FINE-TUNING YOUR AF AIN'T LIKE DUSTIN' CROPS, BOY!

Time to reactivate the blog. It's something that scratches an itch but sometimes infrequently, so apologies for the terrible lack of posts in recent months. Having been added to several lists of Bloggers by Tweeters recently, I guess it's best if I do something to put that right...


A technical post, then, first off.

Something that I've recently worked on, with very positive results, is making sure that the Autofocus on my pair of D3s bodies and my D4 is working as well as it should.

The D4 AF Fine Tune, within the Set Up menu. I found with all my lenses that this body likes to back-focus (i.e. sharp focus is actually behind the subject) quite a bit, so all lenses have individual adjustment to make them
focus in front of where the AF system wants at its default, or they use the body default I set up of -4.

ALL mechanical devices are built to tolerances. That is, "10mm" may be between 9.99mm and 10.01mm (for example) and the machinery should still work. The more expensive a thing, normally the tighter the tolerances, because you are paying for tighter quality control as much as anything.

More after the break...

SIMPLE LIGHT

This doesn't happen very often, but just occasionally, I get a chance to add some light that's not done quick-and-dirty with an on-camera flash. It's time and far too little of it, usually, that's the decider.

But at this job (I'm reluctant to use a grandiose term like "assignment" for the things that appear on my lists...) I had a little extra time, the location and a subject that could do with a bit of extra treatment.

These three ladies were rehearsing for a forthcoming musical ("Norma Jean, The Musical" about Marilyn Monroe) and were to be featured in the county-wide entertainment and culture supplement. It was script-only, not costume rehearsal and they were outdoors. However, there was a wooded patch which both brought the sun under control and offered a little bit of interest with a tyre as a swing. There wasn't time or location to switch much around but I swapped the ladies positions a couple of times to ring the changes a little.

The extra light was a simple off-camera SB 900, on a light stand, into a white umbrella in reflected mode. It was set about 4ft to my right, slightly high and was triggered at 1/2 power by an on-camera SB700. There wasn't a grand plan to this position, it just added a nice amount of light at an angle to counterpoint the daylight that was washing under the trees.

L/R Jay Aston, formerly of Bucks Fizz, Lorraine Gray and Sarah Rose Denton are rehearsing for a new show, Norma Jean, The Musical.
 This is a "quickly-found" location where they were rehearsing, which got them out of the full sun.
Nikon D4, 24-70 f2.8 AFS, 1/250th @ f5.6, 160ISO plus off-camera SB900 into white reflective umbrella at 1/2 power.

And a couple of slightly-changed poses....

I moved and clustered them closer and in a different order
after this. I also pondered getting them to push Sarah on the swing,
but decided that it meant changing the light enough that I didn't
have that much time to hand. Regret not doing that a little
but you do what you have to do and move on...

A GOD OF DUMB SNAPPERS?

There must be, like a Terry Pratchett novel, a god who looks after luckless snappers.

Dartford FC's first game, and home game, of the new season, and I was trying to get stock as well as action from just one half of the game. This meant filling the frame and so, 35 minutes in and with no goals scored, I risked fitting the 2.0x converter to my 300, to give 600mm and some reach into the midfield from the away end of the pitch.

So guess when the Darts chose to score a goal? On 40 minutes, Adam Birchall made a solo run into the box from the right and scored.

Needless to say, I had too much glass on for that (!!), though the photographer next to me said that the goal moment wasn't much to look at, as he had his back to anybody on that side and there were loads of bodies in the way.

But having that 600mm reach did give me this, really full-frame...

Adam Birchall is mobbed by teammates after scoring Dartford's opening goal (and as it turned out, the winner) against
Alfreton Town in their opening game of the Skrill Premier 2013/14 season, at Princes Park, Dartford.
Nikon D4, 300mm f2.8VR plus TC20E3 converter (= 600mm), 1/1000 @ f8, 200ISO.
The aperture is stopped down because of the TC, but the effect of the converter is also giving much less
 depth of field than the equivalent "true" 600mm lens would at f8, and a nicely defocused background.

