D80 + 50AFD street photog

Took camera out to the local night market and thought about making an exericse out of it to get over two hangups. The first, to try shooting street photography out in public and the second, to use the 50afd at f/1.4 for no other reason than to try. (I've never let it go below f/2 before, always concerned about squeezing out the last bit of sharpness)

I adjusted the tone curves a little more steeply in PP to make up for the reduced contrast wide open, but honestly, I didn't have to use much. Even though it was crowded, 50mm was a good focal length, any closer and I would have gotten blasted by the bbq fumes (that's not lens flare...and yes, i did smell like bbq'd squid by the end of the night)

(This one was was shot at 17mm and fingers crossed that the camera wouldn't get trampled.)

It seems you wasted your money.
--

I got no fancy film learnin'.

Well, your exercise has proven that:

1. If you mount the 50mm f/1.4 AFD lens on the D90 and press the shutter button, the image is successfully formed on the sensor

2. 50/1.4 AFD is not well suited to night shooting wide open due to: sever loss of contrast, flare, CA, poor bokeh

3. It's hard to achieve precise focus when shooting at night at f/1.4

4. The 'delete' button is a very under-rated editing tool.

--
Cheers,

Alex Glickman

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rundadar/
http://rundadar.smugmug.com

rundadar said:

Well, your exercise has proven that:

1. If you mount the 50mm f/1.4 AFD lens on the D90 and press the shutter button, the image is successfully formed on the sensor

Click to expand...

He didn’t prove that as he used a D80

rundadar said:

2. 50/1.4 AFD is not well suited to night shooting wide open due to: sever loss of contrast, flare, CA, poor bokeh

3. It's hard to achieve precise focus when shooting at night at f/1.4

4. The 'delete' button is a very under-rated editing tool.

Click to expand...

Isn’t this a bit harsh?

Sure, the images won’t win any awards, but he stated that this was his first use of the lens wide open at night.
Instead such harsh critique some advices would be much more helpful.

I don’t have a 50mm f/1.4 lens, so I can’t comment on how to use that lens.

The only advices I can give are more general.

A higher ISO setting would have resulted in a faster shutter speed an less motion blur.

With such a thin DoF focusing and recomposing can result that the wrong part of the image is in focus. Using manual focus or (better) using different AF-points can help in such situations.

Regardless of what others say, I think you did a great job capturing the atmosphere.

Enjoy your camera and lens.

Madwand1 said:

It seems you wasted your money.

Click to expand...

rundadar said:

Well, your exercise has proven that:
4. The 'delete' button is a very under-rated editing tool.

Click to expand...

Lol...

myzel said:

Isn’t this a bit harsh?

Sure, the images won’t win any awards, but he stated that this was his first use of the lens wide open at night.
Instead such harsh critique some advices would be much more helpful.

Click to expand...

He didn't ask for advice.

He's just posting his "latest gallery" as DPR calls them.... (in the rule about not posting them).

I think their advice was actually pretty good, unless you're into blur and double-exposure.

In which case... "good job!"

I agree. It makes me wish I had been there too.

Anthony said:

Regardless of what others say, I think you did a great job capturing the atmosphere.

Enjoy your camera and lens.

Click to expand...

--
WWAD?

What Would Ansel Do?

My apologies for coming across as harsh. It was uncalled for.

Unfortunately, I can't really provide meaningful constructive criticism of the pictures presented. The 'delete' button is the most important post-processing tool. I really truly believe so. This is true for your pictures, for my pictures and for Henri Cartier Bresson pictures.

Most of my pictures suck. Most of your pictures suck. Most of everyone's pictures suck. The important bits are:

1. What we delete (and what we chose to display)
2. What we learn from the ones we delete.

If those were my pictures, I'd delete them and learn the following:

1. 50/1.4 AFD has really really low contrast wide open and flares very easily (avoid bright sources of light, avoid shooting scenes that depend on sharp details)

2. WB is tricky when shooting at night (shoot raw, correct later).

etc.

Once again - my apologies for the original harsh response.
--
Cheers,

Alex Glickman

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rundadar/

I think the shots would be better if some element in the photos was in focus.
I don't think everything can be soft, then it just looks like you missed focus.
Even at 1.4, you have to focus on something in the photo.

Call it an exercise in:

• Getting over your shyness about shooting on the street
• Getting shots off with hundres of people milling about
• Getting shots off quickly before the food stall owners make you buy something. There's only so much takoyaki you can eat in a night.
• Taking a break from worrying about pin-pionit accurate shots.
• Getting the smell of a hundred differnt types of food out of your clothes

don't worry about the bad manners of some of the members, of this forum. the importent thing is to learn, & to become better. if you keep trying, you will get better. good luck.

jers said:

don't worry about the bad manners of some of the members, of this forum. the importent thing is to learn, & to become better.

Click to expand...

I'm taking a page from Mr. M's page...the ol' birdwatcher was never afraid of putting up something that was pin-point-perfect to illustrate a point or a thought process.

I think you did two of the most important things a photographer can do. 1) You went out and took some photos. 2) You experimented.

Whether you love the images you produced that night or not is of lesser importance. You got out and tried something as as a result, you learned something.

While they were maybe not technically stunning, I actually enjoyed getting a look at the street food vendors and some of the food.

Constructive criticism is a good thing. Being mean is not.

--
-Dan Rode
http://danrode.smugmug.com

And the more I look at them, the more I like the last 3.

--
-Dan Rode
http://danrode.smugmug.com