A Birthday at the Birmingham German Christmas Market
Posted on December 16, 2015
For the second year running, a few weeks ago me and a bunch of mates visited the Birmingham German Christmas Market. I must be honest, the non-consumable things on sale don’t interest me all that much. What does interest me is all of the hot alcoholic drinks and various meat based snacks… oh, and of course the taking of photos.
This year I went with my mates G, Amy, Tom and Alex, it was G’s birthday night out, so the drink flowed possibly slightly quicker than the photos. The photos got a little more abstract toward the end of the evening too…
Shot with HP5 pushed a couple of stops. I pretty much just shot everything at 1/125th and f/1.5 or f2 (from memory). The camera was my Leica M-A (review here), the lens my Zeiss 50/1.5 Sonnar (review here).
Cheers for reading,
Hamish
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I started taking photos at the age of 9. Since then I've taken photos for a hobby, sold cameras for a living, and for the last decade I've been a professional photographer.
You can find out about all my other projects on - hamishgill.com
Great photos! Would you say that for low light black and white is better than colour? Did you do any postprocessing such as adding contrast/clarity? Love the occasional flare in these…
Black and white is easier for low light, under exposure doesn’t look as horrible. I do tweak the blacks slider in Lightroom a little to even them out as AG just scan to what they think is right contrast wise per frame (if that makes sense). I don’t tend to touch anything apart from blacks though. The flare is, as mentioned before, one of the lovely things about the Sonnar 🙂
Great shots, Hamish! I really like the one with the smoke, and the tonality of the 2nd one (of your two friends). Just curious about the shutter speed…why not 1/60 or 1/50 in low light rather than 1/125?
Just habit really – I don’t tend to shoot 1/60th unless light is especially low. A lot of the time there was plenty enough light anyway – more than was needed for even 1/125 and f/2. When I shot 1.5, it was more for the effect.
6 Comments
Aukje
December 16, 2015 at 5:00 pmGreat photos! Would you say that for low light black and white is better than colour? Did you do any postprocessing such as adding contrast/clarity? Love the occasional flare in these…
Hamish Gill
December 16, 2015 at 5:08 pmBlack and white is easier for low light, under exposure doesn’t look as horrible. I do tweak the blacks slider in Lightroom a little to even them out as AG just scan to what they think is right contrast wise per frame (if that makes sense). I don’t tend to touch anything apart from blacks though.
The flare is, as mentioned before, one of the lovely things about the Sonnar 🙂
Tony
December 17, 2015 at 4:49 pmGreat shots, Hamish! I really like the one with the smoke, and the tonality of the 2nd one (of your two friends). Just curious about the shutter speed…why not 1/60 or 1/50 in low light rather than 1/125?
Tony
Hamish Gill
December 17, 2015 at 5:44 pmJust habit really – I don’t tend to shoot 1/60th unless light is especially low. A lot of the time there was plenty enough light anyway – more than was needed for even 1/125 and f/2. When I shot 1.5, it was more for the effect.
I am Jack's Brain
December 17, 2015 at 10:01 pmWow, those are some nice shots.
Hamish Gill
December 17, 2015 at 10:25 pmThanks Jack’s Brain 🙂