I shall burn an out-of-date roll of Fujicolor Press 800, as an offering...

CRACKING VISIT, GROMIT!!

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband visited Kent in April and I was tasked to get pics from three locations, Dartford, Gravesend and Maidstone.

Here's a couple which are rather unkind but rather confirm the Times' cartoonist's caricature of him as one half of the animated pair "Wallace and Gromit". Even the background adds to this...

At Gravesend, indoors in the Borough Market. Oh dear.  I've had to get low because it was, as usual, like trying to get pictures inside a telephone box and it's just added to the look... 

And another gesture. Oh dear. 

By the time he got to Maidstone he was running late, and the local edition were expecting images for their deadline at 2:30. However, there are 'phone calls one shouldn't have to take, and being asked by a reporter "Are the pictures in, yet??" when he would barely have arrived - even if he wasn't running late - makes one wonder if certain people have any clue how this lark works, at all...

Especially as I went to send what I did get and the mobile network was overloaded. A good signal, but nothing going out, which meant another five minutes drive to a different location in the hope that would do the trick. Fortunately, transmission was successful from here.

WALLET-BUSTINGLY GOOD?

(Canon and other brand users: Move along, nothing to see here...) 😃

After the trip to Canterbury for the new Archbishop, I made another little trip to London and Grays of Westminster...

Yes, I have finally succumbed and stumped up for a D4. Well, if I can't have one for making a half-century, when can I have one??!

Is it worth the money? Well, this is an accusation you can throw at any pro-spec camera. Most all of today's "consumer" DSLRs take excellent quality pictures, so unless you buy into something like the mega-resolution of the D800, or the High ISO and frame rates of the D4, what's the point of spending more?

It's "robustness" and "build quality", two very ephemeral qualities, I think. My D4 hasn't been used solely - I have two D3Ss still - but already has 17k frames on it. It has been rained on, several times, too. Pro bodies DO cost a lot, undoubtedly. But that does bring some peace of mind as well as their capabilities.

D4. Just add ££££s

OK. So is it better than the D3S and therefore worth the extra premium?

More after the break...

BISHOP TAKES THRONE

March 21st saw the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral. It's not every day you get a new Archbishop, so it was "properly covered" with three photographers shooting and the chief 'tog acting as picture editor.

I ended up being the one perched up on an eyrie deep in the cathedral to see the actual enthronement, alongside Reuters, Getty and PA, a rare privilege for a local paper, but then again, it's all archive material and why shouldn't the main local newspaper have at least one photographer in that line-up?  Mind you, no pressure, eh...?

One of the reasons I ended up inside was because I have the kit to deal with the dark. My pair of D3S bodies were joined by a loaner D4, and all of them were at 6400ISO to give typical 1/500th - 1/640th at f2.8. Lenses were 24-70 AFS, 70-200 AFS, 300vr and then 300 + 1.4x converter. The latter meant upping the ISO to 8000, to give 1/320th-1/400th at f4. I had a monopod for the 300, but gave up using it as it was very tight with three other photographers, so the ability to keep a high shutter speed to handhold - VR on - was great.

It must have looked like contemporary dance on our platform as we all moved around, looking for angles, swapping bodies and trying to avoid getting in each others way...

Chief 'tog Barry Goodwin had been at the rehearsal the day before, so we had an idea what to expect and what the light was like, so it was just a question of settling down to record a bit of history.

New Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, from the photographers' eyrie -
I think this is D3s plus 70-200mm. If anything, it demonstrates just how good the
4 year-old D3s still is at stratospheric ISOs.

More after the break.

Some Blog Love...

Well, it's been a long time since I last posted here.  Apologies to all my followers (yes, both of you :-)  !!) and I wont bore you with the reasons for being away.

Suffice to say the motivation and interest in actually putting something up here on a regular basis is returning, slowly. So there'll be a little catching up done over the next few days, then I'll attempt to post at least a picture story, at least once a week. Okay? Thanks.