soooooo many photos

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i took some photos this past saturday. and when i say “some” i mean 165. although i only posted 28 of those, trust that there are some other keepers that will make an appearance at a later date. some test shots will get trashed, esp the ones where i was just playing with settings (white balance, ev compensation, flash settings, etc). even the ones i delete, though, provide a valuable learning experience, because i now (yes, right now) know the effects of my “messin around.” that’s why i’m so excited: saturday really allowed the power of shooting digital to sink in. how will matrix metering expose this? should i spot meter? what compensation do i need to dial in? did that stupid idiot get in the shot during the long exposure? is 1/15s really too slow to handhold, or can i keep it steady? i’m sure some of you have asked yourselves these (and countless other) questions while shooting. with digital, shooting has become less of a technical process and more of a creative one. this isn’t to say non-digital shooting isn’t creative, that couldn’t be further from the truth. but i always found myself wondering about how things would look… of course, the “film is cheap” adage is true, and bracketing to get the perfect shot is usually successful. the only problems for me were having to wait to see the results and having to remember (or write down) what shots were taken with what settings.

not only am i now able to check some of the trickier shots on the spot and make adjustments, but i also get to enjoy a complete workflow 180. (i’ll post more in detail about my workflow soon, promise…) the speed increases are just mindblowing. i used to wait at least a day (sometimes a few) to get my slides back, and while that was always exciting, it put a major damper on the learning process. once i got them back, if they were all there, i’d scan the ones i liked. do some curves, some sharpening, then resize and upload. now i’m posting the photos a few hours after taking them. shoot, resize, upload.

what’s also amazingly helpful is that the shots are stored with the shooting data – that means i can visually compare shots on the puter with various settings and see exactly what yielded the best results. the time savings here alone over needing to write in a notebook eqaute to more shooting time, and having archived shots for various shooting conditions can only help me later. “ok, so it’s night, and i have a close unlit subject in front of bright background. ah, that worked, great!”

the financial “savings” are important, too. take the film costs: average $5/roll for velvia (from b&h including shipping), which works out to 36-37 slides. then say $8/roll processing (somewhere decent), you’re already up to $13/roll. yesterday’s shooting would have cost about $52, not to mention my time spent scanning the 28 i liked. the more shots i take with the d100, the better the value. sure it’ll take a while to break even, but i will, guaranteed.

anyway, i suppose this turned into more of an infomercial than a real post… but i’ve been meaning for a while to get these thoughts down. and what better place than here for y’all to see and enjoy?!?! i promise, i’ll post about my specific workflow soon. until then, check the pics and let me know what you think!