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Author Topic: Midnight Guitarist  (Read 8312 times)

RSL

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Midnight Guitarist
« on: March 28, 2011, 07:50:41 am »

Here's the kind of thing you can do at night in St. Augustine with an f/1.4 lens on a D3.
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Dick Roadnight

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2011, 07:57:32 am »

Here's the kind of thing you can do at night in St. Augustine with an f/1.4 lens on a D3.
It would be nice to have an f1.4 on a 35mm view camera, and use tilt to get the other figure in focus!
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John R Smith

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2011, 08:19:31 am »

Hey, what a nice shot, Russ!

Classic stuff - and of course the other figure should be OOF (honestly Dick, this is not Lake District landscape, you know  ;)) Great light . . .

John
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Dick Roadnight

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2011, 09:29:25 am »

Hey, what a nice shot, Russ!

Classic stuff - and of course the other figure should be OOF (honestly Dick, this is not Lake District landscape, you know  ;)) Great light . . .

John
The picture could have been composed or visualized so that one figure led the eye to the other, so that they were both important subject matter, and would both benefit from being in focus.
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pegelli

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2011, 10:13:58 am »

Here's the kind of thing you can do at night in St. Augustine with an f/1.4 lens on a D3.

A keen eye to "see"~this is way more important than the equipment. Lovely shot!
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fredjeang

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2011, 10:15:36 am »

This picture needs a good crop!

(The little peice of the bag on the bottom is disturbing).

« Last Edit: March 28, 2011, 10:30:10 am by fredjeang »
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John R Smith

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2011, 10:39:31 am »

This picture needs a good crop!

(The little peice of the bag on the bottom is disturbing).

Fred

I assume you are familiar with the English phrase which ends ". . . where angels fear to tread", perhaps?

John
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RSL

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2011, 11:05:17 am »

(The little peice of the bag on the bottom is disturbing).

Fred, Instead of a good crop I thought about a good clone. I may yet do that for the final product.

Dick, I'd really like to see some of your view camera street work, along with an explanation of how you do that. I find it's difficult even with an SLR. It was easier in film days with my Leicas.

John, Thanks for pointing out that the background needs to be OOF. I almost wish it were more OOF than it is. But I was shooting with my 50 prime, so I had to take what I could get.
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Dick Roadnight

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2011, 03:51:56 pm »

Dick, I'd really like to see some of your view camera street work, along with an explanation of how you do that. I find it's difficult even with an SLR. It was easier in film days with my Leicas.
"Street" photography generally requires a candid approach that might be difficult or impossible with a view camera... I hope to be doing some view camera street photography soon - but I am thinking of architectural street, not people street!

I am thinking of getting a GF2/GH2 f1.7 (mirror-less pseudo-DSLR) partly for low-light work.
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RSL

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2011, 07:28:35 pm »

Dick, According to the generally accepted meaning of the term, a picture of a street is not "street photography," nor is a picture of a building or buildings along a street.

Have fun with your new camera. I'm still enjoying my hybrid E-P1 with its 25mm (50mm equivalent) f/2.8 lens and 50mm Leica brightline finder, but it's not much use in the dark. Not too much noise up to ISO 1600, depending on shutter speed, but that's its noise limit. It's quite a good street camera in the daylight. The GF2 ought to give you at least as good results and the faster lens ought to help.
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feppe

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2011, 07:46:32 pm »

Gorgeous shot, even the hotspot behind the guitarist serves in bringing attention to his dark face.

My only criticism is that I'm not a fan at all of the bokeh whatever the lens you're using produces - there's some ugly fringing or ghosting or whatever it's called along the lines of the pavement, for example.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2011, 07:48:04 pm by feppe »
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seamus finn

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2011, 08:22:56 am »



I think the out of focus figure is critical to this splendid shot. In any event, given the low light, it would have been difficult to have the other figure in focus without steadying the camera on something solid and dialling in extra  DOF. This in turn would have sharpened the background too much and taken the sense of mystery out of everything - assuming that all these considerations were optional in the split second it took to see the picture and take it. That's why Russ was using an f1.4 lens in the first place. On the street in that light, there's no time for messing around.  About the musician's bag, in a strange way it seems to anchor the image. 
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RSL

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2011, 03:04:30 pm »

Thanks, Seamus. I've been coming back to this picture for several days now and I think you're right. No clone. The bag strap stays.

Just for fun, here's a frontal view of the scene, including a detail that lets you get a look at the guy's expression. This one came first. The other after I'd walked on a bit.
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feppe

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #13 on: March 29, 2011, 03:14:24 pm »


I think the out of focus figure is critical to this splendid shot. In any event, given the low light, it would have been difficult to have the other figure in focus without steadying the camera on something solid and dialling in extra  DOF. This in turn would have sharpened the background too much and taken the sense of mystery out of everything - assuming that all these considerations were optional in the split second it took to see the picture and take it. That's why Russ was using an f1.4 lens in the first place. On the street in that light, there's no time for messing around.  About the musician's bag, in a strange way it seems to anchor the image.  

In case you're replying to my post, I'm not objecting to the out-of-focus areas (I like them and fully agree with you), but to the (poor) quality of bokeh the lens produces.

And agree with Russ as well: the strap is fine.

Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #14 on: March 29, 2011, 04:17:30 pm »

In case you're replying to my post, I'm not objecting to the out-of-focus areas (I like them and fully agree with you), but to the (poor) quality of bokeh the lens produces.

And agree with Russ as well: the strap is fine.

I like the shot, but was immediately pushed back by the awkward bokeh.
No idea if its the lens or what postprocessing did to the unsharp areas ...

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #15 on: March 29, 2011, 04:32:05 pm »

I like the shot, but was immediately pushed back by the awkward bokeh.
No idea if its the lens or what postprocessing did to the unsharp areas ...

It also looks like what the Clarity slider pushed too far does sometimes to out-of-focus areas.

Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #16 on: March 29, 2011, 04:41:38 pm »

It also looks like what the Clarity slider pushed too far does sometimes to out-of-focus areas.
That was my guess also - now lets see what Russ has to say ...

RSL

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #17 on: March 29, 2011, 04:53:57 pm »

You guys may have a point. Here it is with clarity zeroed. The lens was a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G, which doesn't give outstanding bokeh, but usually comes through okay.

Frankly I don't see any difference. I don't really see a big problem with the bokeh. It's night. Bokeh looks different at night, and lines always are a problem with bokeh.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2011, 04:57:13 pm by RSL »
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Rob C

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #18 on: March 29, 2011, 05:09:29 pm »

Makes me grateful for my own life...

Washed one car today, the other needs my attention tomorrow; you can get quite a guilt complex if you let it hit you. And then you start to ask the questions behind the sets of status quo and you don't feel so bad again, at least not in that specific zone of interest.

Well, Russ, eff the questions about technique: the message is what it's really all about, and you told it. Don't nobody shoot the messenger.

Rob C

Christoph C. Feldhaim

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Re: Midnight Guitarist
« Reply #19 on: March 29, 2011, 07:16:50 pm »

Yes - seems its the lines which irritated me - good to point that problem out - still a good shot.
And I -again- learned something for free ...
Cheers
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