chilluns. and a new toy.
i picked up a new zoom lens a few weeks ago because my 28-200 tamron just wasn’t hacking it anymore. not that the photo quality was bad, but after ~3000 shots, i was starting to notice a certain lack of sharpness. so enter the nikon 70-300 with vibration reduction.
then i downloaded the trial version of aperture.
then i spent sunday afternoon and evening in the company of a 3- and 4-year-old.
and these are some of the results. more are sure to come, as i shot more than 200 photos. there should be a nice dozen or so.
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i didn’t take this one - obviously:
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June 16th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
COOL!! I’ve never played with anything beyond 135mm (what, about 150mm with the cropped sensor?) and not sure how I would like it, as hooked as I’ve become to the wide angle. These pictures make me want to try one! Nice bokeh for a long range shot — surprisingly nice. For portraits with kids, the 50mm is still my absolute fave — and I’d say the sharpness of these gives it a run for the money.
Really cute girls. Love the first one with the flowers in her hand.
Any vote on Aperture vs. Photoshop??
June 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
aperture v photoshop - *completely* different workflow. i’m probably somewhere in the “highly proficient” range for a photoshop hobbyist (i’ve used it to restore ripped and damaged photos, convert tintypes, etc.), so right now apterture is taking some getting used to. i’ve only played with it for about 2 hours. i do like aperture’s processing options for RAW images (i went totally overboard playing with the vignetting in the two photos of the girls together, for example, and will probably play with them some more before i’m happy with the results), and the fact that the original image remains unchanged through all the manipulations. you can also launch photoshop from within aperture to do other types of image correcting (healing brush, etc.).
for RAW image processing, i think aperture is superior to photoshop CS, which is the version i’m using. i haven’t played much with CS3, though, so i don’t know how they compare. given that i shoot exclusively RAW these days, i may purchase aperture to extend the usability of photoshop CS - without the educational discount, we’re talking $199 for aperture vs. $649/$999 for photoshop.
re: lenses - i have a 50mm that i’ve played with, and for more traditional portraits, it is very, very nice. but i’ve found that with kids, if i’m close enough to use a 50mm, i’m close enough to become a human jungle gym, which is what usually happens. the drawbacks to the telephoto are that it only stops down to 4.5, isn’t as responsive in low light, and it has a somewhat sluggish autofocus (and i don’t trust my nearsighted eyes to focus manually without the split-image focusing aid). it also seems to meter dimmer than my 28-200, and i wound up with more overexposed shots than usual.
that said, i think the photo of charlie with the corn on the cob is my favorite, and was taken in less-than-optimal circumstances: heavily backlit (about 5pm with the sun almost directly behind her), no hood (left it at home, d’oh!), from about 20 feet away. but it’s pretty much as shot - no cropping, and only minimal tweaking of levels to bring out her face.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:50 am
cool hat, la loca!