a fashion shooter » canon 5d mark ii

Waterways (lucky landscapes)

AFS — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:00:50 +0000

Flying back to NY from Palm Beach last night, we got some pretty and moody views of the landscape. Of course my airplane window was filthy, and looked like it had several leyers of Saran Wrap sandwiched in between the plexiglass – causing all kinds of glare, flare, color smear, low contrast, you name it. Plus the old 50mm 1.8 I was using contributed plendy of flare on it’s own. (I actually keep this lens because I really like the flare it produces when pointed at the sun and other bright things.)

(for the most part post-processing included only contrast and exposure adjustments. All images were shot with the Canon 5D Mark II and the old Canon 50mm 1.8 Series I lens)

Sveta Utkina

AFS — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:42:13 +0000

I recently used the 5D2 on another fashions shoot, but took another camera along just in case. While the focus is still pants (once again I got a bunch of out of focus images,) the image quality looks pretty good. The shots use a combination of daylight and some strobe for fill. They were shot in the NY studio, and the model is Sveta at IMG Models…

Here is a larger one so fashionboy can check the tonality

one light wonders – using a single light source in the studio

AFS — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:50:08 +0000

While admiring photographers who can handle many lights very well, like Joshua Jordan, I usually like to keep things on my sets as simple as possible. Why? Because I find that I feel freer to work with the talent when I am not thinking too much about equipment. Also when the lighting is more simple, the models can move around more freely without messing the whole thing up

Keeping it simple often that means using only daylight, or just one studio strobe – and maybe mix the one studio light with daylight. And often it means using a reflector or two. While it might sound limiting, it really isn’t. And if you are just starting to learn how to light things, or just like to travel light, it’s a good idea to explore all that can be done with one light source.

Using only the sun (daylight) is a good way to start. Everyone has taken photos using daylight, and everyone has seen some incredible images made using just the sun. The below gallery is all shot indoors with just daylight. Sometimes there was just one window, and in some cases there were multiple windows.

Seeing as you can do all these things with daylight inside, it should follow that one artificial light source in the studio could be just as be fruitful, no? Well, it can be. Soon I will post a few shots using single-source strobe lights (usually with large softboxes for diffusion.) I’ll do my best to describe exactly how I used them.

Twisty lens on the 5D2

AFS — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:34:02 +0000

Tried the 45mm tilt/shift lens on the 5D2 yesterday for a few snapshots. It is surprisingly easy
to (manually) focus. I guess this is due to the good job they have done
with the viewfinder in this camera. However, I do look forward to
getting the Precision Focusing screen when it is available.

black dots, black dots everyewhere…

AFS — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:36:31 +0000

So, the internet seems to have exploded with “black dot syndrome” complaints about the Canon 5D Mark II.

A few can be seen here, here, and here.

As it happens I came across a 1Ds3 image from Paris last year – and wouldn’t you know, there are some artifacts similar to this “BDS.” And if you zoom in close enough, and tweak the levels enough, they will become more clear. This image is at a mere 100% view so you can not see them that clearly

1Ds3 lights, ACR conversion

Fact is, these 1Ds3 cameras have taken millions of images which have been published untold thousands of times, used for international advertising campaings, etc. And as far as I know, no one has complained about “black dots, lines, etc.” Why? I think it’s because pixel peeping at these levels (200%, 400%,) is not useful and has no purpose out here in the real world. After all, when looking even at a 100 percent view, you are effectively looking at what would be a 6.5 foot print (as rendered on your 72ppi screen) from 12 inches away and then complaining about the image quality. Have you ever looked at a print that large from that close? How’d it look?

Anyway, while Canon may try to fix this “problem,” I do not think any new technical flaw has been uncovered here. I think we are just witnessing a slew of new eyeballs using Photoshop to view images which are zoomed way in, exposures jacked up, over-sharpened, etc. to reveal digital characteristics which for the most part are not really relevant in the real world.

I encourage everyone to zoom their images back out to a proper viewing size, and get back to work. Your time is probably better spend working on improving your lighting skills :-O

Canon 5D Mark II notes

AFS — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:49:14 +0000

I just got the Canon 5D Mark II, along with the 24-105 kit lens. Of course the look and feel of this camera is 99% the same as the Mark I.

However, the LCD is just silly good. Very bright, sharp, sharp. It really helps to see what is in focus at a glance.

Viewfinder: The 5D Mark II’s viewfinder is definitely larger and brighter, and more neutral. The mark I looks yellow/greenish in comparison.

AF is superb so far. Even with the 85mm 1.2 wide open, every image is sharp – indoors, outdoors, and with moving subjects. This is a stunt which even my 1Ds3 has a hard time pulling off. And the AF is working very accurately in the near dark.

The outer AF points are working very well at 1.2 too.

Upon plugging the camera in to the computer, the Direct Transfer window pops up on the LCD, and you can chose New Images and they start transferring to the computer. This is very slick, but it transferred a bunch of images which were already transferred yesterday as well as the new ones. Maybe I’ll have to resort to actually reading the manual

AWB: the auto-white balance seems great too. I have shot in several weird colors of florescent and the shots look very nice. It’s hard to believe.

Overall sharpness of the files as seen in DPP is great, as expected. The camera tethered to DPP 3.5.1.0 with no problems.

Sound: About the same as the original 5D. It’s not louder or quieter, just different, IMO.

Worthy upgrade from Mark I? We’ll see…

————————

Here are 3 snaps shots – RAW. They are available for 7 days only.

*Please do not repost links to these RAW files anywhere else on the web.*

Feel free to post converted jpegs though.

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/630551722/f91e327524c717e3914e04efec79ed80

There will be more RAW files posted this afternoon.

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This is a sample image showing the Highlight Tone Priority feature…

5D2 with Highlight Tone Priority off and on.

It has been said that HTP causes noise problems, but I find this issue to be very minor. This is the shadow ares of the same file, with no N.R applied:

5D2 HTP shadows, no NR applied

=====================

A couple samples, ISO 200, HTP enabled:

a few more images: first one daylight, the last two strobe

color test 1

color test 2

5D2, daylight portrait

AF worked very well for grab shots of birds

85mm 1.2 at 2.0

River in moonlight, 3200 ISO, 35mm lens.

Canon 5D Mark II: new day for still photographers?

AFS — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:37:04 +0000

Well I guess by now that everyone in the world has heard about the Canon 5D Mark II and it’s remarkable video capabilities. This will probably be the millionth link to Vincent Laforet’s video shot with the 5D Mark II.

The super sexy Ellen von Unwerth shoot with Christina Aguilera:

Here’s one called Wendybird with Kirsten Dunst:

A few of Greg Kadel’s films:
isabel
catherine

eugenia

veronica

I can’t help but imagine that many, many still photographers will be using this camera to do things which they only dreamed of before. If for no other reasons than it got very high image quality, and it looks and acts like a still camera. Sure, the web will soon be flooded with many bad 5D2 videos, but I am sure there will be many great ones too!