C&C / Feedback needed

[nsjuice]

Long story Short: Went on a weekend getaway, Cool car rolls into the campgrounds parks nearby, I ask for permission to take snaps of it, and here I am.

First off, I need a sharper lens.

Second, I rushed through this given it was near "Quiet Time" on campgrounds.

Thirdly, I' don't know what I'm doing most of the time.


Anyway, I PP'ed what I could, or pretty much.. what I know.. (which isn't much).


Is there anything else I can do to improve this pic? Aside from the Flash Reflections on the door.. I just can't seem to clone it out correctly. Color variations from light angles just seem to throw it off making it hard for my newbie skills to get it perfect.

Any feedback on what settings would have been more appropriate would also be appreciated.

Thanks for any help.

20"
F4
ISO 200

Light painted with Speedlight. 2 Exposures: 1- Around the car. 2- foreground.


I think I've been staring at this pic too long, my sense of correction has gone kaput.



http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o189/nsjooce/VW.jpg

I just noticed the quality of the uploaded picture is quite drastic from the original.

[jcon]

First, youre too far from the subject. Composition needs work.

To help with flash spots, use a softbox or some sort of diffuser.

What lens are you using that makes you think you need a sharper one?

[nsjuice]

Thanks for the feedback J.

Yes!!!!!! I realized lately, my shots are too far away.. especially given the Lens I'm using 10-20 Sig. I think that's probably the reason why pictures aren't sharp as I think they should be.


I did use a homemade diffuser, I wish I had more time to experiment with flash angles.


By composition, do you mean.... Post Production?


That picture is actually cropped.. so you are right to say that I was Faaar away. I must say that I am actually glad to have remembered to shoot it in RAW.

[jcon]

By composition, I mean how the shot is actually framed.

Keep shooting, you will learn more about flash angles with time, heck, Ive been using multiple flashes for a long time and I still have alot to learn myself!

I dont know much about the 10-20 but I think that is suppose to be a relatively sharp lens?

Try using a smaller aperture(larger number) such as F8 and see what that provides for sharpness.

[nsjuice]

Thanks J. Comments appreciated greatly...

This past weekend was a great opportunity to test out the lens given the different environments, beach, outdoors, etc.. which I havent had the chance to do so since I've gotten my camera.

I have tried different shots with different Apertures.. and couldn't find a "better" aperture than F9 or so.. But it's quite misleading.. Most of the pictures looked great on the back of the camera.. I don't know what it is, but once transferred onto my computer, they look bland, some overexposed, and some soft... especially the ones at the beach where the sun is bright.

settings for Apertures looked great onboard LCD. thank goodness for PP software.


It must be my CRT monitor, then again.. pictures look even less rich on my Laptop LCD.


I also noticed Previwing pictures on Windows Viewer is not as great as Nero Viewer.. so.. heck, I'll deal with what I have and go from there.


Thanks again.


ANy more advice?!??!?!?!?!

[jcon]

I dont trust Windows Pic Viewer, I use Nero Photosnap Viewer.

Play with your camera LCD brightness a bit, it may not be your monitor. If youre shooting in RAW, the displayed pic on cam will look better than the RAW image on the comp screen because its a negative that needs PP work.

Also run some tests with your lens, its possible you have gotten a bad copy, its kind of hit and miss with Sigma.

Good luck!

[nsjuice]

i think it looks sharp enough but i can find the the sharper lens that you recommended on amazon... do you have the link by any chance?http://photosnag.com/img/3322/n09x0302vnsn/clear.gif

Sorry Fast1., you lost me there.

I dont recall anyone recommending a Sharper lens. The lens I have is a Sigma 10-20mm Wide lens.

The lens I would like to have at hand next is the 50mm 1.4G or, save up for the 70-200 or! 85. Being restricted to 10-20 all this time, i don't mind prime lenses at all. I'm assuming these 2 lenses would suffice what I aspire to do with photography?

Although my passion for photography is automotive, I find myself doing a lot of portrait work for family and friends.. nothing against it, just not really my thing.. although it's great to learn from. :)

Thanks again J.,

I do need to learn about composition, it's easier said than done.. especially spur of the moment situations like this one.. at one point after finishing shooting, and being back to campgrounds.. it dawned on me that I didn't fine tune focusing.

I haven't really given True Sharpness a Test.. I've had the lens for quite a while now, but not quite a year yet.. I'll have to analyze the outcome of pictures now that I've become more informed on quality output... all thanks to DCRP and its members!!!!!!!

[nsjuice]

Talking about composition, how should I have setup for this shot? (Aside from moving in closer)

I thought about moving the camera more to the right but unlike other vehicles, this Vdub doesn't have much of a front end extruding, that's why I thought to stay put. I also thought about raising the height level, but then it'd show too much of the gear on top of it-distracting the car.

Man... I really need to remember to pull in closer, looking at all my weekend shots... Subjects all are far away.

Kinda dumb on my part knowing its such a short lens.

