Page 70 - Lighting the Unlightable Volume 1 #1

light reflected from the veranda would create a triangular sep-
aration across the room. Above that line, the volume of light

would be significantly different than the volume of light in the
lower area. Coupled with the fact that the ceiling was white, tall,
and had curved plaster work around the edges with the wall, the

volume of light would not be consistent in that section either.
(See the diagram on the next page.)

I wanted to start in the corner to the left of the windows that

opened onto the veranda. That corner had the least mount of
light, and, across the entire room, it would have been the “black-
est black.” The good news is that the volume of light in that area

was relatively consistent - more consistent than in almost any
other section of the room. The bad news was that it was excep-

tionally dark. Why was this a problem? Why not simply adjust my
camera accordingly?

Adjusting my camera to compensate would have resulted in a
loss of image quality. Optimal image quality in virtually every

digital camera is achieved when the ISO is between 100 and 200,
1
the aperture is between 8 and 14. Shutter speed, for the most
part, has little to do with image quality. Raising my ISO or low-

ering my aperture would have allowed me to get an image, but
I would have lost quality. Even if I had decided to go that route,

the higher the ISO, the more noise in an image. The more noise,
the more you lose image quality. Coupled with a shallower depth
of field, my images would have looked flat and drained of color.

It is also true that raising ISO can have another side effect -
“hot spots” that the camera can handle easily at F-8 suddenly
are blown out at ISO 1000, even at F-8. Effectively, I might fix

my exposure by raising my shutter speed, however, I would be
creating a number of problems that would require extensive re-

working in post processing to fix. I should also note that I have
to set the 645D to X-Sync which effectively "freezes" my shutter
speed at 1/125 of a second.

1 After sensors with roughly 24 MP in a DSLR, this isn’t true. Optimal aperture
drops significantly so that by 50 MP, optimal aperture drops to 3.2. This is not true
in a medium format camera.

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