Here is my first contribution to the As-Shot section. Here is the story:
I got a new full-frame digital camera from B&H Photo in New York: Nikon D700. It came by UPS about two weeks ago. I also ordered the kit lens which is a 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 VR. This lens doesn’t have a great reputation. Most people think its mediocre. Ken Rockwell writes “Forget the kit with the 24-120mm lens. The 24-120 VR is among Nikon’s worst lenses ever”. Read Nikon’s 10 Worst Lenses. The lens vignettes when wide angle (24mm). It sounded like a good idea at the time. I thought it was a bargain only adding $300 to the package. Oh well.
To get familiar with my new camera I went to downtown Cleveland and walked around taking pictures. I was there from about seven in the morning until about five o’clock in the evening. Cleveland is a great town to spend the day in.
Cleveland’s Key Tower
The Key Tower is a skyscraper in downtown Cleveland. It’s the tallest building in Cleveland and Ohio. In fact , it’s the tallest building between New York and Chicago. Read about the Key Tower on Wikipedia. I think it’s a beautiful classic skyscraper. Completed in 1991, 57 stories and visible from 20 miles away. The next time I’m in Cleveland, I’ll see if I can get to the top.
I shot this picture after lunch at 2PM in the afternoon. Midday is not the best time for shooting people, but I think it is a fine time to photograph architecture. I looked up and I liked the angle of the Key Tower and the way the one side was lit and the other in shadow. It is a textbook way to light a box to show the 3-dimensionality.
I decided to put some other buildings in the foreground to add depth to the picture. Fortunately, there were already there so I didn’t have to move any ten-story buildings. I just had to pick a spot to stand that included them in the frame. I don’t recall the name of the buildings in front, but I liked the pattern formed by the dark windows against the lighter facade. The curved glass building has wonderful reflections in the smoked glass.
The camera was set to shoot RAW+JPEG and this picture was shot with everything on automatic–Auto ISO, Auto WB, Programmed Auto-exposure (matric metering), and Auto-focus. All I had to do was frame the shot and voila! Perfect exposure. The result could be checked on the back LCD screen immediately. Some people call this “chimping”. If it’s chimping, then call me Cheeta–I’m gonna check every shot. The D700 is some incredible technology from Nikon, even with one of the worst ten lenses ever!
Exposure Details
Digital cameras are amazing with all the information they record. I used to have to write stuff down in a notebook or on scraps of paper, which were often thrown away. Here are the details: focal length=66mm, ISO=1600, WB=5036K, f/16 @ 1/1000. It’s all in the meta data in the jpeg.
I am surprised that the computer chooses 1600 ISO in bright daylight. If I were still shooting slide film, I would have loaded the camera with 100 ISO daylight transparency film. For exposure, I would have applied the old “Sunny 16″ rule which would have been F/16 @ 1/ISO. So the D700 exposure computer increased the exposure by about 2/3 stop (1/1000 sec instead of 1/1600 sec). This makes me wonder if ISO 1600 on the D700 is really 1600 or is it 1000.
The RAW NEF file was developed using RAW Developer 1.8.5 on a Macintosh using the Camera Default (D700) Settings and RDv182 Nikon D700 Normal Input Profile. And, of course, no editing or adjustments whatsoever.
