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Saturday, 24 November 2012

Lighting Puzzle

Posted on 12:56 by Unknown

Hi everyone.  Hope you're having a great weekend.  I was taking sample shots for the upcoming review of the Tamron 70-300 VC and happened upon this scene.  There's something unusual about the lighting of this photo.  What do you think is so unusual about it, and how do you explain it?

In terms of editing, I just cloned out power lines, altered the crop and adjusted the contrast. Other than that, this is pretty much SOOC.  Note: I did screw up the exposure.  I had been doing experiments last night and forgot that my camera was in shutter priority at 1/200, with ISO at 3200.  As a result the camera did what it could to get that exposure by using an aperture of f/40. :-p  So that's my mistake but that's not what I'm talking about.

Will post the answer in a couple of days. :)
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Wednesday, 21 November 2012

My favorite Black Friday deals

Posted on 08:30 by Unknown
Added: Canon 5d3 ($2939), Dell Inspiron 15R ($479)


Here are the best photo-related Black Friday deals that I've seen.

Nikon D600 $1997 ($100 off, 2% reward) plus 32GB SDHC Transcend card (I believe it's like this one that I got) and Lowepro holster-style bag
As you know I love my D600.  Reviewed here.  This is the best deal I've seen so far.
http://www.adorama.com/INKD600KA.html

I also saw deals for the Nikon D3100, D3200, D5100, D5200, and D7000.

Canon 5d3 - looks like an amazing deal.
Canon 5dIII on eBay for $2939  Related post here. 
 
Adorama also has the 5d2 and 5d3 on sale:
Canon 5d Mark III $3299.  --> see above ebay sale instead
Canon 5D Mark II $1799. Reviewed here.

Laptop for photo editing:
Dell Inspiron 15R with intel i5-3210M 8GB RAM / 1TB HDD $479
Note that the processor is a 3rd generation Ivy Bridge intel processor.  I just don't know how many USB ports it has, or if any are USB 3.0.
https://secure.newegg.com/FeedBack/EmailAFriend.aspx?Item=N82E16834200522
I upgraded my laptop to a Dell 14z not too long ago.  Here's the post about it.

 
Fisheye lenses: both of these are identical (just different brands).  I don't have a Samyang/Rokinon/ProOptic fisheye but I do know that it has among the most even distortion for fisheyes.  Note that these are manual only.  FYI there is a version that includes a chip (for focus confirmation, and auto exposure) -- see this eBay search.  I don't think these particular items have it.  You may want to check.  To get an idea for the kinds of images you can get with this kind of lens check out our review of the Tokina 10-17 Fisheye

a) Pro optic 8mm fisheye Nikon mount $229
http://www.adorama.com/PRO835NK.html

b) Rokinon 8mm fisheye Nikon mount $229
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/769466-REG/Rokinon_FE8M_N_8mm_Ultra_Wide_Angle.html


Canon 40mm 2.8 pancake lens $149 ($50 off)
Reviewed here
http://www.adorama.com/CA4028.html

Colorright / Flashright - 80% off
I use a Flashright Pro as a DIY version of the 360 Spinlight
Website: www.colorright.com 
Coupon code: BlackFriday80

Contemporary wooden frame for six 4x6" photos
http://www.adorama.com/MA2012664.html

DISCLAIMER: I'm not affiliated with any of these sellers.  I'm not receiving any compensation for any of these.
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Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Neil van Niekerk's puzzle

Posted on 10:11 by Unknown
Neil van Niekerk, one of our favorite photographers, posted a puzzle yesterday. Here is the post. He showed two photos with somewhat similar composition. He also tells us that he used the same exposure for both. However, in one shot, the background is darker than the other. If you can guess why this is so, you have a chance to win a 1-hour tutorial from him. Neil will also select one winner from all entries, whether or not their response is correct. Check it out!
My take is that the difference is due to falloff of the flash, as described by the inverse square law. Check out these related posts.
RELATED POSTS:
TTL Flash Tutorial Part 2 - see Lesson 10
http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2010/07/ttl-flash-tutorial-in-10-lessons-part-2.html
How to get a black background without a backdrop
http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-get-black-background-without.html
Right Brained Guide to Combining Guide Numbers
http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2011/05/right-brained-guide-to-combining-guide.html
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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on 09:49 by Unknown

