Where did I go wrong?

[pcassity]

Folks - I need your advice. I shot a golf tournament this week and results, for the most part, were very disapointing. I used a

D300 and a 17-55mm 2.8 lens. The camera settings were ISO 400, picture control was set at D2XMODE2 amd Active D

Lighting was set to Normal. The attached image was shot at f8 and 1/640 seconds. I used spot metering on the face with the

most shadow and fill flash from an on-camera SB800. The focal lenght was 26mm and it was shot at 2:16 PM. The white

balance was set for sunlight and all images were in the RAW format. As you can see, this image is not as sharp as it should

be. Was I not close enough to the subjects? Was the focal length too wide? Your comments and advice are very much

appreciated.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/7912954

[pcassity]

I guess I should add that NR was set to normal and on for long exposures. Also it was opened in Photoshop.

[ShunCheung]

First of all, I hope you were using FP sync, as 1/640 sec is faster than the sync speed for the D300. And flash contribution from FP sync is greatly reduced. In this type of situation I would just use matrix metering. Moreover, it wasn't a sunny situation so that you might want to adjust the white balancing.

 

Another problem with that shot is that the horizon cuts through the head of some of the subjects. That is kind of annoying but perhaps hard to prevent completely since you have people with different heights.

 

How did you focus? For non-moving people, I typically use Single-point, AF-S (single servo) mode on perhaps the center subject.

[kevin_swan1]

Well, for one thing, your flash would've had no effect unless you have specifically enabled high-speed sync. In normal mode, the flash won't sync higher than 1/250th of a second. So you lost any motion-freezing benefit of flash. The other "softness" culprit would be focus. What type of focus mode were you using (AF-S or AF-C)? What were you focusing on? Did you pause while pressing the shutter to give the lens a chance to focus, or did you just stab the shutter (stupid question, I know, but I had to ask)?

[daverhaas]

Pat -

 

I don't see anything wrong with the attached photo... Maybe it's my eyes or monitor, but think it looks fine for an out of camera raw / jpg.

 

I did just check the picture mode on my D300 - D2x Mode 2 doesn't do a lot of built in sharpening - it's default is a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

Next time I'd go with Vivid.

 

Dave

[pcassity]

Sorry - I left out the flash settings. I did, in fact use FP sync. As far as focusing, I used single point focusing, on the most centered person. And yes, I did pause after pressing the shutter to give the lens a chance to focus. Which, by the way is not at all a stupid question since I had to shoot rather quickly so as not to hold up play.

[Ed_Ingold]

Your group is posed very loosely and occupies less than half of the image width. You are so far away that the high speed fill flash has no effect. If you zoom in on the faces, it will not look as sharp as if you posed them tightly. Infinite resolution only happens on CSI Miami.

 

Watch the horizon!

[lex_jenkins]

Does TTL flash work properly with the D300 in spot metering mode?

[jim mucklin]

Pat, when you spot meter on an area the camera use the sensor you place on that point to pick up focus and exposure. I viewed the photo with Panda Exif and it said, manual focus,manual exposure, auto white balance. IF that were the case I would have to say the reason I don't see the light is that at f/8 is just not enought to light it up. The other thing in the exif data was color balance was recorded at uncalibrated, I'm not sure what that means but with the D2 there are only sRGB and the Adobe RGB.

 

This is where I think Nikon excells at these quick shots, I would have shot it with matrix metering or center weighted to get some more punch and let TTL do all the heavy lifting, chimp and go with flash comp right at the 800. If shooting manual I would have opened up a stop or two.

 

Hope this helps.

[joseph_smith3]

When spot metering is selected, the flash defaults to Standard TTL regardless of what is set on it. See your camera and flash manuals for more explanations. To set fill flash, as that term is normally used, TTL BL is set on the SB 800.

 

What I would have done is to use aperture priority on the camera, standard synch or rear curtain synch , TTL BL on the flash for fill flash, minus flash exp comp on flash of .3, shoot in RAW, auto FP. An alternative setting that can work well is set camera to P mode, flash to TTL, and set flash exp comp to a minus .7 or a minus 1. Experiment and decide what works well for you. I always err on underexposure rather than overexposure.

 

I would have moved in closer.

 

Joe Smith

[joseph_smith3]

And I would have used matrix metering. Joe Smith

[blumesan]

Can't disagree with what has already been said, but in the final analysis the photo doesn't look all that unsharp on my monitor. It lacks contrast. Open the raw file in photoshop. Apply a curve adjustment to enhance contrast. Then after you downres and convert it to a jpeg apply some judicious sharpening.

