Nikon Zf
Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.8 S
35mm, 1/2500 Sec at f/1.8, ISO100
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic V15.1
Photo of the Month – December
Merry Christmas everyone
Filters
In the film days, filters were often used, an 81a or 81b to warm up an image a little. Graduated filters to bring down the exposure of the sky. Polarisers that cut glare and reflections, enhancing the colour.
Now with digital we can warm or cool an image with a few clicks. With the better dynamic range of todays sensors we can use graduated filters in software.
There are times that filters can still be useful. In this image I used a polariser to enhance the colour and a neutral density filter to slow down the shutter speed to a few seconds. This blurred the sea and made many of the people on the pier disappear.
If you photograph moving water, try using a neutral density filter shoot from half a second to about a minute and look at the results to find the shutter speed you prefer.
Photo of the Month – November
Nikon Z7
Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2 S
50mm, 1/200 Sec at f/1.2, ISO64
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic V15.0.1
3rd Party Lens – Voigtlander
Many people by a camera and then stick to that manufactures lens, and with good reason. They do tend to be slightly better. Often for cost saving reasons people will go for 3rd party lens.
As many who use MicroFourThirds cameras have discovered, having a mirrorless system opens up options to many different lens, both new and old.
Voigtlander are now making quite a name for themselves with a range of older classic designs and newer manual focus lens. Some APO designs are cutting edge, others give an older shall we say flawed but more pleasing image rendering. Some even combine to give a more old fashioned image when wide open but then a couple of stops closed down give a sharp modern image.
Being a Leica users, adding one to my kit is tempting, and with a M to Z adapter the lens can do dual duty on multiple Nikon Z bodies.
But buying native Z mount version does give me electronic lens coupling, focus confirmation and aperture meta data in my images.
Ink Cartridges – larger are cheaper
I like my prints; to truly appreciate a photography it needs to be printed and sometimes quite big. I have a Epson large wide carriage, the 3880.
Most consumer printers have small ink cartridges and the cost of ink is high. The bigger printers have larger ink cartridges and work out a lot cheaper.
Still today I was doing some test prints and my printer ran out of five ink cartridges all at once. Its been an expensive day.
f/8 and be there
“f/8 and be there” is an expression popularly used by photographers to indicate the importance of taking the opportunity for a picture rather than being too concerned about using the best technique. Often attributed to the noir-style New York City photographer Weegee, it has come to represent a philosophy in which, on occasion, action is more important than reflection.” – Quote Wikipedia
The photos in the post are not good, just snaps while walking the dog early one morning in a nearby village.
Zone focusing is something that is a bit of hit and miss for me. So I set myself a challenge this Sunday morning. I set the camera to f/11 with the depth of field scale keeping everything in focus from about 5 meters to infinity.
So instead of focusing I just snapped away.
A circuit of the village capturing the light.
Definitely something I need to practice, a bit hit and miss, but worth having a few more attempts.
Photo of the Month – October
Nikon Zf
Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.8 S
35mm, 1/30 Sec at f/3.2, ISO400
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic V14.5.1
Nikon ZF Firmware 3.0
Seems all the Nikon Z series cameras with the new Exspeed 7 get an update at least once a year, and this week it was the turn of the ZF. Not only did we get the newly released silver model but new firmware too.
Great to see Nikon continue to rollout new features.
Ricoh GR – Black & White
Street photography is often still shot in black and white. For black and white enthusiasts the thought of a dedicated black and white sensor is genuinely exciting. For most of photographers this has to now been unaffordable. There’s been a medium format digital back from PhaseOne available and Leica have a range of cameras.
Ricoh have now announced development of a dedicated black and white Ricoh GR compact. This will please a lot of street shooters, and I may just have to have a look at the Ricoh GR again.