How I See It

Nice shots! Good demonstration of the wide capabilities of the S2 in various shooting scenarios.

Don't assume that because I post more structured and controlled shots here, that I don't also use the S2 for other more spontaneous styles work.

However, I admittedly still gravitate toward the M9 for the type of work you are showing in this blog thread, mostly because if I used the S2 for it, the M9 would hardly get any use ... LOL!

Again, nice shots !!!!! Keep posting, we need more postings!

-Marc

Marc, I should have probably worded it a little differently. I am certain that you are able to use the S2 for whatever you wish to use it for ... I've looked in admiration at many of your images over the past several years on various forums.

I'm guilty as charged, though, for using the S2 as a 'rich man's M9' ... as a 35mm system ... as a point and shoot ... and as a system with a large sensor for landscapes and whatever else comes along. I jumped in with both feet and have found that the system covers more ground than I imagined. It's interesting that even though we've traveled down separate roads in system adoption, we've arrived at the same conclusion.

Although I sometimes miss my M9, I've begun to incorporate a flash more readily into low-light situations (a big step for someone who's always tried to avoid it). I've been experimenting with shooting the S2 with flash at fast apertures. The upside is that I get more detail and plenty of extra room to maneuver and crop a scene to fit the outcome of what I have in mind when I am shooting it. While it's not a substitute for the look of a Noctilux ... I'm happy with the trade-off ... extra versatility, killer detail and flexibility.

Kurt

Originally Posted by fotografz

Nice shots! Good demonstration of the wide capabilities of the S2 in various shooting scenarios.

Don't assume that because I post more structured and controlled shots here, that I don't also use the S2 for other more spontaneous styles work.

However, I admittedly still gravitate toward the M9 for the type of work you are showing in this blog thread, mostly because if I used the S2 for it, the M9 would hardly get any use ... LOL!

Again, nice shots !!!!! Keep posting, we need more postings!

-Marc

Great stuff Kurt. I also like the colored ones from the other blog entry. Like to see more of this and would also be interested in getting more info on how you use the flash. What are your experience? Which flash you are using... what mode you use. I have the SF58 and have it only used rarely but I do have a wedding in three weeks where I have to use the flash... jumping in cold water keeps you fresh. So would be nice if you could share a little of your experience of using the S2 with a system flash.

Thanks,
Pete

Thanks for the comment, Pete. Previously, I've shot a few weddings and events with an M9 before these recent experiences in September. You can probably see the influence of that type of shooting in my use of the S2. My aim with these two recent S2 weddings was to try to capture all of the things that the bride and groom were expecting me to catch (which the S2 does well with amazing color, white balance and detail) ... plus, to try to also go a little further to try to capture the tone and emotions of the day from a voyeuristic point of view.

Using an M9 in the past for this point of view, I've always found that my best shots ended up being those I shoot when I just react. That's a little harder to do, at first, with the S2 and its obvious size, weight and light-gathering differences. I feel that each day I'm inching nearer to finding a level of comfort with the S2 and how I use it that makes it easier for me to expose the intimacy in a scene that I want to uncover.

As a natural light junkie, my biggest concern in moving to the S2 was my fear of beginning to utilize flash as a supplemental light source ... especially as I didn't want it to infringe on the style of shooting that defines how I like to shoot. It's my nature also, to swim upstream and try different things, so I purchased an SF58 and decided to go for it. For the weddings, I used the flash about 80% of the time with the S2. As I didn't have much time to 'master' flash photography, I used aperture priority on the camera and the HSS-TTL setting on the flash.

I felt that HSS-TTL would be a good choice as a setting as it would allow me to shoot fast or slow depending upon how much separation I wanted to achieve between the subject and the background. I quickly discovered that the S2 is a great camera to use if you are not a flash 'master' as the raw files are so pliable after the shoot. So, if I did end up messing up an exposure, I did have some room to maneuver afterward.

I think my best success with flash was using it as a way to provide fill-in light outdoors or in moderately lit rooms. I had more difficulty in very dark scenarios as I believe that I ended up with more harsh lighting (especially as I was using it as an on-camera flash) than I would have liked. Again, though, it is quite amazing how much can be regained in raw if needed. Most of any missed shots that I had during the two weddings could be attributed to my unfamiliarity of shooting with flash ... and that meant that I often simply forgot to wait for the flash to recycle. In those instances, I'd end up a with bad exposure or the camera wouldn't fire for a fraction of a second.

Overall, I was happy with my results as were the wedding couples. I'm certain that most shooters with a moderate level of flash experience might look at a few of my shots with horror. But, sometimes you just have to push yourself in other directions to extend your versatility.

Kurt

Originally Posted by Pete Walentin

Great stuff Kurt. I also like the colored ones from the other blog entry. Like to see more of this and would also be interested in getting more info on how you use the flash. What are your experience? Which flash you are using... what mode you use. I have the SF58 and have it only used rarely but I do have a wedding in three weeks where I have to use the flash... jumping in cold water keeps you fresh. So would be nice if you could share a little of your experience of using the S2 with a system flash.

Thanks,
Pete

Thanks Kurt. I started to play a little bit with the SF58 and recognized when using the flash in a kind of controlled, static environment I do get better results when using Manual Mode on the camera and TTL-HSS on the flash. As I mostly direct the flash up against the ceiling (if there is one at all) and slightly behind me I set the flash exposure to +1 - +2 to get a very good histogram for the picture.

I do not use the fill light so far as I do not have any experience with it and direct light scares the hell out of me. Maybe I will give it a try on some occasions with 1/4 but not more.

What really is impressing to me is the Auto White Balance the camera is performing. I used Lee (204?) filter on the flash, does a proper white balance and compared the shots with the camera Auto White Balance and without Lee filter. There wasn't much of a difference. A little bit cooler but that is something you could fix afterwards.

More to come...