complete wedding proofs p1: M8 & D3

[Jamie Roberts]

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I don't know if anyone is interested in this or not, but I get so few chances to actually post finished (for the Web) images here during wedding season that I thought I'd just link out to a set and see what people think...

 

These are from a very recent wedding in Toronto; a Hindu ceremony for the Hindu bride. The day was long--shooting from 7 AM till 11PM at night--and I probably left way too many marginal shots in this proof set.

 

It's interesting too, to see how the M8 keeps up with the D3 through the day as well. In my work, it truly holds its own.

 

FWIW, while the D3 is the undiputed high ISO champ, it's meter and ISO is about a stop slower than the M8, so ISO 1250 on the D3 is about equivalent to the M8's 640. Interesting, no?

 

Anyway, I won't waste many more words here. Here are the first 450+ shots from the day. If anyone wants, I'll post the rest next week.

 

All the "DSC" files are the D3. All the files with "L" in the filename are the M8, this time almost completely with the 24 Elmarit 2.8 and the 35 Lux.

 

It's worth it to note that I use the M8 less than the D3 during the first part of the day precisely because I have a wider FOV on it; the D3 supplies the 50 / 85 FOV, and I favour the more normal FOV. However, I have nothing for the Nikon that comes close to the quality of the 24 and 35 Leicas...

 

Comments welcome; remember these are only proofs straight out of the RAW converter, unsharpened, uncropped, and not optimized for print or Web yet. I hope you enjoy them:

 

James Roberts Photography--proofs

[azzo]

...... " Comments welcome; remember these are only proofs straight out of the RAW converter, unsharpened, uncropped, and not optimized for print or Web yet. I hope you enjoy them: "

 

 

 

Yes, I did enjoy them Jamie.

Lovely work, both in colour and in b&w. Thanks for sharing.

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[stuny]

Jamie -

 

A superb series and a stunning bride. Many members do not click through a link unless lured there by a striking image postred directly here. I suggest adding one or two images directly here to lure people into clicking through. Good luck selecting which to place here.

[Jamie Roberts]

Stuart, Ivan,

 

Thanks so much for the kind words. As I said, I don't often get to post much of the work, so it's nice to get the feedback!

 

A very good suggestion about posting a couple of pictures, so I will... I hope people have a look at the set, too.

 

Both of these are with the M8 and 24 Elmarit, BTW.

 

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[roguewave]

Jaime, I must say I think the D3 did a better job than the M8 for interior images. I'm surprised by the depth of the color & the hues. The D3 really shines in the backlit shots over the M8. Are these proofs straight out of the cameras or did you apply some form of presets? Thanks for this informative post. I wish we had more like this to chew on, forum-wide.

[india]

great work Jamie looking forwaerd to your next posting

 

warm regards david

[biglouis]

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Jamie

 

First off, respect! A fantastic collection and fascinating to see someone's workflow presented in this way. BTW, the bride, her family and the groom are all very photogenic, or at least you have achieved that with your work!

 

Although the M8 holds its own the D3 shots are often stunning in terms of luminosity and dynamic range. Can I ask which lens(es) you used for the D3? I am continually tempted by the idea of a D700 and 50/1.4 for interior portrait type work (not that I do much) hence my interest.

 

LouisB

[Jamie Roberts]

Hi Ben,

 

It's interesting about the D3 and the M8--I find them very complementary, which says a lot both for the D3 and the M8

 

On the interior shots, and especially for extreme backlighting, I actually prefer the Leica by a long margin (that's a glass statement as much as anything--if you look at some of the extreme backlight black and white M8 shots of the band you'll see what I mean). I actually couldn't have taken those with the D3 precisely because the lenses are too flare-prone for that kind of thing (they have more detail than you may guess from the proof size).

 

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In this particular set inside the ceremony, however, the D3 had a couple of advantages beyond just higher ISO availalbe...

 

The first was an extra flash triggered remotely due to a pocket wizard that the M8 did not have. I was shooting a lot more on the M8 with available light (and, it needs to be said, sometimes running up against the limits of the Elmarit and ISO 640; still, I can shoot it under 1/30th s. and I just can't do that with the D3 easily ).

