Out and About with the new D50

[Ian Crabtree]

Yeah… the face of the fish is out of focus, but the fishing was good.

Gorge Section

Fly Change

Clear Water

[Zach Matthews]

Hey Ian –

Nice work.

[Ian Crabtree]

Hey Zach,

Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately there’s no DOF preview on the D50, so I’ll have to figure a lot of this out through guess and test.

The new guy is Feild’s brother, he came up to visit last week.

I really need to invest in a calibrator for my monitor, it’s tough to tell if the warmth you’re seeing in the water shot is calibration related (on my end), or poor taste on my part.

I’ll have hundreds of salmon subjects to practice with this summer, so I’ll get it eventually. I’ll just have to figure out a way to balance photography and guiding.

A Few More:

Pretty Bow (I didn’t screw with the purples and magentas in photoshop, I considered toning it down, but I can’t bring myself to do it)

[Zach Matthews]

Hey Ian –

Still looking good.

[Ian Crabtree]

I played around a bit with the color on my mac when I set it up. The defaul settings are a bit bright and hard on my eyes, so I brought the overall brightness down with the color calibrator closer toward the PC range. In the calibrator I can use the following options: Adobe RGB, Apple RGB, CIE RGB, Color LCD, ColorMatch RGB, Generic RGB Profile, NTSC (1953), PAL/SECAM, and a custom calibrated profile.

When I use any of the options other than the custom setting I created, everything goes really bright (neon as you described). I think the purchase of a calibrator is in order. They’re not too awfully expensive. I might be able to find someone to borrow one from, however.

I hadn’t really made the connection with the polarizing filter and that rainbow shot. I had left it on by accident after I was playing around with it for water shots. I’m going to try ducking into a little less direct sunlight next time to avoid the “planet x rainbow trout” look.

I agree with the oversaturated reds on the D50. I’d gotten used to pumping some colors back in when I was using a cheap P/S, but I almost felt like I needed to pull some out when I was using the D50. I left them at 0, but I’ll try pulling the reds down a bit in the future.

For a rather amusing look at the development of my photography skills, you can look at photos from the past here: http://community.webshots.com/user/theclearblue

[Ian Crabtree]

I just performed the aperture experiment and I see now. Larger F Number (Smaller Aperture?) = Greater Depth of Field = Longer Shutter Speed.

With the lighting you suggested, there isn’t a prayer for getting a sharp image at f/10 or f/22 without using a tripod. With the flash on, the shutter speed was sped up considerably. I think I see your points:

1) Higher aperture for greater DOF
2) Use a tripod. Or better yet, a good flash. Or even better, both.

[Richard Bernabe]

Ian,

Basically everything looks good. Even the midday shots hold up well on the DR front.

I would definately back off of the saturation slider, if I were you. Are you shooting jpeg or RAW?

There should be no difference in color from one computer to the next, if the monitors are calibrated.

You should set you camera’s color mode to Adobe RGB or ProRGB as well as your working space in photoshop and your RAW converter. (Adobe RGB and ProRGB have a much wider color gamut than sRGB.) Save your masters in that working space and always send editors and printers Adobe RGB files. They convert to CYMK much better, if that is neccessary. When you want to save a copy for the web or digital projector, or any similar device, CONVERT to sRGB or the device will clip essential colors and it will appear washed out and dull. Conversion will not clip anything.

Also, the biggest problem with color management with digital capture is improper White Balance. If you are shooting jpegs, this can kill you. If you are shooting RAW, it doesnt even save your camera’s WB setting, so it doesnt matter. I think using Auto WB is the biggest mistake digital photogs make. It is rarely accurate and its impossible to get accurate colors without an accurate WB starting point. I advise keeping it set to “Daylight” or “Sunny” at all times. If you can set it to a precise 5500K, all the better. With this setting – whether it is midday (5500K), early morning or late evening (3200K), or cloudy or whatever, your results will mimic film – which is also locked in at 5500K. Then you can adjust from there. But with a bad WB starting point, no PS work can accurately represent the colors you saw in person.

[Ian Crabtree]

Hey Richard,

Thanks for all the information. Lots of food for thought. (I saw your work in a magazine lately – was it fish & fly?)

I’m still running Photoshop 7, so I can’t open NEF files. I guess I’ll have to cough up the $170 for an upgrade.

I hadn’t even tried to open a raw file yet on my computer as I had made a deliberate decision to take pictures in jpg, although that may have stemmed from bad advice. Namely here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm

I guess my impression was this (from Ken Rockwell):

“The biggest quality advantage of raw is the ability to correct for some of your mistakes after the fact, so if you can get it right the first time most of the raw advantage evaporates, but all the disadvantages remain.”

I guess my decision was to learn to shoot correctly from the beginning rather than using raw files as a crutch to make up for my mistakes, in addition to saving the time in post-processing on an already slow laptop. When I do save up the capital to upgrade to the latest photoshop, I’ll definitely give raw a go and see if the results are any better.

I’m sure that disadvantages of raw are easily outweighed by the advantages for a professional photographer, but I wonder how well they translate to an amateur. Specifically, the required storage space and editing concern me. What are your thoughts?

P.S. I hadn’t realized you lived in Greer – not too far from Furman.

[Richard Bernabe]

Ian,

No disrespect to Mr. Rockwell – but he just doesnt get it.

I wont count the ways – at the moment – but will only say, different strokes for different folks.

The “getting it right in camera” is irrelevent.

[Author]

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