San Francisco

Spent the day in San Francisco before a week-long meeting in Sunnyvale. Managed to snap over 500 pictures in ~4 hours  Got it down to 208 pictures for my website, and 14 pictures to post up for critique/whatever…

Most shots were with my Tamron 28-75mm, the clarinet player was my Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro, and a few were taken with my FA 50mm f/1.4 and my Sigma 70-300mm DL. Any comments would be appreciated!

[PeterAM]

These are quite nice and capture the mood of SF. I really like the one of the gull sitting on the rail; has a humourous feel to it (almost as if it's a frame from a cartoon strip without the words). The colors are wonderful in all of them.

[Buddha Jones]

This is a question, read it slowly and it will make sense I promise (I had to)

Your second shot, the first one of the clarinet player, a question for those in the know, to get the white not to be so 'hot' on the boats in the background, is this a situation where you would use a ND filter? Or is there a camera setting to adjust for this?

[clm]

Originally Posted by Buddha Jones

is this a situation where you would use a ND filter?

You could use a graduated ND filter to darken part of the frame. Standard ND filters reduce exposure over the entire frame, for longer shutter speed or larger aperture, but I don't think they could reduce the contrast.
It could be Photoshopped, though(but somebody else would have to tell you how to do it).

[egordon99]

Good question! That scene had alot of contrast, especially with the sun reflecting off of the white boat in the background. The camera meter did the best it could and the original JPG out of the camera had a little less exposure, so the background wasn't as blown out. Of course this meant the foreground was a bit darker.

Since I stink at PP, I just used Picassa to brighten up the foreground a bit, which also blew out the background somewhat. If I knew what I was doing with Photoshop, I'm sure I could have brightened up the foreground without blowing out the background as much. Also, if I had shot RAW, I would have a little more latitude in the highlights.

An ND-Filter wouldn't have helped as it would have darked the ENTIRE scene. I believe someone mentioned a gradiated ND-filter. We could always go back to shooting negative film

Oh, I also might have been able to use fill-flash to expose the foreground, and let the shutter-speed properly expose the background (my Sigma flash has high-speed-sync, allowing me to use shutter speeds of up to 1/4000s). I don't have too much experience in fill-flash outdoors though.

BTW, that shot was with my Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro; great lens!

Originally Posted by Buddha Jones

This is a question, read it slowly and it will make sense I promise (I had to)

Your second shot, the first one of the clarinet player, a question for those in the know, to get the white not to be so 'hot' on the boats in the background, is this a situation where you would use a ND filter? Or is there a camera setting to adjust for this?

[NaClH2O]

Originally Posted by Buddha Jones

This is a question, read it slowly and it will make sense I promise (I had to)

Your second shot, the first one of the clarinet player, a question for those in the know, to get the white not to be so 'hot' on the boats in the background, is this a situation where you would use a ND filter? Or is there a camera setting to adjust for this?

Like clm said a graduated ND filter would work, (half of it is ND the rest is clear) but they are expensive. What I would try would be "shadows and highlights" sliders in PSE. (don't have PS so don't know about that) the "shadows and highlights" helps a lot in dropping down overexposed areas as long as they are not too overexposed. The down side is that the white appears greyish.

NaCl(use that feature a lot)H2O

[NaClH2O]

Great captures, I especially like the seagull amongst the seals and the closeup of the busker. BTW what are the kids reaching into the water for?

NaCl(nice expressions on the watchers-on in that one)H2O