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A touch of Spring Sunshine with the D3 (mostly)

jonoslack

Active member
Hi there
I'm trying to catch up with last years photos.
Here are a few picks from last May.
Mostly shot with the Nikon D3.

It's been interesting revisiting them for the website. The file quality is wonderful, but I still have trouble with the colour for the landscape shots.

May 2008 with a Nikon D3

There are a few shots with either an Olympus E3, or a Leica M8 (exif should be intact).
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Lots of beautiful shots, Jono. Ambience and lighting and ambience and lighting and ambience and lighting, lots of it :)
 

Knorp

Well-known member
Wonderful close-ups and macros, Jono :thumbs:
Browsing your galleries is allways a pleasure and a treat for the eyes (and mind).
Mmm, I didn't spot the M8 though :confused:

Thanks for sharing.
 

routlaw

Member
Hi there

...Mostly shot with the Nikon D3.

The file quality is wonderful, but I still have trouble with the colour for the landscape shots...
Jono

Your comment above surprises me. Just curious in what way are you having trouble with the D3 color for landscapes? I certainly was not seeing any issues on the link you posted. :confused:

Thanks

Rob
 

jonoslack

Active member
Lots of beautiful shots, Jono. Ambience and lighting and ambience and lighting and ambience and lighting, lots of it :)
Hi Jorgen
Thank you - I'm flattered. In the absence of people, one has to go for ambience . . . . the question is whether it's worth the effort.
Personally, I feel that a pretty girl on a pink moped is worth a hundred landscapes . . . it's just that there aren't many around here :(
So I have to settle for the boring old ambience:eek:
 

jonoslack

Active member
Wonderful close-ups and macros, Jono :thumbs:
Browsing your galleries is allways a pleasure and a treat for the eyes (and mind).
Mmm, I didn't spot the M8 though :confused:

Thanks for sharing.
Hi Bart
Thank you.
Weren't there any M8 shots? sometimes one has to beat oneself up a bit, just now it's being used a lot (the M8 that is).
 

jonoslack

Active member
Jono

Your comment above surprises me. Just curious in what way are you having trouble with the D3 color for landscapes? I certainly was not seeing any issues on the link you posted. :confused:

Thanks

Rob
Hi Rob
I think it's because Nikon are very careful to organise their colour for skin tones. The result of this is that I've had continual difficulty with landscape in the early morning and evening (too much yellow is usually the problem). Abandoning AutoWhiteBalance and settling for Daylight did help, but still I was always fiddling about with the colour and being dissatisfied.
Both the A900 and the M8 produce colour which is 'satisfactory' (i.e. I accept it, or even like it). I've sold 3 sets of Nikon gear on the basis that I was unsatisfied with the colour . . . and then bought back in again . . . and then been dissatisfied again. I won't do it again.

The reason you can't see a problem with the shots I've posted . . .is that the shots I had a problem with I haven't posted!


. . . . of course, it's my opinion, and I'm a silly old man. :p
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
I found that using Capture NX with the Landscape Picture settings does a really decent job with natural colour. In particular, I hate yellow-ish greens that many cameras produce but the landscape colour curves from Nikon create nice 'blue-ish' greens that I see every day. Much more semi-velvia in look.

Just a thought ...
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Hi Jorgen
Thank you - I'm flattered. In the absence of people, one has to go for ambience . . . . the question is whether it's worth the effort.
Personally, I feel that a pretty girl on a pink moped is worth a hundred landscapes . . . it's just that there aren't many around here :(
So I have to settle for the boring old ambience:eek:
I can list 101 advantages of landscapes over pretty girls on pink mopeds. At least 100 of them used to be on the inside of my wallet :(
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Funny, I gravitate to Nikon color. Canon was to pastel for me, and the M8 is too difficult with skin tones (neon reds in lower light.) But, I shoot mostly people ... when and if I shoot "landscapes" there are people as the main subject ... or if no people are present, I shoot them with a MF camera (film and digital.)
 

woodyspedden

New member
I find that the Nikon color is very similar to DMR color. Yes there is a yellowish bias in the greens which has to be corrected for. (When you get it right apply as a preset) You also get the most natural skin tones in the 35mm world IMO.

Correct color is a serious issue and no one does it correctly across the entire color spectrum. If you shoot mostly landscape and little portraiture then perhaps the A900 is the better choice for you. If you do 50/50 I would opt for the D3 or D700 as the camera of choice. JMHO and YMMV

Woody
 

robmac

Well-known member
Curious as to how people have noticed any change in color using Nikon with non-Nikon (e.g. CV, ZF or Leica via the leitax option) glass?

When I started shooting Canon, I of course used L glass. Who the hell wanted to fart around with adapters, manual focus and stop-down metering? The result (I won't talk about fine detail resolution and QC) was iffy skin tones, yellowy greens and the infamous Canon over-the-top reds. Any differences (color onlY0 between the various bodies was minimal. This color tendency re: reds, greens and some over-saturation is something I've also I've noted when testing some of the new G zooms on a D300 and D700.

