yellowish photos in low light museums

I'm a novice using Canon Rebel 2000/EOS300 and the lens that came

with it (35-80mm f/5.6 I believe). I never realised the importance

of a fast lens until I got to the London museums taking photos of

artifacts in extermely low light conditions. Most of my pictures

especially of the swords and armors (metallic stuff) came out

yellower than my eyes observed and of course, blurred. I used

shutter priority mode which I suppose was not quite right. No tripod

allowed. What could I have done in this situation?<div></div>

Couple of things going on here. Fast lens is not really the issue. Yellow looks like the cast from incandescent bulbs. Filters can cure this but... they absorb a lot of light and will blurr handheld shots even more. Most museums allow monopods. Ask ahead of time. This allows slower shutters with less blurr. Flash would allow faster shutter speeds to reduce blurr and give a color that you're film is balanced for. BTW There are tungsten balanced films available but they're slow films (ISO 160) and won't help the blurring.

If you use flash for this kind of closeups, I'd use a small softbox (name excapes me) to reduce real hot spots. This shots looks like even at your max f/5.6, you don't have enough depth of field to render the entire helmet in focus. A faster lens will not cure this. You need a smaller aperture which in turn is going to want more light (flash). Another option is much faster film. This can solve the DOF and camera shake issues but it's going to leave you with the yellow cast unless you filter (then you'll need real fast film, maybe 1600 or 3200).

Nora, you have already identified one culprit, i.e., using a lens that is pretty slow, especially for the work you were doing. Something around a 1.4 or 2.0 would make a tremendous difference. Even just an f2, would have resulted in a three stop difference(assuming you were shooting at f5.6), i.e., if you were shooting at say, 1/15, with the f2 lens you could have shot at 1/125 at the same aperture. I don't shoot Canon, so I don't know if you can use an older manual focus lens but if so, you could probably pick up a used 50f1.4 or f1.8/f2 for a fairly low outlay. Also, you do not mention the film speed you were using. Depending on the film you were using, you may be able to pick up another 1 or 2 stops by going to a 400 or 800 or even 1600 speed film. Obviously there is always a speed/quality issue to balance, but most of the time a sharp/grainy image is preferable to a blurred image. The "yellowish" issue is probably a result of using daylight film in the tungsten light of the museum. Fuji has a number of fast films that have a 4th layer that will typically give a more neutral rendition under warm tungsten lighting. You might also consider just practicing shooting, even without film. For slow shutter speed shooting, most will advise to take deep breath, exhale a small portion of the breath, try to remain steady and slowly squeeeeeze the shutter release. Also pay attention to how you hold / brace the camera. Lastly, and maybe more properly firstly, consider a book on low light photography from bookstore/library.

Lastly, there is nothing inherently wrong in shooting in shutter priority. But you do need to watch aperture the camera is selecting - I assume the Canon will indicate when the selected shutter speed is too fast to allow a "proper" exposure. Obviously, you need a shutter/aperture combination that will give a correct exposure and that is also within the capabilities of the lens and your ability to hold the camera sufficiently still.

Best regards,

1. FUJI films...You might try the NP series (NPS, NPH, NPZ) they

have good colour controll. Expensive but good.

2. A 5omm f1.8 lens

3. If you are just starting out, a good rule of thimb is: Never shoot at a

shutter speed that is less than the focal length. i.e. T<FL=BLURR.

4.Shoot manual, with most films you can get away with "stealing" a stop

or so thus if the meter says 1/80th at f1.8, shoot 1/40th at f1.8. The pros

here will argue this till they die, but most printers can handle printing a

correction for you. This will not work with slides.

5. Buy a filter (as mentioned above) blue will do. Or use Kodak EPJ

320T (320asa) slide film T for "Tungsten" . It's rare, expensive and it

works. Big camera stores might have it.

<b>Hi Nora! <br><br>

Here are a few suggestions:

<li> Check to see if you can use a small monopod: Many of them

collapse to 12-16 inches in length;

<li> If you can't use a flash, see if you can use a steady-on

camcorder light: I've seen small, 3 watt units, and slightly larger

15 watt units. Alternately, you can use a <i> non-flash </i>

fluorescent macro ringlight: It doesn't "flash" and won't attract the

attention of the guards;

<li> Kodak EPJ is a nice film: It's ISO 320 balanced for tungsten

light; and you can pick it up cheap on eBay: I picked up five 100

foot bulk rolls for $11.95 per bulk roll. Plus, EPJ can be pushed

one stop to ISO 640 without much pain;

<li> Don't use Kodak EPH ISO 1600 film: It's actually ISO 400 film

exposed at E.I. 1600, and push processed two stops to ISO

1600;

<li> Be careful when "cooling" daylight film with an 80A or 80B

conversion filter for incandescent lit situations: You'll pay with

1-2/3rd to 2 full stops of absorbtion in the filter. </b> [The

opposite isn't true, however: You only lose 2/3rd stop when

using an 85 or 85B to "warm up" a daylight or flash scene when

using Type A or Type B Tungsten film...] <b>

<li> Big Glass: Using a <i> prime </i> (non-zoom) lens will give

you a lot of "bang for the buck:" I'm not knowledgeable in Canon

mount compatibility (I'm a Nikon guy); but that being said, if you

can use a manual focus lens you can pick up a Canon mount

50mm or 55mm f/1.4 lens for about $50; or even better, pick up

another half stop with a 50mm or 55mm f/1.2 for about

$150-$175, both on eBay. </b> [These are compared to new

Nikon AF/D lenses which are $115 for a 50mm f/1.8 and $235 for

a 50mm f/1.4 at B&H...] <b> When you use Big Glass like this,

you'll also get sharper images with less chromatic aberration

and vignetting; plus you'll be able to play around with various

filters since they absorb 1/3 to over 2 full stops;

<li> Alternately, you can pick up a 135mm f/2.0 lens:

Occasionally a nice Soligor will pop up on eBay for about $150 or

so;

<li> Having a fast (low aperture number) lens is like wearing too

much clothing when it's warm: You can take off clothing (stop

down the lens), but if you don't have enough clothing when it's

cold (not enough light coming through the lens when it's wide

open), <i>you're screwed!</i>

<br><br>

When shooting at a given location and scene, you need to treat

the whole camera/lens/film/flash group as an integrated

system:<br>

*** Depth of field vs hyperfocal distance;<br>

*** Lens focal length for background compression; <br>

*** C41 or E6 film, or digital; <br>

*** Filter selection;<br>

*** Lighting: Available or flash.<br><br>

</b>Here are two search strings you can use on eBay to get you

Kodak Ektachrome EPJ film; and Canon prime lenses... Just

copy & paste the text into any "Search" box:<br>

Canon (50mm, 50 mm, 55mm, 55 mm) -zoom -repair -Nikon

-Minolta -body -tripod<br>

(Kodak, Ektachrome) (320, EPJ) <b><br><br>

Cheers! <br>

Dan Schwartz <br>

Cherry Hill, NJ <br>

<a href = "http://users.snip.net/~joe"> Click here </a> to visit my

home page <br></b>

Most minilabs should easily be able to remove a tungsten color cast on daylight-rated negative film. So it really isn't worth using a filter to remove it. Sometimes when you have just a few shots on a roll under tungsten light they won't make the adjustment. It depends more on the quality of the photofinisher. Kodak's Perfect Touch system seems better in this regard.

Using a flash as the main source will be the best way to avoid all of the issues in your photo. Don't use it on camera though, especially when taking pictures through glass. Get an off camera shoe cord which will still allow the TTL to work then experiment with holding the camera in one hand and the flash in the other. This technique can give some great pictures.