[Prospero]

The Sigma 10-20 should be at it's sharpest between f/8 and f/11. My copy is very sharp at these settings. At f/4 however it can be quite soft.

About the composition, I agree with the others that you need to move in a lot closer or need to use a longer lens.
Perhaps a longer lens would be best, because if you move in very close you will get a lot of distortion. However, you can also use the distorted perspective for creative purposes.
A standard composition you could try is filling the right two thirds of the frame with the car and keeping the left third empty (just google "rule of thirds" for more info).

About the lighting, I think it's quite harsh here. A difusser or softbox on the flash may indeed help. It would have been best if the scene wasn't lit exclusively by flash, so that the background wouldn't be so dark and the contrast less harsh. Perhaps shooting around sunset would have been better. You could also have used a much slower shutterspeed (10-15 minutes), to make light of the stars show up in the picture.

[herc182]

comments:

1 - too far away

2 - I think the subject is not in focus from what I can see...not the lens problem. you can always sharpen in PP if you have correctly focussed in the first place.

3 - I think the green grass is distracting...maybe darken outside of the van?

nice subject and lighting technique though

[Rooz]

i think its a darn good effort. whats already mentioned is spot on.
stop down
improve your composition
diffuse the lighting
be careful about light pollution, (background)
watch out for whats in the frame and what your subject is set against.

here's a bit of PP

[herc182]

uh, Rooz...when did you suddenly start whipping stuff out of photoshop? :)

Quite the expert nowadays...the online learning and 3 weeks off work have started to pay off :D

Like that better...and did you sharpen the image? Maybe i was off saying it was out of focus last time???

[Rooz]

lol, Phil...i;ve been practicing. i'm pretty damn good at NX2 now. :D

nothing too fancy here btw, just to give an indication of how important background and framing is. remove the distractions and your 90% there.
crop
CCP's on the background to darken it right up
bandaid out all the little bits that wouldn't disappear
USM

[nsjuice]

Thank you for the input!!!!!!!

I only brought minimum gear, for I only planned to take pictures of the kids and family.. I almost didn't even bring the tripod. Would have been nice if I had my Softbox, just too much to haul with the already packed car.

I had a DIY Stofen style diffuser on the flash, I guess it's not as great as I thought it'd be.


Here is the original file, one exposure, reduced size only.

Rooz pretty much hit it with his version.. Thank you for taking the time to so, that's what I was aiming for. Seeing your edit, I realize a few things I missed out on. Thanks!

There were campers all around me, I didn't want to bother them too much with all the flashing. So, I kept it to minimum and tried to think of setup ahead of time. I only did a couple test shot to see what power of the flash would suffice.. other than that.. I just winged it.

[nsjuice]

Prospero: dusk/Sunset was wasted here with the wifey. I didn't get the chance to ask permission from the car owner until I got back to campgrounds.

Besides, I wanted a blank background.. more focused on the car.


I have a hard time dealing with Flash and Whites with the shots of the wife. Her skin complexion throws things off sometimes. Compare her tones in the beach picture below, to the other people in it.

[nsjuice]

And about Moving in close.... I agree the VW shot could have used a bit of zoom.. but This is the reason why I stay away really..

The wife and Nieces: Notice the leg distortion! What I should have done, was zoom in the lens- i think that helps with distortoin a bit. oh well, too late, too bad.

F11
250 Sec.
Handheld Radio Triggered speedlight to the left of Camera.

[nsjuice]

The beach was impossible to work with..

Seagulls hovering with bombs ready to drop, making everyone jittery always looking away or running away. The worst part of all were the high winds... taking a toll on the girls' hair, but kicking sand everwhere!

I have to say, the D300 has damn good weather sealing.. I havn't noticed anything crunchy from any of the camera's dials or buttons, given the fact that my shirt top chest pocket magically filled with sand.. oh yea, and my constant spitting from sand in my mouth.. " Ok, one, two, and .. *spit, "... was not fun.

having said that, I didn't have time to reshoot anything after realizing what was wrong with the pictures.. for instance, the sandals in the picture above.

All in all, I am so glad the camera is well protected... that was my main concern of all.


Thanks guys, I will put your advice to good use...

I suck at compositions, and will be analyzing further the Thirds Rule, along with Background and Framing. I need some work on them areas!

[btuner]

ahhh cars are my passion when it comes to photography! The 10-20 is a great automotive lens and can provide itself to all kinds of wonderful composition when used properly. The key to this lens is getting close, but not too close where everything is distorted(unless that's the desired effect). Telephoto lenses also make great automotive lenses(yes, even when the car isn't moving) as they they provide great depth of field. The 50mm primes are super sharp and force you to be more creative because of the fixed focal length.

10-20 on my old D40, so there shouldn't be any sharpness issues with the lens

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2549491875_215a92d483.jpg

[nsjuice]

Thanks for the insight Btuner..

Your Italia and JDM pics are pure sex!

[jcon]

You could also have used a much slower shutterspeed (10-15 minutes), to make light of the stars show up in the picture.

Excellent idea Dennis... I completely overlooked that one!