Evo8 strobe shoot

Phew, i've been pretty busy with uni lately, just finished exams, so here goes a slightly belated post. During my 'study vacation' I borrowed some light stands, umbrellas, and triggers for a shoot with a friends' Evo 8 (which you may recognise from an earlier post). It was my first time using umbrellas, so had a bit of fun figuring out how to set them up (protip: learn how to set up your lighting equipment before the shoot :D). Overall i'm pretty happy with the results.

Nikon D7000, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55mm | 1/250 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 400

Nikon D7000, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800

Nikon D7000, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800

Nikon D7000, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800

Nikon D7000, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 31mm | 1/100 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 400

Random #1

Nikon D7000, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 200mm | 1/8000 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 1000

Nikon D7000, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 185mm | 1/400 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800

D7000

So recently I picked up a D7000, ostensibly for testing purposes only, but it has grown on me, and I may keep it (unfortunately for my bank account). On paper it doesn't seem like the biggest step up from my D90, a few more MP, slightly better high ISO, more AF points. But once i'd shot with it, I noticed how much faster it was (not just the faster FPS), faster and more accurate autofocus. It also meters with my 50/1.4 AI, which is another plus. Oh, and the high ISO is actually amazing. I can shoot at 6400 with a similar noise level to my D90s 1600, and the 14-bit RAW files have a much larger dynamic range, so I can deliberately underexpose to keep my ISO low, and still recover shadow detail. See below for a shot at ISO12800.

The new body has revitalized my 80-200 AF-D. On my D90 the autofocus had a lot of trouble tracking anything, let along a dog in a full out sprint, yet on the D7000 it will nail 80% of the shots. It amazed me by accurately tracking this bird in flight, the slight blur is from the bird moving too fast for me to turn!

Nikon D7000, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 200mm | 1/6400 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800

Nikon D7000, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 155mm | 1/1250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800

100% crop from above

Nikon D7000, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 155mm | 1/1250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 

Night time street shot. No noise reduction applied here

More BMWs

(Dont miss the photos @ Turrimetta Beach, post below this one!) Small catch up with the guys. In order of appearance: BMW 135i, BMW 125i (white) 'Christine', Merc 250 CGI, Evo VIII

Awesome stance, lowered on KW V1s

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/500 sec @ f/2.0, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/500 sec @ f/2.0, ISO 200

New projector/angel eyes on the 125i

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/500 sec @ f/2.0, ISO 200 

Nikon D90, 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 26mm | 1/20 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 400

Nikon D90, 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm | 1/20 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 400

More images can be found here

Turrimetta Beach

Earlier this week, I made my first visit to Turimetta Beach; a must-go location for any photography enthusiast. Waking up at 3am wasn't the most fun in the world, but getting there early was worth it. After stumbling around on the beach in the pitch black, we found the famous rock formations and set up our tripods and remote triggers. I finally got another chance to use my NDx8 filter too.

Trying out some Black and White

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 119.0 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 35mm | 20.0 sec @ f/18, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 20.0 sec @ f/18, ISO 200

Awesome colors in the sky

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 1.3 sec @ f/18, ISO 200 (Stacked Exposures)

I think I could have cropped/framed this one better, but not too sure how

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 24mm | 4.0 sec @ f/18, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 24mm | 1/20 sec @ f/11, ISO 200

And thats that. I will definitely need to revisit with a darker ND filter.

Curious

Have not been out shooting that much lately, being busy with uni work. Here are a pair this morning of (unsurprisingly) my dog. I quite like the composition in the first one.

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/800 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/1000 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 200

'Please be thinking about giving me food' :)

Cars in a park

Or at least, a driveway. With trees.

Got to this location a little bit late, so the light was fading fast. Even at f/1.4 I needed my tripod after the first few shots (you can see the shutter speed dropping)

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/200 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 400

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/500 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 400

This shot could have been better, there are nasty reflections on the rear quarter, and the front is a little underexposed.

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/160 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 800

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/100 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 400

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 3.0 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 200

I was happy with this one on the camera screen, but the car is underexposed, with too many nasty reflections off the paintwork.

I also need to remember to use the exposure delay mode when shooting on a tripod. A lot of these photos have a small amount of blur due to vibrations from the mirror flipping up/down.

Zach

Nikon D90, 85 mm f/1.4 @ 85mm | 1/25 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 3200

Zach glaring at me over his tail :D

Also found out that in the right circumstances, ISO3200 on my D90 is perfectly usable. There is only a little bit of noise reduction applied in post, but at smaller image sizes, the amount of noise is acceptable. At the pixel peeping level, not the best though.

New tripod!

