Did a couple beach shoots over the last few weeks and wanted to share a couple of the photos. Shot these with the D500 and 28-70 f2.8 VRII. Over all Im pretty happy with results but to be honest I need to work on my location lighting since I haven't done much in a while.
Setting White Balance for Multiple Photographs
I've been reading a lot lately about people complaining about white balance and how its different in every photo they take and how much of a pain and how much time it takes to correct every photo. What I've found is most of the time this problem occurs when you're using Auto White Balance.
Auto White Balance is going to analyze the white balance and correct it each time a photo is taken. An easy way to correct that is by using a custom white balance. When I go out to shoot after I get the lighting and exposure correct in camera Ill set a preset custom white balance using the gray card on the ColorChecker Passport. Once I have a good preset Ill take a picture of the gray card as well as a picture of the color palate on the ColorChecker Passport.
I use these photos in Lightroom to create a color profile and set a constant white balance on one photo and then sync the settings to the other photos that were taken in the same lighting.
Now you don’t need a ColorChecker Passport to do this. A regular gray card will do the same thing you just wont be able to create a custom color profile in Lightroom. Just remember to set a new custom white balance and take a photo of the gray card every time you change your lighting or location. That way you have the most accurate white balance and color profile.
Check out the video below on how I do this in Lightroom.
D500 Low Light Sports
Got to photograph the high school Atlantic Conference Championship and this was the first time I used the D500 in low light. I was still getting used to the camera and the super fast auto focus system so I had a lot of problems getting good photos. The game started at about 8:30 at night and the lighting on the field wasn't the greatest so I knew I would have to try out the D500's high ISO performance.
Overall I was pretty happy with the ISO performance of the camera just not with my performance handling the camera. Here's a few of the photos I got at 16000 ISO.
Long Exposure Sunset
Went up to First Landing the other night to shoot the sunset. I wanted to get a photo with the sunset (obviously) but wanted to try some long exposure to get movement in the water. Ended up doing a stacked photo to get a hint light back in the rocks while not blowing out the sky.
Outdoor Portraits
Did a shoot at the local state park about two weeks ago and wanted to share some of the photos. Shot these with the D500 and 70-200 f2.8 and it proved that once again that is probably my favorite combo for camera and lenses.
It was a challenge during this shoot to keep the background from blowing out (we were shooting around noon) while keeping good exposure on the face.
July 4th Fireworks
Went out last night and photographed the fireworks by my house. Ended up losing a bunch of good shots because there wasn't much wind and the smoke wasn't dissipating very fast and stayed pretty heavy in the photos. Pretty short post but here are some of the photos.
Lens Comparison: Nikon vs Sigma 28-70 f2.8
I've seen a lot of people talking recently about if they should get a manufacturer lens (NIkon, Canon, etc) or if they should get the third part equivalent (Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc). There's several popular arguments for the third party lenses. They are less expensive, they are smaller, they are "just as good as [insert camera company]." I've also hear people saying stuff like I have this camera and this third party lens but the quality of my photos isn't great so I want to upgrade my body. The biggest factor when it comes to poor photo quality is the quality of the lenses you are putting on your camera. Yes technique and settings play a part as well but the optics is the biggest part.
If you take the most expensive camera in the world and put a low quality lens on it, it will take low quality photos. Just like if you take an inexpensive camera and put a high quality lens on it the quality of the photos will increase. Now yes, this is where technique and settings come in as well. If you're trying to handhold at night shooting a 1 second exposure the photo is going to turn out bad no matter what camera/lens combo you're using.
The comparison I did I set up my D500 on a tripod and fired it using a remote trigger. I shot with the Sigma 28-70 f2.8 at f2.8, f4, f5.6, and f8. Then all I did was replace the Sigma lens with the Nikon 28-70 f2.8 and repeated the test. I shot both at 70mm and didn't change the focus point.
What I found was with the Sigma at f2.8 the photos were very soft and mostly un-usable. The Nikon at f2.8 was tack sharp. The first time they were equal in sharpness was at f5.6. The other thing I found was the color on the Sigma seemed to be washed out and dull compared to the Nikon lens.
