Tuesday News Quickies
Howdy, folks. First, a few answers from questions posted about yesterday’s FSU sidelines shoot.
- I shot in Aperture priority because I knew I wanted to shoot “wide open” all day. I had plenty of light, so shutter speed wasn’t really an issue—the challenge was white balance. When a play started in the sun, the white balance looked great, but as soon as a running back or receiver would wind up in the shade, everything turned blue.
- As for renting a lens; I wish I had time to rent the 200-400mm f/4 (my favorite all-around sports lens) from LensProToGo.com, but I only found out on Thursday night that I’d be shooting on Saturday, and leaving my house at 7:00 am Saturday, so no time to have one overnighted. I’m probably going to have to break down and just buy a 200-400mm, but they are just darn pricey (around $5,000. Yeeeeoch!).
- I had the question, “Besides white balance, what else would you have done to those shots?” I would have made sure that the players faces where well lit, so you could better see their expressions (I would either use Fill Light or a Screen layer and a Layer Mask). I also probably would have done some dodging and burning, and some spot sharpening as well. Not on every shot—only the best of the bunch.
- As for tracking the action: I just switched my D3 from Single to Continuous focus (the switch is right below the lens itself on the front of the camera), which I always do for any moving subject. Works great for tracking sports. I also set the camera to the 51-point focus mode (though I normally leave it at 21 point for day-to-day stuff).
- Here’s another question from yesterday; “…could you recommend a tripod head that lets you switch from horizontal to vertical FAST in a situation like this [shooting sports]?” When you use large lenses, they usually have a collar around them, which attaches to the monopod, which lets you instantly rotate your camera and lens by just loosening a knob. It’s ideal for sports shooting.
- Lastly, my FSU shooting buddy Mike Olivella posted a very detailed comment yesterday about how to get credentials to shoot a college game. Go check the comments from yesterday post for Mike’s insights. Absolutely invaluable (thanks Mike!). Also, check out Mike’s sports shooting portfolio here.
Hope that answers some of those questions. Now, onto some news quickies:
- Photoshop World instructor David Ziser did an interview with Donny Hoyle (the guy behind the popular “You Suck at Photoshop” series on YouTube.com. Take a quick moment and check out what David found out. (Here’s the link to it on David’s “Digital Pro Talk” blog).
- If you read German, check out my interview/tips article in the online version of the popular German magazine Spiegel, called Spiegel Online by clicking right here.
- My congratulations go out to Susan Hayre Thelwell (who I was lucky enough to have as my lab teaching assistant during my Santa Fe workshop last year), as she won an “Honorable Mention” in the Blurb.com photo book competition, for her photo book, “Mitchell’s Lot.” She’s a terrific photographer (and just a wonderful person), and if you’ve got a minute to take a look at some really great photography, click right here to see some of her beautiful images from the book. Way to go Susan!!!!
- When I did my “Top Five List for Everyting” list earlier this year (link), in one of the categories I listed my top five photographers I’d love to take a workshop from, and they included Jay Maisel, Karen Kuhen, Nevada Weir, Michael Greco, and Lou Manna. Well, one of my readers sent me this link to an article along those lines that absolutely made my day (here’s the link).
That’s it for today, folks. Have a kick-butt day! :)