The Terracotta Army And Photographing In A Museum With Difficult Lighting Using An Olympus E-M1 Mark II

The Terracotta General symbolically leading his warriors (click to enlarge)

NEW! As of January 1st, I've started an Instagram feed. I'll be posting photos daily so please follow at dennisamook. Thank you. 

Lately, as I have explained in-depth here, I've been conducting an experiment to see if the M4/3 format can fully meet all of my photographic needs as my needs now have changed. My goal is to exclusively use my M 4/3 gear for every photographic situation I encounter as well as take it everywhere I go.  This blog reflects one aspect of this test.

Chariot and rider pulled by 4 horses. (click to enlarge)

A week or so ago, my wife and I, along with close friends, drove to Richmond Virginia to visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  The VMFA is an outstanding facility and I would recommend paying a visit if you are in the area of central Virginia.  One of their current exhibits is the "Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China."  If you are not familiar with the 8000 or so life-size terracotta warriors, horses, chariots, etc., that were buried along side the first emperor of China, here is good reference information from Wikipedia.  In my opinion, the entire story as well as the warriors and associated artifacts, buried with the emperor for his protection in the afterlife about 210 BC is simply amazing.  I think they easily rival any of the Egyptian archaeological discoveries.  If you have an opportunity to see these wonderful life-size sculptures, I highly recommend it.  The exhibit runs through March 11.  But I digress.

Terracotta General (click to enlarge)

Typically, museums are dimly lit with spotlights directed toward the articles they are exhibiting.  The rest of the room is normally in subdued light creating a high contrast situation.  I felt this type of environment would be a good test of using high ISO, having high contrast and dealing with the resulting digital noise.  My plan was to only take the E-M1 Mark II, the 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens and the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 lens, in other words, my "grab and go" kit.  With the exception of the four horses, carriage and rider with umbrella which was made at ISO 6400, the remainder of these images were made at ISO 3200.

Kneeling Archer (click to enlarge)

I settled on ISO 3200. I could have used a lower ISO but I wanted to keep my depth of field quite deep.  All of these images were made at either f/5.6 or f/8.  Shutter speeds would not have been a problem at a lower ISO as the IBIS coupled with the IS in the lens would give me a sharp image even with relatively long shutter speeds.  In the past, with this combination, I have consistently made sharp images for as long as 1 full second. But, as I said, I wanted to keep the DOF relatively deep to capture all detail up close as well as in the large exhibit room.

(click to enlarge)

I've included a small sample of the images I made.  All in all, there were two exhibit rooms of artifacts and a large room with containing the warriors themselves.  I'm pleased with the performance of the Olympus.  I never did use the 17mm lens.  All of these images were made with the 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens.

Terracotta cavalry horse and rider. (click to enlarge)

Terracotta cavalry horse and rider. (click to enlarge)

Braided tail. (click to enlarge)

Large flask with serpent design (about 12" in height). (click to enlarge)

Detail from large flask with serpent design.(click to enlarge)

Gold and silver inlay clothes hook (about 6" in height). (click to enlarge)

Ritual Bell (about 15" in height). (click to enlarge)

Armor and helmet made from limestone and connected by copper wire (click to enlarge)

At ISO 6400 and ISO 3200 there was quite a bit of digital noise, which I would expect.  But I have a solution to that which I will tell you about in my next blog post.  I would say this little camera and lens combination passed this test.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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