One of the big things that the Nikon has over the Sigma is the Nikon has 15 elements in 11 groups (2 ED glass elements and 1 molded-glass aspherical lens). This is a lot of high quality glass packed into the lens.
The bottom line is you get what you pay for. Yes the third party lens may be less expensive than the manufacturer lens however the quality might not be as good. You can download the .dng files below to check out some of the photos below that I took. Refer to the file names for lens and aperture.
Lens Review: Nikon 70-200 f2.8 AF-S VR II
I picked up a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 AF-S VR II about two months ago to replace my aging 80-200 f2.8. My first impression of this lens is it's absolutely fantastic. Its very comfortable to hold and feels incredibly solid (after all it's a metal body). The fact that it's weather sealed its nice as well and I've used it in light rain with no problems at all. The auto focus is incredibly accurate and fast every time. Shots that I missed were pretty much all my fault. The color is amazing out of this lens and pretty much blows the color away in every other lens I have.
One of the negatives I found (that isn't really a negative) is it has a slight vignette around the edge. Its not very pronounced and in my opinion gives a nice look to the photos. The other thing is, because it is an all metal body and it has a lot of glass in it (21 elements in 16 groups), it weighs in just under 3.5 pounds. This might not sound like much but when you put it on a body and shoot handheld for a few hours it really burns out your arms. This is easily fixed by using a monopod.
You might not believe it but this lens is a rather versatile lens. I've used it to shoot everything from full length portraits to landscapes and sports. The 70-200 (like my 80-200) is pretty much my go to lens to shoot anything. It's wide enough to get a full scene but has the zoom to get details.
Overall its a fantastic lens and highly suggest anyone thats in the market pick one up. Check out the video below and some of the sports photos I've taken.
Photo Mechanic Code Replacementsd
A few weeks ago I did a video on the workflow I use for sports. In that video I talked about code replacements. Here's a video on what code replacements are, how to create them, and how to use them. If you haven't checked out the sports workflow video you can check it out here.
Virginia State Soccer Championship
Went up to Fairfax yesterday for the Virginia State Soccer Championship Games and shot four games throughout the day. It was a great day of shooting other than it being extremely hot and humid. It was also a great opportunity to try out the new 200-400mm lens I picked up recently. The lens worked out great especially with the D500. Here's a few of the photos I got.
Nikon D500 High ISO
While trying out the Nikon D500 I wanted to see how good (or bad) the noise was at high ISO. What I found was the noise at 51200 was not as bad as I expected. There is obviously a lot of noise but it was very smooth and even. Quite frankly its still usable, especially if you're shooting low light sports.
Download the DNG files below to check out 25600 and 51200 for yourself.
Nikon D500 First Photos
After getting the new Nikon D500 last week I went out to give it a try. The easiest thing I had to shoot was a sunset. I still wasn't used to all the features of the camera yet so it was kind of rough at first but the more I shot the more I got comfortable with all the settings.
Side note, when I first got the camera I thought the tilting LCD was more of a gimmick and I wouldn't use it that much. I actually ended up using the LCD popped out the whole night. I was using a super low tripod angle so it was nice to be able to tilt the screen up so I could look at it without having to lay almost on the ground.
Here's a couple of the photos I got from the first night with the camera.
Nikon D500 Unboxing
I preordered a Nikon D500 and it just came in. My first impressions are ergonomically its really nice to hold and feels solid and well built. I got the vertical grip with it which makes it feel even better. The buttons are a bit different for me (Im coming from a D3) but thats not that big of a deal.
Personally I think the RAW images come out kind of flat but there is a ton of data in the files that easily allows you to really make them pop if you edit them in in LR or ACR.
The auto white balance is different for me. There are 3 different auto settings one for cooler, one for neutral, and one for warmer which threw me off at first because it was set to the cooler auto setting.
ISO range is ridiculous. There is visible noise but honestly the noise at 51K looks about what 6400 on my D3 looks like.
