Mikey
Veteran
- Location
- Louisville, KY
Had the great fortune of shooting a couple of aerialist dancers at a recent photo meetup in Lightspace Studios in Brooklyn, NYC. I was simply blown away with how acrobatic they were (not to mention they were all also easy on the eyes).
I was amongst a group of about a dozen photographers with everyone else sporting either a Canon or Nikon full frame body. I did see a Df amongst them which I have to say didn't look as butt fugly in person.
I'm proud to say the X-E2 (with high performance mode and face detection set to ON) held its own against CaNikon. I used the 56/1.2 primarily at f/2-2.8 (depending on how much light I needed) and at times the 18-55 for versatility (all the photos below were with the 56 with the exception of the aerial silk dances here where I used the zoom). All were at ISO 1600-3200 (continuous light sources) with the exception of the aerial silk dances which were shot with strobes. FD helped quite a bit for those valuable milliseconds to capture the model's expressions while swirling in mid-air. For shots where the FD wouldn't latch on, I didn't have any problems AF'ing in the center and recomposing quickly. I did not need to turn on burst shooting for the shots below (I did use 3fps for some of the faster dance performances [not pictured here]).
Now this trio doesn't have a troupe name yet. But I'd like to introduce them individually to give them proper credit...
Meet Brenna Bradbury-- she has a darling personality that exudes in her photos.
Meet Megan Hornaday -- a prima ballerina with an impeccable elegance to her. She has a Facebook page -- Log In or Sign Up to View
And last but definitely not the least, meet Sarah Sadie Newett -- she's a little stick of dynamite that packs quite a wallop. I still can't believe how she's able to contort her body quite effortlessly. She has her own website -- Sarah Sadie Newett
Out of 800+ shots, I can say that 2/3 to 75% nailed focus. Except since I was using the 56 for most of these with fast moving subjects, I had to throw away quite a few due to framing (cut-off limb, too close to the edge, etc). Around 300-400 shots were using 3fps for the faster dance performances -- I discarded images that looked too similar.
I also had a couple of interesting findings from that day, namely:
1) The 56/1.2's AF is noticeably faster than the 18-55. I guess I never noticed that before. It might be that the 56/1.2 benefits more from high performance mode which I've only used one other time at a St. Patty's Day parade.
2) I used to get no more than 300 photos on a single charge (I use non-OEM batteries) but then again I chimp a lot and use the in-camera RAW converter (which really eats up battery juice) a lot. That day, I just kept on shooting. Got home with 800+ images. I did have to switch batteries but by my estimate only a 150 or so frames were from the 2nd battery.
3) For some shots (not the ones posted here) where I used burst mode shooting, I noticed that my RAW files were underexposed by 2/3 to a full stop and had to fix it in JPEG.
I have quite a few more faves (including ground stills) from that same day on my Smugmug page -- http://mikeyhuang.smugmug.com
Thanks for looking!
I was amongst a group of about a dozen photographers with everyone else sporting either a Canon or Nikon full frame body. I did see a Df amongst them which I have to say didn't look as butt fugly in person.
I'm proud to say the X-E2 (with high performance mode and face detection set to ON) held its own against CaNikon. I used the 56/1.2 primarily at f/2-2.8 (depending on how much light I needed) and at times the 18-55 for versatility (all the photos below were with the 56 with the exception of the aerial silk dances here where I used the zoom). All were at ISO 1600-3200 (continuous light sources) with the exception of the aerial silk dances which were shot with strobes. FD helped quite a bit for those valuable milliseconds to capture the model's expressions while swirling in mid-air. For shots where the FD wouldn't latch on, I didn't have any problems AF'ing in the center and recomposing quickly. I did not need to turn on burst shooting for the shots below (I did use 3fps for some of the faster dance performances [not pictured here]).
Now this trio doesn't have a troupe name yet. But I'd like to introduce them individually to give them proper credit...
Meet Brenna Bradbury-- she has a darling personality that exudes in her photos.
Meet Megan Hornaday -- a prima ballerina with an impeccable elegance to her. She has a Facebook page -- Log In or Sign Up to View
And last but definitely not the least, meet Sarah Sadie Newett -- she's a little stick of dynamite that packs quite a wallop. I still can't believe how she's able to contort her body quite effortlessly. She has her own website -- Sarah Sadie Newett
Out of 800+ shots, I can say that 2/3 to 75% nailed focus. Except since I was using the 56 for most of these with fast moving subjects, I had to throw away quite a few due to framing (cut-off limb, too close to the edge, etc). Around 300-400 shots were using 3fps for the faster dance performances -- I discarded images that looked too similar.
I also had a couple of interesting findings from that day, namely:
1) The 56/1.2's AF is noticeably faster than the 18-55. I guess I never noticed that before. It might be that the 56/1.2 benefits more from high performance mode which I've only used one other time at a St. Patty's Day parade.
2) I used to get no more than 300 photos on a single charge (I use non-OEM batteries) but then again I chimp a lot and use the in-camera RAW converter (which really eats up battery juice) a lot. That day, I just kept on shooting. Got home with 800+ images. I did have to switch batteries but by my estimate only a 150 or so frames were from the 2nd battery.
3) For some shots (not the ones posted here) where I used burst mode shooting, I noticed that my RAW files were underexposed by 2/3 to a full stop and had to fix it in JPEG.
I have quite a few more faves (including ground stills) from that same day on my Smugmug page -- http://mikeyhuang.smugmug.com
Thanks for looking!
