ISO Question

[Callydosh]

My D200 doesn't seem to allow an ISO setting of less than 100? Now I didn't RTFM but the menu settings don't give me anything lower than 100. I'm curious because I love those Atget photos of the empty streets of Paris. Is there any way to shoot a long exposure in bright sun?

[OsmosisStudios]

No digital SLR shoots at anything less than 100iso. Hell, the full-frame NIkons have a loewst iso of 200!

To do long-exposures in bright sunlight you'll need another photography trick: a neutral density filter. Essentially these just block out visible light to a certain degree. They come in varying strengths including the ND1000, which is 10 stops of light blocking. Pair this with a low iso and tiny apertures, and youre into the tens of minutes easy.

[inkista]

Minutes, maybe. Tens of minutes, errrr you may have to stack filters for that, depends on the time of day and the kind of sunshine you get. Here in Southern California, I'm lucky if I can get a minute at iso 100 & f/22 with a 10-stop ND.


Canon XT, CZ Distagon 28/2.8. B+W #110 (10-stop ND). iso 100, f/22, 30s exposure.

Got rid of about 20 or 30 folks walking through the shot in a tourist-dense section of Balboa Park. 4:45pm. Yes, we have a lot of sunshine here just north of the Mexican border.

From the experiments I was doing, you need a minimum of 30 seconds' exposure, and you're better off with a minute or two to erase people and cars. And you hope that nobody stops and lingers for a while at any part of the scene.

The other thing to watch with a 10-stop ND is that the B+W #110 lets in more light near the infrared end of the spectrum, so you end up with a reddish color cast. Custom white balance or shooting RAW are a good idea.

[Callydosh]

...although a bit technical - I couldn't find an ND1000 in the B&H catalog and is the B+W 110 the same as an ND 1000?
All the same "neutral density" made sense and now I am on a learning quest.

Thanks folks.

[inkista]

Yes. The B+W 110 is also described as 3.0 and 1000x. There's also the Hoya ND400, which is a nine-stop, iirc. If you do a search on "B+W 110" on the B&H website, the filter will come up in all the different sizes. I found it cheaper on Amazon through a third-party seller.