Rainblo II

DanOstergren · Apr 17, 2017

Ha, I bet you thought it was going to be a girl! :allteeth:

My friend Rainblo and I went to Coyote Wall in Oregon this weekend to enjoy the nice weather. I had my camera and since the wildflowers were just blooming and the weather was nice, I felt there was no better time to have him tear his shirt off and get all sultry in the flowers. Looking back I wish I would have had him do something else with his right hand so I could avoid cutting the hand off with the edge of the frame, but it's a detail I overlooked since we were running out of daylight and the temperature was dropping fast. Fortunately it doesn't completely kill the shot for me.
All natural lighting, no reflector. I took a more experimental direction with my color editing in this shot, so it has a different feel from most of my other work in my opinion.
I shot at such a wide aperture I'm shocked I was able to get crip focus on his face. EOS 5D Classic (MKI), EF 85mm f/1.8 set to f/1.8, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400.

jcdeboever · Apr 17, 2017

it's good. i wouldn't have noticed the lobbed off hand if you didnt mention it. so much ink.

andrewdoeshair · Apr 17, 2017

Nice... Hey I started to write this question on another thread of yours but I don't recall if I actually posted it- can I ask your opinion of the 5D classic? I have a mark iii and I know a few guys who own them as well, but they seem to prefer the original 5D... Sup with that? One guy said that they make skin look better, and another guy told me that the blacks come out more more squashed and dull (in a good looking way). Makes me want a 5D. Should I want a 5D?

DanOstergren · Apr 17, 2017

andrewdoeshair said:
Nice... Hey I started to write this question on another thread of yours but I don't recall if I actually posted it- can I ask your opinion of the 5D classic? I have a mark iii and I know a few guys who own them as well, but they seem to prefer the original 5D... Sup with that? One guy said that they make skin look better, and another guy told me that the blacks come out more more squashed and dull (in a good looking way). Makes me want a 5D. Should I want a 5D?

Here are my thoughts about shooting with a 5D MKI for the last 5 years. I like it for a few reasons, but will eventually buy something with more modern technology when I can afford it.

1) It's cheap and it's full frame.
2) For being such an affordable camera, it produces amazing results with a talented photographer behind the wheel. Any camera has that capability though. Every day I shoot with this camera I still make great improvements and I am always shocked by the capabilities of this camera, but feel that I would be having the same growth and experiences with any other camera with the same controls, even a Rebel.
3) It's 12 megapixels. I see this as both a good thing and bad thing. The good is that file size is small compared to newer cameras; it takes a long time for my hard drives to fill up even when I'm working with TIFF files with lots of adjustment layers, smart objects and dodge/durn layers saved to them. The downside to this is having some limitations to print resolution, however I believe a photo from this camera can be stretched quite a bit before you have noticeable quality degradation.
4) It often renders color tones that are nice and need very little changes, however this has to do with the white balance settings and can be achieved on any other DSLR. Still, it's good to point out that an older camera can still keep up with the newer ones.

What I don't like:
1) No ultrasonic dust remover for the sensor. You're going to have to get the sensor cleaned sometimes if dust becomes noticeable. My best advice is to be quick about changing lenses, make sure the camera is turned off when changing lenses (there's static on the sensor when it's turned on that will attract dust), and always have a lens or cap on it.
2) There is no way to know the shutter actuation count unless you were the original owner and you kept track of every time you get to the 9,999 file number and then the count restarts. Buying a used version of this camera can be a gamble. Keep an eye out for ones that were used as backup cameras, as they are more likely to have had less use. The expected shutter lifespan of a 5D MKI is 100k actuations. I bought mine used, and have gone through at least 50k actuations since 2013. So far there are no signs of the shutter degrading.
3) It has a small LCD compared to newer cameras, but you can still work with it.

As far as Canon full frame cameras go, I've never worked with a 5D MKIII so I can't make any comparisons. I've shot with a 5D MKII and a 6D though. Of the 3, I like the way the 5D MKII renders photos better than the 6D or the 5D MKI. As far as skin tones and black tone rendering, I see them as mute because I change these details in post almost 100% of the time. If you're doing portraits, I don't think you would regret getting a well cared for used 5D or 5DMKII if you can afford the extra few hundred $$$. The 5D MKI is great though if you're looking to only spend a few hundred.

DanOstergren · Apr 17, 2017

jcdeboever said:
it's good. i wouldn't have noticed the lobbed off hand if you didnt mention it. so much ink.

I wouldn't have said anything, but honestly I'd rather clock my own mistake than have someone else point it out.

rexbobcat · Apr 17, 2017

andrewdoeshair said:
Nice... Hey I started to write this question on another thread of yours but I don't recall if I actually posted it- can I ask your opinion of the 5D classic? I have a mark iii and I know a few guys who own them as well, but they seem to prefer the original 5D... Sup with that? One guy said that they make skin look better, and another guy told me that the blacks come out more more squashed and dull (in a good looking way). Makes me want a 5D. Should I want a 5D?

