I got to play some low light games after discovering a new (to me, after an absence) mural near Spears Wharf on the fourth and Clyde canal towpath.
Currently, almost guaranteed to be in the dark when I get there at this time of year, I collected an available light pic of this bird while travelling one way, then stopped for a quick flash on the other.
This was so late in the day I suffered the usual problem, too dark for autofocus (and too far from the big mural for focus assist light too).
Luckily, there’s also a new SpongeBob mural just beside the bird, and it’s white, so I was able to pick up the focus there, and use it for the birb, sorry bird.
It’s intriguing to note just how little needed to be done to this almost black and white image, compared to the colourful bird.
We’ve seen this area before, or at least the wall Bringing a little reality to a ‘Lady of the Forth and Clyde Canal’
It went downhill, hard, after that when Donald J Trump is spraying murals along the Forth and Clyde Canal
The bird came out surprisingly well, I still can’t get used to the half decent colour rendering I get in the dark, and was able to run a comparison between the natural light and flash result.
Both pics have had no sharpening applied, because they contain noise, and I accepted the automatic adjustments and corrections. I usually don’t, and prefer to do this myself, but not when it does a good job.
Given the distance from the wall, I more than a little surprised by the even light coverage of the flash (it’s tiny), although both this and the available light pic chose the maximum ISO available. Having a flat subject also helped.
The big difference being a wide open aperture for the light shot, while the flash was able to close the aperture down, and this seems to have made a noticeable improvement.
All I have to do now is remember to take a normal daylight pic in a few weeks, and see how that compares.
Secret Scotland 