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Author Topic: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting  (Read 14738 times)

John Nollendorfs

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D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« on: June 19, 2012, 10:39:51 pm »

Doing my first art coping with the D800 in the studio, with cross polarized strobe lighting. Phase contrast focusing  seemed to have some problems, probably due to the subject matter of some of the paintings I'm copying. Tried to use live view, but all I got was a black screen--obviously because exposure was set to manual for strobe lighting. Any suggestions for using Live View in this situation short of changing the shutterspeed to give an available light setting?

BTW, used a gray step card as a target for the first exposure to create a preset for ACR. Did a couple of back and forth adjustments in ACR and printing out in PS5. Was pleasantly pleased with my final preset, allowing me to match two out of three paintings by different artists with little to no additional tweaking in PS5 layers.

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Ellis Vener

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2012, 08:33:00 pm »

Have you tried temporarily switching to Aperture priority for the purpose of focusing either manually or with autofocus?
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John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2012, 11:37:02 am »

Thanks for the tip Ellis!
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AFairley

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2012, 01:18:32 pm »

Not familiar with the D800, but the Olympus live view cameras have a "live view boost" mode that essentially puts live view in an auto-level mode, so while you lose WYSIWYG, you can see a "normal" image regardless of exposure settings.  The D800 must have a similar feature.
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John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2012, 06:09:05 pm »

Just needed to shoot in the studio with the D5100, which I've had for over a year. I was able to use the LV there in manual mode and had no trouble seeing the image. The D800E requires you to switch shooting modes in order to see to focus. This does not make any sense! Have to report it to Nikon! Another bug for them to fix!

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Ellis Vener

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2012, 08:56:58 pm »

John are you sure there isn't a live view auto brightness option  somewhere in the D800E's menu?
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John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2012, 12:24:59 pm »

I've re-read those sections of the thick manual Ellis, and I sure can't find anything related to an auto-brightness control on live View, when in manual mode!
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Mike Guilbault

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2012, 08:22:04 pm »

I just tried my 'e' in manual and also had no problem with LV.  I'd get it checked.
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Mike Guilbault

lhodaniel

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2012, 03:18:11 pm »

John,

I haven't used cross-polarization since my film days. Is there a chance that it is blacking out the image? Have you tried rotating your lens polarizer or removing it to see if the problem persists? Just a thought...

Lloyd
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John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2012, 04:20:34 pm »

Thanks for the thought Lloyd, but this isn't shooting with polarizer. Try switching modes while in live view and see if you get changes in how bright the image appears on the LCD. If in M, you have settings that would underexpose without the flash, the image is dark and varies, depending on the settings. With my D5100, LV seems to stay nearly the same under all the setting modes. I'm trying to get confirmation that there is a problem with my copy of the camera, and not a problem with the firmware. Can someone with D800 confirm in LV, changing the mode, does not result in a dark image in M mode, if settings on camera would under expose under ambient lighting?

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AFairley

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2012, 05:06:43 pm »

Your situation does seem wierd -- judging from the "exposure preview" section on page 46 of the manual, the live-view display should default to auto-gain.  Do you see any change if you push the "OK" button?
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John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2012, 07:01:45 pm »

Pushing the "okay" doesn't do anything. Looks like the camera's got a problem!
thanks for the feed back!
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E_Edwards

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2012, 06:40:51 pm »

That's a known problem.

If you use a setting for flash (in Manual mode), say, 125th at F8, the Liveview will go dark (as exposure simulation is permanently active). The answer is to temporarily switch to Aperture priority and the Liveview image will then become visible. Then focus, compose and when you are ready, switch back to Manual mode to take your picture. The camera remembers your last flash settings.

What an inconvenience! Completely impractical.

Nikon should add the option to disable exposure simulation for situations like this.


I just read of another workaround: Flick your Liveview to Movie mode and press the LiveView button. Adjust the shutter speed (slower) until your image on the LCD appears nice and clear. Once you've finished focussing/composing, switch off the Liveview and shoot. The camera will shoot at the manual settings that you had for flash photography....I prefer this workaround.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2012, 06:53:41 pm by E_Edwards »
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JeffKohn

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2012, 10:13:02 pm »

The Live-View implementation on the D800 is incredibly brain-dead, and I really don't know what Nikon was thinking.  The permanent exposure simulation isn't just a PITA for working with strobes in the studio; it's also incredibly annoying if you open up the aperture for manual focusing in the field.

None of their past DSLR's had these problems (though I understand some of them carry over to the D4 as well). While the dedicated LV button is nice, pretty much every other aspect of LV is inferior to past DSLR. And I'm not just talking the expensive models like the D3x; my old D300 had a better LV implementation than the D800 does. It seems they got lazy and are using the video portion of the firmware, that's the only thing I can think of for why they're doing stupid stuff like line-skipping interpolation for the 100% view. IMHO it's inexcusable for a $3K camera. As nice as the D800 sensor is, I really miss my D3x when using the D800.
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Jeff Kohn
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CDTobie

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #14 on: August 27, 2012, 04:35:53 pm »

Hi John,

Have you tried calibrating with the SpyderCheckr for your art repro work? I just did an article comparing calibrated and uncalibrated color on the Nikon D800 to the Canon 5D Mark lll, which might interest you:

http://cdtobie.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/color-comparison-canon-5d-mark-lll-and-nikon-d800/
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John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #15 on: August 27, 2012, 10:37:49 pm »

David:
I was on the beta team, but wasn't that happy with it being tied closely to Lightroom. I use Bridge  and PS for my workflow.

Also, the side by side results of art work, seemed to be better with my trial & error adjusted presets, than what I got with the color calibrator. Maybe the finished version is better? Of course These results were with the Kodak 14nx. Might have to revisit with the D800? Copying art for reproduction is quite touchy. While I would love to be able to make adjustments with RAW files only in  LR, I find that I still need the finer control of using PS Levels & Hue Saturation Layers, and of course some localized correction. Each painting's pigments seem to copy differently, necessitating the PS layer's tweaking.

BTW, just used Control my Nikon with the D800E today. Worked quite well. A few little glitches in the Beta software, but it got me through my location copy shooting today. Incredible program value! Anyone shooting tethered should check it out!

http://www.controlmynikon.com/


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CDTobie

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #16 on: August 27, 2012, 11:00:21 pm »

Yes, definately try the latest SpyderChecker software with the D800. Works fine with ACR/Lightroom, especially ACR 7.2 and ACR 7.2. I agree that some Photoshop nudging for the particular pigments may be inevitable.
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JohnBrew

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #17 on: August 28, 2012, 07:42:20 am »

Lloyd Chambers found a better way to set up Live View for the D800. He uses Picture Control set at maximum sharpening and then somehow plugs that into Live View. I don't have any experience with this myself as there don't seem any D800's (still!) in stock anywhere.
Good luck.

John Nollendorfs

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Re: D800R-Live View focusing in Studio with Strobe lighting
« Reply #18 on: August 28, 2012, 04:32:09 pm »

So, John, Where exactly did you see this info on D800 Live view by Lloyd Chambers? I see no mention of him in DP Forums, and only his book shows up on a Google search.



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Ellis Vener

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