PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

This is a case to illustrate how to get the best pictures for action events, in particular, with a Canon EOS 40D digital camera, a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Lens in a football game.

1. Firstly, you will be a bit under-lensed with the 70-200 as far as focal length reach. But since that is the lens you have to work with, here are my suggestions. First, at 200mm of reach, your images will only be good and sharp up to distances of about 25-30 meters away. So move around and try to stay close to the action.

2. If you will be shooting soccer games in the daytime with decent lighting, use Av mode, and select the 70-200’s largest aperture value … f/4. This lens produces very sharp images and great background blur at f/4.

3. Set your ISO to a value that gets you a shutter speed of at least 1/1000s, if not higher. If you can get 1/4000s at ISO400, go for it. Don’t be afraid to start out using ISO400. This camera produces neglible noise at ISO400.

4. Use one of the preset WB settings as applies to your sky conditions. If its cloudy/overcast outside, use the Cloudy WB setting, if its sunny outside, use the Daylight WB setting.

5. Use center weighted average metering, as this metering mode takes less of your background into account while properly metering your subject.

6. I like to use the Standard Picture Styles, and set Contrast and Color Tone to the default “0″ setting, but set the Saturation to -1, but its all a matter of your taste.

7. You want to expose for the players faces/skin, not the uniforms or the field. Its OK to overexpose the uniforms a little bit in order to get proper exposures on the faces/skin. As far as dialing in the correct exposure using Av mode, you will need to check your review image and histogram. In Av mode, you will have to use the Exposure Compensation function to adjust your exposure. Take some test shots before the match begins and start off by using “0” EC. If your player is underexposed, bump up your EC in positive 1/3 steps until you reach the proper exposure. If your player is overexposed, lower your EC in negative 1/3 steps until you reach the proper exposure.

……

See Full Article.

I have been a 5D shooter since almost the day it came out. I simply love the full frame, and never looked back at the 20D, XT and 300D I had before that.

I always preferred Nikon bodies though, and was hoping someone would release a D200 body with a 5D sensor in it.

Well, that didn’t quite happen, but the new D3 had me intrigued since the day it was announced.

Last week I saw an ad on a public forum where an established member was selling an essentially brand new D3 for a very good price, so I jumped on it. I figured the way it’s backordered everywhere, if I don’t like it I won’t have any problems reselling it for the same or even a higher price.

So the D3 arrived, and the first thing I did was to put it up against my 5D to see what the hoopla is all about. I only have a 50mm 1.8 and 35mm 2.0 Nikkors, so I compared those with 50mm 1.4 and 35mm 2.0 Canons.

1. Handling and build quality

Well, there’s no contest here. While 5D is nice, it feels like a snail and 2 generations behind the D3. One thing though, although I much prefer the resolut and snappy shutter action on the D3 than the kla-chunk of the one on 5D, the D3 shutter is a lot louder.

2. Autofocus in good light.

Again, no contest. D3 will just snap in place. With a 50mm 1.8, 19 out of 20 shots will be spot-on, with 1 maybe slightly off. With the 5D and a 50mm 1.4 at f/1.8, around 10 out of 20 will be spot-on, with another 5-6 slightly off and 3-4 quite a bit OOF.

And this is all with the screw driven 50mm 1.8. Can’t wait to try some of the AF-S models.

3. Autofocus in low light.

The 5D is actually slightly better here. The center point will lock on things in low light that the D3 has a problem with, and will hunt quite a bit. 40D smokes them both in this regard.

See Full Article.