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  I will be busy the next few evenings so I won't have time to post, but I will have new posts by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, here are a few Thanksgiving shots that I took 4 years ago.  I underexposed the ambient then illuminated the subjects with bare flash.  If I recall correctly I used them off-camera, triggered and controlled wirelessly via Nikon CLS Advanced Wireless Lighting.


Have a happy Thanksgiving!
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Sunday, 18 November 2012

Wii U First Impressions

Posted on 21:58 by Unknown
First of all this is a photography blog.  Nonetheless, I'm sure a portion of our readers are interested in tech-related news, so I hope you don't mind if I share some comments on Nintendo's Wii U.

UPDATE 11/22/12:  My son and I have played with the Wii U a couple more times since I last wrote this post, and that was enough to change our opinion of it -- this is a FUN system.  See update below.



When Nintendo announced the Wii U, I thought it was a strange idea.  I did not "get" the concept.  What was the big deal with a touchscreen?  Why couldn't they just find a way to connect an Android or iPad or even iPhone to the console instead of developing their own touchscreen device?  I wasn't interested in getting one.  However, we wanted another game console for the living room (our Xbox 360 and PS3 have died, and the Wii is in my son's room). We thought about getting another Xbox 360 or PS3 but I figured we may as well get a newer system for almost same price.  I was astonished that all pre-orders for the Wii U were already filled at all the stores I inquired.  I'm sure at least some of the buyers are just trying to flip it on eBay.

Anyway, I got lucky and scored a black Wii U this morning after lining up at 6am in the cold weather.  It was the last one at the store and it just so happened that someone ahead of me in the line inexplicably ordered a white Wii U instead (8GB $299 vs. 32GB $349 with NintendoLand).  Thank goodness I didn't wait for nothing.

The box was much heavier than I expected.  I later found out that this was in part due to the very large and heavy AC adapter for the console.  The touchpad on the other hand is quite light, which is great considering that many games expect you to hold up the screen during gameplay.

Setting up was reasonably easy but not as user-friendly as it could be.  There is a quick start guide but it's rather verbose.  The short answer is you plug the console to the TV via HDMI (other cables such as component are purchased separate), connect the sensor bar, and connect the AC Adapter.  You also plug the touchpad to its own AC adapter.  When you turn the Wii U on, you need to wait a few seconds for the HDMI connection to work.  Then you sync the Wii U and the touchpad (the sync process requires entering some codes.  It's not a one-button deal).

Although the basic setup was easy, connecting the Wii U to the internet was difficult:

  • The Wi-Fi is just 802.11b.  You should configure your router to broadcast in both b and g (assuming your other devices are g).  There is nothing in the setup screens that warns you about this.
  • I had a very hard time connecting the Wii U to my Wi-Fi network.  Although it found our Wi-Fi network, I couldn't just enter our password.  Instead, I had to configure the IP Address and DNS manually, using settings that I found here: http://techforums.nintendo.com/message/77869/  And even though I followed the instructions to the letter, it took several tries before I was able to connect successfully (even though I was doing the exact same thing each time.  Very strange).
  • There is a LAN Adapter accessory for the Wii U but it will take up a USB port (the Wii U has two four USB ports).  If you're planning to use one of the other ports for an external hard drive, then you won't have any USB ports left for games such as Skylanders Giants (which uses a portal that connects via USB).
  • The first time you're able to connect the Wii U to the Internet, you'll be asked if you want to update the firmware.  I later found out that updating the firmware is the only way to make it backwards-compatible with Wii games.  Anyway, I naturally said yes.  Then I saw the download bar didn't seem to be moving...
  • I found out that the update was 5GB.  No warning about this.  Lord have mercy on you if you only have DSL or less.
  • One more issue: if the firmware download is interrupted (accidentally or intentionally) the Wii U will be bricked.  Once more, no warning about this.
  • Some menu items take a very long time to load.
We tried NintendoLand very briefly.  It was a little bit challenging for our 5 year old, even though he often plays video games.  He had a little bit of difficulty understanding the instructions, and was still getting used to the controls.  He has only tried a couple of the mini-games (Ninja Castle and Metroid Blast).  So far he seems interested but not totally blown away.  But I didn't have high expectations for the launch games anyway, at least for his age group.  Hopefully they will have more interesting games in the future (especially for casual gamers).

