Jack Dangermond at Where 2.0
Usually when I dig through my conference photos after wrapping things up, I see alternative (and sometimes fairly extreme) crops that I like. Sometimes I like these crops more than the original photographs. Here’s one of Jack Dangermond, a perennial speaker at the Where 2.0 Conference. For those that read along, the full photo this crop is from is used as an example in the previous post. I didn’t quite mean to do that.
Meta note: I’ve been thinking about putting these kinds of close crops out for a while. They’re fun and also give a venue where I can actually put the proper amount of sharpening for viewing on screen at this size and such. Let me know what you think!
4 Comments
I'm with you... Post more of those crops. I love those things.
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Ronald, cool. I'll cook some more up then! :)
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I like the close crops where there is a striking contrast with the background.
How are you focussing? Using the auto-settings of the Nikon? If so, under what conditions does auto-focus not work?
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Rob, thanks! I'm using the 51-point AF super-gee-whiz tracking of the D700. I select my initial focus point manually and then, as I hold down the half-press of the shutter, I watch the focus point track what it's locked on to.
In these situations where you've got flesh tones against a contrasty background (either black or other staging), the AF lock is pretty good. The biggest thing that will throw it off once in a while is if a speaker gestures with a hand motion that crosses in front of the currently active lit-up point. Then, sometimes the system will start tracking the hand. Doesn't happen often, but this sort of thing does crop up from time to time.
I've also had a bit of bounce back and forth when I've had two people of similar complexion in front of each other. Only a few times tho that I recall.
The great thing is that when the AF system does start tracking something else, you can see it by the point movement in the viewfinder. I wish there was a good way to show this in a video... :)
Now, not all my frames are quite this sharp. But, I've found that if I can sort out the right initial starting point and make sure that the track of the AF points doesn't go somewhere off, I'll get really good results as long as the rest of my technique with the long lens is solid.
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