tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59486958290011430492012-02-16T18:25:57.357ZShooting with Nikon's ISO busterBRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-60840886276811642792011-11-12T18:37:00.001Z2011-11-12T19:44:11.461Z

Rolleiflex SL66E, 40mm Distagon, T-Max 100 THE ONLINE DARKROOM I suppose in some ways, after starting a blog about the Nikon D700 almost three years ago, it's odd to find myself writing this post. When I bought my D700 I was shooting almost exclusively in digital. Now, I've gone back to film. I haven't shot anything else for a couple of months and I can't see myself returning to digital.

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-87449518560249446572010-01-03T20:29:00.001Z2010-01-03T20:36:36.034Z

In case you weren't aware, I have two photography blogs on the go. One is devoted to the D700 and the other the Pentax K10D, the camera I had before I bought the Nikon. It isn't the best arrangement so I've brought the two together into one new blog, Photography Matters. I'll still be writing about Nikon and Pentax stuff but I'll be able to widen my approach rather than being restricted to just

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-62828923835540349942009-12-29T19:13:00.000Z2009-12-29T19:13:37.429Z

It's not often I'm up early enough at the weekend to catch the first light but I did manage to grab a few moments last Saturday when there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground. I was driving to an appointment but decided to stop when I saw a nice light on this small stream.The photographs here were taken with the D700 and my 28-105 Nikkor. There's a nice colour contrast between the cold tone in

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-20107746587822813752009-12-18T15:32:00.006Z2009-12-18T15:49:19.404Z

Everyone loves a sunset - which is why I hardly ever shoot them. Throwing that principle out of the window, here are a couple I took earlier this week. We'd been out doing a spot of Christmas shopping but I'd thrown the D700 outfit into the boot just in case we passed anything worth snapping.On the way home the sky began to colour up nicely and I made a detour through Broughty Ferry, once a wee

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-13035117903429734252009-12-17T18:29:00.008Z2009-12-17T18:48:44.817Z

I'm on a one-man mission to burn as much fossil fuel as possible to see if I can't, singlehandedly, give global warming a big boost. Climate alarmists are forecasting two to three degrees of warming over the next century but that's never going to be enough to make Scotland's climate enjoyable.I'd say about five degrees would do the trick nicely. To achieve that, I'd probably have to increase CO2

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-71218046363461070492009-10-16T14:47:00.013+01:002009-10-16T15:21:34.161+01:00

Is it art or artifice? I can never quite make up my mind. The photographic snob in me rejects it but I have to admit that some HDR images can be quite striking. I think the trick is to see them not so much as "photographs" but as "images", a side-shoot off the main branch of photography, if you like.Anytime I've tried HDR, I've always preferred the look of photographs taken indoors. Having seen

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-46429555814881990592009-10-14T14:36:00.001+01:002009-10-14T14:36:30.333+01:00

I'm going to break one of my own rules here and post something political. It's something I've tried to steer away from because I'm aware that many people read blogs as an escape from everyday things and don't necessarily want to be reminded of the world's troubles. Sometimes, though, the issues at stake are just too large.The one I'm concerned about is the European Union. I believe it's an

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-57405538028824518862009-10-02T11:51:00.008+01:002009-10-02T15:17:20.505+01:00

Ken Rockwell is continuing to behave in a strange manner. He used to go on about how the camera wasn't important, how megapixels didn't matter, how sharpness didn't matter and how he only shot jpeg as raw was for chumps. That was Old Ken. New Ken seems not to be the same person, leading to speculation that he has been taken over by some alien life-form, possibly emanating from the German town of

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-57478167761049429102009-09-19T22:54:00.003+01:002009-09-19T23:25:19.922+01:00

I'm trying to get back to shooting more black and white and have been experimenting with the D700's monochrome setting. It's quite easy to set the camera up to shoot raw files that record rgb information and a high quality jpeg in monochrome. I've also set the camera to shoot with the equivalent of a red digital filter in place, boosted the contrast a little and applied the lowest level of

