vineet.rajasekhar

<p>Hi Peter, </p>

<p>That's such a kind offer to make - thank you! Unfortunately, as I live in New Zealand, sending it to me might be quite challenging. For now, I'll give the Adorama mount a go and see if it works - if not, I'll get back in touch with you..</p>

<p>Thank you again!</p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>Thanks Bob!</p>

<p>Ah, thanks Scott! I've just found a T Mount for Nikon on Adorama, buying it now!</p>

<p>Cheers!</p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>Hi, <br>

I was given an old Sigma 18mm f/3.5 lens, which my father has been using on his old Leica 35mm SLR. The lens was being used with a leica lens adapter, which screwed into the YS lens, and had a leica mount on the other side. <br>

The lens seems to be in great condition, and I'm really keen to use it with my Nikon D700. But, I assume I must first find and attach a YS to Nikon lens adapter. <br>

I realise that doing this will mean I can only use the lens as a purely manual device, even having to stop down aperture manually after focusing and composing. I'm fine with this, as most of what I'll be doing with this lens will be tripod mounted, landscape type work. <br>

Can anyone tell me if it is still possible to, and worth, getting a YS to Nikon adapter? <br>

Alternatively, someone suggested I could get a Leica to Nikon adapter, and use the lens with the YS > Leica > Nikon adapter arrangement? Is this workable? Wouldn't this screw up the distance between the lens and the film/sensor?<br>

I really would like to use this lens - any guidance on how I can make it work on my D700 would be fantastic. </p>

<p>Thank you very much, <br>

Vineet</p>

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>Speaking as a D700 user who's only ever shot with hand-me-down prime lenses, I'd suggest that you consider the following ideas:</p>

<p>1) Buying a second-hand lens - if you're careful and patient, you can get some great stuff out there. <br>

2) What kinds of portraits are you interested in? Portraits don't always have to be the tight, shallow DoF affairs that everyone seems set on - you can do some very interesting portrait work with a very wide lens and up-close. Think about what kinds of portraits/shots you're interested in. <br>

3) What percentage of your shots do you expect to be portraits? Try and balance your portraiture needs with your other requirements - especially if this is going to be your general go-to lens for everything. <br>

4) The usefulness of your lens (in terms of how often you're likely to use it) falls off sharply as the focal length becomes extremely short, or extremely long. A "default" general, go-to lens on the D700 would be the 50mm/1.8. Great, lightweight, sharp, and very USEFUL lens. I've used this lens for portraits, landscapes, architecture, macros, etc. I'd say this lens is on my D700 90% of the time. With the 50/1.8 and a little moving backwards and forwards, you can do almost anything. The bokeh is great too. The 50/1.8 is the only lens i've ever bought, I've scrounged, begged and borrowed every other lens I've ever used. <br>

5) I should probably have put this first - what lenses and other equipment do you already have? If you already have a lens and you're unhappy with the results, perhaps you could get more bang for your buck by investing in a flash - or maybe go off-camera with a flash you already own? Perhaps you'd get more value for money if you shot in natural light, but used light modifiers like like reflectors and diffusers that can be had for a few bucks?</p>

<p>Hope some of these ideas help, </p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>Hi Geir, </p>

<p>I own a D700 and have used it voraciously for about 10 months now. I've never used a D300. </p>

<p>A lot of my pre-purchase research revolved around choosing between the D700 and D300. I discovered by looking at a number of test shots that at ISOs < 400 or so, there's no visually significant difference in noise. It really only becomes noticeable at the higher end. </p>

<p>If you intend to do a lot of shooting at high ISOs, I can recommend the D700 wholeheartedly, I've spent entire evenings shooting (by mistake) at ISO800 and only discovered the mistake when I looked at the image Metadata. Even at ISO800, you really need to look at the images pixel by pixel to perceive a difference. </p>

<p>Over ISO800, noise becomes noticeable, but very manageable. </p>

<p>Regards, <br>

Vineet</p>

<p>Hi Ashish, <br>

To put this in context, I own (and absolutely love) the Nikon D700. However, as you have a good Canon lens and flash gun, it would seem a pity to have to convert wholesale to Nikon. The Canon 5DII is a formidable body, and produces outstanding results - I would suggest you upgrade to the Canon, and retain the use of your existing Canon gear.<br>

This is assuming of course that you have no other objections to continuing with Canon gear. <br>

Also, the full frame gives you the most advantage when shooting wide, wide lenses stay wide, as compared to crop-frame sensors where they get longer. With your interest in family and kids' sport events, I would think the crop-frame sensor would give you more pixels on target for longer shots at sporting events, etc. If you went for the 7D - from all accounts an excellent body - you'd save some money, and get better long shots. <br>

Both Canon and Nikon make very good ultra-wides for crop frame bodies, so the 7D might be a good compromise for you. <br>

Hope this was helpful - all the best, <br>

Vineet</p>

<p>Haha I agree, and I think the key is to give up any hope of ever being rich, holding down a decent relationship, living in a nice house, driving a nice car, having nice clothes, eating nice food, and generally devote yourself completely to photography. <br>