Games we got:

  • NintendoLand
  • Skylanders Giants - the selling point is being able to play Skylanders on the gamepad.
  • Super Mario Bros. U - Haven't opened it yet.  I heard it's difficult, which would be unfortunate.  My son and I have enough trouble with Super Mario Bros. Wii.


Games I am looking forward to:
  • Bayonetta 2 - a Wii U exclusive.  If you haven't played Bayonetta, it's crazy over the top action.  But this is not for the kids :)
  • Rayman Legends
  • Super Smash Bros. Next - announced but don't hold your breath.
  • Street Fighter - I hope they make some version of it for the Wii U.  Even just a version of SF4 with simplified controls for kids would be great (similar to SF4 for the 3DS).
  • Hawken - I really wish they make a port of this amazing PC game.  I'm not into FPS games in general but the graphics on this one are just breath-taking.

Games I might consider:
  • Trine 2
  • Nano Assault Neo
  • Ninja Gaiden 3 (if I can find it used and cheap).  I loved Ninja Gaiden 2 (back when I was a hardcore gamer).  I expect this will also be murderously difficult but it would still be fun.
  • Batman Arkham City Armored Edition (if I can find it used and cheap)

UPDATE: According to some folks on the r/wiiu reddit subgroup, it's possible to download the firmware and any other downloads (such as games) in the background.  When it asks you if you want to download, just press cancel.  Then you'll get a message saying it will download in the background.  Meanwhile you can play a game or something.  When the download is ready for installation the home button on the gamepad will light up.

11/22/12 UPDATE: After my son and I played briefly with the Wii U, we didn't think much of it and the system sat idle.  However, yesterday I left my son alone to play with the system and I was surprised that he was enjoying most of the games.  At the same time, I had ordered Wii Remote Plus controllers (the Wii Remote with built-in Motion Plus for greater sensitivity, required for some of the NintendoLand games).  I decided to join him for some of the games.

What I discovered was that the gamepad really did add value in a couple of ways.  First, in multiplayer games, the gamepad allows two players to have a full-screen instead of split-screen view.  That's one reason to get the Wii U version of a game instead of a port for another console.  Example: Black Ops II.

Second, many games allow you to play the game on the gamepad, freeing up the TV for someone else to use. Again, that's another reason to choose the Wii U port of a game that's otherwise available for other consoles.  Example: Skylanders Giants.

Third, and in my opinion the most important benefit of the gamepad, is that it enables a new kind of playing style that has been called "asymmetric gameplay," which means that in a multiplayer game, the one with the gamepad can have a very different experience than the other players.  Here are some examples:

