{"id":48722,"date":"2020-03-04T19:15:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T23:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=48722"},"modified":"2020-03-05T01:24:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T05:24:18","slug":"late-night-available-light-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/late-night-available-light-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"Late night available light portraits in Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Late night available light portraits in Las Vegas<\/h1>\n

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<\/a> \u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) – we were able to use just the light on the part of the Strip we explored. Here are a few of my favorite images.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

All the images here were taken with the Sony A9 camera<\/a>\u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) and the\u00a0Sony FE 135mm f\/1.8 GM lens<\/a> \u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>),\u00a0wide 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Camera settings for these images<\/h2>\n