Friday, August 25, 2006

My baby is back!




When I was in Italy I busted my Mark II and it's been really difficult for me to be without her. Don't laugh. But yesterday I got her back from Canon and she's all better and I wanted to test her out today and I was pleased to see that she was as excited to be back with me as I was to be back with her. I really do think the Canon 1d Mark II is the perfect camera for wedding shooters and over the last month I've shot weddings with the 30d and the 5d and those are great cameras that will get the job done but nothing matches the Mark II.

So another question I have deals with how you all shoot. I've always been a huge fan of shooting all Manual. I don't know why but I just think with digital it really is the easiest and best (most consistent) way to go. So does everyone shoot mostly manual?

Tonight I shot the rehearsal for a wedding I'm shooting tomorrow and I shot it all JPEG but I shot it the same way I'd shoot it if I was shooting RAW and so you can see exactly how all the pics come straight out of camera (despite a little bit of flattening and darkening b/c of the compression) and so this style of shooting combined with some automation settings in post production leaves me with almost zero work to do after the wedding.

Here's a link
to the gallery which is almost finished uploading and other than a few shots I deleted while I was shooting they are all there with their meta data.

:) This weddings is gonna be pretty insane so check back for the slideshow!

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA DJ, you might want to rename the folder you have your images in, asshot?!? Oh.... you mean As Shot! I can't seem to think straight now after seeing that folder.....ummm, oh yeah, I shoot M maybe 20% of the time.

Liana said...

Ahh...great news about your baby boy!

Manual 100% fa sure :) It's fool-proof I tell ya... taught my 4-year-old nephew and my 6-year-old neice how to shoot M with the 5d tonight... pics comin' soon. LOL.

Anonymous said...

I shoot all Manual and Raw.

David Burke said...

You rock DJ! Glad to hear the baby is back in your arms! I switch between Manual and Aperture Mode and shoot RAW. With Nikon D200s and D70s.

BTW - The gallery looks sweet. I can't wait to see the slideshow!

McCrystal Image Photography said...

All RAW and manual for years now. I'll occasionally flip to another mode, but then switch back cause I don't like the results and I'nm quite the control freak.

Glad to hear you are reunited. That's a horrible feeling being without your go to camera. That's a good reason to have two primary bodies...

|| davidjay || said...

Haha...Ricky...I know...I saw that as I was exporting the gallery and was dying laughing.

Sarah Barlow said...

HAHAHA!! That's hilarious!!
Great pics too! Looks like it's going to be an incredible wedding!

THANKS alot DJ!! You talked me into AV...and then switch back to manual!! hehe!! ;) I shoot aperture priority most of the time and manual about 25% of the time:) I shot jpeg this past week and it is so much fun..but raw totally beats it with weddings:)

Anonymous said...

seriously AMAZING pics!!!!
cant wait to see the wedding slideshow!!!

colinmichael said...

Glad you got your camera back, it is just not comfortable shooting with other cameras that your aren't used to. I must have missed the post about how you broke it in the first place? I thought those things were just about indestructable? Remind me not to let you borrow my cameras!
Manual 80% of the time, App priority using exposure lock for the other 20%. Meters just aren't all that accurate for me, especially because I love using backlighting.

colinmichael said...

Oh yeah, thanks for posting the entire album, it is really interesting to see vs. a fully edited album. Your % of winners to loosers is really high, I hope I can get there someday.

|| davidjay || said...

Sorry Sarah :) ... I think AV is good while you're switching lighting conditions but then I'd suggest getting back to M asap if you want more consistency in exposures which usually helps bring editing time down a little bit.

...and I actually take really good care of my equipment but when I was in Italy I grabbed Sara France's 24-70 (because I don't even bring that lens anymore) and it was defective and it busted my Mark II...bummer...but it's all better now.

:)

Anonymous said...

Hi David,
Loved your new news letter. Hummmmm.....yeah...manual...I would say I shoot almost 80% AV mode and the other 20% in Manual. Unless I am using flash. then I always use manual mode. I think I shoot this way because I find that the action is moving so fast here in Vancovuer and the shooting times are short. so I am usually running like crazy from one place to another. How do you shoot with full manual? Do you meter the area first?

Anonymous said...

I have a question for you all....How do you go about photographying your portrait times with your bridal couple? How do you set them up in situations that bring out the relaxed, and photojournalistic feel in your images as a first photographer? I find that this is so easy when I am a secondary photographer, but when I am shooting as a first photographer .... this is where I am seem to shoot out of the traditional mode.
How do you all approach this?

Ricky said...

I just picked up a markII-N for my birthday and I am LOVING it! The controls are Crazy but I've got it now.

I'm 80% AV. I feel more comfortable taking on all of the changing conditions that happen during a wedding. I mentioned 20% M but I'm moving more towards M pretty fast! I will however shoot all M during something like an enagement shoot.

Anonymous said...

Hi DJ..
I shoot 99% manual..
I bought my MKII N March06, and Never go back, I love it so much. I use 20D for my second camera....

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

hey DJ, When shooting in manual mode, which metering mode do you find most useful? Evaluative, center weighted, spot or partial.

CoztheGrov said...

The gallery looks great! As a sideline photog I love comments conversations like this one. You should check out the rant about RAW vs Jpeg over at Gary Fong's blog....woa! I'm a newbie with RAW, but learning. i'm about 50% AV. M about 15-20%.

Sarah Barlow said...

Oh!! So true about the consistancy in exposures!! That is totally what I lack! They all look different! Ok...tackling manual again:)

PhotOle said...

hey DJ, thats kool that u got ur mark2 back. but u know the 5d is better:) i always shoot Ljpeg and M. I tried shooting raw sjep like you said but i havnt got my colors right yet. so im going to have to play with bridge alittle more.

blaine said...

interesting topic... I shoot 100% manual on my 5d. Whenever I try AV it seems to underexpose by about 1/2 a stop.

DJ, how did a defective lens break your Mark II? Thats really strange! The 24-70 is my favorite all around lens but only because the 5d is full frame. If I use it on my 30d I can't stand it!

Holritz Photography said...

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? You've been preaching RAW!!!! What's up with that???? :)

Shoot a mix of manual and Av, and ditto on the ease of editing when you shoot manual!!! So nice!

amynave said...

So beautiful!!!! For a minute I thought it was the actual wedding:) Oh ya, and the person sitting next to the bride (the groom I think) looks like you:) LOL...

Daniel J. Watkins said...

My parental controls prohibit me from viewing the asshot folder...but I'm sure they are very nice asshot photographs. ;)

I shoot about 50% AV and 50% whatever I feel like shooting at that moment. Sports is about the only thing I'll shoot all manual. I guess I'm not as picky when shooting someone's wedding! LOL

Chris Humphreys said...

I'm pretty much all manual except for weird changing lighting conditions.

It definetly does make the editing faster on the back end.

I must seriously have like a messed up Mark II N or a really superhuman 20D, but I seriously use my 20D way more than I use my Mark II. It's way more conistent in it's sharpness. I CAN'T shoot my any faster than f2.8 on my Mark II or it's pretty much a sure bet to be soft.

So wierd, but I'm glad you got your baby back.

Jim Davis Hicks said...

A for light changes, then straight to manual.

The camera is pretty smart but it's not an artist and has no idea what I want highlighted, what I want dark etc.

Also, I do all jpg. With my new workflow I have little to no work too. I love it. With 12.8 mgpx shooting on fine jpg gives alot of latitude on adjusting images etc.

I'd love to talk to you soon about the charity project you talked about with combining our workdflows and raffling some off.