bob_bill

Sandy, I still use a hand held meter in both incident and reflective modes where appropriate and when time allows. Used a custom white balance and color checker passport. Do I need the extra safety margin there, no, especially if shooting tethered. But run and gun, I want that extra exposure insurance it gives. Because I am a part time pro, I can't afford to loose that critical shot because I didn't use raw. It's part of my work flow any way and would probably run a jpeg through it too. I also like to minimize the things to think about and selecting raw/jpg, is one I don't need or want to forget at the wrong time... kinda one reason I shoot manual not aperture priority and messing with the compensation adjustment that I seem to have improperly set on a critical shot. I like to keep any messing with the gear to a minimum so I can concentrate on the real goal,achieving my vision for the shot. In portraiture that is important to keep the subject in the moment. I am still shooting with 12 mp and perhaps will reconsider with upgrade to a 36 mp or larger body when nikon upgrades the 810. My photo shop work is primarily editing portraits and with or without raw, it will still be necessary. A face that is tack sharp with large pores, wrinkles and blemishes can't be corrected in camera. After editing tens of thousands of shots, I rarely spend more than 15 minutes even on a heavy edit. Like you, I would rather be behind a camera than in front of a monitor but need to do some post in most shots.

Dieter, I really like the VR on the 16-35 4. Hand holding to half or full second in places that prohibit tripods like churches or museums or when you don't want to carry one. I tend to brace on a pew, pillar or wall and shoot in 3 shot bursts. It's pretty light compared to a 14-24 or 24-70. Depending what I am shooting, I add an 85 and possibly a 135. Once I get a 36 mp+ FF replacement for the 810 to replace my d700, heavily crop the 135 instead of lugging a 70-200 2.8 when the reach or compression is needed.

It's family and not a photo trip so a little give and take from all as usual. You obviously cant be taking hours at a time with them waiting but they should be willing to tolerate some shooting. Perhaps they can schedule other activities while you shoot. Can you give one a camera and encourage them to shoot? Learn to get shots other than at either ends of the day, the type of shots that lend themselves to that. For example, indoor touring/shooting mid day. Cloudy afternoons.

No problem with mine.

You are right, I forgot, in trying to be as tactful as possible, deleting a couple of initial uncharitable comments, that his website listed, Pause photo is non existent. I ended up looking at the photos there. Looks like the I have a camera therefore I am a photographer concept we see today, the gwc guy/gal with a camera. Perhaps the question should be "what is a real photographer?"

Shun, You nailed it. I chose a 400 2.8 as a multi tasker long lens for sports as well a wild life shooting behind my house. As a portrait guy, I like sports shots tight on the face to capture the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. The 2.8 should get me "in the ball park" of 1/1000 with usable iso indoors as well. Outdoors in full sun should have plenty of shutter speed for sharp images. Another reason to be looking for at least 6 fps and good iso response. I think I would prefer to switch bodies from FF to crop instead of employ a tc that would loose that stop or two. Using this bad boy on a monopod will be a learning experience. As I mentioned earlier, my 7 foot octa was intimidating when I first got it and the 6' scrim outdoors alone, that was a challenge. But now, piece of cake- provided there is minimal wind. I have a shot of the 7' octa on a stand in my 10 ' fly fishing boat...as a sail. I pick up 10 lb plates at the gym with a couple of fingers. The length and diameter of a lens this size adds major leverage to the equation. I have been trying to handle it with the foot. Dieter, great explanation of what a tc does. I will test to see if 600 mm on a crop is enough reach or if a 1.4 will do the trick at 840. Thanks for all the help, this has been a crash course in long lens usage. Some of the best instruction I have seen on this site in a while.

