 |
| Chapel of the Holy Cross from inside, Sedona, Arizona (click to enlarge) |
 |
| Chapel of the Holy Cross
(Source: Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository)
|
The last time I visited the chapel, I was using film, which was fine for making photographs of the outside or the inside of the chapel, but not both in one frame. Even earlier digital cameras would have required several exposures blended together to balance the bright southwestern full sunlit sky with the dark interior. With film, HDR was not really available to an amateur, and very expensive to have done for professionals as the process of combining exposure was very difficult and hard to do well.
 |
| Same image file, but unedited (click to enlarge) The sky and land are washed out and the interior is too dark in this original image file. Easily fixed with the D810! |
Having the Nikon D810, with a reportedly greater than 14-stop dynamic range on its sensor, I was anxious to see if and how well it could handle such an extreme lighting differential. The obvious answer as you can see is it handled it well.
I stood in the rear of the sanctuary, set my ISO for 400 and my Nikon 16-35mm f/4 G VR lens for f/8. The resulting shutter speed for aperture priority mode was 1/50th second. The lens was set at a 17mm focal length, very wide indeed.
Handholding the camera, I made several exposures, mainly as people moved into, out of and changed positions in the sanctuary. I was looking for a somewhat balanced composition.
The image at the top of this post is my final image. The image to the right is how it appears as it came out of the camera. Big difference.
I was easily able to pull down the highlights (my main concern was bring the sky to its beautiful blue color) while pulling up the interior shadows so the tapestries and other details in the interior were clearly visible. I used Lightroom 5.6's Develop module. Even with these adjustments, there still was plenty of "headroom" and "footroom" left in the image file if I wanted to further darken the highlights or brighten the shadows. It seems there is no end to the dynamic range of this new sensor!
I then cropped the image to "open" up the dimensions of the inside instead of having a feeling of being in a tunnel. A less rectangular image did that just fine.
One exposure. With my previous digital cameras (the D800E maybe being the exception), I would have had to make three exposures, at least, then blend them together, then edit them to attain the look I desired. A lot of work that seems now unnecessary.
My photography, in difficult lighting situations, seems so much easier with a digital SLR that has such a superior sensor and image processor built-in. I find it amazing, in the context of what I have experienced in the past with film and even digital imagery.
So, there you have it. I had visualized the final image before I had even arrived, then was able to execute my vision successfully using gear that was up to the difficult task.
So, is it the photographer or the gear that is more important? Of course, the photographer, but the right gear for the right circumstances allows that photographer to achieve his or her vision. In this case, lessor cameras couldn't do what this one will allow.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
All content on this blog is © 2014 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or image.
Hallo Dennis,
ReplyDeleteIt's an amazing feature of a very good, but also very expensive and heavy cam.
My question is how would the Oly M1 perform in this situation?
Recently this year I upgraded from Canon 400D to Oly M1. I was just before ordering a Fuji X-T1 but your blog prevent me from pressing the Order-button as I read about the rendering problems due to the x-trans sensor.
Greetings from Germany
Peter H.
Peter, from my previous testing of the E-M1, My conjecture is that it "might" have handled it, but certainly not as well. I found that the sensor in the E-M1 is about one to one and a half stops less capable in dynamic range. If I had had it with me, however, I would not have hesitated to make the same image and then edit it the same way. But...for insurance, I would have made a -1, N, +1, three image sequence as well as my level of confidence would not have been as great. In the end, because the ISO was only 400 and digital noise would not have been an issue in the shadows, I could have made the same, equally successful, image with the E-M1 as with the big, heavy and expensive D810. It just might have been using three exposures instead of a single one.
DeleteThe reason I took only the D810 was to answer the kind of question you asked. Could I do the same things and make the same high quality images with the smaller format E-M1 as with the larger, full frame camera. The answer is yes.
That's the nice thing about the D810. I, too use OMD and D810. For many situations EM1 is enough, but the D810 is awesome. Compared to lighter FF cameras like the A7r, for example, I find the weight an advantage: it helps stabilising the camera (more inertia, so small hand movements don't immediately transfer into camera shake). EFCS on a tripod helps to make file with incredible acuity and detail (looking at EM1 files makes me feel s.th. is missing, although I know that at typical print size the files look great, too). AFC is really really good. I very much liked your experience with the D810 you posted over the last couple of weeks, great pictures by the way.
ReplyDeleteHF, thank you for your comment and the kind words. Interesting that you bring up weight as an important factor in camera control. I will go one step farther and add size. A very lightweight and/or very small camera will actually be less stable and your images may suffer, just as you said. I found that when I was using the E-M5, it was too small for my hands and I felt I couldn't control it as well as I should. So, I added the smaller of the two portions of the optional grip and the increase in size made it perfect. When the E-M1 arrived, its slightly larger size was perfect for my way of imaging, but at the same time, taking its light weight into account, I am very conscious of my technique to avoid movement in the lightweight camera. Dennis
Delete