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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/800 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mounted Archer Whispering to His Horse
I posted a bit the other day (here and here) about catching the tail end of the Jidai Matsuri (時代祭, “Festival of the Ages”). Here are some more from early on in what I shot. (Having just returned from a long-weekend trip, I'm pretty much behind on everything.)
When I first got out there, the parade had stalled for some reason, so I got a long opportunity to photograph the mounted archer seen above and in the second link, and having not failed to immediately notice my not-so-subtle 300mm f/2, he pranced a bit for the camera, which I really appreciate.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/800 sec, f/2, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Over-the-Top Processing
For something different, I went a bit overboard on the post processing, recalling the similar treatment of a similarly-mounted archer (but an actual archer instead of an actor) now hanging in a print on my wall, as seen in “Dabbling in Some Fine-Art Printing for My Office”. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I like this kind of presentation.... occasionally.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/6400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Context
a benefit of shooting with two camera bodies
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/800 sec, f/2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Razor Thin
one eye is in perfect focus
This photo illustrates just how thin the depth of field is at f/2 at 300mm.... his right eye is in perfect focus, but because his head is tilted slightly, the left eye is out of focus. Of course, it was pure luck that I got this... he and his horse were continually in motion.... and if they would have paused, I would have liked to focus on the other eye (generally, it feels more natural when the closer eye is the one in focus).
Now a few shots of some folks that followed once the parade started moving. I was limited mostly by there being but a few angles where I could get a reasonable background, but the limited depth of field certainly helped when the subject was close.
In the photo above I was able to avoid washing out the rich color of his robe, but was not able to keep the detail in the fabric without compromising the whole thing, but just to show what's there, here's a crop of the same shot with the exposure brought way down....
Detail Lost in the Highlights
crop and reprocess from the photo above
For the washed-out red robe, would auto bracketing been helpful, or was the DOF too narrow given all the motion for it to be useful?
The data’s clearly in the normally-exposed one picture… it’s just too subtle to show up when displayed normally. I can’t help but feel grumpy that this problem is an artificial side effect of imaging technology, rather than a true technical limitation. —Jeffrey
JF4_007418.jpg is a super image, one that makes a powerful connection between viewer and subject.
Tom in SF
That’s “Razor Thin”. Yeah, he was looking right at me. Thanks for the kind words(!) —Jeffrey