D300 and Size/Quality Settings for Sports

LensCap

Hello All! OK I'm having a blast with my new toy and will be shooting the following over the next few days...

1) Special Olympics
2) Motorcycle racing at a track
3) College Baseball

I've rented a 70-200mm 2.8 VR and a 2.0 teleconverter from borrowlenses.com, mainly just to learn what I can do with them. And finally, on to the question...:D If one was going to shoot these events with the goal being to post and sell them (and no there's no way I would try to make money off of the olympics, not sure about the track, and a definite maybe on the college baseball) what Image Quality (JPEG Fine, Normal, Basic?) and Size (Large 4288X2848, Medium 3216X2136, Small 2144X1424?) would one want to shoot at? I was leaning towards Normal & Large. The file size still seems way big to me, so I figured I would ask. Also, are there any settings specific to the d300 that I need to catch up on? As always, thanks in advance for all the help...See Ya!

Oh yeah guess I should mention that storage capacity is not a huge issue on site, I have 6 GB for the d300 and will have access to my laptop if needed...thanks!

Giphsub

Why get a Porsche and drive it like it's a Daihatsu?

Use the largest settings the camera will allow. If you do get a great shot that you can sell, then the buyer will likely want the largest/full res pic available. How confident are you at pp with RAW? If you are not comfortable with that then shoot L FINE JPEG. The file sizes are big because they carry much more info for a better picture. You will fill 6 G pretty quickly with the D300 (around 600 pics I think at L FINE). But if you have your laptop handy then that is no problem.

Enjoy!

SloYerRoll

Giphsub wrote:

Why get a Porsche and drive it like it's a Daihatsu?

Use the largest settings the camera will allow. If you do get a great shot that you can sell, then the buyer will likely want the largest/full res pic available. How confident are you at pp with RAW? If you are not comfortable with that then shoot L FINE JPEG. The file sizes are big because they carry much more info for a better picture. You will fill 6 G pretty quickly with the D300 (around 600 pics I think at L FINE). But if you have your laptop handy then that is no problem.

Enjoy!

HoofClix

I've used mine once for a horse show, but because of the harsh environment I've chosen to save it for other stuff that I do that won't trash it. But my conclusion was to set it up pretty much the same as my D200: Basically, that means to shoot at the largest JPEG that it offers, then preset the white balance to whatever fits the outdoor light, which for me settles out anywhere from 5300 to 5600 on a normal day. To me, that white balance setting is what makes all the difference. There is no need at all to shoot raw in this case.

Also, depending on the light outside and how far away you are, you might decide to leave the converter off of it. It will cut your aperture, and you have so much resolution there that you might find you really don't need to turn your lens into a 140-400. Besides, the converter is really meant for primes, not that 70-200 VR.

Toy around with all of it though, and learn that white balance!

jonh68

The best thing to do is try them out yourself. Take some shots at each setting and do cropping and see if you can tell a difference. I disagree somewhat with bigger file size means better images until sensor sizes increase their size as well.

http://blogs.smugmug.com/don/2007/02/08/the-megapixel-myth-youre-getting-ripped-off/

Pixel counters will see a difference, but something in which you are taking a mass amount of pictures and going to be spending time processing those pictures with the HOPES of selling them, I say make it as easy as possible for yourself. If you are shooting a wedding or a once in a lifetime event, I would go big as possible.

I would make money of the special Olympics. There are poor parents and rich parents as any other event out there.

Giphsub

well in the case of my old d70 vs my d300, then bigger file size does mean better quality

nipprdog

LensCap wrote:

I've rented a 70-200mm 2.8 VR and a 2.0 teleconverter from borrowlenses.com,

Don't expect great results. It's no secret that zooms don't like converters. Especialy 2.0s.

SloYerRoll

nipprdog wrote:

Don't expect great results. It's no secret that zooms don't like converters. Especialy 2.0s.

Good point. 1.4x is even stretching it a bit.

jonh68

Giphsub wrote:

well in the case of my old d70 vs my d300, then bigger file size does mean better quality

I am not disputing the difference in image quality, but I doubt it has to do with bigger files. Adding megapixels to a d70 will not make it equal to a D300.

Giphsub

of course not. And let's not derail this with this discussion

LensCap

Wow what a bunch of stuff to work through .

Why get a Porsche and drive it like it's a Daihatsu?
I hear this a lot, I guess I'm wondering how much better a shot of one player zoomed in at 200mm will look at 6 meg vs 12 meg....and I was thinking of ways to speed up the workflow.

I originally ordered the 1.4 converter but Max was unable to obtain one fast enough so I'm getting the 2.0. Had no idea they were primarily for primes...I was planning on using it on the bikes more than anything else.

I have a lot better luck with white balance on the d300 and even the d40 than I was with the d70, I'll be sure to get it right.

Again, thanks to everyone and I'll have some shots up in a few days!!!

unknownphotography

shoot raw shoot raw... you limit yourself so much by shooting jpeg

ASkip

Hi,
There is one more setting if you're going Jpeg and that's the Jpeg compression. You can choose Size Priority or Optimal Quality. If you want really big files, try out Optimal Quality. I assume it's mostly the backgrounds that are affected, but like everyone else said, try it and see what you can see. If you're going to use the 200 (without the TC) you might need the optimal quality, imho.

MichaelKirk

Well....
Last year shooting sports with a D200 I was shooting 100% jpeg, large and basic quality. Using 1 and 2GB cards I could easily fit 700-900 images on a single card! I sold pleanty of images without a single complaint, printed several posted of my own (20"x30") and the quality was excellent. I have several publication in magazines (a few 2 page spreads as well as a cover photo. All image quality was excellent and never a single complaint.


This year I'm shooting with a D200 and D300 - shooting 100% RAW, purchased 8 and 12GB cards and runing a few larger hard drives. Memory and storage are cheap and even though my image wuality was fine last year - my goal this year is to "Improve" my output quality so I am shooting the best "Camera" quality I can.

Michael

nipprdog

LensCap wrote:

I originally ordered the 1.4 converter but Max was unable to obtain one fast enough so I'm getting the 2.0.

Which brand?

LensCap

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the help and advice. Wound up in the pressbox for the Special Olympics with Tripod and TC, mainly just took shots of the kids on the podium recieving their awards and these turned out quite well. If you ever get a chance to shooy Special Olympics...DO IT!!! Took my 16 year old son with me to Nashville for the motorcycles and we had an absolute blast learning the slow shutter speed/panning technique. He had the d40 with the 18-200mm VR and did very well with it, I went with the d300 and the 70-200mm 2.8, all shot in shutter priority between 1/125 and 1/200, JPEG Normal and Large on both cameras (sure can crop better with twice the resolution!). Had trouble keeping the bikes in focus, I believe due to shutter speed. As much wheel blur as we were getting I think maybe we should have gone a little faster on the shutters. Anyway I again thank everyone, and we still got baseball and prom pics to go this weekend. motorcycle pics are here,
http://rsartin.smugmug.com/Sports
the "1st Batch" are the d40, second batch d300. Thanks!!

Oh yeah Nippr I still need to look at the TC brand...