New D90 test shots

lilmomma · May 22, 2009

Got my new camera, love it! Haven't had much time to REALLY play with it, but we were hanging outside this evening and I took some shots.

My eyes have been looking at these for a while and I can't figure out if they are really sharp or not. Sometimes they seem like it's soft but then I wonder if it's just such a better quality photo than my d40 that i'm not used to or what. I'm also having a hard time getting used to the weight difference so I'm not stable holding it yet. anyway they aren't the greatest compositionally and i wasn't spot on with all the settings because I was testing out some different things but here's what I got today:

Need some fresh eyes to cc on sharpness and quality. thanks!

and one of my brother, because he happened to be standing there

Mlark1128 · May 22, 2009

Congrats on the new camera! I also have the D90 and I love it.

The first one may be the SLIGHTEST bit soft, but it's only noticeable when compared to the last three which are sharp. What lens are you using?

There are some color issues. I know my D90 shoots on the magenta side if I use Auto WB. I see a lot of magenta, especially in 1, 3 and 4. Some orange too (#1 and #3), which could just be a color-cast from her shirt. Could also be a combination of too much yellow and magenta. Do you shoot in RAW?

My favorite is the second one--such a sweet childhood expression! Maybe crop a bit off the top so as to follow the rule of thirds. :-)

charlotte thompson · May 22, 2009

Moma

this little girl is extrodinarly beautiful!!
good captures-one and two

I would definetly crop closer=the color seems a bit too orange did you do ps work-look at black and white for the first 2 just to see how it would look-
she is way to gorgeous not too
excellent capture

Charlotte-

Photosbychuck · May 22, 2009

I love how the eyes pop in 1, 2, 3 & 5.

Thie skin tones are blowing out on my uncalibrated monitor.
What ISO did you shoot these?
What shutter speed did you shoot these?

later,
Chuck

lilmomma · May 22, 2009

yeah I don't know what was going on with my colors. I did do a little pp but not a lot with the coloring, i probably should have. I know at one point when shooting i realized I had the wb in "shade" mode and then another point (if this matters) I was in "portrait setting." On the first one, we were being hit directly by the sun around sunset so part of the orange coloring has to do with that. How do you adjust for that anyway?

My real concern right now is the sharpness in the eyes. I have the 18-105 VR kit lens. I'm trying to hold my camera pretty steady, but for some reason I still feel like i'm getting some slight motion blur. The first shot was shutter speed 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 400 and it didn't seem as sharp as it should've been. I always focus on the eyes. seems like a shutter speed of 1/500 should have been quick enough to capture a sharp enough shot even if she was slightly moving. Could it also be that my focal length was 105mm? I'm thinking so, because the third one her eyes do look super sharp, ISO and f/stop were the same, shutter was 1/320 and focal length 50mm. maybe I should stay away from the long zoom when I want the sharpness unless I have a better lens. hmm.. but then I checked the one of my bro, and that was 105mm as well. Of course he isn't 3 and knows how to hold still.

Mlark- Yep, always shoot RAW. How should I address the magenta problem?

Charlotte- Thank you, she's my little beauty..she definately is a great practice subject! I really love b&w photos, so much that I feel I over-do them. But I think you're right about number 2, it would look good. I'll play around with it and see what I come up with. will definately crop though.

Chuck- I was going for the eye pop look! I'm glad you noticed! Definately will address the coloring issues. ISO on these were 400, which I don't normally use but I was playing with some different combinations.

Thanks!

Mlark1128 · May 22, 2009

How do you process your RAW images? If you use ACR, just slide the tint slider toward the green side. Easy peasy! :-)

Hmmm. I've never heard of sharpness being affected at the longest range of your focal length. Your depth of field is affected by your distance to the subject, but if you were at 105mm I can't imagine you were very close to her. Like I said though, the image is still sharp, just not AS sharp as the others. Is it possible the sharpest focus fell on the strand of hair in front of her right (camera left) eye? Which eye did you focus on? At f/5.6 you shouldn't have had a focus issue. HTH!

lilmomma · May 22, 2009

I use lightroom 2, which I would imagine that the tint slider is the same. I'll try that. yeah i guess it's possible the focus fell on the hair. I shot so many photos yesterday it's very possible i missed the focus. Anyways thanks for the help!

lilmomma · May 22, 2009

better?
are these better?

OR THIS???

B&W version

Mlark1128 · May 22, 2009

First one looks MUCH better.

So does the first and third of the second picture (hope that's not confusing,

!). The new crop is great! The second of the second, the colors are wacky--I see a lot of blue.

WingsOfLovePhoto · May 22, 2009

great practice shots and what a beautiful subject! I really like the expression on the first one. Just a few questions/tips...... why iso 400? i would lower the ISO to 200 and then lower your aperature to 4 and shutter speed to like maybe 250-400? With the lens you have you should be able to take the ss to 125 without camera shake...depending on the conditions? And for a bit more sparkle to the eyes, if you don't already do it... unsharp mask in PS at 75% 3, 2 are the settings will help with the softness. Auto white balance usually works ok and if you shoot raw then you are covered if it isn't good. For the barn shot in raw you can just use the white balance adjuster by clicking on the gray in the barn till you get what you like. Also since you like black and white..if you haven't already...check out www.atncentral.com they have several b/w actions to download for free. I like Robin's light tone and vanilla black and white. Oh and one other thing on the first one.... in PS duplicate the layer and change that layer to soft lighting then lower the opacity till it pleases you. It will bring up the clarity a bit... Have a great weekend...

lilmomma · May 25, 2009

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

great practice shots and what a beautiful subject! I really like the expression on the first one. Just a few questions/tips...... why iso 400? i would lower the ISO to 200 and then lower your aperature to 4 and shutter speed to like maybe 250-400? With the lens you have you should be able to take the ss to 125 without camera shake...depending on the conditions? And for a bit more sparkle to the eyes, if you don't already do it... unsharp mask in PS at 75% 3, 2 are the settings will help with the softness. Auto white balance usually works ok and if you shoot raw then you are covered if it isn't good. For the barn shot in raw you can just use the white balance adjuster by clicking on the gray in the barn till you get what you like. Also since you like black and white..if you haven't already...check out www.atncentral.com they have several b/w actions to download for free. I like Robin's light tone and vanilla black and white. Oh and one other thing on the first one.... in PS duplicate the layer and change that layer to soft lighting then lower the opacity till it pleases you. It will bring up the clarity a bit... Have a great weekend...

Thank you for the tips, Sandy! ISO 400 was an accident really, mystepson and husband were playing baseball and I notched it up a bit so I could speed up my shutter to get some good action shots and forgot to turn it back. And I only wish I had a lens that I could get that wide at 105mm! Also wish I had photoshop so I could check out those actions....just lr2 right now. Someday though! Thanks again!

New D90 test shots

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