A7s Fire Photography (Arcadia)

[bendaure]

Heya Sony Alpha Forums

Im a long time reader and first time poster. I thought i'd share a photo im particularly happy with, which i took on the A7s. I usually shoot stills on a Canon 5Dmk3 but after seeing what kind of detail the A7s retains im now thinking that.... canon are actually quite rubbish.

I do photography for a group called Arcadia Spectacular, who make stages, sculptures, vehicles and allsorts out of recycled military hardware. The main stage they have is a giant spider that shoots fire 70ft or so up into the air, it's a real pleasure to take pictures of. It's quite easy to get a shot with the fire exposing the crowd but almost impossible to get the crowd and fire exposed at the same time as the fire is so, so bright but the crowd is so dark. I have tried so many different techniques to try get both but more often than not it either doesn't work or it's a photoshop job or the noise in the blacks is just so bad it's unbelievable.

 

However, after playing with a few RAW stills from the A7s i quickly realised that the detail in the shadows was...so good, that i could actually underexpose my image but 2/3 stops...and still bring the whole thing back with no noise. Coming from Canon this made my jaw hit the floor, as lifting the blacks even in a bit on a CR2 image immediately brings up noise even at the lowest ISOs. So what the sony could deliver for me was in the realms of impossibility.

So here is the image that the A7s manage to capture that the 5DMK3 could only dream of getting. The only thing i have done to this is lift the blacks and lower the highlight a smidge. Im actually thinking of selling my 5DMK3 for the A7r2 if it holds up to the hype and can use canon lenses with good AF,  I might even try get one to test for their next event to see what it can do.

I also have a load taken with the sun facing at camera and the stage totally silhouetted out and you can still bring all the detail and colour back with little to no noise, ill post some comparisons later today

I cannot put into enough words how impressed i am with this camera and from what Sony are delivering recently.
I hope you like the photo

If you want to see more of this kind of thing i have a load here, (They are a mix of A7s and 5DMK3) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/61757323@N04/sets/72157655440739261

 

Cheers for looking
Ben

 

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[wilcovdakker]

Man...these pics are pretty spectaculair! Wow!! Thanks for sharing