In prep for that editorial shoot I've been using the G11 for more than street/scouting work. Shot a fitness model today and she asked for some beauty style images.
I used the G11 with a 580EX II speedlite in a Cameron beauty dish.
Not my usual subject for a beauty shoot but Katie is so energetic, easy going...and fit!
I processed/retouched it exactly as I would the files from my other bodies. Actually I pushed it a lot further in order to see at what point the file fell apart and then backed off a bit for the final output.
Shooting dets are F/4.5, ISO 100, and 1/200th sec shutter. I enabled the face detection rather than choosing focus points manually.
1) The shutter lag is painful. Nuff said.
2) Using the LCD instead of the viewfinder (which is poor) is uncomfortable.
Ok 3 things:
3) The file can be pushed in post well beyond what I expected. I did about 20 layers in PS CS4 for toning, smoothing, contrast, hue/saturation, sharpening etc...and it stood up to all that without becoming too much of a mess.
Alright 4 things:
4) using the LCD to compose/focus means that your shifting the camera around in the air until the image is exposed...I found that the models are confused as to whether they should follow the camera or my face...usually the camera is stuck to the latter.
All things being equal...I ain't mad at the G11. Serious shooting requires a mental effort to do things differently but it definitely works.
I would bet that if you showed this to most people, and they asked what lens/body combo you used; they wouldn't believe that it was done with a "P&S".
Great job. I had a G10 I think (or G9?) and while it is a great camera, coming from a DSLR it made me appreciate the "ease" of use that the big bodies provide.
Nice shot. I have a g10. I find the shutter lag is less with the viewfinder (slightly). I have used it with bounce flash, but never in studio type shooting. the iso 80 produces great images, but the tonality is no where as good as 5d2. I wonder how you think the images hold up to large prints (say 16x24). I think they will be more than adequate for a 2 page spread.
kevindar wrote:
Nice shot. I have a g10. I find the shutter lag is less with the viewfinder (slightly). I have used it with bounce flash, but never in studio type shooting. the iso 800 produces great images, but the tonality is no where as good as 5d2. I wonder how you think the images hold up to large prints (say 16x24). I think they will be more than adequate for a 2 page spread.
The largest I can print is 11X14 on my Epson R1900...I'll let you know how it looks when I get around to ordering a black cartridge from amazon!
I printed that large on many files from my 1D classic body without a hitch though...but there is definitely a different quality at the pixel level between these two.
MrAdventure wrote:
That was the point. I wanted to see how much processing it would stand up to. I'll post a conservative retouch when I get through all the editing.
In my opinion, this should have been your first post, about using the G11 on a fashion shoot, and not the second or third
That being said - the grey background is a toughie for me, on processed shots, as it breaks into color splotches and graininess relatively quickly. I see some of that in your G11 shots, and am reminded of my struggles :-(
How do you recommend cleaning something like that up? Or at least, what your most "efficient" recommendation, at least for web posts?
I think your shot held the highlights fairly well, on a sensor that I could never hold them with myself. Nice.
sirimiri wrote:
In my opinion, this should have been your first post, about using the G11 on a fashion shoot, and not the second or third
That being said - the grey background is a toughie for me, on processed shots, as it breaks into color splotches and graininess relatively quickly. I see some of that in your G11 shots, and am reminded of my struggles :-(
How do you recommend cleaning something like that up? Or at least, what your most "efficient" recommendation, at least for web posts?
There is no order here man. I'm posting as I try "new" things with the camera. This image here is aggressively sharpened for a test print that I expect to perform in the next few days. As such I didn't really bother with the noise/gray background issue.
By the way, that gray background is actually a white wall. I lit the subject about 5ft away from it so it would fall to gray. It's easier to see where the file is "tearing" up when the background isn't pure white.
As for how to deal with the noise issue...toughie. That depends on how it prints. I'm thinking it won't show all that much in print. If it does then I will process it in DPP or LR3 to see what can be done. LR3 makes pretty short work of noise.
So the model went through the contact sheet from the shoot. The sheet was a mix of frames from the G11 and 7D. She picked 5 that she liked for retouching, including this one I'm posting:
She couldn't tell the difference between the full-res images on a 21" monitor. Of course I can tell them apart at 100% with trained eyes.
This image is sharpened right to the limit for printing which much to my shock...went very well. The print was bright and had a very nice noise grain in the shadow areas. Not quite film-like but smooth.
I'm psyched for the editorial shoot now. The only issue is the shutter lag.
