When I went to the gym today, I had an idea to take a photo of the row of Swiss Gym Balls in the Pilates room. I wanted to use natural light and there is a glass door between the row of balls and a mirror reflecting some of the light. I thought it would be perfect. It wasn’t. Fortunately for me there was no class scheduled after 10AM when I wandered in there because it took me forever to figure out what to do. Focus was my enemy today. Even after I bumped the ISO up to 3200 and with the lens wide open at f/5.6, the auto focus refused to let me take a picture. I finally switched to manual focus and was able to capture a couple of in focus photos but the composition I sought turned out to be impossible for me to capture with natural light. This is what I got with manual focus; the balls reflected in the mirror; the light source between the mirror and the row of balls. I was pleased that the writing on the ball is in sharp focus but because I had to up the ISO to 3200, there is noise in the photo.
Lens at 170mm
ISO 3200
f/5.8
1/80
Manual Focus
SOOC
After I struggled with exposure for a while, I decided to try flash. I managed to capture the composition I was after using the built-in flash. I didn’t change any other settings but probably should have. Something else to delve into!
Lens at 75mm
ISO 3200
f/5
1/80
Flash
Auto Focus
Cropped
Very nice creative shot! Like the mirror one best, I think! Feelin’ your pain with light and ISO. . .