How well does the A2 shoot in museums
2004.10.27 :: 星期三Post by Les Leventhal
I've shot literally thousands of pictures with my A2 in art museums around the US. It can produce excellent results except for dimly lit museums where you will have to use 400 ISO and put up with some noise. Here are some suggestions:
1. Make sure you use custom white balance (using a grey card, Expodisc, or white paper) to get accurate color. Room light and color can change for different places in the same room so you may have to set the white balance frequently, sometimes for each painting or object. Do not depend on the white balance setting of Incandescent to provide accurate color in museums lit by incandescent light. Incandescent bulbs used in museums are more yellow/orange than the Incandescent setting on the A2.
2. Many museums have mixed light: incandescent bulbs aimed at a painting but also a skylight on the ceiling (or windows) allowing in daylight. You absolutely need to do a custom white balance in these situations and often must do it for each painting or object since the mix of light can differ at each location.
3. If you set your lens at 28mm equivalent, this will reduce blur from handshake. You will be able to use shutter speeds down to around 1/5 second. (Shoot multiple shots at 1/5 second because some will be blurry.) But the disadvantage is that you will have to get close to paintings and, when close, there will be glare at the top of the painting from overhead illumination. Standing back farther and using 50-70mm equiv lens setting will help with the glare but increase blur from handshake. When shooting sculpture at 28mm equiv., a certain kind of perspective distortion will occur. You may or may not like this. Sometimes it can produce dramatic shots of sculpture.
4. Your biggest problem will be dim lighting, forcing the use of 400 ISO. Explore all ways of steadying the camera. Monopods are suggested on this thread but some museums won't allow them. I often use a chestpod but have had objections from some museums. I sometimes steady the camera against the end of a wall and use moderate telephoto. But musuems often don't want you to touch the walls. For objects in a glass case, as suggested on this thread, use your lens shade and steady the camera by pressing it gently on the glass. This works well.
5. If you shoot a lot of pictures, don't forget to ride the ISO control, moving it back to 200 or 100 in well lit rooms. It's easy to forget to do this.
6. After you shoot something, consider shooting also the card next to it that identifies it and give information about it. Museums often have mini-essays on the walls giving general background for the things in a room. Consider shooting these also. They are like having a tour guide talk to you about what you shot.
7. When shooting sculpture of white marble, you will probably have to overexpose, perhaps by an f stop, to prevent the marble from coming out grey. The same goes for paintings that are mostly pastel colors.
> Fantastic advice Les, but with all of the restrictions made by a
> lot of the Museums as you set out in section 4, I wonder how you
> managed to take so many shots ? You must be a silent Ninja or
> something ;) If they don't like tripods or even monopods, maybe
> they will let us bring our own wall !!
> Again, great advice, thanks.
>
> Stevekin.
In dimly lit rooms where shutter speeds must be slow, I pray to the anti-shake gods to see me through. They usually do, especially if I take more than one shot of a painting or object. Also, I usually get away with using a chestpod. I have also used certain miniature tripods. Some of them can be used to rest on your chest while you take the picture. Museums vary greatly in what they will allow you to do. The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC will let you use flash! Or so said a guard. (But A2 flash for a painting is a bad idea since you will see a hard reflection of the flash on the painting.) In contrast, the Art Institute of Chicago gave me a hard time when I used a miniature tripod on my chest. Most other museums will let me use a chestpod or miniature tripod on my chest. But my secret weapon is always anti-shake.
I forgot to mention that, when shooting sculpture, it is especially difficult to get the exposure correct. The hardest are white objects (e.g., from white marble) and black objects (e.g., from black metal). So you need to bracket. Good luck.