Jump!

AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
DSC_3997.jpg
Capture.JPG


Day 107
JUMP!

Thought this was going to be easy to shoot but it was not. Not happy with the way they turned out. Something about it I don't like. Not as clear and crisp on the jumpers as I would like. I am shooting with the sun to my back on this one. I don't know if it's camera setting or the fact that I'm zoomed in so far with the lens, or maybe it's the lens itself. There are some mixed reviews on the lens I saw on You Tube before I bought the lens that I have stuck in my head.

I'm not worried about composition I have a fairly good eye for that. I did wimp out again and shot in sports mode trying to get away from that, so I'm going to open this one up for critique for camera setting feedback.

If I would have not shot this in sports mode I would have set my camera in aperture priority to the lowest (open) it would take and crack my ISO up. I know it's going to increase the noise / grain. Would that have helped this shot? Do I dare go above ISO 1000 with the D90 in full sunlight at f5.6 at 300mm equivalent to 450mm?
 
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Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Hi Richard, from the exif I wonder the following: Do you resize your file before uploading? I do resize to 1200 x 1200 with 72 dots per inches. This keeps the file below 1.2megs and makes it uploadable. I wonder if your file isn't compressed too much by the uploader since it says it is 3000x2000 at 300dpi...
Do you sharpen? I just did sharpen your shot and I think it was improved a little even if I saw some evidence of jpeg compression done to it.
Was this a severe crop?

Here's my sharpened copy (sincerely hope you don't mind)

DSC_3997 copy.jpg

So, maybe it could be out of focus a bit since they don't seem to be moving that fast and maybe the focus was done on the parachute while the passengers were balancing back of the front of the chute. I would have bumped up the ISO to at least 800 and would have tried to close down the lens a stop or two to get more depth of field to cover the out of focus area.
 

Mike150

Senior Member
First thing Rick, is that I love the shot. Might have to buy that 55-300 and head out to the local airfield this summer.
Secondly, I'm old and my vision is not as acute as it used to be, but it looks to me like the chute is crystal clear and in focus, but the skydivers are just slightly out.
 

Rick M

Senior Member
Great shot! I think the faint clouds and pale sky make the entire image appear sort of grainy, not sure why. If the sky were completely clear and blue, I think it would be as sharp as expected. Other shots of yours at 300mm always appear sharp, so I would think the lens is fine.
 

AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
When I upload files I use Photoshop, when asked to save I lower the file size down to below 1.9m for uploading on this site. It's not the up loader, I can see the same thing in the original, the chute looks in focus and the jumpers are not.

Lightroom changes:
Sharpening +100
Clarity +15

Here is an EXIF reader thumbnail of were the focus point was, looks like it went right through the chute ropes.

You guys can play with it all you want I uploaded the original to Photoshop, but you're not going to bring out something that's not there. Not that tight of a crop.

So it looks like I was thinking on the right track, and bump up my ISO.

DSC_3997 Master.jpg

Capture.JPG <-----EXIF reader thumbnail
 
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fotojack

Senior Member
Rick, as far as I'm concerned, this is a good shot. I see by the exif thumbnail that the focus point was between the lines. Try this next time: let's use this shot as an example.......holding the shutter button halfway down while focusing, focus on the chute. While still holding the button halfway down, move your focus attention to the shot you want to take, and press the button. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say here. Let me use another example. You have two people in a room, side by side, but one is further back by about 3 feet. Focus on the one farther back, but move the camera back to get both in the frame while your shutter is still pressed half way, then shoot. See what turns out. You may be surprised. :)
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Everyone has pretty much given good advice on this one. So just for my $.02 worth and from my experience in shooting with a 70-300mm Nikkor I find that shoots are greatly improved when you use a higher f/stop at the long reach of the lens. At 300mm and anything less than f/8 you are using the softer outside edges of the lens. (The Nikkor 70-300mm is famous for that when shooting at the full 300mm.) So I make it a habit to get the f/stop as high as I can on long shots. In this case you probably didn't need 1/1600 shutter speed. 1/500 probably would have done the trick. A higher ISO would also help kick up the f/stop. So I agree a higher ISO will probably do the job. Also my experience with the D90 indicates an ISO of up to 1000-1200 will give you good shots with acceptable grain. The sharpening by Marcel did improve the shot a great deal. Good composition and I agree that little bit of cloud in the background gives the shot more depth. You also got the sky divers face on which is not an easy task.
 

AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
Took everyone's advise and upped my ISO (which I was thinking about doing any how) but I also set my aperture at f/8 as suggested. I am very pleased with the results. I am much happier with this lens now at these settings. No longer do the photos have a gray dull look / cast to them at 300mm. I now have a good foundation to build on. Still having some kind of focusing issue at 300mm, (not shown in this shot) guess I'm going to have to learn how to focus at this close of range. Still had shots that two or more subjects close together where one is in focus and the other is not. Something else I'm going to have to play with I guess. Thanks to all that replied to my thread.

Rick

Sample Photo
Day 108 on my 365 Thread
f/8
1/1600
ISO 1000
@300mm
 
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