  • In the NintendoLand mini-game called Mario Chase, one player plays "It," while the other players try to find and chase the one who's It.  The player who's It has the gamepad and has the benefit of seeing the overall map.  The other players ideally work together to systematically ferret out the It.
  • In the ZombiU game, there is a multiplayer Capture the Flag mode where the player with the gamepad plays 'tower defense' and protects the flag by spawning zombies.  The other players try to fight the zombies to reach the flag.
To me, this kind of experience is reminiscent of the games I used to play when I was a kid before video games were common.  Simple games like tag, cops and robbers, that sort of stuff.  All those were asymmetric.  The Wii U strongly reminds me of those kinds of games.  It was a different kind of fun, being able to take turns playing different roles.  So, I think that if developers do spend the time to design games around this feature, the Wii U can offer a unique experience that could not be available on other consoles. Unless of course the Xbox 720 or PS4 copy the Wii U's gamepad, which is not entirely a bad thing in my opinion because it would make those kinds of games more common, and with the Wii U's install base headstart, the Wii U's game library could only increase.

I have to admit - I underestimated the significance of the gamepad.  The first time I heard about it, I thought it was Nintendo's desperate and pathetic attempt to fend off the iPad's growing clout as a game machine by copying it.  But the Wii U's gamepad creates a completely different experience particularly for multiplayer games.  I can almost say the touchscreen aspect of it is not essential (although it is of course logical).

(Note: currently there are no Wii U games that support more than one gamepad, and the maximum the Wii U can support is two gamepads.  However, I think that because it is so useful, I suspect that there will be some sort of peripheral in the future that would allow the Wii U to use 4 gamepads for specific games intended for hardcore gamers.)

The other thing that I discovered is that the Wii Remote Plus could actually make FPS games fun.  I'm not a fan of FPS.  Part of the reason is that I find the controls frustrating.  I want to shoot at a particular target but I find it a little cumbersome to do that with the traditional gamepad controls. 

However, I used the Wii Remote Plus in a Nintendoland FPS minigame called Metroid Blast and found that it worked very well for me.  It still wasn't perfect, but the controller was accurate enough for me to shoot my intended target with usable precision.  For the first time in an FPS, I felt that the controls didn't get in the way.  My son and I had so much fun that I decided to get Call of Duty Black Ops II (which wasn't even on my original list).  Note: Black Ops doesn't support the Wii Remote Plus or the MotionPlus but I'm hoping it will have decent controls.

UPDATE 11/25/12: We tried more of the Nintendoland games:

Multiplayer games:
Metroid Blast - FPS. One person uses the gamepad and controls the ship.  The other characters are on the ground.  Still our favorite.  5/5.
Zelda Battle Quest - an on-rails shooter where one character uses a bow and arrow while the other players use swords.  Fun as well, though I prefer Metroid Blast. 4/5.  Hint: As the swordsman, use the shield often.  Pretty much whenever you're not striking.  Also observe which direction the enemy is vulnerable.  If he is holding his shield on camera left, strike him from above or camera right.  And you can bring your sword fully to the left, right or up long enough, it will charge up for a super attack.
Pikmin Adventure - I was never interested in the Pikmin games, thinking that they looked too boring.  Nonetheless I forced myself to try out this game, and was surprised that it was actually fun.  In 1-player mode, you control the astronaut Olimar, who commands small aliens called Pikmin to attack enemies and obstacles.  In multi-player mode, the other players control giant Pikmin.  Encourages coordination between the players.  My son likes this game as well. 4.5/5.  Hint: when pikmin jump on to the monsters, they can't get hurt and they can keep attacking the monster.
Mario Chase - 1 player hides, other players seek.  I find it fun but my son finds it too hard to be the one seeking. 3.5/5.
Animal Crossing - I never played any of the Animal Crossing games so I wasn't interested.  But when I tried this minigame out, I found it very fun.  Candies are scattered across a map.  Players collect the candies and put them inside a bin.  The gamepad player however will try to catch the other players and prevent them from collecting the candies.  The gamepad player can control 2 characters simultaneously.  My son enjoyed this too. The only thing is that it's harder to be the one catching the other players.  4/5.
Luigi's Mansion - Somewhat similar to Mario Chase, except that the gamepad player plays a ghost who is invisible and can attack other players.  The other players try to catch the ghost by shining a flashlight on him.  This was fun except that the other players have a strange control scheme, similar to the 1st generation of PS2 games (e.g. Onimusha), or some older Playstation games, where the controls are relative to the character's position.  It would have been much more fun if the controls were more conventional. 3/5.