After Vivid, I realized that my trusty old Slik (at least a decade older than me!) wasn't really up to the task of supporting my D90 and fat-ass 17-55 for long exposures. With that in mind, I picked up a Manfrotto 190XPROB and 804RC2 head. Awesome.

Now, no post without pics. As you may remember, I was intending to go back to Milson's point to experiment with long exposures, but I last night I found myself in the vicinity of Lady Macquarie's Chair (on the other side of the harbour), so I decided to stop by and give the new tripod a whirl (yes I just so happened to have my camera in my car. And my new tripod. And my ND filter. :D)

From this side, the bridge and Opera House aren't particularly well lit, so I won't post up those pictures. Instead, here is a bit of the Sydney skyline.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 18mm | 239.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

There are a few blurred stars in the sky, but I decided not to remove them in post.

Vivid Sydney 2011

Vivid Sydney. Festival of lights. Armed with my trusty D90 and tripod, I decided to check it out.
To be honest, I went more to experiment with long exposures of the harbour, and the light-show on the Opera House and surrounds was just a bonus (or negative, in that there were millions of people everywhere). I managed to find a reasonably clear spot and set up amounts a forest of Manfrottos and Bogans (and Bogens).

Now one annoying thing with the D90 is that when you use Bulb mode, it requires you to keep the shutter depressed for the duration of the exposure. Definitely not going to happen.
Thankfully, if you use a wireless trigger, you press once to open the shutter, again to close it. I don't have a wireless trigger, but my faithful Nokia N900 does have an IR transmitter and - with the help of a handy little app - happily took over that job.

So, with ND8 in place, here are the results...

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 60.0 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100

Damned moon moves too fast...

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 120.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Water is getting silky smooth. I was going to try for a much longer exposure, but a group of children decided to set up camp next to me, and keeping my camera steady wasn't high on their list of priorities. Plus, the Opera House had lit up, so I decided to move on.

The next few are taken from the Cahill Freeway, you can take a lift up to the overpass, which was surprisingly deserted. With the Opera House however, exposures longer than about 30s resulted in a big mess of colour, rather than pleasing patterns. Back in the bag with the ND8 then.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

I was glad that I had lugged along my 80-200. Meant that I could sit back away from the crowds and photograph in peace. My old Slik tripod wasn't too happy though, I had it at full extension to shoot over the concrete barriers lining the sides of the freeway.

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Squiggly lines here are patterns of dots that ran up the sails. Made for a nice effect.

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 2.5 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 100mm | 3.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800

Went for a walk through the other sculptures, waay too many people crowding around for me to bother with the tripod, so I just walked on....

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 17mm | 1/30 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 1600

...and found myself near the Harbour Bridge with a nice view of the Opera House. The lights made for funky patterns on the longer exposures.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 38mm | 25.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200

Eventually I made my way back down to the harbour, and found an even better vantage point. Unfortunately the patterns were repeating themselves, and I got bored (and cold) and decided to call it a night.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100

Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge

Another couple of old photos I decided to post up before going to Vivid Sydney. Taken from around Milson's Point, out all the way to Luna Park. I'm quite happy with the way these turned out, I might revisit this spot now that i've gotten my hands on a ND8.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400

(Almost) silky smooth water..mmm

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 18mm | 30.0 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400

 Blasted ferries are annoying when you're taking long exposures. I had a few more versions of the last one, but there were light trails all over the place.

A White 125i

So, i'm a bit overdue for a post, so here goes. This is is another BMW shoot, featuring a white 125i 'Christine' (also featured in the 1Addicts/E90Post Cruise to Wisemans Ferry post). I'm pretty happy with the way these photos turned out, minimal PP required, just a bit of white balance and saturation/contrast. Those orange lights from the industrial area in the background really threw the color off. There was a bit off off-camera flash used too.

Not too happy with this pic, the front end doesn't quite look right, and the background is a bit distracting

Nikon D90, 80-200 mm f/2.8 @ 80mm | 1.3 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 26mm | 1/13 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 22mm | 1/6 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55mm | 1.3 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200

Of the next two, I can't decide which I prefer. The second one has a bit better lighting (caused by the lights of a passing car), but the color seems a bit off.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 44mm | 0.8 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 44mm | 2.5 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100

And last but not least, a black 325i. Black cars waay to difficult to photograph at night, its impossible to light them up properly without a large softbox. Here's a few pics I could get, no external flash used. 

No detail on the front bumper, and crazy reflections of everything.

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 44mm | 1.6 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 160

Slight blur due to me standing on a floating (and moving) dock

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 30mm | 1.0 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400

Nikon D90, 17-55 mm f/2.8 @ 34mm | 5.0 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100