Monochrome Madness – Lighting Up

For this week’s Monochrome Madness, here is a shot I took 10 years ago. I was working in poorly lit conditions with the camera at its maximum ISO setting. At the time of taking, I already knew I would be processing it as a b&w to mitigate the sensor noise – ‘grain’ is so much more acceptable in a black and white image 😅

The background to this shot is my role as photographer for my local football club. Although most of my images are of the players in action I also take shots away from the action, including photos of fans. The gentleman in the image was a supporter with the visiting team. He’d turned his back to the game in order to shelter his pipe and lighter from the south-westerly wind. The light comes from the floodlights illuminating the pitch behind him, leaving his face in shadow.

Canon EOS 7D 70-200mm lens at 80mm: ISO6400 f2.8 at 1/640th (the settings in use to capture the action on the pitch – I had no time to change them). The image was processed in Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.