Back in the film days (it’s amazing how many people have no idea what the heck I’m talking about) when shooting in low light one pushed Trim to iso 800 and overdeveloped it to bring out the shadows. The result was grainy, to say the least. That’s exactly what my results from the Mardi Gras parade look like – right down to the resolution and grain size. The fitst two of these images were exposed at two stops underexposed at iso 51,200 – try and calculate the effective iso there. 800 and maybe a little under from there, was pushing it for Tri-X. These were certainly pushing it for digital RAW. I none of these could I see who I was shooting – I relied heavily on a combination of lit signs and loudspeaker announcements – and pointed. Fortunately my auto-focus works pretty good in the dark.

All were shot at 1/250 of a second, wide open at f4.0 – my 24 to 120mm equivalent lens. I credit the new 40 megapixels with reducing the size of the “grain” on these super low-light exposures to approximate that of the Tri-X/800 stuff.

What do I think of them myself? Good question – I do love the effect on the intro shot, a drum march tribute to Cliff Giles. A naturallly attained retro look. 

For the shot below, I made five exposures – on four of them April (hey, I couldn’t pick out anyone) showed bending over to pick up more necklaces. At least here she’s tossing in the opposite direction. This is Hushdown providing entertainment on the Star Center float:

The Mayor’s float – a tad closer to properly exposed at iso 51,200. Just wondering if he means to hang on to the necklace in his hands:

There are a few more, hopefully fun shots, to add to the collection. It’s a little bit of a multistep process even before converting to b&w – and then making an image. Added to the Mardi Gras folio HERE…