D700 DR..... WOW!

[shaunly]

I've always knew the D700 had great dynamic range from all the reviews and sample images but never had an opportunity to test it out myself till now. Just recently got back from a trip to Zion, Utah. I was with a few of my fellow hikers and we were on a tight schedule which means, NO time to setup a tripod and NO time for HDR bracketing. So I did the next best thing, set my exposure to the sky, shoot in RAW (of course) and really push my DR to it's max. This is what I got.

Original

PP

and if you're wondering what it looks like at 100%

who needs HDR! :mrgreen:

 

[Amerino28]

Wow! The colors are beautiful! I was just doing some reading about the D700. I currently shoot with a D300s. Thinking about upgrading. What do you mean you pushed your DR to the limit? Dynamic range? How so? What lens were you using? What were you using before the D700? worth the investment? Thanks!

 

[Trever1t]

Wonderful! I have a D300s and I just purchased a D700

While the D300s gives me excellent results I don't think I can recover this much shadow detail in PP.

 

[shaunly]

Wow! The colors are beautiful! I was just doing some reading about the D700. I currently shoot with a D300s. Thinking about upgrading. What do you mean you pushed your DR to the limit? Dynamic range? How so? What lens were you using? What were you using before the D700? worth the investment? Thanks!

Thank you!

As for pushing the dynamic range to it's limit, in ACR I raised the exposure level as high as I could so that the clouds highlight were not blown out. At that point the mountains and bushes were still very underexposed, so I raised fill light to almost max to get as much detail as I could out of it. I could of raised the exposure out of the shadows even more if I wanted to but I felt that I didn't have to.

This was shot with my 20/2.8 ais. Here are a few more pictures using the same technique. All these were either with the 20/2.8 or the 24-70/2.8

My previous camera was a D90. I've been shooting with the D700 for over a year now and obsoletely love it! Worth every penny.

Here's the rest of the Zion set Zion, Utah - a set on Flickr

 

[Kerbouchard]

That last one of the night sky is absolutely incredible.

 

[Amerino28]

That last one of the night sky is absolutely incredible.

YES! I actually let out a big wow! lol That is beautiful, absolutely breathtaking!

 

[Trever1t]

Agree! Settings please?

 

[shaunly]

Thank you all. I didn't expect that kind of praise =)

24-70/2.8 @ 24mm, f/8, 3200ISO, 25sec, 14-bit RAW, PP in ACR .... I was the last one out in the group and everyone was waiting for my in the car lol

 

[Kerbouchard]

Thank you all. I didn't expect that kind of praise =)

24-70/2.8 @ 24mm, f/8, 3200ISO, 25sec, 14-bit RAW, PP in ACR .... I was the last one out in the group and everyone was waiting for my in the car lol

Well, to be honest, with the first two pics, you wouldn't have gotten it. I appreciate that you used some ingenuity and got the shot, even if it meant underexposing it and pulling it back in post, but the results aren't what you would have gotten if you had done it right.

For that night sky shot, well, you did it right and it shows. Nicely done. It was worth making everyone wait a few minutes. That is one that I would be hanging on the wall.

 

[Amerino28]

PP in ACR ....

What exactly is that? lol

 

[shaunly]

PP in ACR ....

What exactly is that? lol

PP = post processed
ACR = Adobe Camera Raw

=)

 

[kasperjd4]

Well, to be honest, with the first two pics, you wouldn't have gotten it. I appreciate that you used some ingenuity and got the shot, even if it meant underexposing it and pulling it back in post, but the results aren't what you would have gotten if you had done it right.

x2. Underexposing a photo & fixing it in ACR doesn't mean your camera has high dynamic range, check your histogram for the original photo.

 

[shaunly]

Well, to be honest, with the first two pics, you wouldn't have gotten it. I appreciate that you used some ingenuity and got the shot, even if it meant underexposing it and pulling it back in post, but the results aren't what you would have gotten if you had done it right.

x2. Underexposing a photo & fixing it in ACR doesn't mean your camera has high dynamic range, check your histogram for the original photo.

I actually did review the histogram on these shot and as noted, it was purposely underexposed. How would you have shot this? Any tips would help. Thanks

 

[shaunly]

Thank you all. I didn't expect that kind of praise =)

24-70/2.8 @ 24mm, f/8, 3200ISO, 25sec, 14-bit RAW, PP in ACR .... I was the last one out in the group and everyone was waiting for my in the car lol

Well, to be honest, with the first two pics, you wouldn't have gotten it. I appreciate that you used some ingenuity and got the shot, even if it meant underexposing it and pulling it back in post, but the results aren't what you would have gotten if you had done it right.

For that night sky shot, well, you did it right and it shows. Nicely done. It was worth making everyone wait a few minutes. That is one that I would be hanging on the wall.

I see what your saying, but that last shot was with the same technique except that it was on a tripod (25sec exposure). 3200ISO was still not enough to get details out of the deep shadows. I had to pull most of it out. So I'm actually not really sure what you mean by doing it right? What is right to be exact? Would you have known how these pictures were taken without me telling you?

Here is an interesting read, just thought I'd share. Expose Properly is Impossible on High Dynamic Range scene [Page 1]: Nikon D3 - D1 / D700 Forum: Digital Photography Review