[mjt]

Personally, I'm glad Edward Ingold stepped in and mentioned<br />

some of the REAL issues, which dont pertain to the flash issue.<br /><br />

 

I'd work on the composition - it appears everyone in the photo has been<br />

speared by a javelin of some sort (the woman escaped the impalement). <br /><br />

 

Seriously, and I'm not being disrespectful, but the composition ruins<br />

the photo much more than the flash issues. I would have increased or<br />

decreased my height placement to put the group "into the green".

[frank_skomial]

" I did, in fact use FP sync" - at F=8 and the 1/640 sec, which is near 3 times faster than max X sync, your flash

max energy output will be reduced to abour 8 to 9 times, in the FP mode.

 

Look up your SB-800 manual about FP max range at various F stops and shutter speeds and ISO, to make sure..

 

Looking at the distance, your flash did not have sufficient power to make significant or noticeable contribution.

 

 

"I would have done is... TTL BL on the flash for fill flash, ..., shoot in RAW, auto FP. " - I wonder how is possible to

use TTL/BL and also auto FP in a single shot ? Is it possible to program flash into 2 operating modes at the same

time ?

[dmarks]

Personally,I would've cropped,changed contrast and sharpened a little.It'll take about a minute.<div></div>

[pcassity]

Thanks to all of you. I intentionally left the image unmanipulated so that everyone could see it straight out of the camera. I agree that the composition was severely lacking. My issue from the start was the softness of the image and I believe you all addressed that, whether through exposure or use of the flash. I also question the use of auto FP and BL, at the same time. If I am not mistaken, once your exceed the maximum flash sync, BL is not longer available as an option.

[rffffffff]

I dont have opanda on here, or nikon software, but according to Jim Mucklin, the camera was set to manual focus.

 

If thats the case, and you inadvertently hit the switch and changed the focus mode, thats the problem. The rest of the commentary here is interesting, but in my opinion very unlikely to help sharpen a photograph of people standing still when you are at 1/640.

[pcassity]

Robert, although the camera was set to manual (as opposed to aperture, shutter of program), the focus was set to single point AF-S throughout the day. In fact, I verified it after virtually every shot. After reading all of the above, I really feel that the main cause of the softness was (1) I used spot metering instead of matrix. (2) I was much too far away for the flash to have any effect. (3) I should have relied more on the automatic features of the 300, shot in Aperture Priority mode and used the BL setting on the SB800. The issue with the way the groups were standing was an issue throughout the day. Not the most cooperative bunch. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit.

[blumesan]

All the discussion about flash mode, exposure mode and focus mode aside, viewing the shot it is neither badly out of focus nor badly exposed. It just needs a little post processing.

[pcassity]

Mike, You are absolutely correct. I was able to correct virtually all of the lighting and focusing problems with Capture or Photoshop. I also found with Capture that the focal point in many of my shots was way off. Now, if I could just find a way to get Photoshop to correct my terrible composition, I would be in great shape. :)

[william l. palminteri]

Shooting with a 'hot' background is a classic problem. The cloudy day helps to nullify any definition, and having the

sun off to the side adds to the headaches.

The composition speaks for itself. A crooked horizon tells the story. I'd forget 'photoshop', etc. and go back to

basics. Period. Light source (sun) behind you, dark b/g relative to the subject(s), etc. Forget all that jive about flash,

sync, distance, f-stop, speed, camera body, lens, etc. A Hasselblad can't help you if the basics aren't in place.

Please take this advice in the helpful spirit that it is intended.

 

Bill P.

[c_o1]

Dear Pat,

no doubt about it. You have produced a crummy boring picture. Those kind of shots never really stand a chance

anyway. I was about to give some advice because I figured you were brand new based on that shot. Then I looked through

your other images. I absolutely love them. The submerged tiles is astonishing and brilliantly artistic. You are covering old

ground with the rusty bicycle but have breathed new life into it.

 

 

My advice on the golf shot? Move a little closer. The funny thing is the people in the shot will like it just fine.

[joseph_smith3]

Frank asked if you can set Auto FP and TTL BL is a single shot. My answer is " Yes you can. " The read out on the SB-800's LCD is TTL BL FP if you have set custom setting #e 1 on the camera to 1/250 FP or 1/320 FP. The flash will go off if the shutter is higher than 1/250 or 1/320, depending on the Auto FP you have selected in e1. You will get a series of short bursts of light, not a single burst of light. This might not be what you want. If that is the case, just lower the ISO, f stop, etc so the shutter speed drops below 1/250 or 1/320. The effective range of the flash burst might be too short too so pay attention to this on the LCD. Joe Smith