Bruntingthorpe 26/8/2012

Today was the second of my bi-annual trip to Bruntingthorpe, and this time around I have a whole slew of new kit to use. The D3, as expected, was amazing to use!

 Fresh out of the camera (no processing/editing):

1/2500 f2.8

Not for the faint of heart!

Tomorrow is Bruntingthorpe day, and so it's through the rigmarole of charging, formatting, checking and packing for the days events.

And here is the outcome; a combination that weighs in at over 10kg! This includes my tripod, Sigma 120-300 f2.8, and in the big bag the D3 with Nikon 70-200 f2.8, D300, Sigma 12-24, Sigma 28-70 f2.8 Nikon 50 f1.8, Nikon 85 f1.8, YN-565II, Panasonic G1, monopod and all the accessories.

New addition

Today I've received the latest addition to my arsenal, a D3!

And better yet, it's had the buffer upgrade too!

On Sunday I'll be taking my bi-annual trip to Bruntingthorpe where this will be put through it's paces; paired with the Nikon 70 200 2.8 and the D300 with the 120 300 2.8 this should be a formidable setup for any airshow!

New lens!

Well I've been wanting one for years now and I've finally done it... I've gone and bought a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR!

That officially brings me 1 step closer to my dream team and replaces the Nikon 80-200 f2.8 that was stolen in March; if that lens is anything to go by not only will this be an absolutely cracking piece of kit, but probably my most used lens too.

I also purchased a new Tamrac Pro 12 bag for big jobs, a great bag that should hold everything and the kitchen sink!

Wedding Workflow

Having raised my actuation count by almost 500 from just a wedding ceremony alone, it requires a lot of time and effort to go through and process; like everything though if you have some sort of workflow the pace picks up and the work is considerably more consistent.

My initial attempt at processing the photos was to find photos I liked and process them individually, however whilst they looked fine alone none of them really fit in with each other; the white balance was completely different, the colours were punchy in some and muted in others and the overall mood of the photos were wildly varying.

Needless to say I soon realised I needed to process them all in the same manner...

So first things first, I needed to work out which were the photos to use, and which to bin. Shooting in burst (which in the digital day and age I completely condone) means you'll likely get 3 or 4 blurry photos, and 1 or 2 usably sharp photos, so I load up all the photos and remove the blurry ones, then I remove the inevitable awkward photos where someone has their eyes closed or isn't looking their best! Sooner or later you should end up with the best photo from each burst.

Next is to adjust the curves, these have to be done on a per-photo basis, however it's best to do all the photos one after another in order to keep things mostly consistent.

Next is the white balance; trying to keep skin tones and dress the same shade throughout all the photos is key here and again is likely to be a per-photo basis.

Next is the colour adjustments; do you want vivid colours or muted? Maybe you want to vary it a bit, I usually keep the colours relatively muted however let loose if the formals are taken with a very green background like in a park.

Finally the 'style' adjustments, these are the ones which I apply to all the photos and which define my 'style', these should be specific per photographer.

So with all that done the photos are pretty much ready for the bride and groom to view right? Well I do a little more work on all images, the finishing touches! If the images are overly noisey I'll drag them into Photoshop and run my Noiseware batch, and if they contain people I'll run them through Portraiture to smooth the skin out.

No doubt over time this will evolve as I'm sure there are better, faster and more accurate methods around but this is just how I'm working now.

Dream team

So I've spoken about my dream team kit a couple of times but the real question is what does that kit actually comprise? I think it's fair to say it's obvious that I'm looking at high end kit but Nikon seems to have made 4 lenses that just 'fit'.

So first off we'll talk lenses. The obvious lens is the 24-70mm f2.8 which covers the most common focal lengths on full frame and acts as a mid telephoto on crop models. The next lens is the 70-200mm f2.8 which picks up from the top end of the mid range lens, these two alone should be more than enough for most jobs. The next lens is the 14-24mm f2.8 which picks up from the lower end of the mid range lens (see I told you these lenses fit together), this is ideal not for landscapes but for photos where a dramatic, imposing photo is required... it also happens to be excellent for real estate (which is where this lens will be earning money). Next up is the 200-400mm f4 which will be the lens I buy if I make money in sports or birding, otherwise it's likely to remain just a dream!

So there are the 4 main lenses right there, there is also a 50mm f1.8 (or f1.4 if I get around to buying one) purely for when the lighting gets tough (ahem, weddings). The 105mm macro lens for product shots wraps up the lens section!

So what about bodies? 2 full frame bodies and 1 high speed crop body, right now that converts into a D800, a D3 and a D300, but will obviously change as new bodies come out.

Diane and Ryan

First off a huge congratulations to Diane and Ryan, I wish you both many years of happiness!

This is my first wedding since starting this blog and also the last I am booked for, so until iI start filling my kit bag I probably won't undertake any more of this type.

I have to admit I wasn't happy about the lack of backup body; I'm used to having two bodies, one with a mid range lens (28 70) and the second with a telephoto (70 200). Fortunately nothing went wrong with my kit and overall things went more smoothly than I expected.

Here is my favourite from the day!