Some of the Coolest Bokeh I've Seen.....

Ok, I admit, I haven't seem tons of bokeh yet because I'm just starting out.  But I "stumbledupon" this website--Instantashift and I was blown away.   Of course the title of the post "88 Brilliant examples of Bokeh..."  tempted me to peek.  I'm really glad I did.  Very inspiring!

I've started to play with blurring my backgrounds and foregrounds... but, as you can see the potential of this technique is amazing.  I'll post some of my own bokeh shots later next week...  I'm also going to start putting together the video I shot of the Run of the Roses Fashion Show a few weeks ago, (Where does the time go?)

How I Shot in Low Light--First thoughts on ISO, Shutter Speed and F (Aperture)

OK... I'm going to start putting my camera/video exploits up here so I can keep track of what I'm learning.  If you're reading this, you know that I just got my Canon 7D a couple of months ago.  My husband (the professional) and I went to Jamaica to shoot a destination wedding.  I, of course, shot "B camera footage".  In addition to following along at the wedding, catching different perspectives... I also woke up the day we were leaving and shot the beach, the pool, the buildings and anything else I could think of that could be used as extra good b stuff for Lenny's Cinematic Wedding Story. (Yup, you can check him out, he's a very talented wedding videographer... and that's my unbias opinion!)     While I was running around paradise, I learned a lot about the relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture.  I didn't use the flash once!

Ok, so a few weeks ago I was shooting the Run for the Roses fashion show (Gibbs College graduates and a few talented students were showing their stuff at the Atheneum.. It was fantastic!!)  Anyway, I wanted to take a few pictures of the hat cake one of my fellow faculty members made for the tea party that followed.

The tea party was down stairs  in a pretty dark room with no windows.   Here's what the picture looks like.

The settings I played with on my camera were Shutter Speed--(how fast the eye opens and closes) I set that to 60.  (Pretty slow so it stays open to let light in).  I had my 24 - 70 mm 2.8 Lens on... So my Aperture was stopped down to 2.8, the lowest I could go (Which is the widest  I could make it open up to let the most light in.) (Sadly I forgot to bring my 50mm 1.4 lens with me.)   With those two settings--Slow shutter and wide open lens, it was still really dark.   So I had to pump up my ISO setting.

The ISO setting determines how sensitive the sensor in a digital camera is to light.   The higher the ISO setting the more sensitive it is to light (making the picture lighter) However, the higher the ISO setting, the more grainy the picture.  Notice the blur in the background... very grainy.

So, how can I shoot in low light without the grainy appearance???????   (1.4 lens with a higher ISO setting?)  Maybe I need a flash.... I have so much to learn!!!!!!