High ISO: Your friend in low light

The 2020 version of Lightscape at the Chicago Botanic Garden presents just as many photographic challenges as last year. Again, to camera supports are permitted so what’s a photographer to do? First, decide how often you will be taking pictures in very low light level scenes. When/if your answer is quite often, consider purchasing a really “fast” lens. That’s one with a max aperture in the “ones” (i.e 1.8, 1.4 or 1.2) and will, no doubt, be a prime lens. These have only one focal length which permits them to be sharp at their one and only focal length. The wider the max aperture, the more you will usually need to spend on the lens.

I’m fortunate enough to have a cat and dog who bought a fast 28mm lens for my 2019 birthday. Yes, they needed quite a few bake sales to underwrite the purchase and I’m so glad they did since this one goes to f1.4. Yes, I can stop the lens down to f16, but what’s the point since this is a low-light lens. If that’s appealing to you, check out fast, prime lenses. Low light photography is about as addicting as macro.