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-33658900211951464172009-09-16T12:14:00.013+01:002009-09-16T18:36:50.864+01:00

D700: One ugly melon farmerM9: One handsome beastLeica's new, full-framed M9 has caused quite a stir from what I can see, particularly in Ken Rockwell's sunny Californian retreat. As many of you will know, Ken's a "love him or hate him" kind of guy who does an excellent job of polarising opinion. Of course, that's a prerequisite for anyone who wants to drive large amounts of traffic to a website

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-57439652922652898452009-09-14T19:11:00.004+01:002009-09-14T19:24:39.147+01:00

I had a run up by Balintore to check out the renovation of an old mansion that has been something of a start-stop affair. I first stumbled upon it about 20 years ago and, despite several abortive attempts to restore it, it seems to be falling further into disrepair. A real shame.Anyway, the road through this glen is a single-track affair and it weaves its way past some nice countryside. It was a

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-53630255969383574432009-09-08T12:53:00.005+01:002009-09-08T19:14:04.148+01:00

I've written before about the East Neuk of Fife on Scotland's East Coast. It's quite a small stretch of coastline but it has some lovely wee villages that offer a lot of photographic opportunities. Elie is one of the southernmost villages and, on the day I visited it, the weather was uncharacteristically nice - for Scotland, that is.I took the pics above with the D700. Pics 1, 2, 5 and 7 were

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-64400679026397072142009-08-20T00:57:00.005+01:002009-08-21T11:11:39.308+01:00

I was lying on my back the other day having some fun with our bichon frise, Molly, when I looked up at the ceiling and thought, "I wonder how that would look through a 20mm lens". Getting hold of the D700 and the 19-35mm Tokina lens I have was easy. Explaining to my son's pals, who had just come in, exactly what I was doing lying across the threshold of my bedroom door pointing the camera at the

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-54427927661358303642009-08-19T01:45:00.007+01:002009-08-19T15:06:49.131+01:00

It was the late Garry Winogrand who said that if you want to get a lot of street photographs then you should go where a lot is happening. There's an undeniable logic to that. It's difficult making a name for yourself as a street photographer if your base is a quiet market town with streets largely devoid of people. My home city of Dundee, population around 145,000, can't truthfully be described

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-6366627445307913572009-05-12T12:36:00.008+01:002009-05-13T13:18:59.313+01:00

I've been reading a great blog by US photographer Kirk Tuck which inspired me to take a few portraits using the D700. The post that made an impression on me was all about Kirk's love for medium format and the way with, say, a 150mm lens at f3.5 on the 645 format, the focus drops off beautifully from the eyes. The portrait he uses to illustrate the post is fantastic and you can see it here.I did a

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-4392374300109549812009-05-03T23:36:00.012+01:002009-05-04T12:37:30.332+01:00

Inspiration, for a variety of reasons, has been hard to find lately - as you'll have noticed by the dearth of posts. The muse can be a flighty bird and sometimes it just takes off, finds a perch somewhere out of sight and forgets to come back. However, there are signs that I'm beginning to get some enthusiasm again - and I hope it's not all down to the new lens I picked up off Ebay.I've been

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-38315388351139989352009-02-02T11:23:00.004Z2009-02-02T11:31:41.330Z

Is the popularity of the all-conquering zoom lens on the wane? Are photographers starting to place quality before convenience when it comes to deciding which bit of glass to pop on the front of their digital SLR?Zooms, for all their points both good and bad, have had things pretty much to themselves over the last couple of decades. For most people, most of the time, their sheer flexibility

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-87011995580164071472009-01-30T11:00:00.000Z2009-01-30T11:53:07.836Z

In an effort to keep file sizes down, I use Photoshop's "save for web" setting. It makes a good job of crunching images down to a reasonable size but I have to say that it can sometimes have a disastrous impact on noise.I was a bit shocked when I saved the two pics above. They were shot at ISO 2,500 and were slightly under-exposed. Pulling out the shadow detail - and there was plenty there - has

