Cicadas are coming!

The 13-year Cicada returns in 2011 and it's going to be noisy. This photo was made using 2 lens-mounted SB-200 flash units and a translucent Lastolite Tri-Grip to soften the direct sunlight.

Nikon D3, AF Micro Nikkor 200mm f/4, f/11 at 1/10 sec, ISO 200

Nikon D700 and Nikon D3 ISO Noise Demonstration

I confirmed using data from DxOMark that this test is valid for the Nikon D3, too.  Both cameras are perfectly noiseless from ISO 100 (LO 3) to ISO 640.  For each ISO in the camera's range, a frame was made with the lens cap on, manual exposure, f5.6 @ 1/250s. Then in Photoshop CS5, each frame was cropped to 3x actual pixels and adjusted with auto levels to uncover any trace of noise.  I highly recommend running this test, especially if you shoot Canon gear.

This new version is updated for HD, with changes made to allow viewing in Germany.  Music by Chris Guiney as Second Signal.

Jo's Girls

A week ago Sunday Jo Nicholson brought the girls (Chloe and Lucy) into the studio for some photos. We had some fun and got some pretty good photos:

Nikon D3, AF Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 @80mm, f/8 at 1/100, ISO 250

Andrew

This week we did some studio photos of this very serious young man named Andrew. I also recently purchased the Nik Tools Complete Collection for Lightroom (on Preston's strong recommendation), and this Black and White is my first conversion using the Silver Efex plug-in. I used the 'Dark Sepia' preset, then increased lightness and reduced contrast a bit. I like the results and I'm looking forward to trying out some of the other tools, particularly the new HDR Efex.

The other significant thing about this session was the use of the 'Artic Butterfly' dust removal tool. We obviously shot this on white and in doing some test shots I realized I had a boatload of dust on the sensor. I think I reported doing a 'wet' cleaning of the sensor around 6 months ago. I bought the Artic Butterfly around the same time but had not needed to use it until now and it worked really well - I didn't need to do any spotting of the photos from this session.

A word of caution: if you plan to use a brush on your sensor be sure to do a 'wet' cleaning first, in case you have oil spots on the sensor as I did. I quickly ruined my first sensor brush this way.

Nikon D3, AF-S Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @ 70mm, 1/125 @ f/10, ISO 200, Handheld, Studio

Rotunda at the Old Courthouse

I set the camera on a tripod in the center of the rotunda about 18 inches from the floor and used the Nikon 14-24mm zoom at the widest setting.

Nikon D3, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @14mm, .4 seconds @ f/8, ISO 200.

Shooting with the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 Zoom

Nikkor 14-24mm at the Kraus House site in Kirkwood. This is Kirkwood's Frank Lloyd Wright house and it's a beautiful site with the low house set behind the tall trees.

I bought this lens a week ago and it's pretty obvious that it's going to take some time to learn how to use it effectively - to get into the super-wide mindset. I hope to be shooting with this a lot and will post more examples soon.

Nikon D3, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @14mm, 1/1250 @ f/5.6, ISO 200.

Kirkwood Station, Christmas Eve

Two images from Kirkwood Station on Christmas Eve morning. Both shot using Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8.

Both images: Nikon D3, Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 @ 80mm, 1/1000 at f/5.6, ISO 640