***DSLR/Photography MegaThread***

[VF]

Just f'in around today:

That'd be a good stock photo. I might have to redo that one with the camera mounted on a tripod set to a lower ISO and have it on a background instead of just on the floor.

I think the wood floor has a very "homey" feel that works well with the blocks, but I guess it never hurts to try it out

I didn't realize how dirty my living room floor was. This photo is kind of strange, because it looks as if the tower tilts to the right. I swear I lined up the tower to the crop grid when I rotated it! I even tried it three times! I think the near-white highlight on the right side of the tower of blocks draws they eye and makes it appear tilted when it isn't.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

For me, it is the horizontal shelves, they look like the are sloping down on the left, which I am guessing might be due to not being perfectly parallel to the shelf unit when taking the shot. That or you have crooked shelving I also really like the GCC0041, a very contemplative look. CGG0004, omg that is a cute cat, great shot, those Christmas lights really have a nice quality of light to them.

 

[FBJ]

I think the wood floor has a very "homey" feel that works well with the blocks, but I guess it never hurts to try it out

Good point. Though I think I'll have to play with the yellow hues a bit.

That and clean the floor before I shoot it next time.

For me, it is the horizontal shelves, they look like the are sloping down on the left, which I am guessing might be due to not being perfectly parallel to the shelf unit when taking the shot. That or you have crooked shelving

Another good point. Since the shelves are straight, it must be that I didn't have the camera's face parallel to the shelves. It's amazing how a relatively small oversight like that can make or break the image.

 

[FBJ]

double post...sorry

 

[DeaderFan]

Although I have not taken many pictures yet with the D300, I happened to be at TSC during a Kings practice. Unfortunately I only had my 50mm lens with me. I shot this picture though the glass. While nothing special, it gives you an idea of what the camera can do under the lights at TSC. This was shot at ISO 1000 at 1/800 sec., F2, recorded as a jpeg on "Norm" setting.

Here is a full resolution crop of just the goalie's mask, to give you a better idea of the image quality.

 

[VF]

Wow, where you shooting custom white balance (like off a gray card) or did it white balance on its own? Looks great! Noise is fantastic as well for ISO 1000. Does this body also have some version of highlight priority? Did you get a chance to test that with the ice?

Very, very impressive image.

 

[DeaderFan]

The white balance was set to Auto. I took about a dozen shots and some had a little bit of a pink cast due to the vapor lights. You can see it a little in the lower left corner of this one. Other areas of the ice are balanced correctly. The problem at TSC is that some lights are pink and others are not so you get spots on the ice that are pinker than others. Also the corner of the ice below the security booth is in shadow and about a half stop darker than the rest of the ice. Still this rink is way better than most. On the Olympic side they converted to fluorescent lights and the lighting seems very flat and not quite as bright. I have not tried shooting on that side yet since they changed.

When I shoot at TSC (my kid's hockey) I shoot manual and set the exposure off the gray brick wall and Stanley Cup poster. This gets me close. I also look at the histograms of my first couple shots. Sometimes I might also use a hand-held light meter if I have it with me and am close to the ice surface. The thing about hockey is there is so much white ice that auto exposure often makes everything gray.

I think the auto white balance on this camera does a great job. With my D200 it varied quite a bit. Sometimes I would balance off the ice and still get inconsistent results. I had a wedding photographer friend play with my D300 a bit and he too was very impressed with the white balance. The D300 focus accuracy on moving objects seems better too.

 

[FBJ]

Last time I shot at TSC, I took a custom white balance setting off the ice itself. Worked pretty well.

Nice stuff, DF.

I need to work more so I can save faster.

 

[rinkrat]

So I took your advice and got the 580EXII and used it for the first time at the Derby Dolls chanpionship game. I was amazed at how much it evenly lit huge areas or even select parts of an area. Check out this page where they susd a few of the pics and look how well the flash lit things up.

http://www.losanjealous.com/2007/12...oll-championship-bout-the-doll-factory-12807/

Thanks for the advice, I'm glad I got the right flash! In fact I used it for the Naked Raygun pics later in the night and it was perfect. The technology on these things has sure improved sinced back in the day.

 

[FBJ]

Mike, those are some kick ass action pics, man!

Did you use a diffuser of any kind? If not, that'd be the only thing I could suggest that might make them look even better. Soften that light a little bit and cut down on the sharp shadows.

I lost the one that came with my SB800. I need to order a new one.

 

[Unfiltered]

Hey, Rinkrat -

Without having to go through all of your DD pics, are these settings consistent with what you shot with all night?

http://www.flickr.com/photo_exif.gne?id=2099260679

 

[VF]

So I took your advice and got the 580EXII and used it for the first time at the Derby Dolls chanpionship game. I was amazed at how much it evenly lit huge areas or even select parts of an area. Check out this page where they susd a few of the pics and look how well the flash lit things up.

http://www.losanjealous.com/2007/12...oll-championship-bout-the-doll-factory-12807/

Thanks for the advice, I'm glad I got the right flash! In fact I used it for the Naked Raygun pics later in the night and it was perfect. The technology on these things has sure improved sinced back in the day.

Yeah, its a big flash with lots of power, which is really really nice. Glad you like it! The pics look fantastic. There are some great captures there. The one comment I would make, and this is purely personal preference, but for action shots I might switch from front curtain sync (which is the default, the flash fires as soon as the shutter opens) to rear curtain sync (flash fires right before shutter closes). The only reason I would say that is that way you have motion blur leading up to the clear, frozen flashed image instead of a clear image with the blur following (if that horrible description makes any sense), you can see this clearly in the shot of the single red shirted skater's helmet and the shot of a couple of the ladies falling. Again, that is only personal preference, but I find that with action shots it feels a little better, as it feels like the subject is blurring into the image instead of blurring out, so it is more of a crescendo into the capture.

