I've done a simple field test. (1)Fu Hai Feng pics was taken by Canon 30D +EF 70-200 f/2.8 L USM Setting: 1/320, f/2.8 Aperture priority, ISO 1600, focal length 200mm, tungsten WB. (2)Lee Chong Wai pics by Nikon D70s+AF 80-200mm f/2.8D ED Setting: 1/160, f/2.8 Aperture priority, ISO 1600, focal length 125mm, auto WB. The outcome of the photo is comparable at size 8"X10". The acuity of Nikon photo is better, while the color noise of Canon is much lesser. The 5 fps of 30D is very useful to increase the chances of taking good pics, and using the tungsten wb & aperture priority setting is very reliable. The wb of over 90% of the pics were corrected. Comparing the auto wb & aperture priority in D70s, the files were very fluctuated with different grade of yellow to brown color which consumed much time in post processing to correct every file. The results were similar when I took pics at indoor badminton court without spotlight. I wonder whether D200 can perform more stable. I was very fortunate to borrow a press pass for a while to take court side photo in SF of China Open. It's the first time I can feel CJ, CH, XZB, ZYW were very close to me, their footwork were so fast. I out-focused many good pics as I was not familiar with the AF system of 30D. Finally, I found AI servo with 9-focusing point, shutter priority at 1/400, ISO 1600 for court side pics was helpful. It will be much better if I got f/1.4 or f/1.8 primes. Welcome to visit other pics at http://www.fotop.net/anitachan. I used D70s for HK Open 05 & 06, 30D for China Open.
I shooted in jpeg this time as I only have 5.5GB CF that is not enough to cover 2 days tournament. In fact, I hurried to find a shop around Tian He for transferring the SF photo from CF to DVD last Sunday morning. It took 1 hour for the whole process. I may need to buy external HD in future.
have u done something to those two pictures with photoshop? at the beginning. i thought cai yun's picture was taken by a nikon (too contrast) and lcw's picture was taken by a canon! (more nature) but i was totally wrong!
LCW's pic should be a RAW pic with PP. Cai is a Canon JPEG with perhaps little PP. In camera processing might account for the contrast.
The edges of both pics were sharpened and color balance of LCW pics was adjusted in Photoshop. Cai's pics was more concrete may account for higher shutter speed (1/320 & -1/3EV) compared with 1/160 of LCW, and 30D showed less color noise than 70s. The wb setting of Cai's pic should be white fluorescent light instead of tungsten light, while LCW's pic is auto. I attached the original files for accurate comparison.
now lcw's pic looks more like being taken with a nikon. but as for cai's pic.......it's still a bit too much contrast and in fact, from my eyes it's a bit over exposed as well. i found cheung's pictures also got that "too-much-contrast" problems. (u may check his from the hko 06.) is that the matter of 30d? so anita, how's your tone compression setting of your 30D? high, medium or low? shooting with digital is somehow like shooting with slide. i mean we just can't do much adjustment on an over exposed image.
I agreed the contrast is a bit high with 1/3 overexposed. I used "standard" picture style of 30d, that is 3 in Sharpness (0 to 7), 0 in contrast (-2 to +2), 0 in saturation (-2 to +2). How about yours? There's no a fixed pattern of Cheung's hko 06 pic, mixture of little over & little under exposure . He can consider to use Photoshop for minor adjustment .
Hah, where got so much time for photoshop and PP (postprocessing)? My camera has sharpness 5, contrast 0, saturation +1, colour 0 I agree about the exposure in my shots. I set to manual but got a bit excited and forgot to check histogram when I change positions. I'll try to do better next time. Actually, I'm very much of a beginner when it comes to judging colour tones and contrast. If people where to give me a bit of feedback on the shots, then I could try to strike a balance where most people think the colours are good. It's a bit of experience as well and I'm not familiar with adjusting colours on the monitor. All these colour manipulations are like another science! Have to reinstall all my software now so no playing around with photoshop for the time being.
you've increased the sharpness & saturation, do you use this setting for all pics or just for badminton pics? At the begining, I learnt the color tones & contrast from a photo lab which has good reputation. I tried to adjust the color balance of 5 pics by photoshop and then asked the lab to print both with and without editing. The direct print help calibrating my monitor, and I can learn pp by comparsion of 2 pics and consulting the lab staff. Try to imitate what the lab staff did on the pics. I viewed many pics and downloaded those good pics of different badminton tournaments esp. Red's photo, you will then find the differences more easily. You're already very devoted to BF & BC, I understand you may not have extra time to manage photoshop. Thanks Red's suggestions on using photoshop and understanding the RGB color on 29 Sept 06. "as of color correction. i m using "curve". sometimes using "level"to adjust the colors. in photoshop. just choose image > adjust > curve or image > adjust > level. but first of all, u've gotta understand 6 basic colors. they are red, blue, green and cyan, yellow and magenta. and u also need to know how they affect one another. u may take a look at this site. http://www.rgbworld.com/color.html once u know the relationship of those 6 colors. it will never be difficult to correct your photos." It only takes 1 to 2 mins for each file.
I think I used those settings on all shots. Do you think my HK Open shots are oversharpened? How do I know if a lab has a good reputation? Do you have any recommendations on HK side? Thanks for referring back to Red's advice. Sometimes good information can get lost.
Actually, I don't think your pics were oversharpened. I am just curious that you've changed the default setting. I select the one at Stephen's Lane, nearby Centre Street & Bonham Road. Most of my pics were developed there, they use Fuji printer, so called magic hand that has better output than Kodak printer. However, the lab staff is very cool, I was humble to talk to him many times, but he is not open to give advices. Just say " it is difficult to tell you, our printer is not same as what you use in photoshop". I compared it with Color Six at Stanley Street, of course the color is more accurate from Color Six, but at least very close.
That's common in HK - not sharing information. I had a problem with one of my bosses with this. At least he had a problem with the rest of the hospital as well so it couldn't have been me being the main problem Maybe it's shop people in general in HK. I was looking for a hard disk storage box that can fit more than one drive (hard disk drives can be changed like a cassette). A couple of guys said they don't exist!! Of course, there are some good guys around. (this is getting away from the point) Do you mean prints have less accurate colours when from Colour six?
About the sharpening, some forums on the 30D said the pics from the camera are less sharp in the default setting. So I changed the setting as I don't do much PP.
I mean color from Color Six is more accurate. I printed the 8R pic from these two shops, the printout from Color Six is able to differentiate purple clothes of Fedex cheering team clearly from navy blue fence. In contrary, the two color is quite close from the other shop.
I was also not noticed any portable HD box can fit more than one drive when I visited Golden Centre last Sat. I was planning to buy one with CF card reader installed after the hard time in China Open. There were few shops in B1 of Golden Centre mainly selling external HD. It's around the stair walking down from Fuk Wing Street entrance. Why do you want to fit 2 together? Is it because you need very large storage size? say 150GB or more. For me, 80GB is large enough to carry aboard and storage all pics for a whole tournament. It's designed for easy transportation. I just bought TDK scratchproof DVD-R prepared for backup of the pics in Golden Centre. It is more reliable, it claimed "100 times more scratch resistant than conventional discs". $130 for 25 discs. Someone recommended that it is more reliable to storage in DVD than portable HD.
he's a liar! . in the past, it was! but now........... next time just check their printer. if there is a monitor on their printer. that means the concept of using it is the same as using photoshop. they said that beacuse they don't want u to argue with them about bad printings! one more thing. if u know how to read the back print (those numerals and letters at the back of the print.) u will even know what filters and density did they use to correct your picture. they can't hide away from bad prints!