But seriously - a quite useful and inspiring article that helped me find my way from dead broke to a D700 (and dead broke), was Ken Rockwell's "How to afford anything". <br>

<I tried to link to the article here, but the elves tackled me to the ground. Just pop over to his site and search for "how to afford anything"><br>

Good luck!<br>

Vineet</p>

<p>Hi Folks, </p>

<p>Thanks for all the responses, clearly there's a whole world of stuff out there I never knew existed - Clearly I need to do some reading before I can get decent prints... <br>

Coming from a fairly small town, in fairly small New Zealand, I don't think the local labs quite cut it as far as profiles/calibration etc. goes. I'll need to see what the local pros do for prints, and try and afford the same. <br>

What are your thoughts on getting a basic home printer set up, can I get the same quality of results as a pro lab? I'm not looking to get massive prints, just good ones I can put up on the walls, give as gifts, etc. <br>

Cheers, </p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>Marlon, </p>

<p>Thanks for the response. I did select the "no extra editing" option - but I like your point about calibrating my screen for the printer - might have to look into that. </p>

<p>Cheers, </p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>Hi, <br>

I've been having trouble getting satisfactory prints from images I'm perfectly happy with. I'd really appreciate any guidance you can give me on this. </p>

<p>I shoot with a Nikon D700. I shoot RAW, and use Lightroom for post processing, and have been very happy with the on-screen results I get for my shots. I have an iMac, and I understand the screens on these are generally well calibrated to start with (?)</p>

<p>Somehow, I'm just totally unable to translate these results onto paper. I print at a local photo lab, and inevitably, an image that looks rich, detailed, colourful, and bright, comes out of the lab looking drab, black, over-contrasty, and generally awful. And this is after weeding out the useless other labs which produce blues that look green and blacks that look purple. </p>

<p>I've been using the "printing stations" where you insert your flashdrive, pick the pictures you want, specify the sizes/gloss/matte/etc, hit the button and come back a couple of hours later for the prints. I usually print 8x12s, from full res JPEGs exported from Lightroom. </p>

<p>I've tried with images that are predominantly dark, predominantly light, multi-coloured, mostly one or two colours, and B+W, and I have the same trouble with all of them. </p>

<p>The only way I've found to get something even remotely like what I'm after, is to post-process the image to make it look really low-contrast, flat, under-saturated, and generally unappealing, in the hope that the mystical printing transformations it will undergo will make it look acceptable. But this is a total shot-in-the-dark, and I never know what I'm going to get. </p>

<p>Surely this isn't normal? Surely I should be able to produce an image that looks just right on my computer screen, and in the age of digital wizardry, I should be able to get a similar looking image on paper? I realise Dynamic Range may be lower on paper than on-screen, but surely the idiosyncrasies of printers are well enough known that gamma corrections etc will be automatically made in the labs?</p>

<p>Or - is there some kind of automatic "Process for Print" function I can use in Lightroom (or other software) which will take care of this for me?</p>

<p>I must confess, though I'm well and truly a child of the digital generation, I've never had much patience for poking around in a computer. Having spent hours out in the field taking the picture, and hours at home post-processing it to look just right, surely it's reasonable to expect decent prints?</p>

<p>Any advice/thoughts/opinions?</p>

<p>Thanks very much everyone, <br>

Vineet</p>

<p>Megan, </p>

<p>What Pierre is talking about can be controlled by doing two things. </p>

<p>First, you need to set the focus mode on your D700 to S, rather than M or C. This is controlled by the lever on the front of your camera, immediately below your lens release button. </p>

<p>Second, you should have your area selector (the lever on the back of your D700, immediately above the "Info" button) set to either of the two lower options. If you want to totally control your focus yourself, then I suggest the single focus point (lower option). </p>

<p>With these settings, you should be able to get focus just right, by framing for your final composition, then moving your focus point (using your directional control thumbpad) to cover the part of your subject you want in focus, half pressing the shutter release button, and then take the picture. </p>

<p>Ken Rockwell has an excellent page on Focusing options for the D700, for various different shooting situations, I've found it of great use in coming to grips with my D700. You can find it here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d700/af-settings.htm">http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d700/af-settings.htm</a></p>

<p>Hope this helps - good luck!</p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>I was sent out this week to take a picture of what has to be the most boring place in my town. But, as if gently rebuking my hubris, the photography gods sent down this...</p><div></div>

<p>Is the camera on Live View mode? If you're set to Live view, your camera won't focus when you half press the shutter release button. </p>

<p>Good luck, </p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<p>Great stuff everyone. </p>

<p>Particularly caught my eye:</p>

<p>1) Steven Ford: Fireworks<br>

2) Brett Higgins, Channel Island Sunset<br>

3) Michael Mixon's baby boy (Congratulations! he's gorgeous!)</p>

<p>I'll be back later in the day to see what the night has unveiled!</p>

<p>Vineet</p>

 

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I took this a while ago, and just settled on a post processed version that I was pleased with. </p>

