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Nikon D2H, WT-1A and the Detroit Auto Show

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carguy84

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So I decided to step it up a notch this year at the Detroit Auto Show and do a section for the site I work with that is Live From The Floor. The Cobo Center where the show is has WiFi all over it, so hooking into it wasn't too big of a deal. However, you have to know the WiFi SSID before you can think about connecting, so you will need to know it or have a laptop or a PDA or something to detect it. I had my iPAQ and connected with no problem.

From there, it was just a matter of walking around the show, shooting and uploading photos on the fly. I didn't upload everyone, just a couple dozen each day(one more day left). Here is the page you can go to tomorrow if you want to see it in action:

http://www.autospies.com/live/

Yes that's me enjoying a free beer(or 3 ;))

95% of the photos I took were at 800 ISO because I hate using a flash for auto photography.









Questions, comments, requests, let me know and I'll try to answer, reply and oblige.

Chip-

--
I shoot anything that moves.
 
Chip,
The WIFI is totally cool! Great shots by the way!

Being an ol' f@rt, nostaliga is drawing me to the new Mustang, any chance you got a capture of the convertible? I have a feeling that a red convertible maybe in my future.
--
Conrad
---------------------------------------------------
http://www.cmonroe.net
You Can Never Have Too Many Toys!
 
Chip - I'll be at the show Wed with my D100. Your shots are great!! I was planning to take my SB-80 but after looking at your pics I think I'm going to leave it at home. What lens did you use? I'm planning to take my 17-35. I'm assuming no tripod......I won't be able to take mine anyway. How did you set white balance? I was thinking about preset with a grey card but thought that the lights in every display would be different and I would have to reset for every booth, so I'll probably use auto. Sorry for all the questions but I've never shot at an event like this and you got some great results.

Thanks,

Dann
carguy84 said:
So I decided to step it up a notch this year at the Detroit Auto
Show and do a section for the site I work with that is Live From
The Floor. The Cobo Center where the show is has WiFi all over it,
so hooking into it wasn't too big of a deal. However, you have to
know the WiFi SSID before you can think about connecting, so you
will need to know it or have a laptop or a PDA or something to
detect it. I had my iPAQ and connected with no problem.

From there, it was just a matter of walking around the show,
shooting and uploading photos on the fly. I didn't upload
everyone, just a couple dozen each day(one more day left). Here is
the page you can go to tomorrow if you want to see it in action:

http://www.autospies.com/live/

Yes that's me enjoying a free beer(or 3 ;))

95% of the photos I took were at 800 ISO because I hate using a
flash for auto photography.









Questions, comments, requests, let me know and I'll try to answer,
reply and oblige.

Chip-

--
I shoot anything that moves.
Click to expand...
 
What lens?

GenoP
carguy84 said:
So I decided to step it up a notch this year at the Detroit Auto
Show and do a section for the site I work with that is Live From
The Floor. The Cobo Center where the show is has WiFi all over it,
so hooking into it wasn't too big of a deal. However, you have to
know the WiFi SSID before you can think about connecting, so you
will need to know it or have a laptop or a PDA or something to
detect it. I had my iPAQ and connected with no problem.

From there, it was just a matter of walking around the show,
shooting and uploading photos on the fly. I didn't upload
everyone, just a couple dozen each day(one more day left). Here is
the page you can go to tomorrow if you want to see it in action:

http://www.autospies.com/live/

Yes that's me enjoying a free beer(or 3 ;))

95% of the photos I took were at 800 ISO because I hate using a
flash for auto photography.









Questions, comments, requests, let me know and I'll try to answer,
reply and oblige.

Chip-

--
I shoot anything that moves.
Click to expand...
--
Web: http://www.pbase.com/genop754
Send eMail to: [email protected]
 
These pictures I posted were the 5% that weren't at 800, there were at 200, 400, 640 and 400 respectively. The rest on the Live page are 800. I was very impressed with the results from the D2H.

White balance is a little tricky because every m

anufacturer uses different settings. For the most part I used A and adjusted + or - on it depending on the casted color. I also went up at least +.3 EV but most of the time I"d say I was at +.7. On darker cars(why manufacturers even have them in such low light is beyond me) I'd have to go up to 1.0-1.3 EV. THe car would come out well lighted, but you can expect blown highlights in the background. Not really a big deal. as I think people expect a certain amount of bright white in cars photos.

Definitely don't be afraid to bump up the iso to 800, especially on the D100, I find that camera to perform even better. I'd leave the flash at home. The only time you would need it, is if you want to take pictures of people(celebs), you'll probably want one, but you have the built in one on the D100 that should suffice. I got caught off guard without a flash when the OC Choppers crew came by....oh well.

All the photos posted were taken in JPG Medium, Normal to limit the upload time to the server. I took a few RAW photos, but I didn't send them up because my program only processes JPGs.

THanks again for the comments.

Chip-

--
I shoot anything that moves.
 
First of all, let me congratulate you on a fine job with these pics. My request is for you to ask about the producction date for the Audi Pike's Peak SUV they're planning on coming out with. Or, if it's there, take some good pics of it from a few different angles! Oh, ya, and anything Ferrari! Thanks!
 
Audi was introducing the all new all road concept car, so I don't think they wanted to have people asking..."Wait why are these cars so similiar". I'll make a double check today of Audi's display to make sure I didn't over look it.

Ferrari pics, coming up :)

--
I shoot anything that moves.
 
I use my Nikon 12-24 and usually shoot around 17mm or so at F5.6. Because there are so many other photographers and journalists, it's tough to be far away from a car and not have people always walking in front of your picture. the 12-24 distorts the cars very little, but allows me to get closer then everyone else(I haven't seen anyone with a super wide ablge there yet). Today I'll be walking around the show with my 35mm f2 for some different looking shots.

