Brian Zinchuk Publishing

The Estevan Chamber of Commerce holds an annual leadership seminar at the Estevan Alliance Church. This is a great shot I got from the event. (Click on the photo to be taken to the gallery.)

This photo, believe it or not, was not possible for me to take just a month ago. It was shot at 1/100 of a second, f/2.8, at ISO 6400 at 200 mm with a Nikon D4. The lens was the first generation 70-200 f/2.8 VR with the vibration reduction turned on and a carbon fibre Induro monopod below it.

The noise was cleaned up slightly in Adobe Lightroom, but just slighly. It would have been usable, out of the camera, without noise reduction. Even the ISO 8000 shots I got were quite usable, almost indistinguishable from the ISO 6400 shots.

The reason this photo is remarkable is the lights in this room were turned down so that the participants could see the big screen. The room was very dark, and has no windows. To give you an idea of how much light you need to properly light this room, a few years ago I was asked to take the 50th anniversary photo of the church. I used five strobe lights and a flash, all turned to maxium power and mounted along the walls, to get a good group photo of the whole congregation. When I clicked the trigger, they all went FOOOMP! This shot, in comparison, was taken without a flash.

I’ve shot weddings in many poorly lit churchs, but this one takes the cake. I didn’t think it would be possible to do an adequate job in the Alliance Church (my home church), but it appears that is now the case with the new gear.