My little miracle makers and toolkit - shot #365

My little miracle makers and toolkit - #365/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

'm happy to say my 365 in-camera project is done - a year's worth of mostly unedited daily photographs. As time went on, I found myself writing a lot more about the content and the technical photographic elements too. In fact, my 365incamera blog has become a relatively accurate journal of my day-to-day life and almost replaced my personal blog. Although I've completed what I set out to do, I'm not going to quit taking shots on a daily basis. However, I feel that having completed a year, I can relax the rules a little. I'm leaving the 365inCamera set and group and continuing with a new set called Daily Photo. I'm going to keep the 365incamera blog, but perhaps change the name.

For the final shot, I had thought of shooting a family portrait, or a self-portrait, but my test shots weren't that different from other shots in the set, so I thought I'd assemble all my equipment. I could have squeezed myself into the shot, but I was already working in a very tight space and the backdrop and mirror were rather limiting.

My Nikon D80 is in the centre of the shot (on a Ultrapod mini tripod) with the newly repaired/adjusted Nikon 18-200mm VR lens. Actually, I have to make a correction already, as the camera is actually a gift I bought my wife a few years ago. Just last month, she officially gave me half the camera, so it's safe to say it's our camera. Thanks darling for letting me take this camera with me almost everywhere I went over the last year.

Top left are the other Nikon lenses I used, the 50mm 1.8, my wife's old 700-300mm G zoom and the kit 18-55mm VR, with a few lens hoods to their left. Over the year I did borrow a few lenses from a friend and they helped complete the project and add some image variety. Those lenses were the Nikon 10.5mm fisheye, the 105mm Micro and the Sigma 10-20mm. Centre is my Manfrotto monopod (a gift from my brother) and to the right is my old Black's tripod. Below the tripod is my Nikon SB-600 Speedlight with a diffuser and Aurora reflector. The point-and-shoot cameras are our original digital camera, the Canon Powershot A620 and the newer Fuji Finepix F200EXR. And let's no forgot my Blackberry - it came in handy a few times. On the left is my Zeikos battery grip and its AA battery holder. Behind my Blackberry are my Zeikoz close-up filters. Under the Canon are my new Cokin ND Grad filters with one of the filters attached with the holder on 18-55mm. Other bits and pieces include: my lens pen cleaner; a Rocket Air blower; battery charger with an extra battery (Zeikos); filter adapter rings; lens cap (which came in handy on lots of occasions to angle the camera up for a impromptu remote shutter release shot); my Nikon remote control; A small LiteDisc reflector; and lastly my Moo business cards (can't leave home without those). The shot took me a very long time to set up. Lighting could have been better, but I'm pretty happy with the shot.

So what have I learnt from the project ? I'll have to write a more comprehensive list at some point (without it becoming a book), but for now, here are a few things I learnt:

The D80 in-camera settings can produce very good JPG images. Often, it seemed to preserve and reproduce colour better than I could produce from RAW file (note that most of the time I shoot in JPG normal and RAW). Now this may be because I'm still not an expert on RAW post-production, but if I spend a little time tweaking the image optimization settings or use a vivid or vivid+ setting on dull weather days, I find I often prefer those images over my work from the RAW file. My normal (custom) settings (Nikon D80 shooting menu - optimize image) are: +1 image sharpening; +1 tone compensation; IIIa color mode; auto saturation and O hue adjustment. When I'm shooting with flash; I change tone compensation to 0 "normal". I leave white balance (WB) set to auto most of the time and often make a -1EV WB adjustment to add a little warmth. WB setting is usually the setting I forget, but in most situations, auto does a good job. On some occasions I noticed that some colours, especially red would be blown out in the RAW version, but the JPG seems to retain the colour better, this may be due to the in-camera noise reduction (NR). Similar in high ISO situations (above 800), the in-camera NR worked well, but after working with the RAW version, the final image looked too grainy. Again, this is likely because my RAW post-processing skills are not the greatest. Almost all the shots in the project were JPG, but these observations were made as I worked with RAW versions of other shots from the same event. So I'll likely continue to shoot in both JPG and RAW, using the RAW when I need to recover blown out areas (e.g. sky or facial), correct WB or process tricky lighting shoots in batch.

I shot a lot of black & white and was quite happy with the in-camera B&W setting. I used similar custom settings as in colour mode, and experimented a little with the B&W filters. I found that choosing a filter effect other than red was preferable for portraits.

I almost always use aperture priority mode, center focus mode with full matrix light metering. Auto-focus mode set to auto (AF-A) most of the time, but ready to switch to AF-C for moving subject (sports, etc) and AF-S to if auto mode isn't reading my brain !

