Istanbul - Reflection of the 12 hour shoot.

I'm now back in the UK. I have been for a few days, but with other commitments I've only now just sat down to look at my work. Overall I'm pleased with the results. I had a sneak look on the flight home, but couldn't quite asses the sharpness of images.

I experienced some technical difficulties on my extended shoot. I have always used my camera set to 200 ISO. Aperture priority at f2.8 - I like the effect of dropping off the background focus, although this of course means the foreground goes as well... more so at a longer focal length. I was aware of this issue as I reviewed shots, and more so worried about my cameras focusing system.

I've included two images below. It's very frustrating as I had high expectations of these. The focus was either not right or more so at a later junction the shutter speed resulting in camera shake.

I might be able to still use this if reproduced at a smaller size - however I have sharpened over 100%

I took a few of this guy and it's a real shame as I loved his pose

I was able to resolve my issues by then changing the camera to 'Auto' ISO and setting a range of no less than 1/100 of a second, and no higher than 3200 ISO. That was the camera would chose the lowest ISO and retain quality. I made this judgement based on experience using Adobes Lightroom 3 and it's impressive noise reduction. (previously experienced in editing ballet studio shoot - link)

Although I lost these two images I was able to get many more. I addressed my issues whilst shooting. I had to also consider technical factors relating to styles of shooting. These are apparent and will be evident in the final edit of 12 hours.

I had to change from A - Apt. priority to P - Program so that the Auto ISO would allow enough depth of field for candid from hip. I also had to change the lens back to wide for those images. Then reset the setting for A for my portraits.

Considerations for future:

I need to wake and get going earlier. I think I only had 10-15 mins at the start in the first hour (starting later than planned)

Fatigue - thankfully the weather was good, and I was able to stop and rest. At times I would sit for a good 5 mins. It was necessary as my photography was suffering. However when the thoughts of failing came to my mind, sure enough an amazing photo 'op came about.