<p>These are the Groynes at St. Clair Beach, in Dunedin, New Zealand. </p>

<p>Have a great week!</p>

<p>Vineet</p><div></div>

<p>Hi!<br>

<a href="/photodb/user?user_id=5576216">Jana Hughes</a> and <a href="/photodb/user?user_id=1183736">Marc McCoy</a>, outstanding images!</p>

<p>I did a roadtrip with the family this weekend, went out to the West Coast of New Zealand. Got some great weather, great light - even if it was a little cold...</p>

<p>This is the icy jetty on Lake Mapourika, some minutes north of Franz Josef (the glacier town). This was taken about an hour after dawn on a beautiful icy blue day. </p>

<p>Cheers, </p>

<p>Vineet</p>

<div></div>

<p>Hi Guys!</p>

<p>Been ages since I was here last - great to be back! As usual, some fantastic work here!</p>

<p>This one was taken about an hour after sunset, and about fifteen minutes after moonrise, 393s exposure at St. Clair Beach, another shot of the famous Groynes. <br>

Cheers, </p>

<p>Vineet</p><div></div>

<p>Hi! </p>

<p>Had a busy week of photography - went out to a beach near town for a sunset shoot, and snapped this off. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<div></div>

<p>Woke up at the crack to head out on the Otago Peninsula to catch the sunrise. Having shot my panorama, and done some other tripod work, I unclipped my camera and strolled around, doing some handheld stuff. This resulted.<br>

Happy Wednesday everyone!</p><div></div>

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>My contribution this week is from a trip to the Orokonui Ecosanctuary, north of Dunedin, NZ. This is a vast, fenced off enclosure, keeping introduced predators and pests out, providing native New Zealand flora and fauna a safe environment in which to reestablish a working ecosystem. Lovely native New Zealand birds to photograph to your heart's content. </p>

<p>Best regards, </p>

<p>Vineet</p><div></div>

<p>Hi, <br>

<a href="/photodb/user?user_id=24372">Shun Cheung</a>: Fantastic shot!<br>

<a href="/photodb/user?user_id=323291">Dieter Schaefer</a>: I love this shot - its reminiscent of something the impressionist masters would produce... <br>

<a href="/photodb/user?user_id=2186708">Tony Hadley</a>: Great light - good timing!<br>

<a href="/photodb/user?user_id=4456907">Shane Srogi</a>: Another shot with fantastic light!</p>

<p>Last Saturday I went along to a 12 hour mountainbike race in Naseby, in Central Otago, in New Zealand's south Island. My work put a team of cyclists in, and I went along for moral support and some shooting! This was one of my favourite from the day. <br>

Cheers!<br>

<br /><br>

<br /></p>

<div></div>

<p>DISCLAIMER: I'm a wuss who's never had the guts to shoot weddings. But I've shot lots of other events - sports, etc. <br>

----------------------------<br>

I agree with Craig - ISO overdrive would seem to be the solution here - albeit a compromise. You would have had a higher hit rate, and I believe noise reduction in post can make most images usable...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Woah... There're definitely a bunch of shots this week that made me stop and stare!<br>

<strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=943565">Aguinaldo de Paula</a>: What great light!</strong><br>

<strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=5208951">Mike C</a>: Superb - Simply superb!</strong><br>

<strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=3918094">Phil Burt</a>: Great stuff! I love the light - not sure if that's induced in post - but still, fantastic image!</strong><br>

<strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=2418329">Lil Judd</a>: Its been said before, but here it is again - fantastic shot!</strong><br>

<strong><strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=323291">Dieter Schaefer</a> - Great light and composition!</strong></strong><br>

<strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=786707">Tiffany Brook</a>: I love how you've overpowered the ambient and made her look like she's glowing... </strong><br>

<strong><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=3894248">B M Mills</a>: Lovely!</strong></p>

<p><strong>I've had a fairly unproductive week myself, just didn't feel the drive to go out there and shoot. Last weekend I went out to Dunedin's famous, and beautiful Railway Station for a night shoot - and did some fun stuff with the row of lights on the platform. </strong></p>

<p><strong>Thanks!</strong></p><div></div>

<p>Hi George,</p>

<p>I have very little experience shooting sports, but all the times I've been out doing it, I've just "tagged" along on corporate events with my firm, and never taken any payment. My shots have become significantly better with experience, and I find that the one thing that works really well to improve shots, is to go out to the site a couple of days before and spend some time scouting around. </p>

<p>This helps with everything from finding a place to park, to finding angles from which the backgrounds are least distracting, to discovering what the light looks like at different times of day. </p>

<p>I tried two shoots of the same event - a year apart. The first time, I just rocked up with a camera. I took about 500 shots, and liked (kinda) about 2. </p>

<p>The second year, I scouted out the location, spent hours looking for places to shoot from etc. I took about 300 shots, and had about 30 really good ones, including one each of every competitor from my firm, looking good, sharp, well composed, in good light. The preparation really made things easy. </p>

<p>Good luck with your shoot. </p>

<p>Vineet</p>