Some first photos from the 7D.

Leilameat · Sep 18, 2010

Bear with me; I only shot using manual, and it was my first go with the camera. They probably suck. :lol:

The people photography is from a fashion event. A ton of people thought I was the press, or one of the professional photographers. Unfortunately I would have probably disappointed then.

There was free cocktails (and champagne at the designer stores)!

The snake is a Dahl's Whip Snake I recently rescued (a couple cats were in the process of killing it).

There were models everywhere! I didn't get a good shot though.

It was through glass:

Taylor510ce · Sep 18, 2010

Most of the people photos have a colorcast to them. The 7th definately needed some fill flash. Some of them seem a little soft. Are you using a kit lens?

My only advice would be
1) number your pics, especially if you are going to post a boatload.
2) do some post processing ( hopefully you are shooting in RAW ) The very slight softness in some, and then the colorcasts/contrast is an easy fix. ( other than #7 )

Did you like that people thought you were the press? I hate everytime I take out my 7D and my 70-200L, cause everyone acts that way. I don't like the attention, I like being under the radar. It would be nice at a high profile gig though because you could probably be taken more serious. So I guess it can go both ways.

Leilameat · Sep 18, 2010

I am using the 28-135 kit lens.
I will number them next time, sorry.

I actually did edit them except for the snake. :blushing: I think I wasn't shooting in RAW I will next time. And edit better. I was unhappy with the people photography, too, and yes, the softness bugged me. I think I will do better next time.

I did! It took me a while to realise that the women who were watching me and smiling prettily thought I would take their picture!
But it felt pretty cool. I do understand wanting to be "under the radar". I get nervous in front of people. Next time I go people shooting, I will probably go alone, as well. My posse kept making me leave places I saw opportunity.
But being taken more seriously is a lot better in my opinion! Not to mention the 7D is just plain cool. :er:

Oh, and you have the lens I want.

jcicolani · Sep 18, 2010

The shot with the snake and the one with the glasses are nicely done. they are nice and sharp in the selected narrow depth of field.

Hopefully you're shooting RAW which will make editing them and adding a little extra punch easy. I use Bibble 5 as my RAW converter and image processor. It gives me the control I need to put out top images... even without L glass. Image 7 there could be rescued with some fill, contrast, and sharpness adjustments.

Couple of things, your focus is a little off on just about all of your people images. It's crucial to make sure the eyes are visible and sharp. Everything else can go soft, but if the eyes are sharp, the image works. Also, all of the people images are a little flat. Popping up the contrast would help. Another thing, if you're a little more familiar with digital image processing, is setting your white and black points, even if it leads to some clipping in the histogram. It would make the shadows and highlights pop a little more and give you cleaner looking images.

cyngus · Sep 18, 2010

they are all very nice photos.. i love the 2nd.. the 1st i would crop in onto the snake and get rid of your hand.. no need to show where the snake is coming from or how its being displayed.. leave that part the mystery

as for the others.. they all have great potential to be great photojournalist style shots.. perhaps more light.. a diffused speedlight perhaps.. something a little off camera would be good.. (speedlight on a cord.. hand held just above the subjects head .. 30-45degree angle.. )

and yes they do have a orange / reddish hue to them.. easy fix in post..

keep shooting raw.. never switch over to the jpeg dark side!!

Taylor510ce · Sep 18, 2010

Leilameat said:
I am using the 28-135 kit lens.
I will number them next time, sorry.
I actually did edit them except for the snake. :blushing: I think I wasn't shooting in RAW– I will next time. And edit better. I was unhappy with the people photography, too, and yes, the softness bugged me. I think I will do better next time.

I did! It took me a while to realise that the women who were watching me and smiling prettily thought I would take their picture!
But it felt pretty cool. I do understand wanting to be "under the radar". I get nervous in front of people. Next time I go people shooting, I will probably go alone, as well. My posse kept making me leave places I saw opportunity.
But being taken more seriously is a lot better in my opinion! Not to mention the 7D is just plain cool. :er:

Oh, and you have the lens I want.

Well like I said, its nothing that a little editing wouldn't fix easily, depending what you are using. In photoshop I would use levels or curves to adjust color contrast and remove the colorcast and then add some mild sharpening where needed ( probably just sharpen the eyes in the people photos ). Or just apply some high pass sharpening to the entire pic. No big deal. Overall, I think you got some good shots.

The one thing I hate about the attention is that everyone assumes you want them to pose and act a certain way. I prefer candid shots ( as I am sure most of us do ) unless you are doing portraits and stuff. So like you said, everyone either wants you to take their picture so they pose, or get all uptight because you have a camera.

Kofman13 · Sep 18, 2010

they are cool, just all seem to be off a little with whitebalance, and they are all a bit noisy. were u shooting everything at higher than 320 iso?

Leilameat · Sep 18, 2010

Thank you for the advice, guys! After shooting these, I found out how to change the focus point, as well as use the flash on manual (d'oh! I had it disabled).
I couldn't use any additional lighting, because of the location, but I wish I could have.
I wish I would have an opportunity to take these types of shots again.

I love strangers, and white backgrounds. Oh well.
I was shooting at higher than 320 iso. In fact, everything under 1000 was ridiculously dark. I was shooting under mall lights with no flash. Do you know why it had to be so high to work? It didn't seem right.

Taylor– I know exactly what you mean! I hate when I see a great shot, and am about to click, then they suddenly look at me and start smiling.
That's why telephoto lenses rock so much.

They don't know you're lurking. Heehee.

Taylor510ce · Sep 18, 2010

It had to be high because of 2 reasons .Your shutter speed wasn't slow enough or your aperture wasn't wide enough. With your lens you may not have been able to go wider. You have an image stabilized lens so you should have been able to get a decent shutter speed. Take your ISO out of AUTO mode and leave it at 100. If you can't get enough light with shutter speed and aperture, bump it up a bit and try again. You always want to keep the ISO as low as possible to reduce noise.

Leilameat · Sep 18, 2010

As low as 100??? Even in sunlight it takes like, 200. I will try that though. It's just then no mid-action shots can be caught.
What is the aperture again?