I love the challenge of extreme low light shots, especially in a situation where tripod and long exposure is out of the question. This is where capable equipment really shines.

I was on an evening flight and the cabin lighting was turned way down so everyone could have a good rest. Taking a candid shot of this attractive flight attendant was irresistible to me. I had to employ every asset I had to get the shot. Like someone once said, he would trade a thousand paintings of Jesus for a candid shot.

I would like to share the technical details in getting this shot. Firstly, I had an Image Stabilization lens that gave me a benefit of 2-3 extra stops. I needed all the focal length I had, 105 mm, to get the shot, which kind of negated some of the gained stops. Secondly, I had an awesome camera which was virtually noise free, Canon 5D. I set the ISO to 3200. To gather all the light I could without jeopardizing my image being ruined by the constant vibration and movements of the aircraft, I set the exposure manually to the best I could possibly achieve: f/4.0 aperture (maximum aperture of the lens) and 1/8 sec. (the maximum speed the Image Stabilizer could handle in this condition without camera blur). I shot in RAW but did not have to make any exposure adjustment to the image. Hope you like it.

More crazy low light shots to come in the next few days.