photoblog
Left-handed lead off hitter for Lansdowne High School Kelli Pease maintained a .500 batting average during the season. The two-sport junior also played volleyball for the Vikings in the winter. She is photographed at her school’s softball field Friday, June 11, 2010.
A little about how this photos was made, for all you nerdy types. All the Howard County Athletes of the Year photos ran together. …well, they ran in two installments. So, they needed to have a consistent look.
Kelli’s photo is for the Arbutus Times. It’s a totally different paper, run by a totally different sports staff, for a totally different community. So, I decided to give my back a break and bust out the small lights. …er, light.
Yup. I made this with one Nikon SB-800, zoomed to 105mm, shot through a white Lastolite TriFlip, and Craig Clary. Craig’s the writer. He held the Lastolite and strobe.
I used the focal plan (FP) high speed sync mode on my D700 and the super inexpensive Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens — which, by the way, I love. As you can see, it has a really creamy bokeh and, because its made for DX cropped sensors, it has a nice, uh, I guess you could call it “natural” vignetting to it. The FP mode allows me to jack up my shutter speed to 1/8000th, so I can expose for the ambient light while not adhering to the limitations of a traditional sync speed like 1/200th and the subsequent stopped down aperture.
Modularity theme by Graph Paper Press
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2012 by Matt Roth
So, in reference to the 35mm f1.8 on your D700- you don’t mind shooting in DX crop mode all the time when you use it? I would think that, yes the lens is inexpensive and it looks nice, but you are now shooting half the megapixels in the DX crop mode, and that seems kinda important to me. I have a D3 and honestly might get the 35mm f1.8, I just would like to know your opinion.
Thanks
Joel
Hey Joel. Good question. There’s a little-publicized function in the full frame Nikons that allow you to turn off the auto-DX mode. For some DX lenses, like the 17-55 f/2.8 you’ll see an ugly black ring around your crazy-distorted image at 17mm. But the 35mm just gives you a nice, what I like to call, “natural” vignette.
So check your owners manual and figure out how to turn off the auto dx mode.
Cheers
Matt Roth
So
So
One of the best portraits I have seen this year- love the fact she is looking off camera- Grant
Hey. Thanks Grant. Always happy to make someone’s best of the year so far list.
Great portrait!
All things I like: narrow DOF, mix of ambient/lit, clean background, face expression
Some questions
- is it possible to trigger FP with CLS? In case not, did you have to use a TTL cable to sync the flash off the camera hotshoe?
- is it possible to use a second SB800 with FP mode?
Thanks!
Levy
Is that shot at f/1.8? If it doesn’t vignette any more than that, I’m totally sold! Looks kinda like the 100mm f/2.8 on my Mamiya Universal when I shoot polaroids, and I love that look.
I did use a TTL cable to fire off the strobe.
And yes I think it is possible to use multiple SB-800s with CLS. The kicker is, they have to be close to your subject. The pulsating light doesn’t travel too far.
Make sense?