Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[havoc315]

I love getting new toys and learning the ins and out. I am sitting here counting the seconds until I can actually buy it

You may want to start reading Gary Friedman's E-book, lol. I did find it helpful.

 

[zackiedawg]

How well do you think focus peaking will work out on dark rides? Ive been shooting those manual focus and seem to do a failr decent job with the focus but always wondered how or if it even would help

While I can't help as to how focus peaking works on the A99, I have been using it frequently on my NEX-5N with EVF on dark rides, and I find it works very nicely. I have an unusually long experience with focus peaking, having used it as early as 2006 on still cameras, so maybe I've adapted to it better than some - but I'm a bit opposite of what others are mentioning - I find it's much BETTER for moving subjects, or when the photographer is in motion - essentially, I use focus peaking when I need to manually focus FAST and get reasonable accuracy, and I only use focus magnification when I have the luxury of time to sit there fine-tuning the focus down to the millimeter.

I usually stuck with my DSLR on dark rides, but decided for fun to stick on my old Konica Hexanon 40mm F1.8 and try some dark-ride manual focus...using peaking, I found it gave just enough indication at f1.8 to know when I was dialed in on character faces. Remember these are first attempts, and all just JPGs right from the camera rather than highly reworked RAWs...

I've since tried a few more with my Voigtlander 35mm F1.4 lens, and still find even at F1.4 to F1.6 that the peaking gives me enough indication to do very fast focusing while moving:

Obviously some old lenses may not be at their best wide open, so some corner softness and slight loss of contrast are related to the lens itself, but I think the focus was fairly well on for each of those...I think I'll get better at it the more I do it, and if I wasn't so lazy and took the time to shoot those RAW, and really work on them with a good RAW converter, the overall results could be even better - but for fast-n-dirty JPGs with no processing needed, I think I've still convinced myself that manually focusing on dark rides isn't as hard as I once feared it might be, and the peaking at least on the APS-C sensor really helps me at least when using the EVF.

 

[havoc315]

Great shots Justin.

I'll be curious to see how Mike works out with focus peaking on the a99 EVF. I can see it going either way. Unfortunately, I find the a99 peaking doesn't always come across very strong on the a99 EVF. But dark rides are pretty high contrast scenes, it may work very well.
Your shots are fantastic.

Not sure if raw really would add toooooo much. Though for some of the noisier jpegs, you can try running them through topaz Denoise.

 

[Hockeyman]

While I can't help as to how focus peaking works on the A99, I have been using it frequently on my NEX-5N with EVF on dark rides, and I find it works very nicely. I have an unusually long experience with focus peaking, having used it as early as 2006 on still cameras, so maybe I've adapted to it better than some - but I'm a bit opposite of what others are mentioning - I find it's much BETTER for moving subjects, or when the photographer is in motion - essentially, I use focus peaking when I need to manually focus FAST and get reasonable accuracy, and I only use focus magnification when I have the luxury of time to sit there fine-tuning the focus down to the millimeter.

I usually stuck with my DSLR on dark rides, but decided for fun to stick on my old Konica Hexanon 40mm F1.8 and try some dark-ride manual focus...using peaking, I found it gave just enough indication at f1.8 to know when I was dialed in on character faces. Remember these are first attempts, and all just JPGs right from the camera rather than highly reworked RAWs...


I've since tried a few more with my Voigtlander 35mm F1.4 lens, and still find even at F1.4 to F1.6 that the peaking gives me enough indication to do very fast focusing while moving:


Obviously some old lenses may not be at their best wide open, so some corner softness and slight loss of contrast are related to the lens itself, but I think the focus was fairly well on for each of those...I think I'll get better at it the more I do it, and if I wasn't so lazy and took the time to shoot those RAW, and really work on them with a good RAW converter, the overall results could be even better - but for fast-n-dirty JPGs with no processing needed, I think I've still convinced myself that manually focusing on dark rides isn't as hard as I once feared it might be, and the peaking at least on the APS-C sensor really helps me at least when using the EVF.

Great shots Justin I had wondered if focus peaking would be helpful on the moving subjects since it would be easier and faster for me to adjust based on the subjects being highlighted with coloring rather than taking the time and eye balling it while in motion.

 

[zackiedawg]

Thanks guys.

Hockeyman, exactly right - that's where I find peaking most useful. The key with some dark rides may be to pre-choose a color which won't conflict with dominant colors in that ride - for example, I used red peaking in Haunted Mansion, as it's not a color often seen throughout that ride - but red on POTC would be very difficult to see in some cases - so yellow worked a little better there.

Otherwise though, I was pre-setting my lenses at what I figured to be the approximate focal distance of the scene approaching, then as the opportunity came to shoot, a fast adjustment until peaking indicated on the subject area I wanted, push just a little bit past until peaking starts to fade, then dial it back and fire. It works pretty quickly, and proved pretty reliable. Any blur I got in some shots was mostly due to movement and too-low shutter speed, given that my old manual lenses have no stabilization on the NEX.