1-player games:
Ninja Castle - On-rails shooter with a shuriken.  You flick the screen to throw shurikens at ninjas.  Cute graphics and more importantly, I found it fun.  However my son doesn't like it because he finds it too hard.  4/5.
Balloon Trip Breeze - Somewhat based on the NES game Balloon Fight, except that you use the gamepad to blow wind at the character, to navigate obstacles.  Easy at first then suddenly becomes challenging.  OK but requires me to keep changing views between TV and gamepad, so it's a little confusing. 3/5.  Hint: blow up the spikes by tapping on the gamepad.  Another player can also assist by using the wiimote to blow up obstacles.
Twister Race - a racer where you steer from a bird's eye view by tilting the gamepad.  I haven't played this, but my son liked it. ?/5.
Donkey Kong Crash - You tilt the gamepad to use gravity to maneuver a small car across an obstacle course. OK fun but quite hard. 2/5.
Yoshi's Fruit Cart - vaguely like pin the donkey, with a pen.  Your objective is to draw a path that will collect all the fruits on the screen.  The challenge is that you can only see the fruits on the TV.  They don't show up on the gamepad screen where you draw with your stylus.  At higher levels the fruits start moving, so timing is introduced as another element.  So-so fun but my son didn't like it.  1.5/5.
Octopus Dance - Like Simon Says, with a rhythm.  (Similar to Space Channel 5 on the Dreamcast, or Parappa the Rapper on Playstation 1).  You use the joysticks on the gamepad to copy the arm directions.  The concept is ok but I found it too unforgiving and difficult.  1/5.

[UPDATE: Apparently it is possible for one of the other players to participate in these 1-player games to help the player.  For example, in Donkey Kong Crash, the other player can create a zone of slow motion bullet time to slow down the cart to avoid crashing.  So perhaps the difficulty is intentional, to encourage getting help from other players.  See this video ]

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. U: We finally played this game over the weekend.  It is ok, but I wasn't that impressed.  To me it is very similar to Super Mario Wii with better graphics and a few new elements here and there.  The gamepad wasn't a big deal but can be used to help the other players by creating blocks.  I find it somewhat challenging for casual gamers, and we haven't gotten past world 1 2.

FREEZING: It's been reported by some users that occasionally, the Wii U will suddenly freeze with a buzzing/siren sound (sounds like the 8-bit NES/Famicom when that one froze).  This happened to us once, while we set down the controller to do something else.  It suddenly froze.  The Wii U wasn't hot or anything.  I don't know why it froze.  When it freezes, it needs to be unplugged and replugged.  [UPDATE: According to the WiiU reddit subgroup it is some sort of bug with NintendoLand.  I infer that it hasn't happened with other games.]

SHOPPING TIP: Are you looking for more remotes, or the Wii Remote Plus?  ToysRUs is selling the game FlingSmash.  The game is boring shovelware but it includes a Wii Remote Plus, and the package costs less than buying a Wii Remote Plus by itself.  Plus, ToysRUs is currently running a discount on games.
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Thursday, 15 November 2012

That's Why I Love My Canon 5D

Posted on 10:06 by Unknown

Canon 5D Mark III + Canon 50mm f/1.4 @ f/1.4 - mix of florescent, tungsten, other playground colors and my flash

One of the greatest benefits of my switch to full frame was the colors and skin tones, for some reason both the 5D Mark II and Mark III gave me better skin tones and colors than I was able to get from the 550D or the 60D. They have more tolerance and are more forgiving with mixtures of different light sources.


