Hefty for Handheld - 300mm f/2.8

Got the itch to use some of my manual focus lenses, so I mounted the arm-breakin' Tokina 300mm MF f/2.8 lens. Tough to hold it steady for a shot. Good light though when I took the shot below. The D300 allows one to use Manual mode, or Shutter or Aperture priority. It still uses Matrix Metering. Auto-ISO chose ISO-400; I chose f/8, Matrix Metering chose 1/500 sec.
Converted it to B&W in PSE7.

Fresco filter in B&W:

Got the 135mm f/3.5 prime on the camera now...

Noise Inside Main Street

Took this shot this morning inside the Main Street Diner; D300 with Tokina 12-14 lens sitting on the table. Delayed exposure, 1/30 sec @ f/8, wide open at 12mm. This is the original JPEG, but I shot RAW + JPEG. Auto ISO used ISO-720, so upon close inspection, you see some noise when viewed at 100%. In Camera Raw, I used Auto White Balance, but the neat thing I learned was from the Detail Tab, I used the Luminance slider under Noise, and it removed the noise remarkably!

I'll have to see what it does with a shot taken with ISO-3200. What a RAW deal!

Places I Go -- 2

Main Street Diner, 8 AM, it wasn't that bright as I saw it. The out of camera JPEG image is below. Working with my wide-angle lens, Tokina 12-24mm AF f/4. ISO-200, 1/5 sec @ f/4, 16mm.

SO, I opened the image in Camera Raw -- yes, you can open JPEGs in Camera Raw. I like the tools. Adjusted a few of the sliders, Exposure being one I remember. The sky was this dark, but probably not quite that blue.

Below I straighted the building a bit since the wide-angle seems to distort them. Perhaps could use a bit more straightening.

Places I go...

Places I go; the image on the top is straight out of the camera only resized to 1024x680 using Bicubic Sharper resampling algorithm in PSE7. I was surprised that resampling to a smaller image of lower resolution (tossing away pixels) gave me a sharper image than the original out-of-the-camera jpeg. (I shot the picture RAW + fine jpeg.)

The second image has been processed in Camera Raw, resized to 1024x680, and saved as a PNG file. I can see the difference even in the small images. I used several "sliders", among them Fill Light and Clarity, but I beginning to really appreciate the Clarity slider. It adds punch.

EXIF data & histogram

The histogram suggests that the scene has too much contrast for the sensor -- clipped right and left, but this was taken at dusk, and with the bright signs, this is expected.

Leesburg Falls from PSE7

Photoshop Elements 7, a recent purchase, displays more EXIF data than does version 6! Note below that the image data shows the lens data as well. (Camera Data 2 has more info', of course.)

Below you see the shot of Leesburg Falls taken 11/22 as described in the above EXIF data. "Saving for Web" with the re-sampling, softens the image -- loses sharpness. Saved this one as a PNG file for a change!

It was cold that day. This wasn't my favorite image of the day, particularly because of the hanging branch over the left falls.

One might also comment with respect to the composition, that the viewer doesn't know where to focus, left or right. What think ye?

3 Shots, 1 Lens

I've had my Nikkor 85mm AF-D f/1.8 lens on the camera for several days. Caught this red dawn the other morning. Had the D300's Vivid +3 on, Sunny White Balance to catch the sky as I saw it. Shot it through the window. Last night, I caught the last 4+ minutes of GCC versus Hiram. (GCC came in second.) ISO-2500, 1/400 sec @ f/2. Titled it "3 for 2"

Today I spent some time with the GCC Gun Club. They tried out my 380 auto. Fired high-speed to catch this one, my favorite of the day. I was shooting at ISO-200; aperture f/3.2 gave the nice soft background, but I'm surprised that the subject is not fuzzier -- the shutter speed was only 1/30 second.

Church Parking Spot View -- Raw Shot

Shooting Raw and processing in Camera Raw. No blowouts in the snow. Impressed once again by the D300 Matrix Metering -- gets it right. I adjusted the image a bit in Camera Raw using the Exposure, Blacks, and Clarity sliders. Clarity slider is great. I use Camera Raw and I don't typically need PSE6.

D300, Nikkor 85mm AF-D, F/1.8 lens, 1/50sec @ f/3.5. ISO-200. Program Mode. Auto WB.

Got to get back to Leesburg Falls in the snow...

Broad Street in December

Thought it would be more snow than there was tonight downtown. I wanted to try a Raw shot at night. Took this with Nikkor 20mm AF f/2.8, 2.5 sec @ f/22, matrix metering, manual mode, ISO-200, auto white balance.

In Camera Raw, I adjusted the clarity and used auto white balance, both of which were subtle changes. In Photoshop Elements 6, I adjusted the building's distortion due to the wide angle lens perspective using the Skew function. eh!

Fouled But Not Foul

This is the first time that I've used my Nikon D300 for a basketball game. (Used a D200 last season.) Two impressions: the auto white balance does a better job on the D300 than the D200; there is much less noise at ISO-3200 on the D300 than the D200, largely due to the CMOS sensor versus the CCD of the D200.

Above you see the original image; I always seem to "tilt" it.

I used Levels to adjust the exposure, and I leveled the image using the line across the top of the wall at rear.

Image data, D300, aperture-priority, matrix meeting, continuous-motion AF, ISO-3200, tungsten pre-set white balance, Nikkor 35-70mm AF at 70mm, 1/250sec at f/2.8.

I should have used my Nikon 70-200mm AF-S f/2.8 VR lens. Better reach, vibration reduction (VR), and AF-S is faster on the focus. Too many of the shots using the older 35-70 were soft.

Snow on my summer setting

Here's my summer setting on the back deck, which received a bit of snow last night. I shot this from my bedroom window overlooking the deck, first using my D300 with the Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 AF lens, but I couldn't get the desired composition -- too far a perspective.

So I put on my Nikkor 85mm AF-D prime lens -- just right. I'm trying to get a better feel in choosing a focal length when composing a shot in my mind.

Following immediately is the histogram for the above shot as indicated by Levels in Photoshop Elements 6. Note that I adjusted the dark and light sides.

This is the histogram for the same shot when viewing the Adobe DNG raw file in Camera Raw.

I used the black slider to adjust the dark side of the exposure. Seeing them side by side, I see that I like the first one better.