I was invited along to preview the new Honda Civic tonight, so I took the opportunity to take a few shots the highlight some of the model changes.
At one point I was asked if I had enough light for that, bearing in mind that this was an after-hours, after dark showing of the new car. The answer was, unequivocally, yes. This was down to a number of factors. First of all, the car was white. Big help. My camera is also pretty good with moderately high ISO’s, and the 18-270’s vibration control did the rest. I restrained the focal length to 35mm and moved in closer to buy myself an extra stop from the maximum aperture.
There is a sure fire way to improve your chances of success under these combinations, and it’s something that I’ve picked up from years of shooting macro subjects. Hold your breath, and pull very gently away from your subject as you press the trigger. That way, you isolate any camera shake in a single plane, and it’s in the one that will have the least effect on the image sharpness. Any slight lateral movement is then taken care of by the stabilisation motors, allowing you to shoot at very slow speeds for your chosen focal length, even when focusing at close range.
I have to say, Honda hosted an interesting evening with lots of lovely canapés, and sweets from my childhood. The car, for those of you who are interested, has lots of little improvements which amount to whole lot more car.
Nikon D300; Tamron 18-270mm @ 35mm; ISO 800; F/4.5; 1/8s. VC on.
the days zoom past 