Sarah’s Portraits
September 29, 2008We just took some pictures of a friend of ours. Lots more of the same technically 50 f/1.4 for everything. Here are some pictures.
Bridals @ the Arboretum Pictures
September 26, 2008Pictures from Bridals @ the Arboretum
Family Portraits
September 25, 2008We just took some family pictures of my wife and her mom at a park in North Dallas. It’s a really nice park for natural light and a green background.
Once again, I shot exclusively with our 50mm f/1.4. This time I generally had it stopped down to an f/2.8. On a few of the shots I had to stop down even further to keep both of them in focus. Overall, the pictures turned out nice.
I tried a new Picture Control setting that I had downloaded from the Nikon website. I used the Dx2 Profile I for those who know what I’m talking about. I wanted to see the difference between that profile and the D2X Profile III. In my initial looks I believe I prefer the Profile III. The profile I used for this shoot came out too flat. The colors were muted and there wasn’t much contrast to any of the pictures. While this is fixable, I’d like to get alot closer to my finished product straight from the camera instead of relying on alot of post processing. I won’t be using that profile for any of our portraits in the future.
Wedding Last Saturday
September 23, 2008We just shot another wedding this last Saturday in Mesquite at Mimosa Lane Baptist Church. Overall the wedding went very well and the pictures turned out great. We got to go around taking details shots and our 50mm f/1.4 turned out very useful again. I really like the lens because you have so much control over depth of field. The ability to blow everything else but the subject is really neat. I tend to shoot the 50mm at about f/2 – f/2.8. If I get much bigger then that the depth of field gets so short the subject isn’t even in focus.
It was a nice day so we got to take some of the formal pictures outside, but we were mainly limited to inside with only stage lighting. I don’t understand why they build these churches without windows in the sanctuary. It’s so limiting as far as light goes and the look of artificial light is so much different. We definitely prefer natural light over artificial because it produces a much softer, and more pleasant light which we like.
They are off on their honeymoon this week and I’ve just finished the proofs and they are off to the lab to get printed. I’ll come back and add some pictures once they get a chance to see them.
Skeeter Football
September 19, 2008So tonight was our first exploit into sports photography. I know that Assistant AD for the district because I played basketball for him when I was in high school so I asked if he could get me a sideline pass. He very graciously did and so I had the opportunity to stand on the sidelines of the high school football homecoming game to take pictures. I had a really good time and got some great shots. I also was able to play around with the auto focus system of the D300. Football, as we all know, is very fast moving and blurry out of focus pictures aren’t any good. I shot most of the night at ISO 800 or 1600. This sufficed to stop the action as far as motion blur goes. I also shot at aperture priority with f/2.8. Through all this I was able to get the right shutter speed to handle the action. The only complaints I have was that the auto focus on the 80-200 AF-D was a little slow in some situations, but the 51 point 3-D tracking was priceless.
So along about the 4th quarter one of the professional sports photographers I had kinda been hanging around and shadowing a little (without him knowing) came up and offered for me to use his 300mm f/2.8 with VR that he wasn’t using. I very quickly agreed and we walked over and hooked it up to out D300. The difference was amazing! Not necessarily in image quality as much as easy of use. The auto focus was blazing fast and the VR was great. Every time I’d hit the shutter button half way to focus the VR would start up and the lens would have a little vibration. It was weird at first. The other great thing is that with my DX sensor I had effectively hooked up a 450mm f/2.8 lens. You can get real tight with that kind of length. I had a blast shooting with his 300mm and it was a real experience to use a real professional quality lens.
The photographer that I borrowed this lens from was shooting a Nikon D3 with from what I could tell a 600mm f/2.8. He could shoot from behind the end zone and then when the action went to the far end of the field he’d pull out his tele-converter. He could shoot the whole field from one end zone. The other thing that I noticed was how unbelievably fast he was clicking of pictures. He was definitely running at top speed and probably shooting ISO 6400, which the D3 is famous for.
I must give a big thanks to my fellow photographer that let me borrow his lens. I’ll leave everything anonymous just because some people don’t like to be named on the net. But thanks alot.