Haven't played with the video much but I did do a short 4K clip last night just to check the straight out of camera quality and its really awesome.
The autofocus system is incredible. I shot a half marathon this morning and out of the 800 shots or so I think I missed about 5 (using continuous AF).
So far Im very happy with the camera and once I figure out what all the features do Im sure it will be even better. Ill be doing a full review in the next week or two.
Sports Workflow
I've had a few questions over the last couple of weeks about the workflow I use when I shoot sports. Well its actually pretty simple. My program of choice is Photo Mechanic and is sold by www.camerabits.com. Its a fantastic program that allows you to quickly import, sort, caption, and upload photos.
My process starts with creating a folder for the photos. I always use the same format for folders and files which is YEAR-MONTH-DAY followed by the subject. For example "160505 BB Ocean Lakes v First Colonial." I then set up my XMP file with basic information such as location, headline, contact info, etc.
While Im at the game during breaks in the action I will go through the photos and "lock" the photos I think are good. I also leave myself voice memos so I know what was going on in the photos.
When I get done at the game I ingest the photos making sure the apply the basic XMP data and rename the files. Once all the photos are ingested I sort the photos that are "tagged." This will display all the photos I locked while I was at the game.
From there I run through the photos and tag photos that I like and make any crops necessary. Once the photos are tagged I go through and caption the photos that have been tagged. To speed up captioning I use code replacements.
Once all the photos are captioned I save the photos into a subfolder. From there I can either upload the photos for delivery or load the photos into Lightroom.
Virginia Storm
Went out to the beach the other night with a friend to shoot some sunsets. The sunset ended up being covered by the clouds but while we were out there a storm starting rolling in. Right before we left, and it started pouring, I got this photo. Enjoy.
VA Fashion Week
Had the opportunity to photograph VA Fashion Week. It was great to meet all the designers, models, and other photographers. It was fun to photograph but challenging at the same time. Lighting wasn't that great but I worked around that setting up my studio lights. Here are some of the photos I got. For more you can check out www.facebook.com/russelltracyphoto.
Neon Lights
Went to Work|Release in Norfolk for a fashion show and they have a neon display right now. While neon signs are pretty basic they can be quite deceptive to shoot when it comes to exposure. The in camera exposure meter will lie to you and say its way underexposed. Had fun shooting these while I waiting for the fashion show to start. Enjoy.
GoPro Tips for Photographers
After messing around with the GoPro Hero4 Black and some of the photography equipment I have I found a few things that could be pretty helpful to all the photographers out there that have a GoPro.
First, the cases that come with the battery adaptor for Nikon prosumer bodies can hold two GoPros almost perfectly. This is pretty nice if you want to carry your GoPro with you in a camera bag or just for storage.
The second is for photographers that have a lot of grip for lighting laying around super clamps with the studs and magic arms make great mounting points for the GoPro. You just need to get the GoPro 1/4" stand adaptor.
Finally, I found while shooting 4K video the battery doesn't last very long and it doesn't last much longer with a the GoPro battery bacpac. I have a Alienbees Vagabond Mini Lithium that has two 120V outlets (which is great for studio lights) but it also has a USB charger. You can plug your GoPro into the USB charger and get super extended battery life out of a very portable pack.
Hope these tips gave you some ideas to use.
GoPro Hero4 Black Video Time Lapse
Recently picked up a GoPro Hero4 Black and have been messing around with all the features. I recently went out to try the video time lapse feature. This is similar to taking a normal time lapse sequence but it takes all the photos and automatically puts them together into a 4K video.
What I found was while the video time lapse works pretty well for typical time lapse footage but it doesn't do great for sunsets with the camera automatically compensating for the light changing from bright to dark. Im going to try again but use the regular photo time lapse feature.
Here's the video time lapse I captured.
Sunset Timelapse
Went out the other evening with a friend to do some sunset photos and I decided I was going to try doing another timelapse. Overall Im happy with the way it turned out. Next time Im going to start earlier and stay later to get a longer video.