concert_images

Thank you both. Stephen, what is ACR?

Hi, I'm an experienced amateur photographer, although I do mainly

concerts and travel stuff.

 

I'm best man at a wedding in 3 week's time in Norfolk, England. I've

been asked to do photographs of the bridal party prior to the

ceremony - purely whilst they are getting ready at home in the

morning.

 

There will be one bridesmaid, the bride and her baby, and the mother

of the bride.

 

Their cottage is very small and isn't great for natural light. I'll

be working with a D2X, and I assume I'm going to have to resort to

bouncing flash with my SB28DX. I'll probably use 17-35 f/2.8-4, 50mm

f/1.8 and 28-70 f/2.8 lenses because of lack of space.

 

I'm getting no guidance from them as to what they want so I'm going

to do informal / reportage style shots.

 

What I'm after is suggestions for the 'must have' shots, interesting

angles, moments, key details to catch etc. I guess I'll want to

convert some to black and white in PS so advice on the best way to do

that from a D2X RAW file would also be appreciated. I'm not going to

have any other equipment or lights, and it will be very very cold so

we'll be staying indoors.

 

Would people think it would also be worth loading up the old F100

with a roll of Delta 3200 for some grainy shots that I know won't

need flash? D2X is fine at 1600 but lousy at 3200 IMHO.

 

Many thanks,

 

Neil

cheers, we've got a week at the hilton adn a week at soneva fushi - I know at SF there will be nothing going on at all, but it is the biggest resort island there. Hilton is smaller but I'm hoping there will be trips etc.

 

Anyone got any good metering tips for bright beach conditions?

I've got two weeks in the Maldives in April. Now I know I'm probably

stating the obvious but beyond stunning beach scenes, what else

should I be looking out for to shoot? (Above water as I don't have an

underwater housing!) Although having said that, can anyone point me

in the right direction on an underwater housing for the D2X? And what

lens one would use - I've got Sigma EX's 17-35, 28-70 and 70-200...

 

Also, I've got two options (weight depending!) - sticking to the D2X,

or possibly taking along the F100 too with a few rolls of Velvia for

old times sake in addition not instead of the D2X!

 

Don't own any ND filters - wondering just how good those sunsets and

sunrises might be and whether its worth investing...

 

Any thoughts?

 

Neil

In london at the moment, commion sense prevails with heightened security - usual rules apply about military sites etc and general restrictions about flash / tripods inside certain buildings, but I've never been approached, stopped, questioned etc in London - even when I was on a workshop with a photography magazine and 8 of us were touting tripods etc in the same area!

 

Paris - I've never had difficulties in the pyramides area of the louvre, mind you I've never used a tripod there. Concorde, Champs Elysees etc no worries - go for some twilight traffic trail shots. Some stuff on my site - www.imagesworldwide.com - click travel then Paris.

 

Neil

yeah, twilight shots at Champs Elysees etc will be very nice. Check out my site for a few ideas - www.imagesworldwide.com - click travel then Paris. Its a beautiful city but will be COLD in November!!!

Okay, so I'm familiar with the hyperfocal distance theory and used it

with 35mm film. My D2X has a focal magnification of 1.5 times. Now

for hyperfocal focusing with the D2X, do I go off the original lens

focal length or its digital equivalent to calculate the hyperfocal

point?

 

Thanks, Neil

Thanks Peter. Is that a levetating rock in your picture!??!!?

so if in a situation where you have a couple of GBs of RAWs, and you want to batch convert them to 16 bit TIFFs, would Raw Shooter be quicker / easier / more effective than Nikon Capture?

I asked a question a few weeks back about the D2X's capabilities at

ISO 800 and ISO 1600 compared to pro film and it would seem that it

outstrips what, say Fuji NPZ can achieve - which is the biggest

indicator for me buying in...

 

I gather if I shoot in RAW mode, that's the highest quality way to

shoot. I gather too that Photoshop 7 won't read NEF RAWs, so you need

CS2 to read them (which I don't have - problem). Alternatively you

can use Nikon Capture or a package called RAW Shooter to convert your

RAW files to 16 bit TIFFs for editing in PS7 (which I do have) - is

this correct?

 

Am I right in saying that would give me the greatest quality of

output from the D2X?

 

Basically, given I don't have and don't intend to get CS2, what is

the best way of converting and editing RAW files given that I'm on

PS7?

 

And as an aside, has anyone used the Epson P-2000 with the D2X? That

looks good....

 

Thanks, Neil

I'm considering purchasing the Nikon D2X. I use PS 7 at home.

 

I'm told that only CS2 supports Nikon's NEF RAW file format, and that

possibly Elements 3.0 does?

 

I can't afford CS2 as well as the D2X in the short term, so here's

the question - does Elements 3.0 work wtih Nikon's NEF RAW files?

