UPDATE: conference photography

[rob_malkin]

<p>Dear photo.net members,</p>

<p>A few weeks (original post <a href="../nikon-camera-forum/00Yr4G">here</a>) ago I asked for some help with shooting my first ever conference. And well, I did it, and I survived!</p>

<p>The link to the gallery is <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64796777@N04/collections/">here </a>, I am pretty happy and so is my boss. I am most happy with the image of the group!</p>

<p>Firstly I wanted to thank everyone who offered me advice. I read all your tips the night before I started just to refresh. It went well I feel. Also, I was amazed at the speed of the D3. It was so very very fact and responsive. Truly a beautiful camera.</p>

<p>Again, thank you all.</p>

<p>Rob</p>

<p> </p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Hi Rob -</p>

<p>Congrats on shooting your first conference. I skimmed through your pix and it looks like you did a totally credible job on the photography, and, I'm sure, the scientific aspects, as well.</p>

<p>I would make one comment, however: The group shot is likely to be the single most widely distributed and viewed shot of the entire set. Group shots like this often wind up reproduced in print in journals, on websites, etc., so they should look as good as possible.</p>

<p>While it would take a long time to do close color and tonal correction on all of the other shots, you may want to spend a bit of time working on that shot as it looks a bit warm with uniformly orange skin tones for everyone. It also looks slightly darker than optimal, and you may want to even out the illumination so that the folks towards the sides and rear of the picture don't feel like they were short-changed photographically. ;-) .</p>

<p>I have in mind something like the attached quick-and-dirty tweak. If you are interested, I'll be happy to send you the full rez version of what I did.</p>

<p>Congrats again,</p>

<p>Tom M</p><div></div>

[aplumpton]

<p>Rob, I wonder if "self-healing materials" might be available for my own rather poor digital printing, although I shouldn't blame it on the innocent substrate? A fine image, but agree with Tom about the white balance need in post exposure and possibilities of light enhancement. If you have access to a simple PhotoShp Elements software you can do a correction like Tom mentions. Bravo for your image and especially its angle which gives even those in the back row a chance for glory. Do print it at the best resolution possible, as even for a Nikon D3 type camera this is a challenging image with much required detail in very small micro-areas (like the lone attendee at far back).</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Hi Rob; thanks for giving us some feedback (it makes me feel wanted, or at least I can pretend to myself!)<br />

<br />

I'm glad it went well for you. Good effort. :-)</p>

[rob_malkin]

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>Thanks very much. I will be honest, I did just upload them all. I was getting a bit sick of doing it and rushed the final image. But you are totally correct. The image is not as good as it could be. </p>

<p>I was shooting RAW so will grab the file tomorrow and update it. Should not be too much work to fix. All the other images were shot as JPEG and custom WB. Also, I was amazed at the colours that came from the D3. For the two days I had it before the shoot I was taking a lot of pictures outside. And the colours are very vibrant. </p>

<p>Anyway, thank you all again very much. Your advice really helped make this a great day. </p>

<p>Rob</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Hi Rob - In case you are interested for comparison or to save you some time, here's the full rez version of my tweaked version.</p>

<p>Tom</p><div></div>

[rob_malkin]

<p>Tom, thank you so much. Thats very kind of you. I have just send it onto our publicity person and it should be live very soon. </p>

<p>Thanks again, above and beyond Tom!</p>

<p>Rob</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Rob - You are quite welcome!</p>

<p>Tom M</p>