Niagara Falls – Nikon D800e
A must-see when in southern Ontario is, of course, Niagara Falls. We have our German friends, the Liekes visiting from Arusha, Tanzania, so a day at the Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the vintners in the area is a must. Here are three from the day (all hand-held along with the many family snaps from the day)…
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- AF Nikkor 28mm ƒ2.8D; ISO 100; ƒ16 @ 1/125 w/ Polarising filter; processed w/ Lightroom 4.1
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- AF Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.8D; ISO 100; ƒ161 @ 1/500; processed w/ Lightroom 4.1
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- AF Nikkor 28mm ƒ2.8D; ISO 100; ƒ16 @ 1/200; processed w/ Lightroom 4.1
An excellent comparison of the D800e and a truly spectacular medium format DSLR – the Leica S2. Great reading whether you’re considering a D800 or not.
Recently Published on LensWork Online
I subscribe to an online community called LensWork Online. Brooks Jensen and his crew in Washington state publish the beautiful journal of black-and-white photography called LensWork. It is the quintessential journal of some of the highest quality black-and-white photography out there presented in stunning duotones.They also do a fair amount of online publishing including their LensWork Daily Blog and a variety of educational materials for serious photographers. As part of their excellent (and highly recommended) subscription service, is a Reader Spotlight, the latest of which carries six of my images from last summer. They are “motion landscapes” which are a real visual departure for me. But you can read more about that by following this link to a copy of the (4.8mb) PDF LensWork has graciously allowed me to share with you: Reader Spotlight
Enjoy!
Waxing Crescent Moon
Last night was a clear night so I thought I would put the D800e to the test by photographing the waxing crescent moon. I should have been out a 1/2 hour earlier to keep some of the dusk sky colour, but such is family life.
Settings: Nikkor 300mm ƒ4 AF-S IF-ED; ƒ5.6 @ 1/60; ISO200; no filter; on a sturdy tripod & head & MLU; NEF 14-bit raw capture. Each image is cropped to 100% (1 pixel on the jpeg = 1 pixel on the sensor). I tried a few different exposures to get just the right balance of shutter speed without losing highlights. You see, since Earth is spinning, a fast enough shutter speed is needed to stop any motion. when I opened the photos in Lightroom, I noticed that ƒ5.6 is slightly sharper and has no chromatic aberration compared to ƒ4.
For comparison sake, I have included what I have called “Normal” processing to enhance this specific image to my liking as well as the original Unmanipulated raw file. Frankly, I am amazed at the detail and sharpness of even the unmanipulated raw file at 100%. Also, there appears to be some significant Highlight “headroom” compared to Nikon’s blinking highlights as the right edge of the moon was blinking on the LCD preview. I’m aware of the inaccuracies of the Preview image on the LCD, but was surprised by how much is actually there “behind” the blinking highlights. When imported into LR, there were no clipped highlights – a function of LR’s reading of the image file.
Here are the photographs. to see them at full resolution, try right-clicking on a photo and selecting “Open in new Tab”.
– Enjoy!
Processed in LR
Unmanipulated direct from raw file
Golden Summer Morning
I left early for work Thursday morning to capture this landscape. I was probably 1/2 hour later than I should have been, but here is what moved me.
Nikon D800e w/ Nikkor 20mm AF-D lens; ƒ/22 @ 1/30; ISO100; Lightroom 4.1 post-capture processing
luxBorealis Blog 