Posts Tagged d700
Something Darker
Posted by Ryan in Uncategorized on July 26, 2009
Last time Amanda was seen on this blog, the images were light and bright and she wasn’t wearing very much. We got together for our second shoot at the end of June for something that was a little darker, and with more clothing.
Shot with a Nikon D700 and 85mm f/1.4 lens.
Ed Hardy Swimwear Fashion Show
Posted by Ryan in Uncategorized on July 2, 2009
On Tuesday night I photographed an Ed Hardy swimwear fashion show at Karma Lounge in Oshawa, Ontario. Using the Nikon D700, I shot almost everything at ISO 6400 and f/1.4 due to the very low lighting in the club.
I also experimented with the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lens on the D700, which is a full-frame (FX) body:
There’s never a shortage of interesting people to shoot at a club:
And that brings us to the swimwear models. You might be wondering, “Ryan, why did you make all these photos blue?” Answer after these:
One major issue with club photography is the very, very strange patterns, colours, and colour temperatures of lights that are used. This is one of the major reasons I shoot raw-format photos (instead of JPEG) — so that I have full control over white balance after the photos are taken. White balancing via the auto function of the camera, or trying to do it manually at the club is an exercise in frustration. Check out the example below of Ashley.
The photo on the left is what the camera decided the correct white balance should be in automatic mode (4450 degrees kelvin). The photo on the right is after correcting the white balance in Lightroom to the maximum allowed setting of 50,000 degrees kelvin (and also setting the tint to negative 150 to combat some of the pink hue). So now instead of looking purple, Ashley looks closer to a regular human again. The problem, if there is one, is that both versions look kinda cool. So rather than trying to pick one, I compromised and just tossed out all the colour and made the selenium toned versions you see above.
First Thoughts on Nikon 10-24mm Lens
Posted by Ryan in Uncategorized on June 7, 2009
Back in April, Nikon announced the AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens. The usual alphabet soup of letters and numbers is pretty meaningless if you just come here to see pictures, so let’s hop to it. I used the lens for the first time last weekend, at two weddings. First up, Jim and Ashley:
Nikon D200, Nikkor 10-24mm lens @ 10mm, f/4.5, 1/15th, ISO 800
This is a wide lens. It effectively replaces Nikon’s 12-24mm lens in the lineup and provides some competition for Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina, who all have 10mm offerings. Looking through a 10mm lens is a whole different experience. There were many times when I was in danger of colliding with my subjects because I didn’t realize how close I was to them!
Nikon D700, Nikkor 10-24mm lens @ 20mm, f/5.6, 1/10th, ISO 320
The lens focused quickly and accurately in the low light of the reception hall and provided sharp images at all focal lengths. The two shots above were illuminated with a Nikon SB-900 flash while dragging (slowing down) the shutter to get the colourful/blurry ambient light in the background. For much of the night, I stood on the dance floor, camera pressed to my eye, and circled the participants over and over again while pressing the shutter every so often. With ordinary photography, one would want to stay as still as possible to minimize vibration or blurriness; here, though, the flash freezes the subject and my circling movements combined with the slow shutter speed add a little pizzaz to the background.
But what happens when you put this DX lens on an FX (full-frame) camera?
Nikon D700, Nikkor 10-24mm lens @ 11mm, f/5.6, 1/10th, ISO 320
You get a crooked, wavy vignette which looks… kinda cool, I think. The lens doesn’t quite project enough light on to the full-frame sensor to completely cover it, hence some information at the edges isn’t recorded. Here’s another shot, zoomed in a bit to 12mm:
Nikon D700, Nikkor 10-24mm lens @ 12mm, f/5.6, 1/10th, ISO 320
A teensy bit less of the vignette is visible here. Zooming in to 15mm eliminates it completely. Nikon’s FX cameras have the ability to automatically crop the images when DX lenses are attached, but I prefer to disable this function and shoot images like the above. This maximizes the amount of control I have after the fact, allowing me to crop where and how I want, and getting images that are as wide as possible.
The edge distortion at the wider focal lengths is surely noticeable by now, but it can be put to good use if the bride and groom are willing to have a little fun, like Meghan and Mike:
Nikon D200, Nikkor 10-24mm lens @ 10mm, f/4.5, 1/400th, ISO 500
Nikon D200, Nikkor 10-24mm lens @ 10mm, f/5.6, 1/125th, ISO 200
Meghan and Mike luckily didn’t mind the funhouse-mirror approach to photographs and we got some unique shots as a result.
I’ll be taking this lens with me on my July trip to Nova Scotia, where it should excel at landscape images of the ocean and sky. Luckily it takes the same 77mm filters that my existing pro Nikon lenses use, so I won’t have to buy a new circular polarizer. The build quality of the lens isn’t quite the same as my 17-55mm or 70-200mm lenses, but it’s still really really decent for what is essentially an expensive but consumer-grade lens. I own a Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8-4 lens that cost about the same amount when it was new, and it feels very cheap by comparison. Nikon knows what they’re doing when it comes to fit, finish, and refinement.
I’d easily recommend this lens for anyone looking for a super-wide and I look forward to using it on my vacation.
D700 Test at Luxy Club
Posted by Ryan in Uncategorized on November 26, 2008
1/10 sec, f2.8, ISO 3200, 17mm
This past weekend I was able to put the Nikon D700 through its paces in a challenging environment: Luxy Club in Woodbridge. The event was City Gala, which featured a fashion show and live musical performances in a very, very dark club, peppered with the usual assortment of coloured spotlights, seizure-inducing strobes, and other flashing nonsense typical of clubs everywhere.
1/4 sec, f4, ISO 1600, 17mm w/flash
Six hundred exposures later, I can tell you the camera performed extremely well. It focused quickly and without trouble in the dim light and I was able to fire off multiple bursts with ease, which is how I captured the above shot of Ashley and her friend dancing.
1/400 sec, f1.8, ISO 3200, 85mm
Most of my shots were done at ISO 1600 and 3200, although I also tried a few at ISO 6400 and was amazed at the results. The photos looked better than my Nikon D200 produces at ISO 1600. The D700 paired with the 85mm f/1.4 basically creates light where there is none. Scenes that were exceptionally dark to my eyes came alive on the LCD screen, bringing out detail that I couldn’t even see in the dark club. Amazing!
Model above is my fabulous sister Kirsten Visima, doing what she does best.