Some of those scenes, such as the astronauts on Space Mountain taken from the Peoplemover, only give you a second or two to get the focus before the scene is gone - without peaking, I don't think I'd have been able to do it with manual focus except for sheer luck.

 

[Hockeyman]

Great shots Justin.

I'll be curious to see how Mike works out with focus peaking on the a99 EVF. I can see it going either way. Unfortunately, I find the a99 peaking doesn't always come across very strong on the a99 EVF. But dark rides are pretty high contrast scenes, it may work very well.
Your shots are fantastic.

Not sure if raw really would add toooooo much. Though for some of the noisier jpegs, you can try running them through topaz Denoise.

Im curious also lol.

 

[Hockeyman]

Thanks guys.

Hockeyman, exactly right - that's where I find peaking most useful. The key with some dark rides may be to pre-choose a color which won't conflict with dominant colors in that ride - for example, I used red peaking in Haunted Mansion, as it's not a color often seen throughout that ride - but red on POTC would be very difficult to see in some cases - so yellow worked a little better there.

Otherwise though, I was pre-setting my lenses at what I figured to be the approximate focal distance of the scene approaching, then as the opportunity came to shoot, a fast adjustment until peaking indicated on the subject area I wanted, push just a little bit past until peaking starts to fade, then dial it back and fire. It works pretty quickly, and proved pretty reliable. Any blur I got in some shots was mostly due to movement and too-low shutter speed, given that my old manual lenses have no stabilization on the NEX.

Some of those scenes, such as the astronauts on Space Mountain taken from the Peoplemover, only give you a second or two to get the focus before the scene is gone - without peaking, I don't think I'd have been able to do it with manual focus except for sheer luck.

Im going to try it both ways on my next trip and see how the focus peaking works out. I might even become a little daring and live on the edge a little and try it the two different ways on the same ride

 

[havoc315]

Im going to try it both ways on my next trip and see how the focus peaking works out. I might even become a little daring and live on the edge a little and try it the two different ways on the same ride

I can see it now..... You get a FP+ for Peter Pan, you rush there at rope drop... and ride it again and again during EMH. Your family starts whining, "Dadddddddddd....... we want to do other rides.."

"Not until I get a good shot of Captain Hook... I'm going to try red-focus peaking this time, with high-continuous drive! Then I'll ride again with a faster shutter speed! Hmm.... And let's see how it turns out if I push the ISO all the way up to 25600!"

 

[Hockeyman]

I can see it now..... You get a FP+ for Peter Pan, you rush there at rope drop... and ride it again and again during EMH. Your family starts whining, "Dadddddddddd....... we want to do other rides.."

"Not until I get a good shot of Captain Hook... I'm going to try red-focus peaking this time, with high-continuous drive! Then I'll ride again with a faster shutter speed! Hmm.... And let's see how it turns out if I push the ISO all the way up to 25600!"

Lol. First my family would leave me, my wife has no patience and my kids (who are toddlers) lack patience also. So I really get one shot per ride usually the whole trip since we rarely re ride things since we are there so often. Pan is one dark ride I have yet to shoot in to tell you the truth. For some reason we don't even ride it ever trip since the line is usually pretty crazy. We always ride, HM, pirates, and now Little Mermaid so those are the staples of my dark ride photography

I actually was going to start around the setting I used with my A55 and have had some decent results with and go from there, 1/25th, iso 3200, f/1.8 but for the A99 and my new Sigma will be in f1.4. Would be nice to not have to use such a high ISO though so anxious to see how the A99 will handle it

 

[havoc315]

Lol. First my family would leave me, my wife has no patience and my kids (who are toddlers) lack patience also. So I really get one shot per ride usually the whole trip since we rarely re ride things since we are there so often. Pan is one dark ride I have yet to shoot in to tell you the truth. For some reason we don't even ride it ever trip since the line is usually pretty crazy. We always ride, HM, pirates, and now Little Mermaid so those are the staples of my dark ride photography

I actually was going to start around the setting I used with my A55 and have had some decent results with and go from there, 1/25th, iso 3200, f/1.8 but for the A99 and my new Sigma will be in f1.4. Would be nice to not have to use such a high ISO though so anxious to see how the A99 will handle it

Hmmmmm, the nice thing is that the A99 can do in-between ISOs. And you'll be using a 1.4 lens...

I'd suggest a faster shutter speed to freeze any motion, including your own.

So if I were in your shoes, I'd adjust slightly. 1/50... ISO 5000... F 1.4.
If anything, I'd err on the side of over-exposing slightly... You will lessen the noise by reducing exposure in Lightroom. If you have to raise the exposure, the noise gets really ugly.

