.\u00a0 OK, that\u2019s done, and I set the shutter speed to 1\/60 sec.<\/p>\n

The next decision to make is the aperture.\u00a0 If I shoot wide open, which for this lens is f\/4.5, I don\u2019t get the depth of field I need for shooting down the long dim aisles.\u00a0 Now the depth of field will vary with the focal length so if I\u2019m shooting at 24mm then I can use a fairly wide-open aperture but if I\u2019m shooting at 105mm I need to stop way down, say f\/11.\u00a0 Once again, I didn\u2019t want to have to change the aperture for every shot, so I went with f\/11.<\/p>\n

But a relatively fast shutter speed and a smaller aperture severely reduces the amount of light that passes through the lens and falls on the sensor.\u00a0 That leads to the final decision.\u00a0 What ISO should I use? \u00a0And not having eyes that work like light meters, I don\u2019t have a clue.\u00a0 Furthermore, something has to change from one lighting condition to another.\u00a0 And since I\u2019m setting and forgetting shutter speed and aperture, that adjustment falls on ISO.\u00a0 Let the camera set the ISO.\u00a0 Fortunately, my camera has Auto ISO, so I switched from ISO 100 to Auto.\u00a0 And I\u2019m all set.<\/p>\n

Since the cellar is much darker than a sunny day at noon, the camera selected the higher ISOs and in the really dark places, maxed out the ISO.\u00a0 As a result, many of the photographs have lots and lots of noise.\u00a0 At the time I took these photographs, Lightroom\u2019s noise reduction was state of the art, but state of the art then was not very good.\u00a0 But that has all changed as a result of the AI tsunami and how everyone is going bonkers over it.\u00a0 Lightroom now employs AI in their noise reduction function and it\u2019s like magic.\u00a0 The only thing is it can take a long time to do its magic, sometimes as much as 10 minutes and even more.\u00a0 Oh well, it\u2019s a small price to pay for a dramatically improved image.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the camera\u2019s setup.<\/p>\n