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Late night available light portraits in Las Vegas

March 4, 2020 Neil vN 2 Comments

Late night available light portraits in Las Vegas

During a chance connection at WPPI photography convention in Vegas, Lupita and I struck up a conversation … and later that evening we ventured out on the Las Vegas strip for a few late night portraits. With a fast prime lens – the Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM lens  (B&H / Amazon) – we were able to use just the light on the part of the Strip we explored. Here are a few of my favorite images.

It’s always an adventure using random available light like this — there is such a wide range of nuanced shades of colors that play over someone’s features … when it looks good, it can be quite interesting. Something out of the normal “clean” way of lighting our subjects. Still, I had to look for places where we could use the neon signs. I usually waited for a more neutral color from the lights around us, since a green (or overly magenta) skin tone is difficult to fix.

All the images here were taken with the Sony A9 camera (B&H / Amazon) and the Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM lens  (B&H / Amazon), wide open. Shutter speeds ranged from 1/60-1/160. ISO ranged from 1600-3200. However, most of these were bumped up by around 0.7 stops in processing the RAW files.

The escalator sequence especially was fun — the Sony A9’s eye-focus meant that as she slowly ascended, the camera accurately tracked her eye, regardless of my composition. I could just frame and trip the shutter as I varied my composition — the camera made sure her eyes were in focus, critically sharp. With the escalator series, I was at 1/160th – the fastest shutter speed I used this evening – because I needed to freeze any motion. Fortunately escalators fairly slowly and at a steady pace. All the images were crisply sharp for the high ISO settings I used.

 

Camera settings for these images

  • f/1.8  @  1/60 to 1/160th  @  1600 – 3200 ISO
  • available light only
  • Sony A9 camera (B&H / Amazon)
  • Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 GM lens  (B&H / Amazon)

 

Related articles

  • review: Sony 135mm f/1.8 GM lens
  • Available light photography – looking for good light  (model: Anastasiya)
  • Posing into the light for better portraits
  • Photographing with available light only  (model: Anna L Russell)

 

Filed Under: available light photography, portraits, posing, Sony Tagged With: available light photography, available light portraits


 

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Thank you,

Neil vN

Books by Neil van Niekerk


 




2 Comments, Add Your Own

  1. 1Michelle Gunton says

    March 5, 2020 at 11:15 am

    Wow that sony 135 is a beast. I really need to get my hands on one and try it out. Thank you for sharing your camera settings.

    Reply
  2. 2Valent Lau says

    March 27, 2020 at 12:36 am

    That escalator shot is amazing! Ours go so fast it feels by the time you get in position they’ve moved halfway up.

    Reply

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