Take the example above, this was shot at a children playground which is mainly lit with florescent, and there are various yellow/red/green rotating lights, and some tungsten to make things more challenging, I was shooting at ISO 3200 with the Canon 50 1.4 wide open, I metered for the background, and used on-camera bounce flash (with no gels) to light my subject. I was bouncing from a wooden ceiling. I always have my 5D set to auto white balance, it is that good, and I got the picture you see above, no tweaks apart from a hint of black and contrast. Really Cool.


Same as above, but shot at f/2 this time

The shot above is from the same swinging chair, but from the other side as you can see from the trees in the background, the fiery color on his head is from a tungsten lamp just above (the swing spins, and moves up and down, this was up, near the tungsten light source). I admire the resultant colors and white balance once more, no tweaks from my side. This is what I saw at the time.

Did you notice the octagon shaped OOF light above his knees? This is my only gripe with the Canon 50 1.4 (after figuring out the correct MFA value of course), I love the OOF highlights to be rounded, even at f/2 if there are several light sources in the background, it will look like that, and it looks more pronounced as you stop down. I will try out a couple of brand new 50 1.4 Sigmas in a couple of weeks, if I find one that focuses accurately with my 5D3, out goes the Canon and in comes the Sigma.


Same lighting scenario, 50 f/1.4 @ f/1.4, this time you can see the lights and the bounce surface

One more example from the same location, shot wide open at f/1.4 (the 5D3 focusing system is a bless, that bull was moving and bucking around trying to throw off its rider on the ground), this time you can see the lights and the wooden ceiling from which I was bouncing my flash. .


See the different light sources? Why do they do this? Canon 40 STM Pancake, wide open @ f/2.8

Another location, this time we were indoors, for some reason I can't quite understand, they were using both tungsten and CFL lights hand in hand, in the same row (look above the kid's head), both have totally different color temperatures, once more, the 5D3 with auto white balance got everything just as I saw it, bravo. This was shot with the Canon 40mm Pancake wide open, I have mixed feelings about this lens, but I decided to keep it a while longer before deciding whether to keep it or sell it. It has nice bokeh, and is very sharp wide open, checkout the 100% crop below.


100% crop, Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake, wide open


RELATED POSTS

Canon 5D Mark II: First Impressions
Story & Review: Canon 5D Mark II vs Canon 60D & Canon 6D
Canon EF Lenses Chat: Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Review
Hands On: Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Pancake
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Posted in 40 panckae, 5d, auto white balance, AWB, canon, canon 40 stm, canon 50 1.4, canon 5d2, canon 5d3, color, mark ii, mark iii, skin tones | No comments

Sophia's Birthday

Posted on 09:09 by Unknown

We recently celebrated our daughter's 2nd birthday.  For events I typically use a combination of a standard zoom (24-70 equivalent) and a telephoto zoom (70-200 equivalent).  On this occasion, her birthday was being held at a play center, which to me is a nice place but nothing distinctive from a photographic perspective.  Since the place wasn't of particular significance, and because it would have enough space for me to maneuver, I decided to use the Sigma 50 1.4 instead of the Nikon 24-70 on a Nikon D600.  For  telephoto, I used the Sigma 50-150 2.8 (non-OS) with the Nikon D90.  I used a flash with both cameras.

Here are a few shots from the party, and how I mixed ambient and flash.