 

I gather the Nikon Capture software is fairly pants...

 

Please help!

 

I can't buy the D2X til I know where I stand with PS!

 

Neil

as Goulden says, unless you're right next to the stage and taking close ups, this camera won't cut it. Slow sync flash can give you fantastic creative results - if you dial in, say ISO 400 and 1/3 sec shutter speed and let the camera do the rest, you'll freeze the action at the start of the shot and get cool lines from the flash. Try that one!

using slide film for snow even in very bright conditions with a polariser is fine. When skiing at New Year this year, I simply metered either from trees if they were in sun, or more reliably of the back of my hand. No bracketing but remember to take account of the polariser!! (-2 stops!)

Having posted recently about the performance of the Nikon D2X I'm

seriously considering buying!

 

I'm over in Las Vegas in August, so considering taking advantage of

the ? / US$ exchange rate and purchasing over there.

 

Internet searches haven't been too fruitful as yet.

 

It seems to retail circa $5000. Anyone know of any reputable outlets

selling it lower than that?

 

Thank you

 

Neil

so in reality, nothing is in the public domain about Nikon's next top end DSLRs then?

so where do Nikon go after then D2X? I'm hoping that if they announce a replacement in the not to distant future, the price of the D2X will come down...D3X here we come!?!?

NPZ couldn't do that at ISO 2000! And I find it is very intolerant of underexposure... Amazing! Time to rent one to shoot my next gig on I think

Hi Eric, if you've got some at H1 and H2 (is that it!?) that would be great to see.

 

I bowled over by the quality of the zoomed shots you've posted - I had no idea the D2X is so powerful!

 

Presumably the lesser contrast latitude of digital vs film would explain why often you see concert shots from DSLRs that lack the punch of the saturated coloured lights compared to film (without flash I mean).

 

I know Canon are ahead on DSLRs. I'd use the D2X for concerts and probably not a lot else. Its a huge lump and I can't see myself taking it on holiday backpacking etc necessarily - hence why I'd keep an F100 too.

 

I know Nikon are firmly down the 1.5 magnification rather than full frame sensor, but its about waiting to see if they can compete soon with the 1DS Mk 2, or whether I ought to just take the plunge...whatever I buy will be out of date by the time its out of the box...

Eric, that is stunning quality. Do you shoot in RAW mode? Do you need to do much post-camera noise reduction / PS work?

thank you so far. Yeah, Lex I know! I love film and presume the D2X couldn't yet compare to the crispness of Velvia 50 or Provia 100F (although I don't actually project my slides and never will - I scan then!!)

 

I always thought that NPZ 800 would outperform the D2X in low light at ISO 800 - maybe its time to reconsider??

I don't want to start a highly scientific or technical debate.

 

I currently use Nikon F100's for concerts, shooting at ISO 800 on

Fuji NPZ 800.

 

I'm seriously considering moving up to the Nikon D2X.

 

So this is a question for those D2X users who use it at ISO 800 and

have experience of shooting ISO 800 film... Any impressions? I'm

thinking particularly about grain vs pixellation.

 

Some concert photographers have told me that colours etc just aren't

as good as on film.

 

I doubt I'd ever blow shots up beyond A3 size.

 

Thanks, Neil

Hi, I know I need to write a specific action in PS7 for the

following, but could do with someone walking me through it! I have

tried to set up batch actions before but they have never worked - so

I'm obviously doing something wrong!

 

Here's what I need doing:

 

I have a folder with images which are 1500x2250 pixels and 2250 x

1500 at 300 dpi TIFFs. Without recording over those, I need to resize

them, saving them elsewhere as 360 x 540 and 540 x 360 at 72 dpi as

JPEGs. Then I need to add a 3 pixel border around the edge in a

specific colour found in PS's colour palette. I need to Save for Web

in a totally separate folder.

 

I also need to do the same as above, creating 100 x 67 and 67 x 100

pixel thumbnails at 72dpi, ditto with the 3 pixel colour border.

 

All other editing has already been performed on the images. This is

to send to a web designer for my new website.

 

Again, these need to be in a separate folder without recording over

my original scans.

 

Thanks

 

Neil

thanks, I misunderstood what I'd been previously told - ie that Vuescan was freely available as a free download in the full version. Clearly that isn't actually the case. I certainly don't want to be ripping people off as at least one person here has implied.

Please could someone point me to a web link to download the full

version of Vuescan for the Minolta Scan Dual 3 on Windows? I gather

you can get the full version free of charge rather than just a trial

version that watermarks the images.

 

Thanks, Neil

Any thoughts on getting the flash off camera with a cord and possibly using a diffuser? As long as I order them today they will be with me tomorrow for the shoot...