Times were tough as a 1980’s Lego Spaceman. Long before Benny shot to cinematic fame, mini-figures where out there surviving against all odds.
In those days, if your head got stuck on tight, taking it off with someone’s teeth was the only way to go. And you proudly bore the scars from finally getting it off.
Fun Fact: in the 1980s we didn’t actually have blue spacemen on this side of the Atlantic: only red and white.
Testing the macro set-up for a product shoot next week: Nikon D850; 105f2.8 macro @ f5.6; single SB-800 flash off-camera with shoot-through umbrella; SB-700 Master unit; Nikon CLS. All Manual.
I’ve just been updating the slides for the last week of the Photography Classes and I thought I’d share. Last night’s class covered digital images and the whole mega-pixel-mega-shmixel thing: does a larger image mean more detail?
Well no. Having a higher resolution sensor gives the opportunity to capture more detail but only:
If the sensor sites are independent of each other
Your lens can resolve an image to the precision of the size of each sensor site
There is detail in the image you are trying to resolve.
And then you have to ask yourself if you need that much detail. Does it help tell your story? Is it, in fact, distracting?
Anyway, with some data we generated on the course last week, an interesting comparison is now available:
Camera on the Motorola G5 Phone: 13.1MPNikon One J5 10-30mm Kit Lens. 20 MPNikon D850, 85f1.4. 45 MP
So there are a number of variables at work here: the sensor resolution, the lens (and settings) and even the crop – these are all 300×300 100% crops but the variation in size of sensor makes the crop different in each case. And I would expect the phone in particular to do a little better in brighter lighting.
But the trend is clear and the point is just that putting a 13MP sensor on my phone doesn’t make it a great camera.
I particular in this case compare these to the 12MP of the D700:
D700 105f2.8, 12MP
This last example has least actual resolution of any of the examples here but much more actual detail compared to the smaller sensors and the crappier lenses.
But also remember that having a great camera doesn’t automatically make you a great photographer.
After the thrills & pains of 45MP, I got the impulse to pull out the 6MP D70. Mine has been modified to filter everything but Infrared light. With the sun out and a few light clouds it was perfect IR weather.
Kennedy Quay IR
And the D70 is still a nice camera which is capable of taking lovely images.
So I’m still experimenting with the new camera. It passed last week’s jobs with flying colours – no lost images, so lots to choose from. The colours out of the camera are very good and needed a lot less adjustment to get them to proofing stage.
Lots of image to choose from, so I’m now cropping with no concern for data shortage.
My big concern with all that extra resolution was that my older lenses wouldn’t be able to resolve to the detail of the sensor.
Indeed only one of my current lenses is on the ‘best lenses for’ list of the new camera. Two of my main lenses are on the ‘just about OK but think about upgrading to the newer one’ list.
And there is no 50mm lens on either list. The new Sigma will definitely cut it but not any of the older ones and none of the Nikons.
But rather than going off and splashing on new lenses as well. I decided to try it and see.
Not withstanding this article, which makes a lot of sense (and the reason I upgraded in the first place was that my expectations of my body had supassed my old model). Remember I shoot portraits, most of which end up on web sites, that much detail isn’t really necessary.
In fact I recently had a client asking for lower resolution images to hide all the skin detail on their staff.
So I’ll upgrade the 50mm(s) in due course (might sell some stuff first). For now they are still much better than expected – especially stopped down a little.
The big unknown was the 85mm f1.4 AF-D. Formerly the ‘cream machine’ of pro film glass. I have moved to the 105 for headshots these days because it’s sooo sharp and has VR. But the 85 is handy for some circumstances and the really wide open look is stunning.
Mine is pretty beaten up cosmetically but perfect inside. It produced beautiful images at 12MP but it’s an older body focus model and at f1.4 focus is pretty critical (in fact I generally shot it at f2). The newer 85f1.8G would probably serve me well but before I go spring for that, how exactly would the old 85 get on at 45MP?
Nikon 85mm f1.4 AF-D at f1.4
Pretty good. Still lovely to use. Still lovely and creamy in the backgrounds.
But is it sharp? Does it focus accurately?
100% crop at f1.4
Yep, pretty good. It is possible to pick on this and certainly the 105 is a tad sharper but hang on – who wants or needs all this detail in a portrait image?
I’ll keep the 85f1.4D for now and keep saving for a new 50mm.
Technology posts are pretty rare on the blog. Deep down there is a camera geek somewhere and we all love a new toy. But having to make a living as a photographer forces you to examine every potential new purchase and decide whether a new toy is going to earn it’s crust.
