Those of you who may have been following my upgrade musings in the Digital SLR Talk board here at TMIP saw Mark (mPower) ask me if my current camera, the Nikon D70, was really holding me back. I put it to the test last Saturday night at the annual Syracuse Irish Festival. I was able to get real close to the main stage and do some concert photography under conditions similiar to the shows at WDW. Lots of mixed lighting with predominately primary colors used, especially red. Here is what I did. I turned down my camera's color saturaton by switching to the RGB Ia color space (I usually use IIIa which really pops colors but isn't so good for people photos), changed my Auto White Balance to 0 and even tried +1, +2 and +3 which moves my images into the blue spectrum. Using minus numbers moves it torwards the red which is great for nature and landscape photos, especially sunrises and sunsets. I set my Auto ISO to go no slower than 1/60th of a second. This means the camera will do everything it can to keep the shutter speed from not going any slower like open up the lens' aperture and/or raise the ISO. All these photos where processed using Aperture 2.1 with adjustments made to my liking including sharpness. Here's the first two of fiddler Ashley of the group Rathkeltair (yes, think Off Kilter). For the photo on the left, I used the 18-200VR and got the following exposure of 1/60s @ f/5.6, ISO 1600, +1.0 EV, AWB set to 0 and 135mm focal length. You'll notice right away the blurring of her hand as she moves the bow. The one on the right was taken with the 50mm prime wide open at f/1.8. This gave me a faster shutter speed of 1/125s, ISO 560, +1.0 EV and AWB 0. Her hand is now sharp without movement. BTW, I like both of these photos. I was going for motion when I set 1/60th in the Auto ISO menu setting. I used Matrix metering for these as well. Later, I took some photos of The Elders and switched back to the 18-200VR and changed to Spot metering to see what effect that would have. I set my Auto ISO back to 1/60th of a second and waited for the performers to pause a bit. These two are of the lead vocalists, Ian Byrne, a true Irishman in spirit and song. The left one has a Exif data of 1/60s, f/5.6, ISO 280, -1.3 EV, AWB at +3 and focal length of 170mm. Not sure if it was the Spot metering or EV setting that brought down the ISO. The one on the right is not a great shot but a great moment. It had been misting rain for a lot of the performance and Ian thought it'd be fun to have someone pour water on the top of his drum while playing. This was shot at 1/30s, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 0 EV, AWB +3 (notice the bluish coloring) and 150mm focal length (Aperture Noise Reduction added). In conclusion, if I think a bit, I can still get very acceptable results from the Nikon D70.
An excellent post Scott. And proves that it is usually the photographer using his tools correctly that makes great photos. I have to add after reading your post, that the high iso capabilities of the d300 or d700 probably would not have mattered much at this concert. BUT----you point out something that is absolutely awesome on the new Nikons. I LOVE the new picture controls. that alone is making me love the d300! No more switching color spaces, saturation, etc. The picture controls can be tweaked to your liking and saved and switched between so fast and easy. I constantly switch now between portrait, neutral, and landscape. The neutral and portrait setting are beautiful for people. no red or orange cast at all.
Oh, sure, throw that in my face! J/K...I reserve the right to change my mind in the future. You'll have to show me how those Picture Controls and saved settings work at Mousfest. That's the one thing I miss from my old Coolpix 995. I could set up to three saved settings and it was easy to switch between them. However, that is the ONLY thing I miss about the C995.
And don't start on the shooting and custom menu options (4 each). Like you know, 1 for RAW and Portrait, 1 for Dark Rides, 1 for Fine JPG, Auto ISO, D2X Mode3, etc. A least you can label them!
Man, I tell you the more I read from you all the more I am thinking of switching when I am ready. Roger, you were a Canon guy before right? What are your opinions between the two? Or anyone else that has switched for that matter.
i too do a lot of concert photography, much of it under the very red spots that seem to be m.o. for stage these days here's what i do, i always shoot raw these days, when i post process i try to do each group seperate, most of the groups are 60-90 minute sets, the ones that are troublesome with iso changes are whomever gets the twilight slot in my raw processor program, a 3rd party called breezebrower, there is a white balance option called custom, i set to 5200 kelvin, then click the cross hair cursor on something close to white, that is onstage, at rhythm and roots i got lucky a lot this year as fresh white face towels were given out to each act at set up/plug in, many of those ended up draped over a monitor, some of the guitars have white pick guards, particularly fender strats and tele, make that the white balance for all the images i'm processing and let it rip, if you want a little warmer look, up temp to 5500 go over to my phanfare site for rhythm & roots 2008,i have all the galleries up, and see what i mean, even the night shots people have skin tones and clothing they were wearing looks as it did to me