Yes, Shun, no question time for an upgrade on the d200. It was my "disposable" body in bad weather or harsh conditions or when testing or practicing. It may be converted to IR. I shot a few on the d700 that I know I find acceptable at 1000. 1600, have to accept noise. But, sharp with noise is more acceptable than camera subject blur. A new crop body would round out my nature kit. Will do some testing this weekend as much of my shooting will be from my bedroom on tripod. will grid my distance and see if I am happy shooting a FF with the 1.7 tc, effective 680 mm.. I would think a crop sensor with no tc will give me 600 and ability to shoot at 2.8. You folks have educated me this week on how narrow the dof is with long glass. Most of the good backgrounds are within about 120 feet, most shots 40-80 feet. Thanks for all the help. I do have another question on Teleconverters. The 1.7 reduces me to minimum f/4.8. Will that give the same effect as closing down from 2.8 a bit to get closer to the lens sweet spot and getting somewhat sharper? Unfortunately, I expect the benefit is lost in the overall loss of sharpness from the TC. Should stopping down to 5.6, now 2 stops down, help with sharpness?

dc, I see you approach nature shots the way I approach portraiture. Only perfect is good enough. My strobes can pop 10 frames a second and my camera only 8, but in there is the perfect smile. I think Ansel said 12 good photos in one year is a good crop.

Thanks dc. This lens reminds me of what I felt when I got a 7 foot octa and said, holy crap this thing is bigger than I am. Same the first time I tried moving a 6.5 x 6.5' scrim alone-now it's on a rolling stand, no big deal . This lens weighs a ton, probably enough to break your wrist if it falls and you have the wrist strap on. A piece of gear that can kick my butt. Put it on a wimberley gimbal yesterday and even used a remote trigger at 1/80 sec and stopped down to 5.6 for more dof and looking for the lens sweet spot and got a pretty sharp image. On a gimbal, it effectively weighs nothing. More testing this weekend. I hope the critters don't get the bananas before I do. Thanks

Dieter, I agree. I don't care about gear, digital or film, I am more concerned about the image the photographer produces. Gear collectors wring their hands over gear, photographers about the image. Gear is only a means to an end. Dieter gave me some great advice on a lens in another forum the other day, but that lens was not an end in itself, it was a remedy to issues I was having with other lenses that prevented me from attaining my vision for a shot. No offense to the guy who is the subject of this thread, but I am from that area and knew most pros and amateurs and I didn't know him so checked his website. Take a look and see if this is a guy you would rely upon for expert advice.

Sue Bryce, window light photographer and Felix Kunze, strobe guy, did a challenge on Creative live to see if he could produce the look she liked from window light using strobes. He did and it was indistinguishable. Window light characteristics of direction, diffusion, intensity and color can all be created with strobe and at any time of day and any weather that are limitations on ambient. Also, if you live in a place with clouds, window light can change constantly while strobes only change when you want them to. From a cost analysis since you are new construction, how much extra will windows and black out shades cost compared to solid exterior wall. Probably enough to buy strobes and modifiers. I have both, but black out my windows most of the time.

Thanks Shun, this long lens/nature stuff is a new area for me. Someone had asked on another post to comment on something favorable about pnet, well, this is an example. I received advice from folks who's work I respect in a matter of hours. Got insight from folks who know the genre based on their years of experience.

Thanks everyone. Appreciate the feed back. Dieter, at nearly 10 lbs, it makes the 70-200 look like a light weight. On the ff body and no tc, got some sharp shots hand holding but bracing the lens against a door jamb. Full sun, 2.8 and 1/4000. Keep those great CA shots coming. Can tell some bicep curls are in my future.

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Shun, was using a 70-200 2.8 vr1 with the 1.7 tele. Was not satisfied with the results. Probably why it went mostly unused for 6 years. Now using a 400 2.8 version II no vr. Pulled out the old d200 for the crop factor but this evening put it on a d700 and without a tc, sharp as a tack just resting on a camera stand arm at 500. Could crank the d700 to 800 or 1000 iso. Heres some shots, first looks to me to be camera shake, nothing including the sticks in focus. Ibis eye tack sharp body out of focus, seems to be a shallower dof than I would have expected at 40 feet. Getting to know the lens. Turtle at 20 feet seems to be pretty sharp on the eye. All taken with lens resting on a camera stand arm with some padding. Took some at 1/5000 and they are tack sharp. So seems I need to eliminate camera shake,keep shutter speed up around at least 800 or 1000. Rechecked the dof calculator and at 40 feet am only getting about 3 inches dof, only 1.5 or so in front.