 

Having said all that, I also generally find the CCD from the M8 has more contrast and saturation than the D3 shots (these are with the standard profiles from C1) so I try to back off the contrast a wee bit on the M8 knowing I can do more in post for print.

 

Finally, the M8's Elmarit shots are uncoded. While I don't find that has a huge impact down the processing road so to speak, it may make some difference in the vibrance of the reds in particular...

 

I also have to say that skin tones with the D3 were a struggle to normalize. It took me a couple of months and a lot of colour work to dial them in, but I'm pleased with them now.

 

Having said all that, given the D3 is multiple generations past the M8, I think the M8 holds up really well, and I'm very pleased with the D3 as well (and will be fitting some of my R glass to it too

 

More to come!

[Jamie Roberts]

@ David--thanks so much!

 

@ Louis--I don't think I'm saying anything bad here by praising Nikon's d700 / d3... they are stellar SLRs and since Leica isn't "in that game" anymore () I'm relying on them more and more. When everything comes together for them they are fabulous, it's true.

 

I use 3 lenses a lot on the Nikon. First, the 85 1.4 Nikkor is slow-ish to focus but is really nice and sharp and the bokeh is very, very good.

 

I can't wait to see what an 80 R Lux looks like

 

Next the longest lens I use is the Nikkor 135 f2, which is also great; the tele shots are all taken with that.

 

The surprise here is the 50 1.4 I use 80% of the time (and that is responsible for many of the stunning shots). It's the new Sigma 50 1.4 Aspherical. For its price it's the best 50 I've seen for the Nikon (if you get a good sample, which mine is apparently). It's not cheap as Sigmas (or Nikkors) go.

 

Is it an M or R lux? Not a chance; it's not even as characteristically nice as the 85... But it's still great, though I think I destroyed it in wedding during a thunderstorm on Saturday... it's apparently not sealed well at all But it's fabulous value for the money.

[biglouis]

The surprise here is the 50 1.4 I use 80% of the time (and that is responsible for many of the stunning shots). It's the new Sigma 50 1.4 Aspherical. For its price it's the best 50 I've seen for the Nikon (if you get a good sample, which mine is apparently). It's not cheap as Sigmas (or Nikkors) go.

 

Thanks for letting me know about the lenses. Before going down the Leica route I was a Nikon user and probably one of my best lenses was my Sigma 10-20, so I'm not surprised that a Sigma lens can be that good.

 

LouisB

[Guest Bernd Banken]

Jamie, phantastic shots which we can see here - and can learn from it!

 

But, as I know from the German Nikon forum: It's a must to use the Nikon Software Capture NX (2) for developping the raw files. For me Lightroom is the choice but the last fine improvements can be done with Cap NX.

So C1 software has it's limits for NEFs.

 

Cheers

Bernd

[Rolo]

Jamie,

thanks for sharing the proofs. Really good insight.

 

Can I ask how you work with the two cameras, the lens set-up (fixed & different, or overlapping) and what your criteria is for switching from one to the other ? Both round the neck at the same time, or one at a time ?

 

I really prefer to use my DSLR and M's on a hand straps, but am happy to carry the M8 on a neck strap. I do prefer he confidence that AF gives me, but in good light, with verticals around the M's are fine. Ta.

[Jamie Roberts]

@ Bernd--thanks for the comments! When my busy season winds down, I will check out Capture NX... for now I'm very pleased with what C1 is giving me! Since I adjust pretty much every shot (especially for white balance) I wonder what else NX would give me?

 

@ Rolo--I use both the D3 and M8 around my neck, actually, and I have a couple of film Ms in the bag as well (the Ms are so nice for portability!)...

 

I generally shoot the M8 wider and the D3 longer, so 24 & 50 or 35 & 85 or 50 & 135.

 

Late at night I usually switch, though, and the M8 gets a 50 Lux / Nocti or 75 Lux and the D3 gets the 35 f2.0.

 

Why? Because the M8 is actually much easier to focus than the D3 in low light, because the AF--though it's the best available today--loses its stuff completely in candlelight and on the dance floor really quickly (I don't use focus assist because I hate sending out a preflash or red signal!).

 

These are from a different wedding, but they're still Nocti shots in near-total-darkness where the D3 gave up I'm using a PocketWizard on the M8 to trigger a small strobe bounced into the ceiling about 15 meters away :

 

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