NHS XMas Concert (lots of imgs)

Phyxius

I wasn't sure where this would go...here because Nik posted a similar thread here or in technique or cameras because it also deals with image quality... So, please comment, I assure you my feelings won't be hurt.

Thursday night I went to my old high school's winter concert so that I could test out my new lens in low light conditions. I'll be shooting a ballet recital in the spring and thought it'd be a good idea to try out some settings. I took many duplicate images using different ISOs and I pushed the shutter speed up and dropped it down to see how far I could go.

The only editting done is some quick crops and some exposure increases when converting from RAW. I don't have a RAW editor though so not much done there. One or two picture also had color balance messed with, but I didn't take the time to go through them all since I'm really just trying to see how the lens/camera handled the lighting.

The first group on stage was the freshmen strings...

ISO 800 :rolleyes F2.8 1/100 Should have messed with WB a bit. This is why I HATE 800.

BUT, then I took these two
A)




A) is ISO 800, 200mm, F2.8, 1/100
is ISO 400, 200mm, F2.8, 1/100
??? :scratch:huh

Again, here is a 100% crop of 2 pictures with the exact same settings. One is ISO 800 one is ISO 400, both at 200mm, F2.8 and 1/100.


Advanced Strings-


Violins



Sax-a-ma-phones


The stage was very oddly lit and had a few hot spots and plenty of dark spots.


Feeling




Over all I was happy with the way the lens performed and I wasn't surprised by the camera's ISO handling, but it was better than I thought it would be, though obviously inconsistant.

Here's a link to the gallery with the Originals left on if anyone is interested I can supply EXIF data, but for what ever reason my PS isn't embedding it when I save as. http://phyxius.smugmug.com/gallery/2244902/

Skippy

Phyxius wrote:

Over all I was happy with the way the lens performed and I wasn't surprised by the camera's ISO handling, but it was better than I thought it would be, though obviously inconsistant.

Which lens are we talking about here ??? ....... Skippy

ziggy53

Skippy wrote:

Which lens are we talking about here ??? ....... Skippy

According to this entry:

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=441414&postcount=6

... it's the Nikkor 70 - 200 f 2.8 VR.

Christina,

It looks like the lens is working great.

Differences in exposure can be caused by the lighing and the shutter speed. At 1/100th you are almost half-wave of a 1/60th of a second cycle. (In the USA, the line current fluctuates at 60 Hz, so if the lights are cycling at that rate, you need to use 1/60sec shutter to capture a full cycle.)

If you try to shoot at 1/60th and it solves the problem, you know what the problem is.

ziggy53

Phyxius

ziggy53 wrote:

According to this entry:

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=441414&postcount=6

... it's the Nikkor 70 - 200 f 2.8 VR.

Christina,

It looks like the lens is working great.

Differences in exposure can be caused by the lighing and the shutter speed. At 1/100th you are almost half-wave of a 1/60th of a second cycle. (In the USA, the line current fluctuates at 60 Hz, so if the lights are cycling at that rate, you need to use 1/60sec shutter to capture a full cycle.)

If you try to shoot at 1/60th and it solves the problem, you know what the problem is.

ziggy53

Yup! It's the Nikkor 70-200mm F 2.8 VR. It's very nice and I'm getting used to the weight very quickly. The weight it's self isn't the problem, but I have to be very careful to not hold on to just the camera as I've been told the weight could actually damage the body.

Ziggy, good call on the light cycles! I thought my camera my just be acting up. Obviously I'm more used to outdoor sports shooting Thanks!

BillyVerden

High ISO
Well high ISO can actually be handled, but it does take a little extra work.
Hope you don't mind the example.

Phyxius

BillyVerden wrote:

Well high ISO can actually be handled, but it does take a little extra work.
Hope you don't mind the example.

Examples are great! Did you use noise ninja or a similar program/plug-in?

BillyVerden

Phyxius wrote:

Examples are great! Did you use noise ninja or a similar program/plug-in?

Yeah i used a similar program to noise ninja and a couple of tricks of my own that i have had good luck with. I have learned that High ISO noise is really nothing to worry about. If it takes a high iso to stop the action or get the image at all in low light. Then go ahead and use it. You can get a very useful image from it. I posted an image i might add to the #80 challenge that i took at 3200 iso... lol.

Glad you liked the example, you took a great photo. Lots of intensity in a wonderful surrounding. They all turned out great, congratulations.

Awais Yaqub

wow wonderful clear photos !