Encounter with DSLR
well for those who did not realised, the Christmas Party Photos entry has been updated, after receiving the photos from HweeKeong, the designated photographer for the day. Anyway, would like to clarify that most of the time it was some other people holding on to his Nikon DSLR that night.
this encounter with his photos made me think twice again about a DSLR for a few reasons:
1st is storage and processing - he shot at max res of 10 Mpix, quality wise not certain, but each photo was approx 4 plus MB, he had to distribute the photos by burning DVDs for each CG. y DVD? cos its 400 odd photos of 4 MB each, which totals up to nearly 2 GB file size! it took me 15 mins just to copy everything onto my computer. it was quite a pain, and storage is a very big problem for someone who shoots as much as i do. i'm having problems now even at 1 MB per photo, where can i find 4 times my current storage???
2nd is image quality - i made a comparison of the skin tone achieved by the different camera in the same event and i'm surprisingly more satisfied with my own camera *gasp* well maybe i'm used to the colour reproduction by Sony's image sensors, but in general i find Sony's skin tone much more natural compared to Canon's which has a reddish saturation and Nikon's which has a greenish tone. all the photos were taken in flash mode, the subject is Melissa, cos i din shoot as much as kinweng and hweekeong, so not many subjects to make the comparison. if u're interested, the photos i used to compare are DSC00046.jpg shot by me, found in 2nd part of 1st album, 044.jpg shot by kinweng, found in 1st part of 1st album and XMAS07-190.jpg shot by hweekeong's camera (cos i dunno who was using the camera then), found in 2nd album. u can also make a general comparison between the photos from the different camera, 1st part of the 1st album are kinweng's photos, ending at the photo with a guy in blue shirt and blazer holding a toy gun standing at a pool table. 2nd part of 1st album are my photos, starting with Peifang in white, sitting at some laptops. the whole of the 2nd album are hweekeong's photos.
the only positive point of the DSLR is the ext flash with diffuser. u will notice that both kinweng's and my photos have a very harsh lighting (characterised by sharp shadows and higher exposure on the subject compared to the background), this was cos we both used the built-in pop-up flash for the event, while hweekeong's camera had a ext flash with diffuser on. it was tilted to 45 degrees upwards to bounce from the ceiling, eliminating shadows to a bit of effect. u should be able to notice that such flash creates lighting conditions which are more natural looking and also it does not have ugly sharp shadows on the background, which is smthg very crucial in flash photography. and on a side note, the subjects of the photos are also better taken of, cos they need not face a bright flash bang while their photos are taken, the diffuser makes the flash easier on the eyes of those looking at it. this is actually my main motivation to purchase a DSLR.
another trap of DSLR is the depth of field control. personally i myself have not used DOF much in my own shooting except on close-ups of ppl, but i realise tat the increased sensitivity in the DSLR makes event shooting a little harder. i have noticed tat in both KW's and HK's photos, lots of shots were "spoilt" by DOF, or unless i have mis-interpretated their original intent. such a skill wld require quite a steep learning curve for me and also lots of practice, which i'm not sure if i can manage with my career also taking full swing in June 2008.
another point of concern is wat i call the megapixel trap/dellusion, which causes the 1st problem of storage. having a very large max res makes u feel tat u shd take at max res to justify the camera, but seriously, 10 Mpix and 5 Mpix dun make a difference on A4 print. but its double the file size. my personal take is tat 5 Mpix is more than sufficient for normal event photography while 10 Mpix is only needed for wedding/graduation photo shoots where u may want to print up to A3 or even poster size. but then again u will feel very insecure when u dun use it at max res as there maybe situations where u need to blow up the photo. this is the challenge tat comes only in digital photography, in film photography this problem is unheard of since the same film can develop photos of any size with absolute clarity.
so then again DSLR or not? haiz... its gonna take me some time to decide...
this encounter with his photos made me think twice again about a DSLR for a few reasons:
1st is storage and processing - he shot at max res of 10 Mpix, quality wise not certain, but each photo was approx 4 plus MB, he had to distribute the photos by burning DVDs for each CG. y DVD? cos its 400 odd photos of 4 MB each, which totals up to nearly 2 GB file size! it took me 15 mins just to copy everything onto my computer. it was quite a pain, and storage is a very big problem for someone who shoots as much as i do. i'm having problems now even at 1 MB per photo, where can i find 4 times my current storage???
2nd is image quality - i made a comparison of the skin tone achieved by the different camera in the same event and i'm surprisingly more satisfied with my own camera *gasp* well maybe i'm used to the colour reproduction by Sony's image sensors, but in general i find Sony's skin tone much more natural compared to Canon's which has a reddish saturation and Nikon's which has a greenish tone. all the photos were taken in flash mode, the subject is Melissa, cos i din shoot as much as kinweng and hweekeong, so not many subjects to make the comparison. if u're interested, the photos i used to compare are DSC00046.jpg shot by me, found in 2nd part of 1st album, 044.jpg shot by kinweng, found in 1st part of 1st album and XMAS07-190.jpg shot by hweekeong's camera (cos i dunno who was using the camera then), found in 2nd album. u can also make a general comparison between the photos from the different camera, 1st part of the 1st album are kinweng's photos, ending at the photo with a guy in blue shirt and blazer holding a toy gun standing at a pool table. 2nd part of 1st album are my photos, starting with Peifang in white, sitting at some laptops. the whole of the 2nd album are hweekeong's photos.
the only positive point of the DSLR is the ext flash with diffuser. u will notice that both kinweng's and my photos have a very harsh lighting (characterised by sharp shadows and higher exposure on the subject compared to the background), this was cos we both used the built-in pop-up flash for the event, while hweekeong's camera had a ext flash with diffuser on. it was tilted to 45 degrees upwards to bounce from the ceiling, eliminating shadows to a bit of effect. u should be able to notice that such flash creates lighting conditions which are more natural looking and also it does not have ugly sharp shadows on the background, which is smthg very crucial in flash photography. and on a side note, the subjects of the photos are also better taken of, cos they need not face a bright flash bang while their photos are taken, the diffuser makes the flash easier on the eyes of those looking at it. this is actually my main motivation to purchase a DSLR.
another trap of DSLR is the depth of field control. personally i myself have not used DOF much in my own shooting except on close-ups of ppl, but i realise tat the increased sensitivity in the DSLR makes event shooting a little harder. i have noticed tat in both KW's and HK's photos, lots of shots were "spoilt" by DOF, or unless i have mis-interpretated their original intent. such a skill wld require quite a steep learning curve for me and also lots of practice, which i'm not sure if i can manage with my career also taking full swing in June 2008.
another point of concern is wat i call the megapixel trap/dellusion, which causes the 1st problem of storage. having a very large max res makes u feel tat u shd take at max res to justify the camera, but seriously, 10 Mpix and 5 Mpix dun make a difference on A4 print. but its double the file size. my personal take is tat 5 Mpix is more than sufficient for normal event photography while 10 Mpix is only needed for wedding/graduation photo shoots where u may want to print up to A3 or even poster size. but then again u will feel very insecure when u dun use it at max res as there maybe situations where u need to blow up the photo. this is the challenge tat comes only in digital photography, in film photography this problem is unheard of since the same film can develop photos of any size with absolute clarity.
so then again DSLR or not? haiz... its gonna take me some time to decide...
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