PEOPLE 240 – GOING TO WORK 8

 

 

.

I’d arrived in the city centre by bus at 0700 – at this time of year well before sunrise.  It was night time still in the city, empty, echoing and with garish lighting, dark corners and certain cold.  And so to the plan – I had a plan!  Hart’s Bakery, nestling under a Victorian railway arch next to the railway station, opens at 0700 (I don’t even like to think about the hour that the bakers must get in there to start work), and at 0705 I barrelled in through its rather plain and unobtrusive door – only to find myself already seventh in the queue!

And so to a second breakfast – as proof against the cold – well, that was my story anyway.  None of their absolutely wonderful sausage rolls (the best I’ve ever tasted) being available at this early hour, I ordered a toasted cheese sandwich and was confronted by four slices of  sourdough bread made into two whopping toasted sandwiches filled with molten cheese – and a large black coffee too.  I never thought I’d manage it all, but when food tastes that good its easier to be resolute with oneself …

And so, brimming with warmth, back out onto the cold streets (and slowed down a bit from the weight of food …), I very soon had the realisation that, since I almost never use a tripod – they get in the way far, far too much – the D700 was going to have to be firing at 25,600 ISO – and so to a test shot, to try things out.

These three are standing at a bus stop on the main road going southwards out of the city, staring back down the road, waiting for their bus to appear.  The actual bus shelter is between them and the camera – you can see its scratched, transparent perspex on the left.  And the bright red object in the lower left corner is the shelter’s seat – you can sit on this bench ok, but homeless people are not able to bed down on it for the night – which says much for our caring society.

The D700 is now over eight years old and, speaking in terms of the digital era, not far from being a museum piece.  When it appeared in 2008, the world was astounded at the 25,600 ISO it (and its “parent” D3) could provide – but of course such high sensitivities are commonplace today – Nikon’s current flagship DSLR can get up to over 3 million ISO.

Working at 25,600 ISO, the D700 does produce grainy, noisy images but it still does the job and – maybe this goes without saying – it is an absolute joy to handle and use.  So, grainy and noisy it may be but, as always – and this is a fundamental article of personal faith – I’d far, far rather have a noisy image than no image at all. 

And back in the “old days”, i.e. pre-Lightroom, I’d have either gone with the image as it was, or tried to reduce its noise via Nik Software.  But now, following the explanations in my great big, wonderful Lightroom book (The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC/Lightroom 6 Book; Martin Evening; ISBN 978-0-133-92919), I’ve attacked the noise with Lightroom and am certainly impressed.  I’ve most likely not done as good a job as I might have but I can certainly live with that – and, anyway >>> here’s the (cropped) image.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

There are other images from this Going To Work series here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 165mm; 25,600 ISO; 1/60th, f5; Temple Gate, central Bristol, sometime around dawn on 2 Dec 2016.

.

.

.