Tech Specs: D300, 50mm f/1.4

Tech Specs: D300, 24-70mm f/2.8, (1) AlienBee 400, Photoflex OctoDome3 w/ grid, and silver reflector

Tech Specs: D300, 24-70mm f/2.8, (1) AlienBee 400, Photoflex OctoDome3 w/ grid, and silver reflector

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.

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.

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.

We got new Alien Bees lights a couple months ago to do two dances for the local high school. We got 2 – B800′s and 1 – B400. We also got a Medium Photoflex OctoDome w/ grid, a Large Photoflex Litedome and a Small Photoflex Halfdome2 w/ grid. We are still getting use to them and I’m still searching for exactly how I like to set them up. We shot with a plain black backdrop. One B800 had the Octodome on it setup just to the left of the camera. The other B800 was setup to the right and behind the subject to add a nice key light. The B400 was setup with a boom overhead for a hair light, which is important in my opinion because she had dark brown hair which tends to get lost on a black backdrop.

We tried something different and shot most of the evening at f/8, which we usually don’t do because we want the background to be out of focus. But, being a solid black background this shouldn’t matter and we should get really nice crisp images from the stopped down lens. Shot everything with our Nikon 18-200 DX VR AF lens that we originally got with our D200.

For the most part we shot with little contrast and had very little shadows. We also cut off the front fill light for a side profile shot that would only highlight her belly. From my initial look these turned out nice. We also did a couple of shots that were only the front fill Octodome and used the black side of the reflector to put an even darker shadow of the backside of her belly while both parents had there hands together on her belly. Overall I think the shoot turned out real nice.

But, back to the 80-200. It’s a nice big and heavy lens. Definitely alot more sturdy then the other lenses we have. This is where our DX sensor comes in handy making it effectively a 120-300mm lens. I shot a few test shots when I got home from work with the dogs in the backyard. I definitely like the depth-of-field provided by the f/2.8. Bokeh looks nice and blows the background way out to focus the viewer towards the subject of the photo. With football season starting up, I look forward to shooting from the sidelines.

We had a good shoot. First major one with our new camera (Nikon D300). Had the settings that I found off of KenRockwell.com for portraits. Shot the whole day with our Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and a 42″ 5-n-1 reflector. Which sometimes proved to be a little hard because we’d have to back up so far with the 50mm (effectively 75mm) when we shot full length. Tried to stay in the shade for the most part for our comfort, as well as to avoid the harsh shadows of direct afternoon sunlight. The reflector proved to be a priceless commodity at the shoot. It did everything from reflect light into the dark shadows from the sun to help clear off the ground from fallen and wilted flowers from the crate myrtle blooms.

Seeing as we haven’t shot the wedding yet, we’ll add some shots from this shoot a little later. Their wedding is coming up in a week and a half and we are looking forward to having a good time there too.

Another thing that we have noticed is the extended battery life we have with the D300 compared to the D200. Shooting a whole evening doesn’t even put a dent in the battery. One thing we did get for the D300 that we didn’t have with the D200 is the battery grip. This allows you to add another battery and have a much more comfortable grip with shooting vertically. It also has front and back dials to adjust settings and a knob to adjust the AF sensor that is selected. Overall we are very pleased with the purchase.

This was also the first time that we used the reflector since we got it. The reflector proved to be priceless because we were able to shoot with her back to the sun, which produced a nice hair/key light, and reflect the nice golden light back up at her. While from time to time we did blind her, the shots turned out great.

After the wall we went to the train tracks which proved to be a nice location because it was away from most everything and gave a really nice non-distracting backdrop. From there we went to the jungle gym, which I had seen a few weeks earlier and thought it would be a nice location with grassy field behind. Lastly we ended up at the cotton mill in downtown. We weren’t the only photographers there that day but we managed to dance around each other and get the shots that we wanted.