I'll be posting them up on http://www.autospies.com/live as I"m taking them.

Chip-
 
carguy84 said:
So I decided to step it up a notch this year at the Detroit Auto> Show and do a section for the site I work with that is Live From> The Floor. The Cobo Center where the show is has WiFi all over it,> so hooking into it wasn't too big of a deal. However, you have to> know the WiFi SSID before you can think about connecting, so you> will need to know it or have a laptop or a PDA or something to> detect it. I had my iPAQ and connected with no problem.> > From there, it was just a matter of walking around the show,> shooting and uploading photos on the fly. I didn't upload> everyone, just a couple dozen each day(one more day left). Here is> the page you can go to tomorrow if you want to see it in action:> > http://www.autospies.com/live/ > > Yes that's me enjoying a free beer(or 3 ;))> > 95% of the photos I took were at 800 ISO because I hate using a> flash for auto photography.> >



> > >



> > >



> > >



> > > Questions, comments, requests, let me know and I'll try to answer,> reply and oblige.> > Chip-> > --> I shoot anything that moves.--I shoot anything that moves.
Click to expand...
 
Hello,
Great gallery
Also experienced the WT/1 D2H during a kiteboarding world cup final.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=10927881

I used a small program to generate the gallery on the fly but this is far of being optimal.

I was just wondering what did you use for generating the galleries on your site. In house development ? Freeware ? Just scipting ?

Thanks to share your experience
Antoine
 
hey antoine, im a web developer by trait, so i used day job knowledge to help out with my weekend job :)

when i get back from the show I'd be more then happy to write up a description of it all. i had written one already for autospies.com but decided it was too technical to publish. I'm always more then happy to help program.

in case youre curious, all the coding, resizing and gallery scripting happens within that one ASP page. i purpiosely didnt use a database with it since i figured other people may want to use it.

chip
 
I go to these type of car shows every year to take pictures, but they never look this good. Yours look exactly like the kind I'm used to seeing in the car mags. Mine always look "amateurish".

I never would have thought of taking my 12-24 though. That's a great tip. I'm sure it would help get rid of all the other people that always seem to be crowding around the cars I want to take pictures of.

One last thing: what exposure mode (P,S,A,M) and settings do you typically use in a venue like this?

--
http://karlfranz.com
 
carguy84 said:
hey antoine, im a web developer by trait, so i used day job
knowledge to help out with my weekend job :)
Click to expand...
  1. Well, easier for you then !
when i get back from
carguy84 said:
the show I'd be more then happy to write up a description of it
all. i had written one already for autospies.com but decided it
was too technical to publish. I'm always more then happy to help
program.
Click to expand...
  1. Ok thanks
in case youre curious, all the coding, resizing and
carguy84 said:
gallery scripting happens within that one ASP page. i purpiosely
didnt use a database with it since i figured other people may want
to use it.
Click to expand...
  1. Looks like the code is quite light... But ASP you tell me ???
I only have a Debian/ with apache PHP/MysQl server but maybe you could have recommendation. I'm not programmer at all but I would like to develop a small app that do the resizing on the fly etc...
We'll keep in touch & enjoy the show
Antoine
chip
 
and +.3 to +.7 EV as a noted above to help bring out the colors. Occasionally I drop it into M if I can't get A to work right for me. The meter on the D2H is so good that it's easy to shoot in M.

If you want to get magazine style looks, you really have to be patient and play around with the white balance settings. Once you get that nailed down, play with the exposure until you get just the right amount of brightness, without totally overdoing the hotspots....and then move on to another manufacturer's booth and start it all over again because of the different lighting :).

It takes me about 2 days to cover a show, going at a rather slow pace to make sure I enjoy some of the free food and drinks of course :). The third day I take my 35mm F2 and my 50mm F1.8 and go for the more small DOF, artsy looking shots.







This is the day I also make sure I sit in the cars I want to, and play around with all the controls. Afterall, I am a carguy first, photographer second, so I need ot get my fix ;).

Getting the exposure and WB right will make really good photos, getting them to be great photos is then all in the framing of the shot. If you page through the AutoSpies.com gallery, you'll see about 1000 photos, of which I took around 250 and another guy, a non photog with a 20D, took the rest. Our shooting styles are very different, I'll wait 5-10 minutes to get the framing right and the people out of my way before snapping a picture where as he'll fire away and go after quantity. He also has a tendency to not hold the camera level, so he's been given the nickname Diagonal Don :)(his name is Don). You should be able to tell his from mine and if you can't, all my photos have my innitials, CJG, in the file name. I must say tho, that 20D with an external flash is a damn good combo.

here's an easy framing test, whose is whose?:







We do make a good team, howoever, because he takes photos of all the smallest details. Sure it means hundreds of more photos to have to manage, but for the people who can't make it to the shows, apparently they like it a lot :) I wouldn't be able to go around at his speed and get all the interior shots he gets, too much adjusting and variable light. I'll stick mostly to the exterior shots and concentrate on getting those right since it's what sells the galleries when it comes down to it.

Chip-

--
I shoot anything that moves.
 
Thanks for the shots of the convertible, I think...

It is as good looking as I had thought it might be, damn, I really dont want to buy a new car now!

I have been using my 18-35 and D100 to shoot cars at shows, the 12-24 seems to be a good choice as well! I guess I should add it to my want list as well!

Really impressed with how well the WIFI works with providing live updates for events like this! Would think that the sports shooters will be all over this! Definately the way for the future!
--
Conrad
---------------------------------------------------
http://www.cmonroe.net
You Can Never Have Too Many Toys!
 
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