The 5D Classic definitely has a very specific look. Basically all of Canon's early DSLRs do. I'm not sure if it's just because they're 12-bit and as a result it doesn't pick up every unflattering change in tone, or becuase of the analog>digital conversion, but the files tend to be much easier to process when it comes to portraits. It was the same way with my 1D Mark II, a 2004 DSLR which used a 12 bit APS-H sensor. Its files had a very distinctive look that was tonally closer to slide film than modern digital cameras.

Basically, the files from older Canon DSLRs look less "plasticky" than newer cameras.

DGMPhotography · Apr 18, 2017

Masterful use of natural lighting.

mmaria · Apr 18, 2017

DanOstergren said:
Ha, I bet you thought it was going to be a girl!

never

mmaria · Apr 18, 2017

DanOstergren said:
andrewdoeshair said:

Nice... Hey I started to write this question on another thread of yours but I don't recall if I actually posted it- can I ask your opinion of the 5D classic? I have a mark iii and I know a few guys who own them as well, but they seem to prefer the original 5D... Sup with that? One guy said that they make skin look better, and another guy told me that the blacks come out more more squashed and dull (in a good looking way). Makes me want a 5D. Should I want a 5D?

Click to expand...

For being such an affordable camera, it produces amazing results with a talented photographer behind the wheel. Any camera has that capability though. Every day I shoot with this camera I still make great improvements and I am always shocked by the capabilities of this camera, but feel that I would be having the same growth and experiences with any other camera with the same controls, even a Rebel.

Not that you asked me @andrewdoeshair but I totally agree with Dan on his opinion for tools we use in photography, look at the bolded quoted part.

I shoot 6D and I'll be happy if I shoot it for the rest of my life. It's enough. There are certainly better cameras and it will be better cameras for sure, but what's the point in getting better camera if the photographer behind it is static and not working on their knowledge?

5dIII is more than enough for you, for anyone.

It's the person behind the camera who should be better at taking photos, not the camera

Granddad · Apr 18, 2017

Great image, incredible DoF for F1.8. How far away were you? My DoF calculator suggests about 8 to 10 yards at those settings.

It doesn't matter that he's male (I figured there was a high chance it was male, as it's a Dan Ostergren

), even straight guys can sometimes see beauty in the male form; especially when the subject has spent a fortune on acquiring a wearable artistic masterpiece.

DanOstergren · Apr 18, 2017

mmaria said:
DanOstergren said:

andrewdoeshair said:

Nice... Hey I started to write this question on another thread of yours but I don't recall if I actually posted it- can I ask your opinion of the 5D classic? I have a mark iii and I know a few guys who own them as well, but they seem to prefer the original 5D... Sup with that? One guy said that they make skin look better, and another guy told me that the blacks come out more more squashed and dull (in a good looking way). Makes me want a 5D. Should I want a 5D?

Click to expand...

For being such an affordable camera, it produces amazing results with a talented photographer behind the wheel. Any camera has that capability though. Every day I shoot with this camera I still make great improvements and I am always shocked by the capabilities of this camera, but feel that I would be having the same growth and experiences with any other camera with the same controls, even a Rebel.

Click to expand...

Not that you asked me @andrewdoeshair but I totally agree with Dan on his opinion for tools we use in photography, look at the bolded quoted part.

I shoot 6D and I'll be happy if I shoot it for the rest of my life. It's enough. There are certainly better cameras and it will be better cameras for sure, but what's the point in getting better camera if the photographer behind it is static and not working on their knowledge?

5dIII is more than enough for you, for anyone.

It's the person behind the camera who should be better at taking photos, not the camera

That isn't to say that sometimes certain jobs call for more capable equipment. I don't like to hand over 12 megapixel files to my high end clients, at which point I have rental fees included in my rate. If you know something is going to be blown up quite a bit, it may be better to use a camera for that job that will produce higher resolution images.

DanOstergren · Apr 18, 2017

Granddad said:
Great image, incredible DoF for F1.8. How far away were you? My DoF calculator suggests about 8 to 10 yards at those settings.

It doesn't matter that he's male (I figured there was a high chance it was male, as it's a Dan Ostergren ), even straight guys can sometimes see beauty in the male form; especially when the subject has spent a fortune on acquiring a wearable artistic masterpiece.

I don't remember how far away I was. Honestly I barely even took the time to check my camera setting before taking the shot; we were hiking the trail and I saw the flower patch and suggested we try getting a shot. I put him into position, pulled my camera out and adjusted my shutter speed without checking ISO and aperture (I almost never shoot at f/1.8 so I didn't expect it to be set to it). Fortunately it worked out. I wasn't really in shooting mode either as I wasn't necessarily planning to take portraits that day because I was feeling lazy but took my camera anyways.

Haha, I guess I should switch it up and start photographing more females if I'm becoming predictable like that!