BoulderSunday meets Sunset meets 420 meets "higher math"
The sun set tonight at 4:20 PM. That's pretty early and I felt like some sort of ceremonial observance was in order. There was a lot going on really, and some of it got away from me just a bit. Not a problem though, and I'll explain...
I thought we should head down to the golf course and walk along the shore. Look for a couple of boulders at the same time for @shasta's #bouldersunday. I also had this old manual focus lens I wanted to play with...
There's a decent size boulder for you. The lens is only mediocre but still fun to play with. A little while had passed since 420 and it was getting darker. Harder to focus, but that's not all. I insist on doing everything on full manual with my Olympus EM5 Mkii. Sometimes that means you have to think about stuff. There can be "higher math" involved.
Anyway, no big deal, it's just that I wasn't thinking and I lost a couple of great shots. My ISO was set way too high (1600) and my shutter speed was way too high (1/800 second)
So here's the thing - and this will only be of interest to camera nerds:
My shots at ISO 1600 suck because they're too noisy. But why shoot at 1/800 second? I can easily hand-hold the Olympus at 1/3rd second! Ok, we don't need to go that slow, but how about something sane like 1/100th second? Watch what happens now with the math. (Understand first that a change of plus or minus "one stop" of light means a doubling or a halving of the amount of light.)
Reducing shutter speed from 1/800 to 1/400 gains us one stop of light.
Reduce further to 1/200th. That's another stop.
Reduce further to 1/100th. That's 3 full stops of light gained by slowing down the shutter speed. We doubled the light three times.
2 x 2 x 2 = 8 times as much light.
That means we can now give back some ISO to match.
Reduce from 1600 down to 800 ISO - that loses us one stop of light.
800 down to 400 - that's another stop.
400 down to 200 that's three stops of light lost, cancelling out the three stops we gained with the shutter speed. Our exposure is exactly the same, except look where we are now - 200 ISO is the base on this camera... essentially no noise.
Higher math. Just need to divide or multiply by two, but that was beyond me. Did I mention the sun set tonight at 420 exactly? What are you gonna do?
Here's one of the shots I lost - out of focus and way too noisy from that high ISO setting. You couldn't print this image at all but If I'd done it right it might have been awesome...
Blah, blah, blah... what are you talking about and what does it matter?
The first shot in this series (ISO 200) is absolutely clean and you could blow it up quite large. The final shot is very grainy and noisy - you shoud see it on a large screen, it could never be printed. Three clicks of my shutter speed dial would have made the final shot as clean as the first. That's math and that's science! :)
@shasta - that island is basically a boulder too! Happy Boulder Sunday!
Thank you @pixresteemer!
love the 1st one 👍 👍
Thank you! If you dive into that first shot and go straight forward exactly 72 miles, you will be in Seattle.
As your sun sets, our rises. Great photos. #WhereIsThis?
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you! This is Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The west coast of Canada, on the Pacific Ocean.
Higher math is good, it makes great geometry :-)
What a very cool #bouldersunday @keithboone!!
Thank you so much for participating!!
Amazing the sun set right at 4:20 🌅
Wow a whole boulder island, do they get
big waves out there?
I enjoyed the bla bla info and your boulders!
Won't be long now till we be celebrating the
growing longer days.
Thank you! The darkness is starting to get on my nerves! We don't get a lot of big waves here, I wish we did! The immediate waters around here are pretty sheltered, but as you move west along the coast of the island there are places with EPIC waves. Tofino is one such place, famous for storms and surfing. What we do get around that island are strong rip tides. I'm glad you enjoyed the "higher math" :)
Glad you were celebrating the exact sunset time! Wish I could have been there..... taking pictures, I mean!
Right. Taking pictures. :)
Wish you were there too, Melinda!
that island is one big boulder! lol. amazing sir keith and very interesting about the photography, I mean the camera settings as well as wonderful scenery! In other words another great post!
Well, it's made out of rock, so I just don't know where boulders end and islands begin! :) Thank you!
Howdy sir keithboone...that's a wild area if everything is rock! Is that a local section of Victoria coastline?
That is a bit of shoreline quite close to home, here in Victoria. The island is called Trial Island, and I believe this name comes from the British Royal Navy who maintained a Pacific Northwest naval station here in the mid 1850's. During that time they did some shipbuilding here, although I haven't found many details about that. I imagine they were fairly small ships and I've heard that part of a new ship's "Sea Trials" would involve sailing out of the navy base and up the coast to here, and then around the island - most likely dealing with winds and rip-tides etc. So a ship, and commander, would need to deal with basic trials of sailing.
Howdy again sir keithboone! Oh that is very interesting too and makes perfect logical sense! Thanks for the information.
It's a Canadian Navy base now, with several ships headquartered here, although I'm pretty sure they can no longer fit through the tiny gap around that island.
howdy tonight sir Keith! oh Canada has a navy? lol. just teasing. yeah if one of those big ones tried to fit around that island they'd get stuck.
We're a country surrounded by ocean on three sides, and you lot on the other... Pretty sure we're going to need a wall soon!
@janton a sister ship of the one above is in the Black Sea today along with two US ships and one each from Italy, Germany, and Turkey. They are being threatened by the Russian navy and buzzed by jets.