Figure 1 – Dusk in my hotel mirror, Tampa Bay, FL. (c) DE Wolf 2013

At dusk today I was working on my laptop in my hotel bedroom.  The lights were turned off since I had been enjoying the pastels of the waning day. When I looked up the last light was shining in the huge silver framed mirror above the desk.  It acted as a perfect frame of the sheer curtains and the sky outside the window.

It seemed the perfect opportunity for a photograph; so I grabbed my camera and was dismayed to see just how low the light was.  I set the camera for ISO 6400 and aperture priority.  Even so  the exposure with my EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM was 1/13th of a second at f/5.0 working at 44 mm.  I had heard that you can do this handheld with an IS lens, but I had never tried it before.  So it represented a real test of the IS system.  The result, which I deem a success,  is shown in Figure 1.

In my mind it was a black and white from the start.  You can see the graininess from the ISO 6400.  But for an old Tri X Pan guy like me this is actually pleasing. I gave it a slight cold tone to the mid range and warm yellow to the highlights.  It is rare that I cold tone, but in this case I like the results.