Day 2 - Five in Five

[davidc]

I totally agree on the ISO performance nowadays. Im pretty sure this is linked to the fantastic milky way shots you see regularly (visual candy to my eyes at least

It's not only ISO but it certainly helps. Lens choice is important and shooting conditions probably most . Having said that ISO6400 on the 6D vs 550D is astonishing in how it's improved and it does help in producing higher quality shots. Then when you amp it up to crazy levels it makes this possible

[davidc]

Now uploaded my day 2 shot onto Flickr.


TETRIS by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[Paul Heester]

I love this shot and think the title is great. I like where the main "road" intersects the image as well

This was one of the contenders for my shot today. It is a leaf with its lower side upwards on a lightbox, which I covered with clingfilm to protect the surface, and illuminated from underneath. In SEP2 I started with a preset which creates a negative effect and then made some further adjustments to bring out the textures and patterns. I have called it Urban Leaf as it looks a bit like a city seen from high up.

[davidc]

Details on day 2 are pretty simple - a snapshot using my x100s on the way to a comedy gig.

f/4
iso 800
1/340th sec

I liked how the leaves frame the building but the angle of the shot gives it a pronounced tilt.

Stage 1 was to convert it to monochrome in LR and though the initial version was quite strong, the haloing was too much in hindsight. I've since tweaked this slightly (new version below). Some quick sharpening and we're done.

To show just how Lightroom struggled with the auto perspective correction, here's an example of it correcting only the vertical tilt -

DSCF5074-Edit-2.jpg (243.33 KiB) Viewed 3298 times

And here's the "full" mode correcting any perceived perspective distortion.

DSCF5074-Edit.jpg (203.41 KiB) Viewed 3298 times

Normally perspective correct rocks but I think this building confused it

The reworked version. Less haloey.


TETRIS by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[Mike Farley]

I love this shot and think the title is great. I like where the main "road" intersects the image as well

This was one of the contenders for my shot today. It is a leaf with its lower side upwards on a lightbox, which I covered with clingfilm to protect the surface, and illuminated from underneath. In SEP2 I started with a preset which creates a negative effect and then made some further adjustments to bring out the textures and patterns. I have called it Urban Leaf as it looks a bit like a city seen from high up.

Thanks, Paul. I must say that I am loving this mini project so far and being encouraged to think creatively.

[Mike Farley]

Details on day 2 are pretty simple - a snapshot using my x100s on the way to a comedy gig.

f/4
iso 800
1/340th sec

I liked how the leaves frame the building but the angle of the shot gives it a pronounced tilt.

Stage 1 was to convert it to monochrome in LR and though the initial version was quite strong, the haloing was too much in hindsight. I've since tweaked this slightly (new version below). Some quick sharpening and we're done.

To show just how Lightroom struggled with the auto perspective correction, here's an example of it correcting only the vertical tilt -

DSCF5074-Edit-2.jpg

And here's the "full" mode correcting any perceived perspective distortion.

DSCF5074-Edit.jpg

Normally perspective correct rocks but I think this building confused it

The reworked version. Less haloey.


TETRIS by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

Auto does not always work and sometimes you have to use the manual controls.

[Peter Boughton]

Aha so you have the D750, nice one

Yep, though not without a fair bit of hassle in ordering it, due to repeatedly being flagged as fraud (even after twice phoning up and being told it was cleared to submit again).

[Mike Farley]

Aha so you have the D750, nice one

Yep, though not without a fair bit of hassle in ordering it, due to repeatedly being flagged as fraud (even after twice phoning up and being told it was cleared to submit again).

What do you think of the camera so far? If I recall correctly you had a D70 for a long while, so it would be quite a step up from that.

[Peter Boughton]

Well I don't feel I've used it enough to give a useful opinion, but early impressions are definitely good.

I used the D70 until mid 2010 when I got a D300s, but the D750 is still a significant upgrade, and more so than I was expecting.

There's a different weight distribution - the D750 body is lighter than the D300 and the lens is larger and heavier - but I think I prefer it this way.

One of the major features I'd seen mentioned is the fast and accurate auto focus, and whilst I've not yet figured out the details of the different auto focus modes (fortunately there's an auto mode selection option), it does seem to perform well there, so hopefully the number of lost shots due to missed focus will be greatly reduced.

High ISO performance is another hyped feature, and in limited tests so far it does appear to give useable images in the dark at high ISOs. (I think one of my mono shots will give an example, haven't got around to selecting them yet though.)

One minor annoyance is that the image preview zoom in/out buttons are reversed compared to the D300s. Looking at other models, it seems this has changed across the range from 2012 onwards. Probably more logical this way round, but still going to take a while to rewire my brain. (Although if I can trust the focus more, I wont need to zoom to check it as much.)

There's also the ability to tether a mobile and use that as a remote display/trigger - I've not yet used it so don't know if it's any good, but hopefully it will help when trying to photograph nieces and nephews, as well as some self-portrait ideas I have - don't worry, I wont be going all Candlish on you!