I never thought I'd have fun with low light and high film speed photography since I'm not much of a sports fanatic , but it is also useful for taking photographs of kids in the wintertime. Inside or even outside on a cloudy day sometimes the largest aperture and the fastest shutter speed for the light available is not enough to catch a moving image or even to put a still image in adequate light. So, you either have to use a flash or you have to increase your film sensitivity or film ISO (Internal Standards Organization). In my case, I'm talking about the digital sensor's reaction to light not film's reaction to light, but same gist without all the dark lab chemicals.
The photos of our boys below are at a fairly large aperture f/2.8, shutter speed 1/100-1/125, and ISO 1600. Normally, I shoot my photos at ISO 100-400 because there is less noise which gives them much more crisp quality. In fact, when I did my first photojournalism assignment of the federal agencies state agencies and city mayor addressing the public on air quality and health, it did not even occur to me to increase the ISO so that I could get brighter photo in a dark room. I was looking over at the local newspaper photographer wondering why her shutter speed was so much faster than mine; I just assumed her monstrous lenses has much larger apertures than my best of f/3.5 at 18mm or f/5.6 at 55mm. After that night when I collected some subpar photos, we discussed film speed in class and when I did my next mock photojournalism shoot of the scientists at the local university museum discussing their work in animal preservation for halloween, I had much better luck. However, that time I brought my 50mm lens because it has a larger maximum aperture of f/1.8, which was good because the rooms were extremely dark, but then of course I was restricted in each frame by the higher mm because the rooms were small and I had to back up all the way, stand on chairs, and then still couldn't get much into each frame. Both experiences were a bit awkward, but not too bad, and I definitely learned some lessons. The third time I try to get some newspaper-worthy shots, I should not have any trouble at all.
The house is caught at aperture f/5, 30 second shutter speed, and ISO 1600. The blue light on the snow in the foreground and in the sky is from the moon. Even though it is nighttime, the high film sensitivity to light and the long shutter speed, together, give the scene a day-time feel. In any of these 3 instances, using flash would not have given the same effect because it either would not have created enough light or it would have created unwanted shadows.
