Anne : Boudoir For Her Husband

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Robert Mitchell

Senior Member
Anne wanted to do something a little special for her husband. She has no aspiration to be a model but she did an outstanding job anyway.

Camera & Lens:
Nikon D700 & Nikkor 24mm f/2 manual focus

Settings:
ISO 200, f/11, 1/160s

Lighting:
53" Octa w/inner and outer diffusion [1][positioned above and to camera left], [2][positioned above and to camera right]

[1]
p1406572868-5.jpg


[2]
p1406572858-5.jpg
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
Robert, this is a learning question for me as I love the work you do.

Why not iso 100? Shutter speed become too slow? No particular reason?
 
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Robert Mitchell

Senior Member
Moab Man said:
Robert, this is a learning question for me as I love the work you do.

Why not iso 100? Shutter speed become too slow? No particular reason?
Click to expand...

Hi Moab Man,

Thank you.

I generally work at a camera's native base ISO, which in the case of a D700 is ISO 200. I've been known to use the expanded ISO settings for ISO 100 but most often when using flash or strobes I stick with ISO 200. I can't say that I've seen or experienced and difference in image quality of noise but I just feel better working within the normal ISO range of the camera.

Regarding shutter speed, when you're working with strobes, and assuming there is no ambient contribution (no ambient contribution in my studio unless I choose to have it), then shutter speed doesn't play a role in exposure and is only used as a sync speed, so in the case of choosing an ISO setting, shutter speed is unaffected. I usually sync at 1/125 or 1/160s when syncing with my Elinchrom Skyport triggers and 1/200 or 1/250s when using Pocket Wizards.

If I'm shooting with ambient light then that's entirely different and I do consider my ISO to give me the fastest shutter speed based on the desired aperture. If I need to introduce or diminish ambient contribution then shutter speed does come into play and can be controlled by choosing an appropriate ISO setting.
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
Thank you. My reference to shutter speed was that at iso100 maybe the shutter speed needed to work with available ambient light might be too slow and the slight movement of the model could cause a blur.

Again, thank you.
 
R

Robert Mitchell

Senior Member
Moab Man said:
Thank you. My reference to shutter speed was that at iso100 maybe the shutter speed needed to work with available ambient light might be too slow and the slight movement of the model could cause a blur.

Again, thank you.
Click to expand...

Yup, I knew that, but wanted to give an overview of the scenario. As long as there is no ambient contribution then the flash duration of the strobe becomes the effective shutter speed and the shutter speed on the camera doesn't really matter. For instance, my strobes have a flash duration of about 1/2000s at the power setting I typically use, and if that's the effective shutter speed with little to no ambient contribution then I'll never have any trouble freezing my subject, even if they're moving around a bit.

With lesser quality and budget strobes, one of the first things that gets sacrificed is flash duration and I've seen strobes that have a 1/125s flash duration. If that's the effective shutter speed then you'd have to be much more careful about subject movement as well as camera movement to ensure sharp images.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
These so-called "native" ISO's remind me of the movie "Spinal Tap" where the guitarist explains that his amp goes to 11 and everyone else's stop at 10. Since ISO is defined by the manufacturer only, it becomes very subjective as to what is ISO 100 vs. ISO 200. I'd bet my D800's ISO 100 will not have any less noise than your ISO 200. An easy experiment would be to have a D800 side by side with a D700 and see what shutter speed on each camera wants to be at. If the shutter speeds are the same then the ISO must be essentially the same.
 
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