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-21845719072950879552009-01-26T12:20:00.000Z2009-01-26T12:21:55.717Z

These new flats have been built just across the road from the famous Championship golf course at Carnoustie in Scotland. I was out walking the dog with the D700 in my free hand when I cranked up the ISO to 6,400 to grab a shot.Having by now become used to the D700's outstanding performance at ISO levels up to 6,400, I'm now going to crank it up even further to see what sort of results I can get,

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-13365829449770940992009-01-22T19:30:00.000Z2009-01-22T19:46:47.113Z

As befits a fishing town, boat-building was once a sizeable industry in Arbroath on Scotland's east coast. Now, there's not too much activity left with only one or two concerns still producing vessels and on a small scale.This photograph was taken as the light was beginning to go and I was prowling around the harbour with the D700 and my 28-105 and 70-210 Nikkor lenses. I used the tele zoom at

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-52589234299029034212009-01-19T10:49:00.001Z2009-01-19T17:15:09.771Z

The biggest photographic fault I have is a desire to inject some atmosphere and drama into my pics. This usually takes the form of some heavy post-processing. In fact, provided the composition is sound, it's surprising the difference some Photoshop work can make to some fairly unpromising images!I admire some photographers who manage to produce quiet little shots of quite ordinary subjects and

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-23176926213403069182009-01-16T11:30:00.004Z2009-01-19T17:14:56.714Z

During the film era, the only bokeh (a word that just refers to out of focus areas of a photograph) that drew any attention was that produced by mirror lenses whose characteristic doughnut-shaped, out of focus highlights offended some sensibilities, mine included. That's why I never used them, despite the fact that some were very sharp indeed.In this great digital world we now inhabit, bokeh can

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-45368711236159547582009-01-15T13:30:00.001Z2009-01-19T17:14:44.475Z

If you read Ken Rockwell's site, you'll probably realise that he shoots only jpegs and likes to get everything right in-camera so there's no post-processing required. He also shoots everything with the camera's vivid setting cranked way up. I'v been trying a similar approach but I don't know yet whether I like it.On the one hand, the colours fairly leap out at you from the monitor but, on the

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-67320136935560967962009-01-12T08:00:00.001Z2009-01-19T17:14:29.717Z

The ability to stop a speeding train was once the preserve of superheroes but anyone with a Nikon D700 can do it now. Those who aren't impressed by the D700's high-ISO talents often like to mention their camera's anti-shake qualities - in-body or in-lens - or the simple use of a tripod as alternatives in low-light shooting.What anti-shake or tripods can't do, however, is allow the photographer to

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-22527671391934637412009-01-10T22:59:00.001Z2009-01-19T17:14:17.321Z

Carnoustie in Scotland, where I live, is famous as a golf mecca but even the locals here aren't mad enough to venture out onto the links after dark, despite the fact this sign near the starter's box might suggest otherwise!

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-75569344736786885442009-01-06T22:28:00.005Z2009-01-19T17:14:05.372Z

This is a quiet little scene I took when out for a walk the other day. Westhaven was once a small fishing village that has now been subsumed by nearby Carnoustie - itself hardly a giant! It has a different feel from the town, however, and I hope I've captured that in the photograph.I'm not exactly sure how much fishing still goes on - what there is must be pretty small scale judging by the amount

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-71387675922556786622009-01-06T15:37:00.003Z2009-01-19T17:13:47.909Z

In the years before the internet, photographers liked to discuss the esoteric qualities they associated with certain lenses - mainly Leica glass, it has to be said - but usually were only able to do so once a week at their local camera club meeting. Today, the finer qualities of lenses - both real and perceived - are debated ad nauseam on countless web forums generating, as the saying goes, more

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-62909904971968645762009-01-05T10:13:00.001Z2009-01-19T17:13:30.885Z

.I've been a bit conscious of the fact that many of the photographs I've posted have been night scenes taken with the D700 on high ISO settings, so here's something a little different. For a start, there's actually some daylight around which makes a pleasant change.This is a view of the River Tay on Scotland's east coast. I got away from work early on New Year's Eve and drove a few miles along

