Last night I was experimenting with the higher range of ISO’s on the 5D Mark II.  As a previous owner of the original 5D, I can say that the improvement in sensitivity versus noise is significant.  It’s still not a Nikon D3, but it’s very useful.  ISO 3200 is very usable, and I’ve made a few images at ISO 6400 that are not objectionable, but do lack some detail.  From my experience over the past month and a half, I think ISO 4000 represents the best compromise in terms of high ISO and preservation of detail.

Below is a photograph captured with the 85mm f/1.8, exposed 1/200 sec. @ f/1.8, ISO 4000

Watching darts with a candy neck tie, McNally's Irish Pub, 22 Feb. 2009, Columbia, Mo.

And for the pixel peepers, a 100% crop from her face (after the jump)…

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Tags: Canon, EOS 5D Mark II, high ISO
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This past weekend I photographed Jarrad Henderson, a fellow photojournalism masters student at MU. It was a class assignment to make a portrait first with a single strobe, and then with multiple lights. That’s where the fun really began. The only problem is that I have two images that I like, so it’s hard to choose!
Ultimately, I believe this first image is the more successful of the two:

Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L Lens @ 70mm. Exposed 1/125 sec. @ f/16, ISO 100

More after the jump.
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Tags: Advanced Techniques, light, lighting, lit, portraits, strobes, studio
Posted in J7558, Updates | 2 Comments »

Elm Street and 9th, Columbia, Mo.

Walking around tonight with an assignment from the J School to photograph with my camera set to tungsten/incandescent, I became fairly bored after a few hours.  So, I decided to mess with some zoom blurs!

Generally speaking, zoom blurs work best for me when zooming from wide angle to telephoto.  Other people seem to be able to go the other way, but I can’t do it to save my life. More after the jump…
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Tags: abstract, Columbia, parking garage, techniques, tungsten, zoom blurs
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In my Advanced Techniques class, I was asked to find two images where either the use of light enhanced the mood of the image, or where I couldn’t deconstruct how the studio lighting was achieved.  Note that I made copies of these two photographs on a copy stand.  I didn’t notice all of the dust on the glass cover until I was back home in front of my computer.  C’est la vie. More after the jump…

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Tags: light, lighting, lit, photographs, studio
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