I always carry an extra battery and my lens pen cleaner. The pop-up flash is ok on the D80, but the SB-600 Speedlight produces much more natural illumination, especially for interior shots. I almost always have a diffuser attached and on occasion use a defector to create better catchlights in the eye. I don't always carry the SB-600 with me, but it's nice to have the pop-up as a back-up when needed.

My 18-200mm VR lens is on the camera most of the time with the 50mm (nifty fifty) stepping in when striving for better portraits, in low light concert settings and for shallow depth-of-field artistic shots. I put the close-up filters to use quite a few times and because they are 52mm filters, used them on the 50mm and the 18-55mm fit lens. I also used a Hoya polarizer filter (cirpl tag, missing from the shot) quite often, especially for reflective effects and landscapes. I only recently bought the Cokin ND Grad filters so haven't shot a lot with them yet. They are a little awkward to use, but having different diameter adapters and a variety of filters provides a lot of flexibility.

Of course the biggest lesson I learnt was to always take your camera with you. Take shots often and don't be shy approaching situations and people. If you're just beginning with taking shots of strangers or people on the street, musicians, street performers and people gathered for an event are much easier subjects.

Heading home

Heading home - #360/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I got my 18-200mm VR lens back today from Nikon. They said it just needed an adjustment, and it seems to be working fine again. As the hours of daylight are really becoming a premium, I'm finding I'm trying to grab my daily shot in low light situations and it gets dark very fast I'm having to constantly tweak the settings and rethink my shots. The evening reflection on the office building at Duplex and Eglinton was nice, but when I reviewed my shots, I liked the feeling of this shot. This bus is probably the last leg of the commuter's journey home and it looks like it's getting a move on bringing Torontonians home as fast as it can !

Mert's city music

Mert's city music - #359/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

After dropping my business card off with same day strangers, Nathan and Camille I heard the smooth jazz groove guitar sounds of this young man outside my office on Dundas Street.  I spent a some time working on getting a few street shots first, then introduced myself with my intro comment about his looping technique.  For Mert's full story see his 100 Stranger shot.

I propped my camera up on its lens cap, focused manually, used a manual setting and custom image optimization to keep a blend of city lighting with a warmer street feel.  I had to use a very high ISO (1250) as it was really dark (although you can't tell - remember a camera does better in low light than the human eye).  Once again in-camera high ISO noise reduction worked really well.  I had to take quite a lot of shots to frame the shot as I couldn't easily get down on my hands and knees in my work clothes (need a live view screen on that next DSLR).

Last gold dreams for the night

Last gold dreams for the night - #358/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

The golden hours were fading quick, but I liked the vantage point from Liberty Village and without my trusty 18-200mm VR, I dug out my old 70-300mm and tried to capture the moment. I had to bump the ISO way up to 1250 and still I was only shooting at 1/80 sec so naturally the shot is rather soft, but I think it captures the mood and the setting.

More towers for TO

More towers for TO - #357/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I dropped off my daughter for a birthday party downtown and had a chance to walk across the Bathurst bridge and grab a few shots of the ever-changing Toronto skyline. My circular polarizer worked well to get the most out of today's cloudy sky, and I think it helped produce this rich cool blue and gray feel.

Soft cactus

Soft cactus - #357/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I escaped an unpleasant November day and visited Allan Gardens conservatory during my lunch hour. I hadn't been to Allan Gardens since the photo shoot for my wedding day over 19 years ago. It was just what the doctor and photography gods ordered, beautiful lighting, exotic plants, rich, saturated colours and some lovely warm air.

This large cactus had wide soft lush green leaves and I chose to centre the shot on just one leaf that was reaching out and it was one of the leaves that had its black tip intact. I had my 50mm 1.8, but closed the aperture down to f/2.8 to get more of the leaf in focus and still keeping the background soft. And to cap it off, the natural symmetry of the background leaves worked really nicely.

Cleanliness is next to...

Cleanliness is next to... #355/365, originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I had planned to setup a one-shot self-candid, but I thought the lighting, tones and geometry deserved a little more, so I took a few shots trying to get the timing right with setting off the auto senor faucets and capturing myself reasonably framed in the mirror. One thing I would have cloned out if this was not an "in-camera" shot is the yellow notice on the mirror. I used a smaller aperture and low ISO to get a long exposure (3 secs) so the water would have a soft blur and I'd have a chance to move from the closet faucet to the other one. It only took perhaps 10 minutes to shoot, but maybe the most complex shot I've taken in a bathroom.