Marimekko fashion show - learning to focus

[Pekka]

I was at the downtown Helsinki in the afternoon and there was a public fashion show by Marimekko, a famous finnish fashion company. Weather was bad (a few drops of rain from time to time, overcast) people were blocking the way with their umbrellas, but it was a nice moment to practice some skills with D30 - I'll need to practice fast movement shooting a lot during summer as I've got a couple of big assignments in the end of the summer.

It was really hard to focus to the models walking fast back and forth. Then I assigned focus to the * button and used AI Servo and got better results. But one big problem was the fast movement of the people. I used 1/250 f2.8 or 3.5 and ISO 200 but at home I saw that in many situations it was not nearly enough to stop especially sideways movement. Another thing I learned was that the models stopped at the end of the catwalk and looked straight into my camera for a second - perhaps they have been trained to look briefly to each pro-looking camera. Next time I'll keep the focus on that glimpse-moment and catch some better closeups.

I think I'll have to start learning how to focus manually as it seemed to work fine as I tried it a couple of times. AI servo seems to be just a bit 'behind' for towards-walking subjects. I suppose the optimum way to focus would be combined auto and manual, where you would help AI servo by focusing manually just a bit into the direction of movement. And also I noticed I have to start carrying the Carbon monopod I bought a while ago, as with the big L lens many pictures were bad due camera shake (tired muscles, the lens alone weights 1.5kg) was apparent. I'm sure I'll be checking out the newspaper for more happenings like this - it's really fun to give yourself 'assignments' and try to do your best. I'm sure this kind of practicing will help a lot when someone asks you to do it for a pile of money and you have to guarantee results.

Here are a couple of 'artsy' shots I got:

http://studio-on-the.net/photography/D30/small/marimekko/CRW_7466_00001.jpg

http://studio-on-the.net/photography/D30/small/marimekko/CRW_7397_00001.jpg

http://studio-on-the.net/photography/D30/small/marimekko/CRW_7370_00001.jpg

http://studio-on-the.net/photography/D30/small/marimekko/CRW_7367_00001.jpg

http://studio-on-the.net/photography/D30/small/marimekko/CRW_7596_00001.jpg

http://studio-on-the.net/photography/D30/small/marimekko/CRW_7484_00001.jpg

PS. I always do John Cowley's color correction action for each image: http://www.lonestardigital.com/D30_Colors.htm
It really makes a difference.

[dizzynoodle]

the first shot is really cool... good work !

I am about to buy the D30, do you really recommend it for portraits and landscapes ?

[Pekka]

Thanks dizzynoodle!

I am about to buy the D30, do you really recommend it for portraits and landscapes ?
D30 is a perfect portrait camera, as it has almost no noise, and renders colors really well. And you have a selection of excellent lenses for every taste. Here's one guy who shoots portraits professionally with a D30: http://www.jansanders.com/welcome4.htm

For landscapes it will do equally well, but then you really must have top quality lenses for good sharpness and flare/CA reduction, as 3mp is not too much for big landscapes. Look http://www.luminous-landscape.com/d30.htm

[Andrei]

WOW !!!
No words. The second from the bottom.

[Ebayer97]

Pekka, your images are stunning! Would you care to post some exposure, mode, and metering information that you used?

[Leo R]

Pekka wrote:

PS. I always do John Cowley's color correction action for each image: http://www.lonestardigital.com/D30_Colors.htm
It really makes a difference.

Thank you for the beautiful pictures of beautiful models, Pekka. Do you also use John Cowley's color correction for G1 photos or does this only benefit D30 pics. If you do use it for G1 pics, are the settings different? ( eg red -30, cyan -30 ). I tried it on a few of my Pro90 photos and found some improvement in the colour saturation on a few photos but made some others worse. Look forward to seeing more of your D30 work.

Thanks, Leo


PS. How do you make this a hot key action in PS6?

[redbutt]

Leo R wrote:
PS. How do you make this a hot key action in PS6?


From the PS 6 Help files...

When you create a new action, the commands and tools you use are added to the action until you stop recording.

To create a new action:

1 Open a file.

2 In the Actions palette, click the New Action button (), or choose New Action from the palette menu.

3 Enter a name for the action.

4 (Photoshop) Choose a set from the pop-up menu.

5 If desired, set one or both of the following options:

Assign a keyboard shortcut to the action. You can choose any combination of a Function key, the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Mac OS), and the Shift key (for example, Ctrl+Shift+F3).
(Photoshop) Assign a color for display in Button Mode.


6 Click Record. The Record button in the Actions palette turns red ().

Important: When recording the Save As command, do not change the filename. If you enter a new filename, Photoshop records the filename and uses that filename each time you run the action. Before saving, if you navigate to a different folder, you can specify a different location without having to specify a filename.

7 Choose the commands, and perform the operations you want to record.

8 To stop recording, click the Stop button, choose Stop Recording from the Actions palette menu, or press the Escape key. To resume recording in the same action, choose Start Recording from the Actions palette menu

[Pekka]

Leo R wrote:

Thank you for the beautiful pictures of beautiful models, Pekka. Do you also use John Cowley's color correction for G1 photos or does this only benefit D30 pics. If you do use it for G1 pics, are the settings different? ( eg red -30, cyan -30 ). I tried it on a few of my Pro90 photos and found some improvement in the colour saturation on a few photos but made some others worse. Look forward to seeing more of your D30 work.


Leo,

Nowadays I use "low contrast ICC profile" and then, if needed, add +3 or 4 to main hue to correct slight magenta shift in some photos. You're right that not all photos are alike and sometimes original color is the best color. Colors are subjective and part of the "art" is that the "artist" has a full control over how to use them. In papaer photography they do that in the darkroom, in digital, we do it in Photoshop.

More natural skin color is sometimes the main reason for changing image colors with the ICC profile, sometimes I use gamma and then add some saturation to compensate. Basically do anything that looks good and works for the photo.

I'll put up my D30 gallery up as soon as I get the pages finished (I have at least 50 photos ready for the gallery now) - I bought a new server and domain (photography-on-the.net) for all my photos and will transfer the G1 gallery there, too. This way the stress to this server will be lighter and this forum will run faster.

[shafiq]

Some great pictures.

What lens were you using?

Thx
Shafiq

[helmus]

I remember that Pekka has used the f2.8 70-200L (without IS).

Helmut

[helmus]

Yes, I'm right. See Pekkas D30 Gallery Page 8.

But I'm missing Pekkas D60 and 10D Gallery!!!
No pictures from Pekka since a lot of months.

Helmut

[shafiq]

helmus wrote:
I remember that Pekka has used the f2.8 70-200L (without IS).

Helmut

Thx.

That is the lens I have on order. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Shafiq