Bristol Harbour Festival 2008....

[Bristol Pete]

I hope you guys dont mind me sharing some work with you again! Sorry if it bores you - I do mean that as I dont want to appear as some bombastic poster sticking pictures up all the time, but I do love to share a decent shoot.

A few from today, where I felt I shot the best I had done in a long while.

First of all, it was at Bristol's yearly Harbour Festival and the light was something else today. Using the photographic brain, I shot manually, but under exposed by 1,2, 3 stops here and there and ranged my aperture from 2.8 to 5.6. ISO pretty stuck at 400, but shot in NEF in case!

I spent most of the day with DX mode turned on in the D3 menu, for that little bit more reach on the 70-200 so I could shoot tight, crop tighter.

Finally, I had an SB800 on board in ittl or manual dependant on what was going on.

Overall, very happy with todays haul and here is selection for your consideration. Today for me was one of those days when I knew exactly what I wanted the shot to look like before I even released the shutter.

Regards,

[Biscuit761]

You never have to apologise Pete, your pictures are always worth a view.

Bill

[richard plumb]

great shots, and its nice to have some background to them rather than just posting them up.
Curious though-is there any need to use dx mode with non-dx lenses? Isn't it just using the centre of the sensor, so you could have cropped to the same result in post anyway?

[jmbrailsford]

Hi Pete,

excellent stuff as usual, this is one area of photography ( along with a few others ) that I really struggle with but you make it look easy , I just don't have the 'eye' for it but you my friend are a talented so and so when it comes to shooting people

The guy in the #12 looks well dodgy

Mike.

[Paranormalist]

The one before the last for me.

[denno75uk]

Excellent set Pete. I tried stuff like this not long ago but the light was crap, no direct sunlight to do owt interesting with.
Love the second to last. Exposure has worked really well there. Also liking the ones with the sun on faces. Profile shot of the fox is nice too.
2 questions. Would spot metering work to produce shots like the last one (for those who aren't yet proficient in manual? How'd you get the shot of yourself?

And like Bill says, don't ever apologise for or stop posting. We're lucky on this forum to have such a lot experienced and talented people to inspire and guide those of us still learning our way around.

[senu]

Well done Pete
Glad to see you expending your variety
Ace shots time and time again. These really do have a quality feel to them
I thoroughly enjoy viewing your work .whether it be sport, Mum and Dad trying for Beijing , GF jumping , balloons and water or your trademark "people shots
So apologies??..nah!!
Who took the shot of you?

What was Work flow : NEF, Lightroom..or Capture NX here? : I dont think you PP that much do you?

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by richard plumb

great shots, and its nice to have some background to them rather than just posting them up.
Curious though-is there any need to use dx mode with non-dx lenses? Isn't it just using the centre of the sensor, so you could have cropped to the same result in post anyway?

Well, I wanted to get closer and the DX mode does that. Also, the 70-200 is alleged to be better n DX mode omn the D3 though I cant see a difference. Some people say that it is a DX lens in all but name. The downside to the DX mode is that the bokeh is less smooth.

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by denno75uk

Excellent set Pete. I tried stuff like this not long ago but the light was crap, no direct sunlight to do owt interesting with.
Love the second to last. Exposure has worked really well there. Also liking the ones with the sun on faces. Profile shot of the fox is nice too.
2 questions. Would spot metering work to produce shots like the last one (for those who aren't yet proficient in manual? How'd you get the shot of yourself?

And like Bill says, don't ever apologise for or stop posting. We're lucky on this forum to have such a lot experienced and talented people to inspire and guide those of us still learning our way around.

I tend to try a variety of exposure methods. Mainly Nikons RGB matrix system. Spot is hit and miss for me and not a great fan of it, whether shooting sport of people etc.

When you say the shot of me, which one as I am not here up here?

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by senu

Well done Pete
Glad to see you expending your variety
Ace shots time and time again. These really do have a quality feel to them
I thoroughly enjoy viewing your work .whether it be sport, Mum and Dad trying for Beijing , GF jumping , balloons and water or your trademark "people shots
So apologies??..nah!!
Who took the shot of you?

What was Work flow : NEF, Lightroom..or Capture NX here? : I dont think you PP that much do you?

Thanks. I download via Nikon Transfer, the sort and the open favourites in Capture NX2. I then look at the levels and adjust if required. Sometimes I use the black, white and colour pickers to change things slightly and then I crop at 5 x 7 or 7 x 5 as these are my favourite shapes. Once saved as a large JPEG for stock, I reopen some favourites and resize at 800 pixels on the longest edge and apply some unsharp mask but not much as the D3 is one sharp camera out of the box.

So, not that much PP. In all honesty, due to working for that newspaper, I steered away from over processing. I do like lightroom but find the engine very very cumbersome, though you can get some amazing pictures eeked out via it. I do like the B/W high contrast tool. I must buy a book on lightroom.

Pete.

[rizingstar]

Superb, love the sepia ones

[denno75uk]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

When you say the shot of me, which one as I am not here up here?

Sorry mate. #12 looks like you.

Doesn't it?

Don't think I'm the only one who thought so.

OOps

[senu]

No 12 does look like you Pete I thought so too..

[dazza74]

Great stuff Pete

[Tobers]

Very nice Pete - getting close in on the subject is a real forte of yours. The underexposing has worked very nicely as well, isolating the subject well and giving a real feeling of smooth light to the pics.

I always like seeing your pics, so dont be shy about posting them!