Photography: Shooting under moonlight with the Sony A7S

Here's a short behind the scenes video:

As part of a new Photography section of EOSHD I'm going to be taking a closer look at some of the best cameras and lenses for stills. The Sony A7S makes new creative possibilities a reality with its incredible sensitivity to light. Shooting a personal project with my sister Zara Reid to showcase her floristry work, the boat was dressed and floated on the lake to create images inspired by the 1888 John William Waterhouse painting Lady of Shalott, in turn based on the beautiful 19th century poem of the same name by Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson. Here's the first verse...

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
The yellow-leaved waterlily
The green-sheathed daffodilly
Tremble in the water chilly
Round about Shalott

Our friend Sacha lights a candle light at ISO 8000. The results are buttery smooth and the blue glow of the lake is pure moonlight. You can also see stars reflecting in the surface of the water.

For the shoot I used the Voigtlander Nokton 35mm F1.2 full frame Leica M mount lens and Canon EF 50mm F1.2L wide open.

Willows whiten, aspens shiver.
The sunbeam showers break and quiver
In the stream that runneth ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

The shoot also had a daytime component, then dusk. Here's the boat freshly decorated by my sister Zara at the start of the shoot.

You can see more of her floristry work here at her own blog - Zara Reid.

First of all are the daytime photos, then later we'll get to the moonlight stuff...

Underneath the bearded barley,
The reaper, reaping late and early,
Hears her ever chanting cheerly,
Like an angel, singing clearly,
O'er the stream of Camelot.
Piling the sheaves in furrows airy,
Beneath the moon, the reaper weary
Listening whispers, ' 'Tis the fairy,
Lady of Shalott.'

During the day I shot raw at ISO 200. I found colour responded brilliantly in raw with the A7S. Even though it has 12MP compared to the 36MP of the A7R it is my preferred stills camera of the two.

In Adobe Camera Raw I was able to give a purple hue to reds which made this shot more painterly and other-worldly.

The little isle is all inrail'd
With a rose-fence, and overtrail'd
With roses: by the marge unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken sail'd,
Skimming down to Camelot.
A pearl garland winds her head:
She leaneth on a velvet bed,
Full royally apparelled,
The Lady of Shalott.

The location for the shoot was Cold Springs Farm in Derbyshire, UK near the small spa town of Buxton in the north of England...and yes it rains a lot.

No time hath she to sport and play:
A charmed web she weaves alway.
A curse is on her, if she stay
Her weaving, either night or day,
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be;
Therefore she weaveth steadily,
Therefore no other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

We aimed for a 19th century England feel to the images, in particular a grounded countryside look - more so than a modern glossy fashion shoot. The Canon 50mm F1.2L used on the Sony A7S via the Metabones Mark IV adapter does have quite a retro feel to the images it produces despite giving a high contrast, richly saturated result. It's one of my favourite lenses of all time and now finally I have a Sony camera that can do a lot more with it than Canon's own bodies can.

She lives with little joy or fear.
Over the water, running near,
The sheepbell tinkles in her ear.
Before her hangs a mirror clear,
Reflecting tower'd Camelot.
And as the mazy web she whirls,
She sees the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.

I loved the way the A7S picks up colour in the autumn leaves of this shot on the lap of the model.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
Goes by to tower'd Camelot:
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

Dynamic range is close to 14 stops on the A7S just like the 36MP A7R.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, came from Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead
Came two young lovers lately wed;
I am half sick of shadows,' said
The Lady of Shalott.

As dusk approached, we began thinking about the possibilities of ISO 12,800 and above all the way up to 409,600. Nobody has been able to shoot handheld with fast shutter speeds in moonlight before the A7S existed.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flam'd upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

With my Canon 5D Mark III I would have packed up at this point and gone home, since there's no point going above ISO 3200 with it.

The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down from Camelot:
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armour rung,
Beside remote Shalott.

A few more final shots in dusk conditions as the sun dropped below the horizon.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
As he rode down from Camelot.
As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
Moves over green Shalott.

I love the smooth tonality the A7S delivers in the water here between the light surface and the dark shadow cast by the boat.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down from Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flash'd into the crystal mirror,
'Tirra lirra, tirra lirra:'
Sang Sir Lancelot.

The poem is a great metaphor for modern life. A lady has a curse on her which means she can never look directly out of the window of her tower down onto Camelot, she must instead slave away a tapestry painting of it, only surveying the scene via a reflection in a mirror.

She left the web, she left the loom
She made three paces thro' the room
She saw the water-flower bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott.

Under pure moonlight only and some candle light, at ISO 25,600 only the very faintest fine grain begins to creep into the stills produced by the Sony A7S.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Outside the isle a shallow boat
Beneath a willow lay afloat,
Below the carven stern she wrote,
The Lady of Shalott.

Tiny ripples in the water from an unknown source were captured at ISO 25,600, with them being invisible to the naked eye at the time of the shoot.

A cloudwhite crown of pearl she dight,
All raimented in snowy white
That loosely flew (her zone in sight
Clasp'd with one blinding diamond bright)
Her wide eyes fix'd on Camelot,
Though the squally east-wind keenly
Blew, with folded arms serenely
By the water stood the queenly
Lady of Shalott.

Larger ripples were created by simply rocking the boat.

With a steady stony glance—
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Beholding all his own mischance,
Mute, with a glassy countenance—
She look'd down to Camelot.
It was the closing of the day:
She loos'd the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Completely invisible before and by pure chance the farm's tractor approaches on full beam - flaring up mist evaporating from the lake. The shoot will be part of a series I am doing with my sister Zara Reid.

As when to sailors while they roam,
By creeks and outfalls far from home,
Rising and dropping with the foam,
From dying swans wild warblings come,
Blown shoreward; so to Camelot
Still as the boathead wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her chanting her deathsong,
The Lady of Shalott.

Now thanks to the "farmyard Arri light and generator" we had the Lady of Shalott floating on clouds!

A longdrawn carol, mournful, holy,
She chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her eyes were darken'd wholly,
And her smooth face sharpen'd slowly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot:
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

The white balance adjustment on raw files allows me to give a warmer feel to the shot as opposed to the blue-cast of moonlight, here we emphasise the warm glow of the candle light.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden wall and gallery,
A pale, pale corpse she floated by,
Deadcold, between the houses high,
Dead into tower'd Camelot.
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
To the planked wharfage came:
Below the stern they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

And back to moon-light again... plus tractor light! The drain in the lake was in the background of some shots but Adobe's content aware fill removal tool got rid of it perfectly.

They cross'd themselves, their stars they blest,
Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire, and guest.
There lay a parchment on her breast,
That puzzled more than all the rest,
The wellfed wits at Camelot.
'The web was woven curiously,
The charm is broken utterly,
Draw near and fear not,—this is I,
The Lady of Shalott.'

A behind the scenes shot of my sister positioning the boat with a rope. Moving the boat around and especially keeping it still was more difficult than expected even in a still lake with no wind, even the slightest movement can fling it out of position or rotate it to the wrong angle for the shot.

Here in a shot at ISO 40,000 the town lights in the distance interfere with the background but it's astonishing to see the background at all... to my own eyes it was a pitch black sky.

Flare glances in sideways from the tractor headlights. Lens - Canon 50mm F1.2L.

And that's a wrap!

The original source of inspiration for my sister Zara Reid. The English painting by John William Waterhouse, Lady of Shalott (info on Wikipedia).