Photoshop Insider

Yesterday I flew up to Atlanta for the day to shoot the Atlanta Braves vs. the Washington Nationals at Turner Field. Despite the sweltering heat (and the Braves loss), I had a blast shooting, and hanging out with Braves team photographer Paul Abell.

I didn’t really have time to go through all the shots, since my flight got home last night, but here are a few that caught my eye upon import in Lightroom (the shot of me above was taken by Paul with my iPhone). Click on any photo to see a larger view—I think they look much better larger, too)

I also didn’t have much time to really do anything to these except sharpen them and tweak the exposure a bit.

I was shooting my Nikon D3, with a 200-400 f/4 VR lens, mounted on a Gitzo monopod. I shot wide open at f/4 most of the day in Aperture Priority mode. I wanted to keep my shutter speed around 1250 to 1600 of a second (to freeze the action), so I had my ISO set between 200 and 320 most of the day, based on the light at the time. Most of the shots were taken from the 1st base dugout, 3rd base dugout, and behind home plate. Later in the day I went up to the first deck to set a few shots shooting down, but most were taken from field level.

Two interesting things to note:

1. What a difference a year makes: The Nikons outnumbered the Canons (only by one, mind you, but come on—that’s sayin’ something).
2. Turner Field recently instituted a policy which a lot of ballparks have started to enforce and that is they no longer allow fans to bring in pro cameras with lenses longer than 5″. Apparently, some fans were literally coming to game with 400mm and 600mm lenses; shooting the game from the stands, and then selling the images cheap online, so the ballparks have started cracking down across the Major League.

Thanks to Paul, and everyone at the Braves for a really great day !

This was taken first thing this morning (click for larger version) at my photo workshop in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains (in about 33° chilly weather—brrrrrrr) in an old fashioned Grist Mill in Cades Cove. This really nice guy (named Kevin) was working in the Grist Mill and was nice enough to pose long enough for me a click off a few shots (he even let me move him into some decent light). I’ll post some more shots from this morning, but I had to fly out tonight (it’s a long story) so I’ll miss tomorrow’s shoots (rats!). Had an amazing time teaching at the GAPW workshop, and had some absolute first-rate photographers in my class as well. I taught quite a bit; met some really wonderful people, and made some great new friends. I guess that’s what these workshops are really all about—learning, laughing, and making new friends. Not a bad way to spend a few days. Thanks to GAPW for allowing me to be one of their instructors—I had an absolute blast!!!!

P.S. Did anyone notice I finally spelled “Smoky” right?

Here’s an 11-photo pano I shot at yesterday’s dawn shoot (It’s the low res version, but you can click on the photo for a larger view). We were hoping for more atmospheric effects (fog), and some clouds, but neither really showed up, so it was just a nice morning to be shooting, minus the really good light. Late yesterday afternoon before our sunset shoot, I showed the class how to set up their cameras for shooting panos, and how to make sure that Photoshop would not only stitch them together perfectly, but blend the colors and edges so it was seamless. The pano shown here stitched together on the first try (using Photoshop CS3’s PhotoMerge). I’ll post a few more later today, but we’re heading out for our dawn shoot now (it’s kinda chilly out there this morning!). Have a great day everybody!

He spends his career on the other side of the fence, so I thought it might be cool to shoot him sitting up in the stands (the view he usually sees of the spectators). I like how clean and simple the look is, and I especially like all the numbers on the seats—it just adds something. You can’t tell from this photo, but Corey is acting as a VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) just to the right of Miguel, one seat over–just out of frame. (Scroll down for one more photo, and below that for the Thursday News Update post).

My best buddy Dave Moser finally got to shoot his new Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye lens out in Yosemite. He gave me this fisheye shot taken while we were shooting at Yosemite Falls (that’s our buddy Marvin Derezin in the orange jacket shooting behind me. He wore that bright orange color to increse the likelyhood that he would be mauled by bears). Thanks to Dave for sharing this!

I took this shot last night (click for the larger version) using 2 Nikon SB-800 flash units: The first was mounted on a Bogen light stand, with a Justin Clamp on top to hold the flash. This SB-800 was fired thru a Lastolite 33″ 1-stop tri-grip diffusion panel to soften and spread the light. The second flash was placed on the floor to the right of the subject using the tiny stand that comes with the SB-800, (the subject is John Graden, one of the best known names in the martial arts industry. He needed the shot for an upcoming article about him in a British martial arts magazine). It was taken with a Nikon D-200, with the SB-800 set to wireless remote, so I could control the power of each individual flash from the camera itself.