On a lark one day I picked up a CZ lens (28/2.8 IIRC) and a cheap adapter , slapped it on my Canon body at the time and the first pic resulted in a "WTF?". Blew me away how much difference the glass and coatings (and possibly the electronic interface to the camera and any resulting hidden firmware image tweaks in raw?) made to image color - regardless of the body used (1D2, 1Ds, 5D, 30D, 1DS2).

Since then the Leica, CV SL (90 & 180 APO) and Mamiya APO glass I use almost exclusively tends to deliver those "as remembered" colors (allowing for variations between the three lens makes and their coatings). PP time is now all but minimal.
 
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routlaw

Member
I think it's because Nikon are very careful to organise their colour for skin tones. The result of this is that I've had continual difficulty with landscape in the early morning and evening (too much yellow is usually the problem). Abandoning AutoWhiteBalance and settling for Daylight did help, but still I was always fiddling about with the colour and being dissatisfied.
Both the A900 and the M8 produce colour which is 'satisfactory' (i.e. I accept it, or even like it). I've sold 3 sets of Nikon gear on the basis that I was unsatisfied with the colour . . . and then bought back in again . . . and then been dissatisfied again. I won't do it again.
Jono

A couple of thoughts regarding Nikon color especially D3 images, which hopefully will be helpful. Will try and make this brief as possible for now but can elaborate later if required or needed.

You did not say which converter you use for your D3, which will make a difference though at least in my experience nothing that is insurmountable. There are those who claim only NX or NX2 will give reliable and decent conversions for their Nikon cameras, I am not one of those and prefer instead the LR/ACR conversions.

For what ever reason NX sees color differently from other software, or perhaps it could be said the other way around ACR/LR et al see color differently than NX. Regardless, when using a custom WB via the custom WB pre-sets color accuracy will increase substantially. So if you are using lets say the daylight pre-set for your landscapes while using ACR for your conversions and given that ACR sees color differently than NX/NX2, then most assuredly you are not getting an accurate let alone the best initial conversion possible. With auto WB it could be anywhere and most likely worse still. Curiously ACR/LR and perhaps all of the other converters as well disregard Nikon in camera settings regarding color, contrast etc except one, that being the "custom" pre-set WB. You can store up to four of these custom pre-sets permanently and a 5th setting that is ever changing as needed.

I use a Whilbal gray card to set daylight color (in order to simulate a roll of daylight film, say around mid morning) for a given batch of lenses like the newer nano crystal coated ones and will have other stored pre-sets for some older lenses like my 80-200 F2.8 which does render color differently than the newer glass. As a rule I don't bother to implement a custom WB for other times of day, otherwise you might kill some juicy sunset colors, and yet another reason to be cautious about using Auto WB. Hope this makes sense. Likewise I do the same for my in studio settings and lighting for a given setup. By now I have photographed hundreds of paintings, which really do require accurate color, using this method with excellent results and only minor tweaks in PP. In any case I don't find Nikons to have a predilection toward flesh tones, vs landscape color or any other situation. Its all a matter of how one goes about their custom white balances, IMHO.

Hope this helps.

Rob
 

routlaw

Member
Jono

Forgot, since we are on the subject of landscapes here is a sample done with my previous description, using the D3, Cambo Ultima and Rodenstock 105 mm digital lens with a 9 frame stitch. I felt this was very representative color of the scene, with just some minor tweaks in the sky. Incidentally I also shot about 4-5 sheets of 4x5 Velvia film of the same scene but tossed them once back from the lab. They just did not hold up to the digital file, which ended up at 150 mb.

Rob
 
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Knorp

Well-known member
Hi Bart
Thank you.
Weren't there any M8 shots? sometimes one has to beat oneself up a bit, just now it's being used a lot (the M8 that is).
Wonder what I was looking at :confused: :( :eek:
After revisiting your gallery I counted at least 18 M8 shots :thumbup:
Makes this thread also qualify for the Leica forum ... :ROTFL:

All the best.
 
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Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Beautiful landscape and colours, Rob.

Obviously, Jono has to buy his fourth portion of Nikon gear as a backup for his fancy Sony. The D3X is a rather satisfying little camera, or at least, that's what I've heard. It slots nicely in between the A900 and the Leica S2 :ROTFL:
 
D

ddk

Guest
Hi there
I'm trying to catch up with last years photos.
Here are a few picks from last May.
Mostly shot with the Nikon D3.

It's been interesting revisiting them for the website. The file quality is wonderful, but I still have trouble with the colour for the landscape shots.

May 2008 with a Nikon D3

There are a few shots with either an Olympus E3, or a Leica M8 (exif should be intact).
Spring & sunshine, its only a distant memory now, some lovely compositions and light Jono, enjoyed looking at your images!
 
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