Still testing my D700

Mitchell

My son Evan in my garage today. I like the lack of crop factor with my portraits. This was taken with my 180mm at f2.8. I may be crazy, but I think I prefer the skin tones from my D2Xs in good light. Am I nuts??



Here's a shot from a wonderful new production of Sleeping Beauty. Starring a new actress, Samantha, as the Queen. These were shot in what I suspect was once a dungeon in our local performing arts center with no flash allowed. ISO 6400 with almost no noise! I'm impressed.

divamum

I have to say, that the colour rendering on the 700 is different - granted, your boy's in a blue shirt in this shot, but I definitely think of your garage shots (all of the ones you've ever posted) as being more "golden" and the skin tones are different, it seems. These certainly aren't unpleasing (you must be kidding me!) but they're different from similar shots you've posted in the garage in the past.

Lovely shots of your good-looking family, as always. Samantha looks like such a little sweetheart.

VayCayMom

What do you have your d 700 set at, neutral or standard?
I love your children's eyes, blue eyes and dark lashes and mostly fair haired, that is a special combo!

Mitchell

VayCayMom wrote:

What do you have your d 700 set at, neutral or standard?
I love your children's eyes, blue eyes and dark lashes and mostly fair haired, that is a special combo!

I always shoot in RAW. The settings you speak of shouldn't matter, right?

ziggy53

Mitch,

It would appear that your son's portrait is overexposed, but not blown. I suggest reducing the exposure by around 2/3rd stop in the RAW conversion.

I also wonder what WB was used in the RAW conversion?

I measure the closest cheek at:

Y - 7
M - 11
C - 7
K - 0

This would seem to indicate that WB is a bit off, even considering the exposure. (Normally the Yellow channel should not be below the Magenta.)

Llywellyn

I love my D700 and have yet to need to adjust skin tones from it. I shoot RAW and mostly in daylight WB. I have taken advantage of the WB measuring feature, which worked surprisingly well the couple times I needed it. I'd recommend giving it a try if you find your WB is consistently off.

I'm always envious of your garage lighting. Really wish I had a garage...

rookieshooter

from Ken Rockwell:

For photos of people, I use NEUTRAL and set the saturation to +1. I prefer sharpenng set to 5.

Mitchell

ziggy53 wrote:

Mitch,

It would appear that your son's portrait is overexposed, but not blown. I suggest reducing the exposure by around 2/3rd stop in the RAW conversion.

I also wonder what WB was used in the RAW conversion?

I measure the closest cheek at:

Y - 7
M - 11
C - 7
K - 0

This would seem to indicate that WB is a bit off, even considering the exposure. (Normally the Yellow channel should not be below the Magenta.)

Thanks, Ziggy.

I shoot a grey card for WB. I'll have to recheck my settings. Perhaps this is what is bothering me.

Mitchell

Tweaked the WB and I think this is much improved. I'm happier with it. Any comments?

adbsgicom

I think the color's much improved. Nice image!

ziggy53

A wonderful improvement.

jeffreaux2

ziggy53 wrote:

A wonderful improvement.

I agree.


Mitchell,

I experienced some of the same growing pains with color and saturation when making the jump from XTi to 50D. Luckily, I shoot RAW and use Lightroom to process. THAT means....

I was able to set up a default profile for the 50D to more closely match what I was used to getting from a camera.

If you use Lightroom, it may be a simple matter of selecting a more pleasing camera "calibration" profile and set it as the default.

Its the very bottom tool in develop.

Mitchell

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I agree.


Mitchell,

I experienced some of the same growing pains with color and saturation when making the jump from XTi to 50D. Luckily, I shoot RAW and use Lightroom to process. THAT means....

I was able to set up a default profile for the 50D to more closely match what I was used to getting from a camera.

If you use Lightroom, it may be a simple matter of selecting a more pleasing camera "calibration" profile and set it as the default.

Its the very bottom tool in develop.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm still using CS3 with camera RAW v4.6. I'll have to check if it is worth playing with my camera calibration profile.

divamum

Mitchell -

Definitely an improvement, and definitely closer to your "usual" WB/skin tones. Looks to me like that's the answer!

WingsOfLovePhoto

Mitchell wrote:

Tweaked the WB and I think this is much improved. I'm happier with it. Any comments?

The white balance is much improved! The only thing I would have done is to change the white balance like you did but history brush the eyes back to the original blue. I thought they were stunning against the blue shirt. In this picture they seem a different ? duller blue? He has gorgeous eyes! Bet the girls are crazy over him....watch out dad!