Wonderful photo documentary - how'd they do that?

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5- 5.6G ED DX

09/26/2008 03:48:38 AM · #1

Just watched this wonderful photo documentary Saving Lives in Ethiopia.

I was astonished by the clarity and richness of the color - how do you think this was achieved?

Every image had the same beautiful rich depth of colour, and the DOF was sublime.

Any hints on how such consistency would occur? Is it the equipment? Or the Post Processing? Or something else

JeffryZ

Nikon D80

09/26/2008 04:47:25 AM · #2

They probably were touched up some- but probably not a lot. Look at the lighting too- soft, overcast probably. No harsh shadows. This allows for better detail and less washing out of colors. Plus these were probably selected from hundereds of if not thousands of images. I once read that National Geograpic only prints about one shot in 10,000. Still some really nice work. I would say probably an excellent photographer, nice equipment (although this is not a requirement- probably a fast lens to deal with low light situations), and some post processing.

09/26/2008 06:40:32 AM · #3

Thanks for answering.

I forgot to mention that these images may upset some people.

Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

09/27/2008 12:46:24 AM · #4

Anyone else?

ryanbp

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

09/29/2008 03:59:53 AM · #5

I just saw the pictures and the same question popped up in my mind. The sun's light wasn't harsh during the time this was taken so that would have explained the good color contrast. I'm waiting for someone to share their opinion about the dof since i can't pull off more than f/8 with that kind of lighting. If I go beyond F/8, i would already have a slow shutter speed.

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon

09/29/2008 04:13:12 AM · #6

Lets bump and see if anyone can add knowledge to this.

jdannels

Nikon D300s

09/29/2008 05:01:24 AM · #7

I would have to say alot of it is the light. I went on a workshop to Bali with

librodo where he focused on natural light portraits. Most of the time we shot really early in the morning as the sun would come up in markets, so the light had direction but wasn't too intense. If we shot later in the day it would be in places with filtered light through trees or markets with covered thatch roofs. This way the light was soft. Also shoot with fast lens, I had my 50 mm 1.8D on 90% of the time when shooting portraits. Manny had a 17-55 and 70-200 VR at 2.8. If I had to guess anything else it would be the photographer used spot metering as the faces and point of focus are well exposed.

Here a couple of mine, early morning or indirect light.

Here are librodo's

Here are some from leschick.

Hope this helps, its just my guess. :)

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

09/29/2008 05:12:53 AM · #8

Thanks Joe - thats exactly what I wanted to know!

mchalmers

Nikon D90

10/01/2008 11:08:18 AM · #9

There is one photo where a few people are carrying umbrellas. So it was most likely very overcast, which explains the soft lighting.

smurfguy