ND70

Jimmie Arroyo · 01-10-2005, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Do you get an indication that you are "in focus" in your view finder? Is it only while using a flash that your results are bad?

I'm sorry, I guess I did'nt make myself too clear. It's the opposite, I get great results when using flash or sunlight. In lesser light, it will be out of focus although the camera will indicate that it is good. The last pics I took, I was using window sunlight, but thru white shades. I thought I'd have enough light, but obviously not. When I used a strobe flash on her daughter, the pics are extremely sharp, I mean extremely! Even with the model lighting, which is not as bright as the flash, I still get very good results. I thought either she could be moving a bit, or I'm pressing too hard causing the camera too move, but I don't think that's the case. I took pictures of the chair before she sat down and it was'nt as sharp as when using a brighter light. I'll try adjusting depth of field and see what happens.

I'll try posting small files of the pics, a small section of it as I'd rather have her permission before doing so. It'll be a small section of her shirt. I'll post them later.

Thanks.

Jimmie Arroyo · 01-10-2005, 02:15 PM

Ok, I timed myself to two minutes to make adjustments. This was done by using the "cooler or warmer" option. It even shows you the temperature which is a nice feature. Then I adjusted the exposure, also done with a slide option. It may have actually been much less than two minutes, but I had to crop the pic first. It may not be a drastic change, but it looks better when it's not so small.

Mike McCarty · 01-10-2005, 02:41 PM

Jimmie,

I had another thought ... there is a menu option called "AF - area mode." Within this section you have three options: single area, dynamic area, and closest subject.

My camera always wants to revert back to "closest subject" which I don't particularly like. If you have a subject in front of you with their hands folded in front of them the camera will choose to focus on the hands because they are closest to the camera. I keep choosing "single area" and it keeps finding it's way back to "closest subject."

If because of certain exposure settings your depth of field is very narrow this will throw the face out of focus. In very narrow dof the tip of the nose may be crisply focused and the eye not. I like to focus on the eye.

Michele Rushworth · 01-10-2005, 04:16 PM

Quote:

I keep choosing "single area" and it keeps finding it's way back to "closest subject."

Mike, I had this problem initially and I know what you mean. You want it to focus on a specific part of the image, not necessarily the closest thing.

I was able to change the ND70 so that it always stays on the center focal area though. I had to wade through the manual a bit to find out how to get it to do that, but it works fine and doesn't revert back to "closest subject".

Michele Rushworth · 01-10-2005, 04:28 PM

Jimmie, thanks for posting those hands with the color adjustments. I can easily do the same adjustments using curves and color balance in Photoshop though. It's pretty fast too. For now I think I'll stick with the JPEG file formats and Photoshop.

Especially if, as Holly said, the RAW files take much longer to write to memory than JPEG. I want to be able to shoot five quick frames of a wiggly child and don't want to wait even two seconds before I could push the shutter again.

Also, I understand what you mean, Jimmy, about the lack of sharp focus in "low" light. I photographed a girl in a chair yesterday right next to a big window, and used a tripod. She was sitting fairly still. It was a cloudy day but I thought I had plenty of light. I used the Auto ISO function so I have no idea what ISO the camera thought would be best. The shots came out a bit fuzzy and grainy, even the arm of chair, which surprised me.

A few weeks ago I photographed two VERY wiggly kids, no tripod, another cloudy day (hey, it's winter in the Northwest!) but we were outdoors, so there was lots more light. The shots came out much sharper.

Holly Snyder · 01-10-2005, 05:20 PM

Thanks for posting the images Jimmie. As Michele said, It seems to me that Photoshop CS could do the same thing with curves. But with the Photoshop Elements that I have, I have to adjust the red, green and blue individually which definitely takes a little work. Is the resolution/detail quality a lot better with the raw files over the jpgs?

Jimmie Arroyo · 01-10-2005, 06:34 PM

Michele, you definitely know more Photoshop than I do. I used to do the individual colors myself as Holly just described, but never got it as good as (or as easy) the Capture program. I guess I never really got that deep into it because I was doing graphite drawings anyway. As long as the contrast was good, I was good to go. The Capture program puts it in plain english, very straight foward.

Holly, again, since I did mainly graphite work, I would'nt be experienced enough to tell you if it'll make a difference. The quality is better, better enough to make a difference as reference? I don't know. Marvin uses the RAW setting, don't know if all the time. I'll PM him to see if he has time to pop in and give better advice.