So right after work I went to Hollywood Boulevard again, to take some shots... Funny, as I walked the street I saw this structure that was off limits and I asked what was it for? Academy awards.... hmm I keep forgetting I live right next to Hollywood pretty much... though for some reason I am not super excited about it. Maybe a mix of the usual "I live in an interesting city so now I don't care to go out" along with a regular dose of apathy for celebrating-whatever.
Anyhow, I took some shots... decided to use only my 50mm Prime (that's 100mm equiv) 2.0f lens.
All shots are ISO 1600, again, zero post though they come from raw. I added in a "one size fits all" fashion -1 contrast, +1 sharpness, +1 saturation. Oh wait, I heard you, you said no post. Well, because Olympus Studio apparently can't recognize (contrary to my original belief) the in-camera settings, I think it's fair to call it no post if these are the exact settings I used to take the shots, and if I made jpegs directly from the camera those are the settings that would go with it. The shutter speeds used varied from 1/6th to 1/200, apertures from F2.0 to F5.6. Remember in 35mm equivalent for depth of field, that is going to be two f-stops higher.
So the full gallery is here. Some cars painted with light and a couple of other things... I finally got Elvis and Marylin!
I had to get rid of several shots because the focus wasn't quite right or there was blurring. All shots were taken handheld this time.. I want to challenge myself to do this without a tripod if I can.
And of course, it's a pain.. but it's the only way to learn really. I am also trying, attempting, to do manual focusing... I think I need to go beyond the initial pain and maybe I can get something, but I ended up using mostly auto focus for these too. As you can also see, I am experimenting with the "keeping the subject in focus while the background moves" style of shot...
Update: I just added some photos I was missing. Also you may notice in some of these the white balance is a bit off. Keep in mind this place is full of different color lights- in some cases that's kind of the way it looked, in others I needed to tweak on the camera the white balance but because like I said, I AM NOT post processing them, some came out with a somewhat bad cast.
I just got some nice critique in some photography forum. I will have to agree with the critique, most of these shots (all?) are not all that good. Time go get out again this weekend at night and do something right!
- Raist
Posted by: Raist3d | February 24, 2006 at 10:24 AM