Another First - Longing 4 Latitude. 30.4.07

[rustmonster]

As I managed to get my first proper photopass the other day I thought I'd add to those ranks of fledgling newbies looking for helpful advice.

Shot with Cannon 400D, using the f1.8 50mm prime and f3.5/4.5 24-100mm.

1.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/202/480508331_1e3e740de1.jpg
2.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/480508537_c34775a0c6.jpg
3.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/480492038_6e5141be44.jpg
4.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/213/480504589_5b3d40dba8.jpg
5.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/480498839_5beca8b0fc.jpg
6.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/480498603_9af5a8f5ee.jpg
7.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/169/480494589_d2327998b9.jpg
8.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/207/480493067_cad57177a3.jpg


I must admit to having some focusing issues, finding it pretty hard to get faces in focus. When using autofocus the camera rarely went for the face, my other technigue was to use spot focus then compose the image, i'm guessing the small depth of field combined with movement on stage was probably to blame.

I shot raw+jpeg, had a go at processing some raw files and cropped them for better composition but didn't really know what I was doing. They came out looking better than the jpegs but for some reason I couldn't save to jpeg format, and the .psd files were over 100 meg each. So the photos above are the original jpeg's straight from the camera.

How do the pro's do it? Have another gig lined up for tomorrow so any advice would be grately appreciated.

[René Damkot]

I must admit to having some focusing issues, finding it pretty hard to get faces in focus. When using autofocus the camera rarely went for the face, my other technigue was to use spot focus then compose the image, i'm guessing the small depth of field combined with movement on stage was probably to blame.

I shot raw+jpeg, had a go at processing some raw files and cropped them for better composition but didn't really know what I was doing. They came out looking better than the jpegs but for some reason I couldn't save to jpeg format, and the .psd files were over 100 meg each. So the photos above are the original jpeg's straight from the camera.

How do the pro's do it? Have another gig lined up for tomorrow so any advice would be grately appreciated.

I can see the focussing problems, but not because they aren't sharp: First and last images are very 'centered'.

I use whatever focus point is nearest to the place I want to focus on. (11 manual selectable on a 1D). If light is good, I use AiServo. If light is worse (and subject still) I use OneShot AF. If light is worst, I use center point / one shot, and hope...

Focus recompose also has the drawback that (when using one shot AF and evaluative metering) AE is locked. Unless you use CFn4-1, in which case AE isn't locked if you release the '*' button (focus will sit still however), but metering is still biased to the chosen AF point...

Re-read this if it doesn't make sense. Took me a while ;)

You couldn't save as jpg, because you processed the files as 16 bit tiff. Convert to sRGB if they aren't allready, make 'em 8bpc, save them as jpg.
If you don't do huge corrections in PS curves / color wise, you could also consider converting to 8 bit tiff or jpeg. I do this quite a lot as well.


Some nice images by the way. Very nice for straight out of the camera!

Curious to how the final (processed) files will look :D

(I vote to keep the originals online, so we can compare!)

[DwightMcCann]

Welcome to POTN. Read the FAQ when you get a chance.

[rustmonster]

Rene: Thanks for the kind comments and the advice, I'll resize them as soon as I have a chance and put them up for comparison. I think another issue was that I only had 2 1gb cards to shoot 4 bands and was saving raw+jpeg so was manually deleting in camera as I went along (By the last performer I gave up and just switched to jpeg.) Not the best way to go about it and have ordered a couple of 4gb cards to remedy that.

Dwight: I see the faq has been added to since I last checked, the resizing and sharpening links should help me a lot. Cheers

[DwightMcCann]

Dwight: I see the faq has been added to since I last checked, the resizing and sharpening links should help me a lot. Cheers

Yeah, I gave up on asking Rene to add his links so I am keeping my eye out for when he mentions them in threads and copying them to the FAQ.

[René Damkot]

Yeah, I gave up on asking Rene to add his links so I am keeping my eye out for when he mentions them in threads and copying them to the FAQ.

Ooops... Thanks for that. Completely forgot about it. Have been into color management (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296149) lately...