tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Last weekend I was at a Christmas party with my wife. The host and hostess insisted that I bring my camera and be the "official" photographer.

I shoot with a Sony a580 and I use a lot of Minolta lenses because they are cheap and do an excellent job. In this case I was using a Minolta 28mm F2.8 prime because the place was rather small.

I love reading the reviews online because I also like to laugh and be happy. Most of these people doing the reviews do not know what they are talking about nor do they know what Sony is trying to accomplish. In other words, they are full of S@#& and don't shoot real world pics when testing.

I was fighting all sorts of lighting issues in this house. You can take a shot that is good and just turn 1ft. away and the next shot would be all yellow or green or something.

Sony goes all out even on their less expensive cameras. Not only do they have a custom white balance (duh), But they have RGB color filters that of course can be set individually, but you can also use a filter within a filter. This is a very cool feature. It sure came in handy on this particular night.

Anyway, at the spot I took this photo, we were behind a Ceiling mounted 4 tube fluorescent fixture with a lower hanging incandescent lamp with a yellow shade. To make things worse, the people put red and green incandescent bulbs in their can lights which ran throughout the main floor. Saying it was terrible is putting it mildly.

It only took a moment to set the balance temperature and to set the in camera filters to offset the red and green bulbs. It maybe took 30 seconds to do this. This can be an eternity at a party like this. Fortunately for me, these guys had patience.

I don't think I could have done any better. I then turned on my bounce flash as a fill in order to eliminate some of the shadows as best I could. The resulting picture was still excellent. There is a little banding in this one only because it is one that I saved a little too small only because I was sending this as an email and no one would notice anyway; even sober. The original is just fine. I shot this in RAW by the way. Also, the shirt on the guy on the right lights up and flashes if you may have noticed.

Sony Goes all out.

Cheers!

F2.8 @ 1/60 sec. ISO 400

angler Loc: StHelens England

Your too technical for me Tainkc, i'll have to check out both my Sonys now to see if i can do all this.Great shot.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Yes. Check it out. Even my a500 can do this. I found all this out one night just by accident. Then I did something really unusual for me-I read the manual.

angler Loc: StHelens England

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

Very nice Tom. But that is what it takes to get great shots. Knowing your camera and knowing what it can do. I have shot Nikon for a long time. And all my old lenses still work. Not that I use them a lot. But it is fun to play with them. I am just now getting things to look right. And as you know I don't do a lot in post. But if you get it right coming out of the camera. You don't have to do a lot. But I do spend a lot of time setting up the camera. There are things I run across in the menus, I don't know what they are till I get out the book.:) Almost as bad as the computer.:) But I would like to learn how to do some of the stuff I see you and the others doing. I am always in awe seeing what folks do to enhance their shots.
Erv

richnash46 Loc: Texas

Excellent shot!

:thumbup: :D

Joyfullee Loc: South FL

Well done Tainkc!

Last year at Christmas, I took my first photos on Auto because I had no idea how to use Manual for indoor photos and get a good shot. I didn't want to miss the family Christmas shots and there's no chance for a "do over."

You did good! :thumbup:

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

I am terrible about this also. There is so much in my camera that I have not even touched upon yet. Same thing goes for photoshop. If I did not set up as best as I can within the camera, I would really be screwed in post.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Thanks for looking. Normally, I shoot in jpeg because I have no need to shoot in RAW and this saves file size. But when I am in circumstances like this, I do not hesitate to shoot in RAW. RAW gives me more control in post when shooting in piss poor lighting conditions.

I have yet to shoot a single pic in either auto or program modes. I shoot a lot in aperture priority over manual mode because I am lazy.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Thanks, Rich!

robbygb Loc: UK

Sony Goes all out.

Cheers![/quote]

Well said tainkc.
I have 3 Sony's, a Canon and a Nikon and 2 point and shoot's ( my toys) Still learning this art of photography but prefer the Sony's over the others. Very under estimated are the Sony camera's . The dedicated Canon and Nikon user's should give them a try, they may be pleasantly surprised!!

:thumbup:

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

Very well done !

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Well said tainkc.
I have 3 Sony's, a Canon and a Nikon and 2 point and shoot's ( my toys) Still learning this art of photography but prefer the Sony's over the others. Very under estimated are the Sony camera's . The dedicated Canon and Nikon user's should give them a try, they may be pleasantly surprised!!

:thumbup:[/quote] I think so too. And I do not mean to take away from Nikon or Canon either. They are fine products.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Thank you!