 

[VF]

Mike, those are some kick ass action pics, man!

concur!

Soften that light a little bit and cut down on the sharp shadows.

Even a piece of paper in a pinch

EDIT - Now that I am reading what you wrote with a fresh brain, my reply didn't make much sense. I thought you said "Stofen that light a little bit...", to which I was replying that if you find yourself without any of the standard light modifiers (stofen, Gary Fong Lightsphere) a piece of paper or index card and a rubber band works as well. I should really read what people write before replying

 

[Unfiltered]

Yeah, its a big flash with lots of power, which is really really nice. Glad you like it! The pics look fantastic. There are some great captures there. The one comment I would make, and this is purely personal preference, but for action shots I might switch from front curtain sync (which is the default, the flash fires as soon as the shutter opens) to rear curtain sync (flash fires right before shutter closes). The only reason I would say that is that way you have motion blur leading up to the clear, frozen flashed image instead of a clear image with the blur following (if that horrible description makes any sense), you can see this clearly in the shot of the single red shirted skater's helmet and the shot of a couple of the ladies falling. Again, that is only personal preference, but I find that with action shots it feels a little better, as it feels like the subject is blurring into the image instead of blurring out, so it is more of a crescendo into the capture.

Maybe if you could find some examples, that would be awesome.

 

[rinkrat]

Yeah, its a big flash with lots of power, which is really really nice. Glad you like it! The pics look fantastic. There are some great captures there. The one comment I would make, and this is purely personal preference, but for action shots I might switch from front curtain sync (which is the default, the flash fires as soon as the shutter opens) to rear curtain sync (flash fires right before shutter closes). The only reason I would say that is that way you have motion blur leading up to the clear, frozen flashed image instead of a clear image with the blur following (if that horrible description makes any sense), you can see this clearly in the shot of the single red shirted skater's helmet and the shot of a couple of the ladies falling. Again, that is only personal preference, but I find that with action shots it feels a little better, as it feels like the subject is blurring into the image instead of blurring out, so it is more of a crescendo into the capture.

Good call! Since it was the first time with the unit, I mostly shot with it on auto mode to be sure everything came out ok. I'll check the setting for the curtain because I would like to blur some on purpose but need to experiment and the championship game was not the place to do that.

 

[rinkrat]

Mike, those are some kick ass action pics, man!

Did you use a diffuser of any kind? If not, that'd be the only thing I could suggest that might make them look even better. Soften that light a little bit and cut down on the sharp shadows.

I lost the one that came with my SB800. I need to order a new one.

Yeah I have one that looks like tupperware and I used it on a lot of the shots. I wasn't quite sure when to use it so I tried it for most of the night since everyone said it was something you need. I kept the unit at 45 degrees as it says in the docs. I can't believe how it lit the entire bleachers on a couple of shots. I also like how it will light the subject but leave the background dark. Here is a good example of lighting the whole place up

 

[VF]

Maybe if you could find some examples, that would be awesome.

A very dry, but clear example can be found at on the Nikon Japan site, if you scroll almost all the way down the the bottom of the page, they have two images, one with a front curtain sync:

and with rear curtain sync:

And here are Canon's examples or the same thing (their flash page can be found here):

The one thing that is a little strange with the Canons is that both the camera and the flash have a setting for 2nd curtain sync, on the 5D it is custom function 15. On bodies that have a built in flash, that will control how the built in flash works. It will also control off camera flashes that are not "smart." The 580ex has a button to set the sync, the three triangles >>> is rear curtain, this will override what the camera custom function is set to.

 

[FBJ]

I'm having some problems with the SB-800. When I set it up to shoot remotely with the D200 and the 50mm lens, I get great exposures when the camera is set to f/2.8, but the image ends up under exposed when I stop the lens down to f/8 so that all the subjects in my portrait will be in focus. The flash is saying that I'm -3 EV, but I can't figure out how to jack the power of the flash up to properly expose the image at that f-stop.

I've tried increase the EV on the camera to its max and that doesn't work.

Any ideas??

 

[trdi]

I've tried increase the EV on the camera to its max (+1) and that doesn't work.

Was it at least better?

Also what remotes you have, what's the configuration? You are having one remote SB-800 in slave mode, right? Is it ALWAYS like you described when shooting at f8? I mean it always ends up underexposed by that much, no matter what the light is and what the subject is? What happens when you point at something far away? Also is it the same if you use spot metering and matrix metering?

 

[FBJ]

I've tried jacking the camera EV all the way up. The SB-800 still shows -3 EV. Metering mode doesn't make a bit of difference.

The ONLY way I've been able to get properly exposed images is if I jack the camera's ISO to 1200 or so. And then the picture quality is crapola for portraits.

Maybe I just need to get a second flash?

[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=laKnPbR6XgI"]YouTube - SB-Love[/ame]

 

[VF]

Hmm, of course I don't have an SB800 to try this out, but you can change the flash exposure by hitting the sel button then the + or - buttons, then hitting sel again to set it, you should be able to get 3 stops out of it that way. Something else sounds fishy though as the flash should automatically change it's output as you change your aperture if the flash is using i-ttl. Is the flash in TTL, TTL BL, or...., and is it set as the master in the group?