Children of Light

Every year I shoot Romeo Ciolfi's Christmas plays at the full dress rehearsal.  My photos are published on his Studio Sperenza website and also on Facebook, which is great for the actors to show their friends and family their acting parts.

This year I shot "Children of Light" with the Nikon D600 and used the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-S and  Nikon 50mm f1.4. I also brought along the Nikon SB-800 flash, however problems with the recent battery leakage meant it decided not to work.

Pet Peeve

One of my really big pet peeves is when AA battery cells leak through your equipment.  Earlier this week I found one had leaked through my Nikon SB-800 flash, which I was very displeased about.  The acidic goop had sealed the battery compartment door shut, and it took quite a bit of cleaning and pushing to get it open.

After ditching the batteries it was quite a tedious cleanup process, and I had to sand paper the contacts down a couple times before it would work again.

Despite generally having a habit of keeping batteries out of equipment, this is probably the third or fourth time this has happened.  It also happened with my SB-28 flash and my Nikon F90X that I had a while back.

It's one good thing about the manufacturer supplied lithium ion batteries, it makes these leakages a thing of the past for cameras.

Outside North 44 restaurant - Sony NEX 5n w/ Sigma 30mm f2.8

Nikon D600 Macro

After a bit of a crappy week, I was very pleased when this rosebud we picked from the garden decided to open up inside the house.

This gave me a great opportunity to try the D600 out with a macro lens, this time with Tamron 90mm f2.8 AF.  Macro lenses are renowned for their sharpness, and are probably one of the few types of lenses that can out resolve the 24 megapixel sensor on the D600.

What I found was that indeed I could do extremely deep crops and have the photo still retain some sharpness.  Here is a very extreme example.  As you can see, definition is still retained.

Nikon D600 - Two dimensional looking images

There's two things I don't like about the Nikon D600's images:

1) Some details, especially facial tones, can look smeary and fake.  Almost like there is far too much make up.

2) When used with a flash, forefront objects that are primarily lit by the flash can render the object or person in a very two dimensional manner.  Like a cardboard cut out.

Both these things can be seen from the below wedding photo I shot recently.  The bride is rendered very unnaturally.  You will notice that the brother of the bride is rendered quite well.

This image was shot with the D600, Nikon 24-85mm f2.8-4 and a Nikon SB800 flash.  It was used on aperture priority at f6.3 at approx 50mm, colours set to vivid and flash set to +1/3 of a stop over on bounce flash with 9ft ceilings.  

Anyone have any ideas as to why this might be the case?  Is it the mix of flash and tungsten lighting?  The veil?  I am not sure.

Wedding Shots with the D600 (et al)

This wedding I have been gearing up for ended up going well.  As I wasn't the main photographer, it gives me lots of latitude to experiment and have some fun.  My main responsibility was to get some shots of the guys getting ready, so not too difficult.

As usual, the way I used my gear at the wedding didn't really go according to plan.  I took the Nikon 24-85mm f2.8-4 AF-D, the Nikon 85mm f1.8 AF, Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-D and the Nikon 20mm f4 Ai; but only the zoom got used.  The space ended up being quite tight inside the house where they were getting ready, so most of the time I kept it on the wide end of the zoom.  This changed to mostly long end for a few shots I took inside the church.

Groom to be checking his bow tie   Nikon D600 with Nikon 24-85mm f2.8-4 AF-D abd Nikon SB800 flash

Bride about to walk down the aisle - Nikon D600 with Nikon 24-85mm f2.8-4 AF-D abd Nikon SB800 flash

What got a lot of use was the NEX5n.  I took both the two old Leica lenses (50mm f3.5 Elmar and the 50mm f2 Summitar) and also threw in the Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 Super Wide Heliar as a last minute thought.

Groomsmen  - Sony NEX 5n with Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 Super Wide Heliar

Due to the tight confines of the house, I ended up attaching the Voigtlander 15mm, setting the camera to Black and White with some added contrast, and snapped away. As this lens is wide and slow, scale focusing is easy.  Setting the focus at 1.5m when wide open will get everything in focus from 0.8m to just short of infinity, very useful for this short of shooting.

Groomsmen in mirror  - Sony NEX 5n with Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 Super Wide Heliar

In the church I continued to use the NEX, and attached the Leica 50mm Summitar.  This lens is really quite capable, and adding a little sharpness and contrast to the camera settings cures a lot of the lens's softness when wide open.  The Elmar wasn't used in the end.  The Hawks Factory adapter actually proved to be a pain in the butt.  It would move off position when focusing and my LTM to M adapter is very difficult to get off it.

Bridal party and parents at the church - Sony NEX 5n with Leica 50mm Summitar

The Happy couple with friends - Sony NEX 5n with Leica 50mm Summitar

At the reception, I dumped all the above gear and just took the Fuji X100.  My wife wanted me around as a date, so I wanted something small and unobtrusive for a few shots here and there.  I needed good low light performance and the Fuji's excellent auto white balance and fill in flash performance is great for this environment.  This generally worked well, and there were some great shots for some memories.

With bridesmaids at the reception - Fuji X100

Wedding Weekend

Occasionally I get asked to shoot weddings, or parts of weddings.  I don't like being the main photographer, and usually refuse the job, but I am quite happy to do some support work, as is the case this weekend.  My main role is to shoot the groom and his groomsmen getting ready, so mostly indoor work, with possible candid shots later.  I doubt I'll do too much after as my wife will complain she won't have a date at the wedding!

Which brings me to what gear I should use.  I will take the D600, SB800 and a couple lenses; most likely the Nikon 24-85mm f2.8-4, the Nikon 85mm f1.8 and probably the 50mm f1.4.  This should be enough.  I could take the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8, but it is heavy and I don't want to take too much gear.  I might also be feasible to take the Nikon 20mm f4 as it is so small, but we'll see.

It will be fun getting ready with a new camera, and I am looking forward to giving it a go!