And as anyone who’s been on my evening class will tell you. The camera is just a tool to get a good image.
But after a long, faithful and very reliable service, my trusty Nikon D700 bodies are starting to show their age.
Camera technology has moved on considerably but most of the new additions, although impressive, weren’t anything my clients were going to pay for.
But the time has come to move on. After much ummming, ahhing, googling and agonising, I am the proud owner of a Nikon D850.
What I got that I wanted:
Faster, more accurate autofocus (including reliable 3D tracking). Which for me means a tangible decrease in the number of good images that need to be rejected because they are a little soft. Which is great when shooting wobbly kids with blurry backgrounds.
More dynamic range. So already it seems a lot easier to pull back very bright and very dark areas in the images. So shooting in difficult lighting situations gets easier. Again, more keepers in more locations.
More image resolution. Which means more options for cropping in post production. As much as you try to get it right in camera, at times a crop is stronger. But if you want a decent print of a crop, you need more data.
A newer, stronger, more weather resistant camera body. Much less chance of it failing when I need it to perform.
But as well as the cost of upgrading, there are other implications:
More image = more storage required. Realistically I don’t generally need all that extra image but that’s what I now have. Now my workflow needs to cope with much larger files. Putting a session of images on a single DVD for backup isn’t going to work anymore.
More data = slower processing. So the camera upgrade came on the back of a PC upgrade but even then those big files need a little longer to load in all their glory.
Software upgrade. OK I’m a bit lazy/stingy with my software upgrades (but at least I pay for my software). But new RAW files need up to date software.
Lens upgrades. All of my lenses are compatible. The higher resolution sensor pushes them to the limits of their ability to resolve an image. Now I still don’t need all that detail and most of my lenses have actually performed pretty well (despite the web telling me they wouldn’t). But the 50mm lenses were always a little ‘weak’ (I have 4 different versions) even though they take lovely images. I might need to upgrade here.
New fingers. After 10 years of using identical cameras, I need to learn some new tricks to get the settings I need.
New cards & batteries – just more stuff to buy (and have spares)
New L-bracket. I love the L Brackets for my tripod but each is fitted to the specific camera body so I need a new one.
And some other stuff:
Features I don’t (yet) need – and may or may not ever get around to using. Like video (4K no less) and time lapse. Very cool but no idea if I’ll ever use it.
Different colours. I think I like them better. Until I do some more printing I’m not sure.
It’ll get it’s first commercial outing this week. My clients won’t really notice but my life will hopefully be easier. And the D700 will be in the bag just in case…
Better tracking of active kids. Better pulling back of highlights.
After the success of the first running of my Photography Class in Ashton, it will be running again in the spring term – commencing 28th Jan 2019.
The course is more focused on images than cameras and aims to help people take better photographs with whatever camera they have in their hand: mobile phone, compact camera or something more fancy.
We’ll cover basic techniques that will improve your photography but much of the course if aimed teaching you to look at images more critically and learning to create stronger images yourself.
My new Adult Education Class has kicked off in Ashton and I think it’s going well. It’s designed as an introduction to taking better pictures using whatever camera you have available: phone, compact, DSLR or whatever.
We’re looking at what goes into making a good photo as well as some of the technical aspects – but the course isn’t intended to get too technical and aims to stay focussed on what you need to learn next to get better photos.
I have added a reources link to the blog site to hold all the info for the course.
Aparently GDPR is a big deal. A significant piece of new legislation that gives us new rights over our own information. Sounds good to me. I also quite like the fact that I’m being automatically opted out of all those emails I don’t remember asking for and delete anyway.
As far as Rob Lamb Photography is concerned:
The only client information we keep is your contact details: Names, Phone Numbers, email addresses, location of the session
Payments are logged in our accounts system but we do not retain card or account details.
We use a mixture of paper and electronic storage for this information. We maintain secure access to our email system. All other records are not accessible via the internet.
We do not share this information with any third parties
We do not send unsolicited messages via email or otherwise
We retain this information for as long as you are an active client. For most clients, they are active while we retain their images on file. For most clients we retain their images indefinitely as part of our archival service (which allows people to contact us looking for their images indefinitely)
If a client wishes to be ‘forgotten’ then we will comply with this request and delete their contact details and their images from the Archive. Please contact us via email at rob@roblambphoto.com to make such a request
“Client Data” does not include images. Images are our Intelliectual Property and we retain copyright in all circumstances.