dcstep. Thanks for the advice in the photo thread about my problem with a high percentage of soft shots. Didn't want to get too off topic so started this thread. I hit the wall on what I consider acceptable iso on my crop body, a 10 yr old d200 at about 400 iso. After that I seem to trade noise for faster shutter speed/sharpness and not sure it is a benefit. My bench test shot was at 1/800 so the camera movement is the problem and it was nearly tack sharp. Not sure if mirror lock up or a remote shutter release would help. I have been shooting at f/4.8, the lowest available with the 1.7 tc. on the 2.8 lens but will try some tests this weekend to try to find the optimum iso, shutter speed, aperture. Folks here that know me from the lighting side know the first thing I do is test to find the limitations of my lights/modifiers and what they actually do. Perhaps stopping down will get me into the sweet spot of the lens. However, I really like the bokeh at 4.8 and will also test that without the tc at 2.8 and at 5.6. Fortunately, Nikon hasn't provided me with a replacement for my d700, so while I wait for a replacement for the 810 perhaps a used crop factor d7100 or 7200 will provide me more resolution than the 10mp d200 and a more modern iso response for my wild life shooting. Anyone feel comfortable at 800 iso or above on those bodies? Much of my shooting will be in my back yard so can set up the tripod and not have to carry it much. Have constant wading birds, a roseate spoon bill last week, slow moving turtles, otters, egrets, herons, ducks and wood storks. And they are often totally still while stalking their prey. I will also try a monopod. Am I asking too much for steady shots with a 1000 mm equivalent on a monopod with no image stabilization? Is 680 more realistic? Do you folks use a 1 axis head on a tripod so you can keep the monopod vertical? I know the inverse lens length rule, but I seem to have wandered into a different universe with long glass. I have been shooting in 3 or 4 shot bursts to try to eliminate the movement from firing and releasing the shutter.

Holding camera as high as possible over head in burst to get the eye where I wanted it. A shot had to envision without being able to see it.

WWII shoot on an actual merchant ship. Ambient only. Shot seemed appropriate for a war bond poster. Wording from an actual poster.

Jordan, thanks. Like black and white can help with bad or mixed light color, a painterly edit can help cover for soft focus. I am new to this nature stuff and have been struggling to get sharp images with longer glass that I have rarely used. I am a portrait photographer, so my favorite tele lens is the 135 mm 2.0 dc and am usually within 9 feet of my subject. Was using a 70-200 with 1.7 tc on a crop camera, 510 equivalent and wasn't sure if the softness was lens or not using a tripod. Was shooting it resting on the arm of a rolling camera stand. I just experimented with a newly purchased lens a 400 mm 2.8 /camera again with the 1.7 tc setting it on a posing table and got tack sharp images. My sharpness issue is obviously operator error probably from not using a tripod. Will see how much difference a gimbal and appropriate tripod makes- my current tripod isn't even rated for the weight of the 400 mm lens-nearly 10 lbs, much less a body and gimbal head. I am always looking for transferable skills between photo genres and wildlife really makes you pay close attention to any physical clues that the subject is about to do something. Will help in anticipating the decisive moment in portraits. And the long glass work open up the kind of tight, in your face, people shots I like to take in things like sports.

Love Affair is a great movie for photographers. Imagery of swans as example of lifelong commitment. The shot of the two in the back of a boat wearing white shirt or dress with short collars, lengthening the necks Shadows representing a person's soul in the deck dancing scene. But Kate Hepburn in this, her final film discusses swans as faithful for life but ducks, not only promiscuous, but highly indiscreet. [ATTACH=full]1184481[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1184481[/ATTACH]

Ellis, I like the caller from farm country that called Dr. Laura to comment on how people learn. He said some guys can learn from others, some from books and some, well, they just have to pee on that electric fence themselves.

The problem has been happening for at least 3 weeks. The really frustrating aspect is to click on logout only gives a fraction of a second to get to it before it disappears. Really makes the site less attractive. I have never had this problem on any site. I hope you can correct it soon.

I find the site blinking about half the days I open it. It is difficult to log off because the log off button is only on a second or so. The site seems to have had a drop in visitors and new threads for at least a year or two. Seems like many former regulars aren't posting or posting much. Perhaps we just know it all now? Just kiddin.

That's a shame. I guess all the rain received is contributing to these slides which PCH is prone to anyway. If you can reach it, in Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park, McWay falls is one of 2 falls in CA that drop directly into the ocean.