Saturday, October 18, 2014

On the Sidelines with the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8

Last evening I travelled to Oneonta, New York to shoot some of the action at a NCAA Division III women's soccer match between Hartwick College and Union College. I was positioned to one side of the goal right off of the goal line behind the dasher boards.

This positioning with the Sigma 50-150mm lens allowed for nice framing of action in and around the eighteen yard box and from the box to the sideline on my side of the field. I stayed put for both halves to get both defensive and offensive players.

Lighting was somewhat typical for artificially lit outdoor fields. At ISO 3200 and wide open at f/2.8 I was able to shoot at 1/500th and 1/750th of a second. Here are four examples. I added 33 images from this match to my gallery at http://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/hartwick2014.

All images are made with a Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma lens.










Monday, October 13, 2014

Greater Than the Sum of It's Parts

After making some shots at a night time outdoor party last evening I concentrated on a Halloween luminary sitting on a wooden retaining wall, hoping to get a nice shot to use as an iPhone background. I hand held the camera with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM wide open at f/1.4 and ISO 800.

For one sequence I bracketed 5 shots +/- 1 EV. Shutter speeds ranged from 1/15th of a second to 1/250th of a second. I then processed the files in HDRSoft's newest version of Photomatix Essentials, choosing the "Balanced" preset.

Just for fun, here are the five individual images followed by the end result. A version of the final processed image has been added to the iPhone 5 and 5 [s] wallpapers page which you can visit here.


normal exposure 1/60 sec.

-2 EV 1/250 sec.

-1 EV 1/125 sec.

+1 EV 1/30 sec.

+2 EV 1/15 sec.

HDR processed image


Friday, October 10, 2014

Fall Continues on Peebles Island

Here are a few shots from this morning's walk around Peebles Island State Park in Waterford, New York. All are five file HDR processed images +/- 1EV using HDRSoft's newest version of Photomatix Essentials.

These images were made using Sigma's 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM lens mounted on a big Bogen tripod and magnesium ballhead with remote release. The exposure information is for the normally exposed image. The shutter speed varies with each bracketed image so the shutter speed for the -2 exposed image would be four times as fast and the +2 exposed image four times as long, etc.


118mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

150mm, f/8, 1/90 sec., ISO 100

50mm, f/8, 1/180 sec., ISO 100

Friday, October 3, 2014

Fall on Peebles Island, Again

Yes, I've made a ton of photographs on Peebles Island over the years. Particularly during the year long trails scenic project which began in March, 2012. This morning's trip is different only to the extent that I used a different camera body, a different lens, different processing software and was careful to use a tripod and cable release.

Each of these images was processed with HDRSoft's Photomatix Essentials 4 which was released only yesterday. Each image is a composite of 5 bracketed files, each 1 EV apart.

The location is Peebles Island State Park in Waterford, New York, at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.