Does My Lens Suck, Part II

chuckinsocal · September 1, 2008

So, after a disappointing first test drive of my new D80 and 18-135 lens I thought it would be both fun and interesting to shoot a sobriety check point being conducted in my city on Saturday night. Since I've never done any night shooting, I did my best to remember what I've read here and kind of made it all up as I went along. The lighting was horrible with regular street lights, flood lights set up for the operation, head lights, and tail lights all conflicting with each other. I wound up shooting with ISO at 1600 and aperture wide open. The camera did a pretty good job with the light the main problem being that the shutter speed was sometimes too slow to avoid camera shake blurring. A tripod would have helped but it would have been too clumsy, awkward and slow in this situation. The only pp I did on these were to bring out some shadows and kill some harsh highlights.

A few of the photos are below and the rest can be seen in this gallery.

Comments are welcome and appreciated.

Brascole · September 1, 2008

chuckinsocal wrote:

So, after a disappointing first test drive of my new D80 and 18-135 lens I thought it would be both fun and interesting to shoot a sobriety check point being conducted in my city on Saturday night. Since I've never done any night shooting, I did my best to remember what I've read here and kind of made it all up as I went along. The lighting was horrible with regular street lights, flood lights set up for the operation, head lights, and tail lights all conflicting with each other. I wound up shooting with ISO at 1600 and aperture wide open. The camera did a pretty good job with the light the main problem being that the shutter speed was sometimes too slow to avoid camera shake blurring. A tripod would have helped but it would have been too clumsy, awkward and slow in this situation. The only pp I did on these were to bring out some shadows and kill some harsh highlights.

A few of the photos are below and the rest can be seen in this gallery.

Comments are welcome and appreciated.

The police look at ease with your taking pictures of them. I gotta guess your a cop. In any event like the action it's was like reading a book. Some of the photos are a bit oof. Put a monopod in the trunk.

davidweaver · September 2, 2008

Can you provide EXIF info in the gallery? My eyes say you have a couple stops of light you could give up for shutter speed in many of the pics.

Cheers,
David

chuckinsocal · September 2, 2008

OK ... the PhotoBar is back on for now ... I guess I gotta go out and buy a decent monopod for the next time.

I think I shot in P mode with the ISO set to 1600. The camera was opening the aperture wide and giving me shutter speeds as low as 1/25 or so.

chuckinsocal · September 2, 2008

No, I'm not a cop. I guess it has to do with taking photos of things in plain view from a public street. It doesn't hurt though that I have been a fan and supporter of my local PD for many years and I'm well known and respected by many of the officers. They were fine with it as long as I stayed safe and didn't get in the way or interfere in any way. Besides, they have nothing to hide.

chuckinsocal · September 2, 2008

Thanks Seymore ... actually it helps a lot and I appreciate the time you took with it. I still have a lot to learn and every shoot is a learning experience.

Brascole · September 2, 2008

chuckinsocal wrote:

No, I'm not a cop. I guess it has to do with taking photos of things in plain view from a public street. It doesn't hurt though that I have been a fan and supporter of my local PD for many years and I'm well known and respected by many of the officers. They were fine with it as long as I stayed safe and didn't get in the way or interfere in any way. Besides, they have nothing to hide.

So do I. They do a professional job as seen in you photo's. I followed a drunk driver, not to long ago. I was on my cell giving 911 a street by street, turn by turn, the operator just told me to be careful and was ok with what I was doing. The guy was so drunk he didn't notice me and I was able to follow him to the place he was going. I waited and a female cop drove up and said thanks then walked over to the car and do I have to paint a picture. I left but felt good about stopping a creep from potentially killing someone.