... and ISO 3200 on the A99 is nothing. Sure, there is some noise when you pixel peep. But it's nothing horrific.

ISO 10,000 by candlelight:


a99raw-50.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr
(cheap lens.. excuse the ugly green ghosts)
May not match the Canon 6D.... but you no longer need to dread going over 1600.

I'd even --- *gasp* --- consider trying jpeg on the dark rides. The A99 renders jpegs pretty nicely, with fairly decent noise reduction. I found that at medium ISOs... 1600-3200, I did better noise reduction than the A99. But at higher ISO, the A99 did as well as me.

 

[Hockeyman]

Hmmmmm, the nice thing is that the A99 can do in-between ISOs. And you'll be using a 1.4 lens...

I'd suggest a faster shutter speed to freeze any motion, including your own.

So if I were in your shoes, I'd adjust slightly. 1/50... ISO 5000... F 1.4.
If anything, I'd err on the side of over-exposing slightly... You will lessen the noise by reducing exposure in Lightroom. If you have to raise the exposure, the noise gets really ugly.

... and ISO 3200 on the A99 is nothing. Sure, there is some noise when you pixel peep. But it's nothing horrific.

ISO 10,000 by candlelight:


a99raw-50.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr
(cheap lens.. excuse the ugly green ghosts)
May not match the Canon 6D.... but you no longer need to dread going over 1600.

I'd even --- *gasp* --- consider trying jpeg on the dark rides. The A99 renders jpegs pretty nicely, with fairly decent noise reduction. I found that at medium ISOs... 1600-3200, I did better noise reduction than the A99. But at higher ISO, the A99 did as well as me.

I cant believe that is ISo 10,000. I wouldn't dream of even trying that on the A55. I cant wait to see what I can do with a higher ISO between he dark rides and Halloween Horror Nights.

 

[havoc315]

I cant believe that is ISo 10,000. I wouldn't dream of even trying that on the A55. I cant wait to see what I can do with a higher ISO between he dark rides and Halloween Horror Nights.

I still prefer to keep the ISO at 6400 or lower. But as long as you don't pixel peep, you can go as high as 12800. I haven't dared to go much higher.. EXCEPT with MFNR.
If you are stationary in the dark, switch to jpeg mode, and use MFNR with ISO of 25600, and you can get pretty good shots.

My daughter making a face at me at ISO 10,000


untitled-50-Edit.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

Pixel peep and it's not so great, but looks good at normal viewing size.

 

[HPS3]

Nice shots Havoc. Those look good at 10k. Did you use Topaz on those?

 

[havoc315]

Nice shots Havoc. Those look good at 10k. Did you use Topaz on those?

Used topaz on some shots, Lightroom on some shots. May have tried NeatImage.. not sure if I posted any of those.

 

[havoc315]

Some shots taken today with the Minolta beercan, plus post processing.

Just some basic lightroom on this one:


lillystarbucks-162.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

In-camera HDR, with further post-processing afterwards.


lillystarbucks-159.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr


beercanwinter.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

A beercan portrait, lit by store window


lillystarbucks-176.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr


Heavily post processed because it was back lit. So had to pull out the Dynamic range, and this is almost a 100% crop


untitled-2-2.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

Another beercan portrait.... Loved the smoothness of the background blur. My daughter got bored assisting with photography..


lillystarbucks-170.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

Few more on beercan day..

Bracketed HDR


frozelake.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr


untitled-1-2.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

Another bracketed HDR


sunset.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

^Very nice

BTW, My A55 and Tamron 17-50 just sold on Ebay for $500. And my wife gave me her blessing to spend $1,500 on a new camera, little does she knows lol.

 

[havoc315]

^Very nice

BTW, My A55 and Tamron 17-50 just sold on Ebay for $500. And my wife gave me her blessing to spend $1,500 on a new camera, little does she knows lol.

That's for the new camera... She didn't say anything about not spending more money on lenses, right????

Ok, shot with the beercan yesterday, the Tamron 70-300 usd. My ultimate conclusion, the Tamron is a much better modern lens, and a much better telephoto in regular light. But it is still more than twice the price than the beercan. Making the beercan an excellent value + the beercan has an extra stop on the telephoto end. And the beercan remains an excellent "art" lens and portrait lens, as it produced outstanding bokeh.

 

[havoc315]

So vultures invaded the neighborhood:


feb-23.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr
(note.. fake sky since the real sky was totally blown out)


feb-35.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr


feb-62.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

And 1 much cuter bird:


feb-36.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

Hey guys I have a buddy who just picked up an A77 and is getting some weird exposure issues when firing in continuous, he thinks he was in P mode and spot metering and noticed the first shot kept coming out way over exposed but the rest turned out fine. Also the EXIF data was the same for all of them. You guys heard of this happening and maybe know why?