Getting to know Nikon.

Hi Friends,

Nikon and I have been getting to know one another lately.  It’s been going well.  In this post you heard me tell all about why I switched to the dark side.   Since taking the plunge,  I’ve been practicing, practicing, practicing and I can report that the differences you’ve heard about Nikon & Canon are absolutely true.  I was emailing with a couple photog friends about this the other day, and we’ve all come to the same general conclusions.  Here they are:

1.) Canon’s colors are much more saturated SOOC.  But that’s an easy fix, so it doesn’t bother me at all.  It’s actually sort of cool because I found it harder to get light & vintage-ey looks out of my Canon than I do out of my Nikon.  But, with a little Photoshop work (very little) I can match the color saturation from my Nikon to that of my Canon work pretty easily.

2.) Verdict is still out on overall “sharpness” but the AF is completely different.  I was always a “focus then re-compose” shooter rather than a “utilize the AF points” shooter, and I’m finding this challenging with my Nikon.  However, since there are a zillion or so razor sharp AF points on my Nikon, it’s no biggie.  I just switched how I shoot.

3.) It is incredibly easy to blow out images in Nikon.  Nikon just flat out lets in more light, which I am loving, but it’s true about blow-outs. You’ll hear a lot online about the ISO capabilities, and I’m at the point where I no longer think it’s about the ISO capabilities, but it seems that Nikon & Canon’s ISO’s are just fundamentally different somehow, which changes the overall Camera’s capabilities.   I’m not nearly TWACish enough to be able to tell you how, though.  They are, truly, two different animals.

4.) As a designer, this has been incredibly enlightening.  Literally.  I’m finding that all of my textures, presets, actions, etc. are showing up much lighter and brighter on images that I shot in Nikon vs. images that I shot in Canon.  This is beginning to explain a lot about the mixed reviews you hear online regarding different actions & presets. And it’s  another reason to focus as much as possible on getting your image correct in-camera.

5.) From a students perspective, I’m starting to think that it may be fundamentally essential for workshop instructors to spend some time shooting both.  In fact, SO much makes sense to me now based on both my personal workshop experiences and those that I’ve discussed with my friends – mainly how two different people can have two such different experiences – and I think a lot of it comes down to whether or not the instructor shoots Nikon or Canon.  If I ever decide to teach someday, I am incredibly thankful that I will have shot with Nikon (my Nikon experience will have been extensive at that point….if it ever happens) and Canon.  The differences are huge, and I just don’t see how you can teach photography effectively to an audience of mixed-shooters if you haven’t shot at least a little bit with each.

Alrighty, I told you all I would keep you up to date, so there you have it.  Now, here’s a few practice images on what was, I think, my second non-familyish shoot since the big switch.

This little girl belongs to an artsy Mom-friend of mine who is always up for anything.  Even dragging her daughter out into 40ish degree windy weather.  She was a trooper. I grew up in Texas.  I was stinkin’ cold.  Therefore, I forgot to close my aperture a bit (1.4 caused a few eyes to be out of focus) and I didn’t even bother changing my AF point because my fingers were numb to the bone.  Did I mention we were by the water?  Even colder.  I’m setting up a studio in my garage.  It has been decided.

I really loved how the colors turned out in this one.  I didn’t touch her skin.  I ran her through Lightroom, sharpened her eyes a tad, ran my “Angel Glow” action and multiplied the edges a tad.  Took 5 minutes.

 

Here I was just playing around with black & white conversion, contrast, and a “High Pass” technique.  Nothing fancy.  Again with the AF spot I was too cold & lazy to change….

The PP on this was incredibly easy.  I ran “Angel Glow”  (Erin shows you how to achieve “Angel Glow” for Elements users here) and sharpened her eyes a tad. Painted on a little blur here and there.  One of these days I’ll do a tutorial on blur for you all, but not today.  I’ve got a work-out to get in, a play-date to prepare for and a house to tidy up.   So for now, gang, it’s back to my day job.

Until next time….

xoxo – PB