Posted by Mark Fellowes on January 27, 2008 at 1:06 PM
Hi
I hope everyone had a good time at the conference - very jealous!
Finally got my new D300 last week and I've had a couple of sessions with it - for me this is an enormous step-up in handling and IQ from the D80. Focussing is miles better, and noise is just not an issue at reasonable ISOs.
So here's the first post from the new toy. Goldfinch this morning in the garden. Feather detail is lost at this posting size, unfortunately.
Any comments appreciated.
Mark
Techs: D300, Sig 500 @ 1/640 & F5, t'pod, ISO 400; PP in Lightroom and PS CS2 (curves, sharpened with FocalBlade); Slight crop (approx. 80% of full image).
Posted by Andy Shepherd on January 27, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Hi Mark,
Nice shot , light looks very harsh so I'd say you've done well on the exposure side of things , as for the comp it needs a little more room on the lefthand side and a tad off the righthand side IMO , good capture though.
Regards
Andy...
Posted by Paul Inglis on January 27, 2008 at 1:39 PM
Hi Mark,
Lovely shot, cracking bird. Agree with Andy comments though.
Posted by Edwin kats on January 27, 2008 at 3:23 PM
A bit to bright for me and the background to dark for my taste. But this is personally of course. But still a decent shot of a beautiful bird. I hope to see a repost with better light. Are you getting along with the beast? Give Active D-Lighting a go. You might be suprised.
Edwin Kats
Posted by eric weight on January 27, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Harsh light, but it makes those colours glow. Eric
Posted by Andy Astbury on January 27, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Ooo bit to contrasty for me Mark
I'd say you could make this image a lot better with some different processing workflow, try using CapNX for starters - you've got it for free with your camera, and it'll give you a lot better RAW conversion than LR.
Posted by David Kjaer on January 27, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Hi Mark
Agree with the other comments the image is very 'contrasty' - it is a good enough shot that it is worth a bit more work in PS!
David
Posted by Mark Fellowes on January 27, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Hi everyone
Thanks for the comments - very helpful and appreciated.
I've taken the edge off the contrast (note to self - don't use auto contrast and accept outcome as reasonable!) and recropped to give a bit more space on the left (cheers all).
Edwin - I haven't used ADL much yet, mainly because of my experiences with the D80, where I used to try to expose to keep the highlights and then post process to get the shadow detail back. This generally resulted in noise being a problem, so I learned to be wary. I assumed that the curve applied by ADR did something similar, and would increase noise, but after seeing how smooth the noise profile is I'm not so bothered now. Have to admit though, the last time I was this excited about a camera was when I switched to digital with a D70. After that I 'upgraded' to the D80, but was never satisfied with its handling.
Andy - my new PC should turn up this week, so I'm looking forwards to giving Capture NX another go - I found it painfully slow on this fairly ancient machine, but thanks for the RAW conversion tip. I think my workflow is going to get a bit more complex...
Cheers all - that's been really helpful
Mark
Posted by Andy Astbury on January 27, 2008 at 8:44 PM
'...auto contrast...' - I'll pretend I didn't read that line Mark
Posted by Mark Fellowes on January 28, 2008 at 1:08 PM
Discussion
9 repliesI hope everyone had a good time at the conference - very jealous!
Finally got my new D300 last week and I've had a couple of sessions with it - for me this is an enormous step-up in handling and IQ from the D80. Focussing is miles better, and noise is just not an issue at reasonable ISOs.
So here's the first post from the new toy. Goldfinch this morning in the garden. Feather detail is lost at this posting size, unfortunately.
Any comments appreciated.
Mark
Techs: D300, Sig 500 @ 1/640 & F5, t'pod, ISO 400; PP in Lightroom and PS CS2 (curves, sharpened with FocalBlade); Slight crop (approx. 80% of full image).
Nice shot , light looks very harsh so I'd say you've done well on the exposure side of things , as for the comp it needs a little more room on the lefthand side and a tad off the righthand side IMO , good capture though.
Regards
Andy...
Lovely shot, cracking bird. Agree with Andy comments though.
Edwin Kats
I'd say you could make this image a lot better with some different processing workflow, try using CapNX for starters - you've got it for free with your camera, and it'll give you a lot better RAW conversion than LR.
Agree with the other comments the image is very 'contrasty' - it is a good enough shot that it is worth a bit more work in PS!
David
Thanks for the comments - very helpful and appreciated.
I've taken the edge off the contrast (note to self - don't use auto contrast and accept outcome as reasonable!) and recropped to give a bit more space on the left (cheers all).
Edwin - I haven't used ADL much yet, mainly because of my experiences with the D80, where I used to try to expose to keep the highlights and then post process to get the shadow detail back. This generally resulted in noise being a problem, so I learned to be wary. I assumed that the curve applied by ADR did something similar, and would increase noise, but after seeing how smooth the noise profile is I'm not so bothered now. Have to admit though, the last time I was this excited about a camera was when I switched to digital with a D70. After that I 'upgraded' to the D80, but was never satisfied with its handling.
Andy - my new PC should turn up this week, so I'm looking forwards to giving Capture NX another go - I found it painfully slow on this fairly ancient machine, but thanks for the RAW conversion tip. I think my workflow is going to get a bit more complex...
Cheers all - that's been really helpful
Mark