Better Available Light Digital Photography : How to Make the Most of Your Night and Low-light Shots

Fast lenses 121

Even at f/1.6, the EF 85 mm f/1.2 L II USM delivers good bokeh. This characteristic is generally considered
to be a product of the aperture’s shape (note the almost perfectly circular out-of-focus highlight) and spherical
aberration that’s inherently produced by a lens. © 2006 Joe Farace.

To create this faux cyanotype, Joe
photographed Lorie using only the
window light coming through his
home’s back door. (The cyanotype
was invented by Sir John Herschel
in 1842 and was the fi rst success-
ful nonsilver photographic print-
ing process. It’s blue, hence the
name.) The image was captured
directly in monochrome using the
Canon EOS 30D’s built-in blue
toning capabilities. (See Chapter
4.) Exposure was 1/125 of a
second at f/2.8 at ISO 320.
Camera was in Shutter Priority
mode and deliberately underex-
posed by^1 / 3 stop to increase
shadows and blue saturation. ©
2006 Joe Farace.