The famous terracotta soldiers buried in Xian, China in 210 B.C. in the tomb of an emperor of the Qin dynasty are viewed from an elevated platform. The shooting angle is oblique, and therefore in order to maintain complete depth of field so each of the figures are sharp, especially because I used a 100-400mm telephotos, requires a lens aperture that’s very small. The low light environment means that either I had to use a very high ISO or a tripod. In spite of the sign that prohibits tripods, my local guide said that the guards never bother photographers who set up tripods, so that’s what I and my photo tour group members did. Direct sunlight came in through some very high windows, and in this particular situation I liked the contrast and the interesting shadows on the soldiers. My settings for these pictures were 400 ISO and f/32 with shutter speeds in the 1.3 second range.
2 Comments
Sep 24, 2016, 5:28:49 AM
Jim - Hi Carlton, I shot this two days ago around 10:30am. The sun was moving, so this was the only time (given a range of about 1/2 hour) to take this picture. Later would have meant the direct sunlight would have disappeared.
Sep 24, 2016, 12:41:44 AM
Carlton McEachern - Hey Jim nice shot. What month and time of day was this shot at. Would earlier or later have rendered more light through the windows?