Wednesday 26 August 2009

Two Almost Good Pictures

"Grumpy Old Men" - GRD III, f1.9, 1/140, ISO 1600, RAW

"Looking Back" - GRD III, f1.9, 1/90, ISO 1600, RAW

After work I went on to take a few pictures and decided to see how the GRD III fares when using ISO 1600 in low light for street photography.
I got some blurry pictures and some ok pictures but these two pictures I have posted are my favorites, yet neither is perfect.
The first picture is slightly blurry although the shutter speed is high enough but would have been great otherwise.
The 2nd picture is again one I really like and not blurry, the Snap AF set to 1m worked great, unfortunately I did not notice two raindrops on the lens which kind of ruin this picture.
Guess the lesson is that you can have the perfect opportunity for a picture and nail the decisive moment to take the shot but the picture can still fail.

11 comments:

  1. Awesome. Reminded me of a good street photographer's work. I need quicker target lock and I think GRD III has the answer. I'll probably trade my GX100 to this. I really need a quick AF.

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  2. Shame about those rain drops, they ruined a great shot.

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  3. Disagree: Those rain drops work great, and the picture is superb.
    Not sure about the first: I think you somehow needed to be closer, but I realize that the subjects were quite unwelcoming and maybe that explains the camera shake (being in hurry) and the blurriness despite the shutter speed. The technical shortcomings such as dirty lens or camera movements add to these kind of images.

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  4. Also continuing from above: I think your b&w photography can benefit from a slightly more pronounced contrast, adding more impact to images. I realize this is a matter of taste-it is also a way to make otherwise dull pictures look interesting. So I can understand your cautious approach to PP, but still...

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  5. I agree with Anon: the rain drops work in some way, giving the picture a nice edge. Really like it!

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  6. Thanks for your comments guys! This turned to a very interesting post. I will reply to each individually below.


    Thanks for your comment! With the GX100 you will have very fast AF if you use the lens at 24mm and fullpress the shutter or use Snap AF. This was also more thanks to the Snap AF but it helps taht the GRD III allows you to customize the distance.

    @Yesbuts
    I agree, the raindrops kind of spoil the picture a bit but they maybe even add to it as some people have mentioned.

    @Anonymous
    Thanks a lot for your comment!
    I find it very interesting.

    For the first shot, the people were not welcoming but I was more in a rush to get out of the rain and wanted to get some of the station entramce but I agree that it was taken too far and too much in a rush.
    The second shot was taken immediately after the first so this is where the rain maybe spoiled the picture a bit but maybe added to it.

    I usually prefer a high contrast for my b&w pictures and agree with you on that. The rerason they lack contrast is me being somewhat unfamiliar with the best approach to process GRD III RAW files using RAW Therapee.

    @DLC
    Thanks for your comment!
    I was not sure about the raindrops but afetr both your comments I think it actually works quite well in some way. Maybe with more contrast as suggested it would be even better.

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  7. Cristian , the second photo is amazing , with raindrops and everything.
    Just love it !

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  8. Thanks for your comment Alex!

    I am glad I posted these pictures, the comments are very interesting and it seems the 2nd picture is quite popular and the raindrops don't really take away much.

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