Howdy!
Regarding number 2: What you "see" in the view finder (or without a camera
for that matter) is NOT what's there. When you look at a real world object,
you are perceiving it through what is possibly the most sophisticated visual
processing system ever produced on this earth! Not only will the iris change
with the lighting conditions, it will change to adapt to the subject or even
specific areas of a subject that you are interested in - and without the
mistakes that cameras make trying to guess what you are interested in.
Further, your brain processes the image to include filling in details that
you can't see in such a manner that you can't know that it's doing it. For
example, you have a blind spot in your eye where the optic bundle converges
and turns inward to become the optic nerve - yet you are NEVER aware of this
hole in your visual sensor (eye)! You have to trick your perception system
to demonstrate the existence of this hole in your visual loss! If that's not
enough, your brain can, to some extent, adjust the apparent sensitivity of
your retina, and it can do it variably to the specific areas of interest to
you! This does not happen with film. What's there is what you get. For these
shots, you need to use fill flash. Doing this well is not a trivial mount
the flash an shoot job. One needs to know how to balance the light from the
flash with the ambient light.
Regarding 1 & 3, I shoot Pentax equipment mostly; I have no "N" stuff.
Therefore I cannot help. When I have questions regarding my other brands of
photo equipment (Graflex, Argus, Sinar, etc.) I go to sites & lists specific
to those brands or types. Personally, I wouldn't dream of discussing any
brand of equipment on a list devoted to different brand of equipment. It
just seems... impolite and mildly offensive to me. But then that's just me.
Don't read too much into it.
Regards,
Bob...
--------------------------------------------------------
"Art is not a reflection of reality. it is the reality of a reflection."
-Jean Luc Godard
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Tortorella" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Hi all,
>
> Since I have a new, more "advanced" body, the N80, I tried taking
> some shots I would have avoided in the past. The results were awful--
> not one good shot on the entire role, a miserable 0-for-24 (Kodak
> Gold 200).
>
> In the past, I would avoid two types of shots: 1) indoor shots and 2)
> outdoor "high sun" shots in the fair weather months (i.e. during the
> hours of about 10:00-4:00). In doing so, I have assured myself
> decent, but not necessarily perfect, results. Since the N80 has a
> better metering system (10-segment) and a pop-up flash that is
> supposed to be pretty good, I figured: "let me see what it can do."
> As I have said, the results were dreadful. Here are the main issues.
>
> 1) Every indoor flash shot showed at least moderate spotlight/wash-
> out effect of the subject (people).
> 2) On the outdoor "high sun" shots, the camera turned a seemingly
> minor shadows (through the viewfinder) on the subject's face into a
> black blobs that covered almost all of the subject's face.
> 3) When taking indoor shots with the flash, I would meter (10-
> segment) something like 1/30 or 1/45 or perhaps 1/60 at, say, f2.
> With the flash powered up, I do not think it ever metered
> differently. For example, 1/30 at f/2 was still 1/30 at f/2 with the
> flash enabled. Is this correct, or is there something wrong with my
> camera?
> 4) The one decent shot in the whole role--an indoor shot using only
> available light...go figure?--was spoiled by some sort of small speck
> on the subject's face. I usually keep my filter free of dust, etc.
> Could this speck have appeared as a result of the cheap processing I
> used (Wal-Mart C-41)?
>
> I know that using a fill flash may have alleviated the problem
> expressed in issue number 2, but, since I have had my subjects turn a
> bit ghastly by using the flash, I am hesitant to use it indoors or
> outdoors. I would appreciate any advice or commentary (or even pep
> talk), as I am pretty down about this. What good is a more
> "advanced" camera if I cannot even come remotely close to
> satisfactory results on the more difficult shots (i.e. indoor, "high
> sun," etc.)?
--
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