Customised Transformer

Transformers... More than meets the eye... Transformers... No money to Buy! Haha! Just kidding. I helped a colleague take some pictures of his transformer toys that he customises and will be planning to sell online. Here is a simple set up shot I took with the Nikon SB-800 flash in Wireless Mode. More of his artworks can be seen here.

Nikon D700 Picture Controls

Tested out the D700 Picture Control "D2XMODE1" mode with friends as subjects in the evening sun yesterday, similar to the Chinese Garden conditions taken a few days ago. What a difference the mode makes! The colour rendition is like of a different camera altogether. No more "Cooked-prawns" or "Drunken" reddish hue in the evening sunlight, even in Auto White Balance! Just lovely warm and natural looking sunlight and skin tones. I seem to see more blue now in the colour histogram. It seems like my favourite Picture Control mode for portraits on Asian skin tones now. I am unable to post some sample picture as my friends are rather shy!

Prime Time stroll in the Chinese Garden

Today was one of the few days recently where it did not rain in the afternoon. I took this opportunity to have a short photoshoot with my prime lens, starting off with the Nikon 85mm F1.8 at F2.8 aperture for these shots. I followed up with the Nikon 180mm F2.8, all shot at F2.8 full aperture. It is one of my rarely used lens but since getting into full-frame, it can hopefully see more light of day. I ended the day using the Nikon 50mm F1.4, a lens that I felt tended to flare when used at full aperture. By the time I shot with it though, the sky was slightly dull and overcast, hence I used it at full aperture and it performed better than I expected. No worries at all! I used "Portrait" Picture Control setting, and it looks good, though I found that the white balance during the warmish light of the evening sun tend to make pictures taken using Auto White Balance rather reddish. Its a learning experience for me and my new camera, so I would have to explore more to use this camera more effectively.

Thoughts on the Nikon D700

Having been busy with work as usual the past few weeks, I did not have much time to try out my new camera and find out its strenghts and weaknesses. My initial impressions were that full frame lens now suffer more from vignetting due to light fall off in wide/big aperture settings. Focussing is much improved, being both faster and more accurate, even in low light! Lens calibration function is a God-sent to me. Details are great and of course not forgetting the class leading low light performance as of now. Colours are punchy and accurate, except for the reds which I find too saturated for portraits of Asian skin. I need to post process the colours for asian skin tones to make it less reddish and magenta. I do not know if its the white balance setting which I set to Auto but I doubt it, because the white balance seems to be quite accurate most of the time. I have read online about the reddish hue due to the more saturated reds. For portraits I needed to set to "Neutral" Picture Control Setting to get more accurate skin tones. Even at "Standard" the skin tones are too reddish for my liking. But I believe I have the solution to this inconvenience. I just downloaded from the Nikon webpage the Picture Control Curves for "Landscape", "Portrait" and the various "D2XMODE" to replicate the colour balance of the Nikon D2x. Initial tests around the house shows promising results, having a more pleasing colour balance in my opinon. I would be doing more personal thorough testing of these promising Picture Control options soon. Its like having a new camera everytime you change with the different settings!