MIXING FLASH AND AMBIENT WITH THE D600
The light levels were not too low, so I decided to make the ambient light dominant.  
ISO: With the D600, I used Auto ISO and allowed it to go as high as 12,800 ISO.  Although a higher ISO has more noise, using a high ISO has several benefits: first, it is easier to get enough ambient in the shot and the greater the proportion of ambient vs. flash in the shot, the more the shot looks natural to me.  Second, a higher ISO allows me to use a higher shutter speed.  When flash is the only thing that's lighting a scene, a high shutter speed is not necessary because the flash duration will freeze the action.  However, when ambient is dominant or when I'm mixing flash and ambient and the ambient is not completely gone, a high shutter speed helps increase the chance of a sharper shot (by minimizing camera shake and subject movement).  Third, a high ISO gives me greater latitude in deciding where to bounce the flash (I can choose to bounce from a far wall if needed).  Finally, a high ISO makes the flash work less, and recycle faster.
Shutter speed:  Because I knew the ISO would go as high as 12,800 ISO, I was able to choose a high shutter speed while still allowing ambient to be dominant.  I chose 1/200 (which is incidentally the sync speed), which is 2 stops above the 1/focal length rule (for camera shake) and fast enough for action shots of these kids (to minimize blur from subject movement).  I didn't want to go higher than sync speed because that would have reduced the power of the flash by at least 2 stops.



MIXING FLASH AND AMBIENT WITH THE NIKON D90
As with the D600, I decided the ambient would be dominant.  
Exposure mode: I shot in aperture priority and adjusted the exposure as needed using exposure compensation.  
ISO: I selected the highest ISO that I am comfortable with on the D90, which was 1600 ISO.
Shutter speed:  Like many DSLRs, the D90 allows me to specify the slowest shutter speed when using flash. I chose 1/60, which isn't fast at all, but would be ok for stationary shots.  I didn't want to select a higher shutter speed because doing so would have reduced the amount of ambient in the shot, making the light look more artificial.
Flash exposure compensation:  I reduced the flash exposure compensation as needed in order to achieve the exposure I wanted.  For most of the shots I reduced the FEC to around -0.7 FEC to -2.3 FEC because the flash was acting as fill, and I wanted the ambient to be dominant.

Here are some shots from the D90 and Sigma 50-150.  I found that the combination worked well in terms of focal length, but my D90 and Sigma 50-150 tended to backfocus.  I've noticed that my D90 and Nikon 24-70 also tends to backfocus, so I may have to send my D90 for adjustment (it doesn't have AF fine-tuning).




POSTPROCESSING
In post, I tweaked the exposures and adjusted the white balance.  I took the shots in raw and I could have completely neutralized the color temperature.  However, the actual light was quite yellowish, and I wanted to preserve some of that warmth, so I intentionally increased the color temperature slightly above neutral.

One issue I encountered was that on the D600, the reds tended to be exaggerated.  The tricky part was that in the shadows, the reds looked ok.  But with highlights or brighter midtones the reds looked wildly saturated.  
Default colors - reds too saturated
I first tried to reduce the red saturation in the HSL panel of Lightroom but found that the reds in the shadows and darker midtones suffered.  I tried adjusting the camera profile, and got a similar result.  
Brighter reds look better but darker reds such as the lips look too dark/purplish

In the end, what I did was to desaturate the images then increase the vibrance.  What vibrance does is to increase the 'saturation' but only of colors that are less saturated.  Vibrance also has a decreased effect on skin colors.



Here are some more shots from the party.













Blow the candle, Sophia!


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    In one of the rare times I put effort and setup a light stand and an umbrella to shoot my girls, I decided to make use of this burst of ener...
  • Coco Ring Flash - First Impressions
    A few weeks ago, after much deliberation, I finally decided to get a ring flash adapter.  My purpose was to use it as on-axis fill, much lik...
  • Nikon D7000 vs. Nikon D7100
    D7000 + Tokina 11-16 I've been using the Nikon D7000 for a couple of months now, and in this post I'd like to share my thoughts on t...
  • Sigma 18-35 1.8 Revisited; Where to Get It
    Back in April of this year, Sigma surprised everyone by announcing the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 , the first zoom lens for a large sensor that had s...

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Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (165)
    • ▼  December (5)
      • Olympus E-PL3 with 14-42 Lens $199; Moving from Ni...
      • Sigma 18-35 1.8 Revisited; Where to Get It
      • Speedlight Modifiers - 50% discount at Fotodiox
      • Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 Mini Review
      • Evening Portraits with Flash
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