Low light adventures with the Z24-200

[billtils]

Continuing the exploration of the Z24-200 as an all-round, multi-purpose (and weight saving) lens, I took it to the most recent of my sessions photographing a local choir concert in a church. It's quite a challenging environment, with the light changing from a mix of day light and incandescent at the 7pm start to incandescent only at the 9:30 pm finish, no flash, finding good viewpoints that do not interfere with members of the audience, and in this particular location (The Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, Scotland) no suitable place to set up a tripod.

Here are a few sample images, with the settings

1: Entry of the soloists. (1/100s, f/6, ISO 3200)







2: The ensemble (1/40s, f/6.3, ISO 6400)








3: Drummer



This is a mono conversion because I like B&W but it's also one way to deal with the difficult lighting. (And yes it's an annoying background but the double base case was too much even for the very good Photoshop 24 remove tool)






4: The Boss!




1/15s, f/7.1, ISO 1250


All images were hand held, noise reduction by Topaz AI and all other editing by CaptureOne Pro

[Manfred M]

It looks like your new lens is doing what you were looking for. While a faster lens would gather more light, it would also give you a much narrower depth of field, which would not work all that well with what you are trying to do. Yes, the light is challenging, but you have managed it well.

In terms of the bright case for the double base, good old fashioned burning down the hot areas would be worth looking at. It won't remove the element, but can make it less obtrusive. I've burned it down, as well as the wall on the left, top of the drum, etc. When I retouch an image, that's where I spend 90% - 95% of my time.

[billtils]

Thanks Manfred. Regarding the double bass case I tackled it with a luminosity mask and exposure/highlights adjustment and didn't like it; your "good old fashioned" burning works much better