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-7657722588270487962009-01-03T00:39:00.002Z2009-01-19T17:13:13.809Z

Never having enough time for photography, I tend to photograph whatever happens to be at hand when I'm out with a camera. Given some time, however, my favourite type of photography is black and white street. Definitely not the kind of street photography, however, where you hang around on street corners and openly blast away at people as they walk towards you, capturing faces that show surprise

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-36842609485721909252008-12-31T09:40:00.001Z2009-01-19T17:12:55.373Z

I started writing this blog for people who bought Nikon's D700 and who might find it interesting following my trials and tribulations getting to grips with a camera from a different manufacturer than I was used to. But it has occurred to me that there may be people reading it whilst trying to make up their mind if a full-frame camera is the way to go.If so, I know exactly what you're going

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-70713556812986846542008-12-29T23:06:00.009Z2009-01-19T17:12:39.327Z

It can only be a matter of time now before I'm reported to the authorities for lurking on street corners with D700 in hand. This particular corner is a favourite of mine because of the angular road markings. Usually, though, a street scene is enlivened by the inclusion of a figure or two and that's what led to my lurking.This was a nice, foggy night, perfect for some atmospheric street shots but

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-60578057892280552982008-12-26T23:56:00.011Z2009-01-19T17:12:21.884Z

I've been trying to think when we last had a white Christmas but I honestly can't remember. Scotland isn't exactly renowned for it's great weather but our winters have been getting milder and snow is a comparative rarity. We probably get a couple of snow falls each winter but they never really amount to much and the snow only lies for a day or two.The weather on Christmas Eve was more typical of

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-74059363026772248262008-12-24T15:58:00.013Z2009-01-19T17:11:59.334Z

.Carnoustie is roughly on the same latitude as Moscow or, putting it in a US context, almost as far north as Sitka in Alaska. The weather, thankfully, is much milder but the days are just as short. It doesn't really get light enough to switch the car headlights off until about 8.45 a.m. and it's dark by about 4 p.m.Most days during the working week, that means I'm not in a position to take any

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-16906639049650887252008-12-22T12:59:00.004Z2009-01-19T17:11:41.995Z

. Time for photography is difficult for me to find at the best of times. At Christmas, it's well-nigh impossible to find. That's something that is really annoying when you've just bought a camera like the Nikon D700 and all you want to do is get out there and do some shooting.As a result, any spare time I can find I've been driving the six miles along the coast to Arbroath harbour where there's

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-81246145317127681572008-12-18T09:44:00.003Z2009-01-19T17:11:28.914Z

.On my first foray out of doors at night, "prowling" the quiet streets of Carnoustie with the 35mm f2 and 85mm f1.8 Nikkor primes in tow and revelling in the freedom, I decided to set Active D-Lighting (I'll call it ADL from now on) to "high".This adaptive dynamic range setting helps control the extreme tones in a photograph by slightly toning down the highlights and opening up the shadows. It's

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-77103863706552410432008-12-16T19:44:00.004Z2009-01-19T17:11:14.992Z

.I love Baudelaire's interpretation of the French word "flaneur" - gentleman stroller of the streets. I'm not sure about the gentleman part but wandering city streets with a camera in hand is high on my list of favourite things to do. Now I have the Nikon D700, I've become a nocturnal flaneur, able to capture night-time scenes whenever I choose. I prefer Paris but usually have to settle for

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5948695829001143049.post-16643482562933527132008-12-12T12:58:00.019Z2008-12-15T10:34:20.932Z

A new blog is always a challenge but keeping two camera blogs fed and watered will be fun! About 18 months ago I started a blog dedicated to the Pentax K10D, a superb camera with a great range of high quality and compact lenses.Now, I've added a D700 to the stable for its full frame, low-light capabilities, easier differential focusing and better processing of jpegs (to hopefully speed-up my

BRUCE ROBBINSnoreply@blogger.com0