The Earthlink Jump. f/5, 1/800th sec, ISO 100.
I hereby plug Madonna’s superhit single, Jump. It’s a really nice song, and is of course aptly used in fashion-themed filmsThe Devil Wears Prada. It’s even featured in Ugly Betty’s season finale. Play the song and pause it to allow buffering:
Title: Jump (album: Confessions on a Dance Floor)
By: Madonna
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
*If the song isn’t playing although it’s buffering and you’re using Firefox – it’s Firefox’s fault.
The photo was taken a week before the launch of our environmental awareness campaign – we gathered at Mengli’s block to prepare some materials for her exhibition. Vincent returned with 60 copies of EAC posters, designed by yours truly. Before we noticed, it was already evening and sunlight was pouring through the sliding doors of the common area. We took some silhouette photos and then I suggested that we should take a jump shot.
I ushered the rest of them onto the grassy patch right outside the common area. There’s a steep hill less than 3 meters behind them so I kept reminding them to watch out – the prospects of any one of them tumbling down the slope sent chills down my spine, hah. We didn’t even do a test jump – they happily coordinated among themselves and jumped together. All I need to do was just to frame them properly and capture that definitely moment.
The photo was taken on our first try. Not bad for a group jump! The JPEG was a little too dark because of the strong lighting by the evening sun, but thankfully I shot it in a RAW + JPEG combo so I have a RAW file to play around with. Altered the tint, contrast and filled the foreground subjects with light. That’s one of the reasons why you should shoot with RAW when there’s enough space on your storage medium – it gives you a greater flexibility over post-processing.
The Earthlink Jump - JPEG vs Camera RAW
Just around the corner we have the dreaded Friday 13th and then Valentine’s Day on Saturday. What an odd, ironic combination. Just in case I didn’t have time to send my wishes, stay safe on Friday (e.g. duck when you see your boss) and then have fun on Saturday! All the happiness to all the couples that reads this. If you’re still single (like me), fret not. Valentine’s Day is a good day to spend money on yourself – show your ego some love, will ‘ya?
That was a nice shot, you must be really quick to be able to take them? For someone with slow reactions like me, I think I would have taken the shot after they landed. ;)
Valentine’s is a day to love and be loved. A good way is to pamper yourself by going shopping on Valentine’s day with your friends. There’s always some good discounts on that day to take advantage of despite being single. :p
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@Dayna: Thanks! Actually you don’t really have to be quick, since it’s a staged jump – i.e. not a spontanoues one. This expectation allows you to more or less anticipate at what moment you will have to depress the shutter button. I don’t know is it just a ‘me’ thing, but time seems to flow slower when they’re in the air, haha.
Usually this technique doesn’t work with many mobile phone and digital cameras because there’s a time lag between the time you depress the shutter button and the time the shutter opens and closes.
I think I’m going shopping or embark on a photoshoot this weekend. I’m wondering if I should pay Kampong Buangkok a visit, heheh.
All the happiness to you and Mr Chewy!
That’s a super-awesome photo–and on the first try, too, it’s just to cool for school.
I personally shoot in only camera raw, but that’s mainly because I like to control all of the variables of a photograph myself, and I find that even when shooting in a high quality jpeg, I just can’t fine tune the options the way that I like. It’s cool that you shoot in both, though.
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@Natalija: Thanks! You’re right about the shooting in RAW mode – RAW gives you way more flexibility during post processing and it even allows you to create pseudo-HDR images from one single shot (instead of taking 5 or more shots that are of different exposures).
I couldn’t find a reason why I choose to shoot in both, since a RAW file is self-sufficient :D
I envy those who can capture the actions in motions. My fingers are always too slow, and so I miss the hump in the jump. Hahaha… you got quick fingers Teddy!
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@Destiny: Oh, you can do it too Destiny! I guess the most important thing is to determine the lag time between the shutter button release and the opening/closing of shutters (camera phones are notoriously known to have a huge lag time)… and experience. Don’t be afraid to try out – you might appear to be dorky and awkward for the first few tries but after that, you’ll be enjoying the whole experience.
EEEK! I always enjoy looking at a “jump photo” XD They look so.. nice and I think it’s very hard to catch this kind of photo (for me). Hehe.
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@RiN: Don’t fret about it :) all you need is a decent prosumer camera that allows you to control the shutter speed and you’re ready, teehee. Thanks for the compliments anyway!
I haven’t tried jumps yet! Guess you’ll need a sunny day to freeze action using a 1/800s shutter speed. One question though, is it really better to set it to ISO 100 or was it auto-determined by your camera?
Awesome jump shot, Teddy! As I’ve read somewhere, its almost hard not to get a good shot of everyone jumping – everyone looks happy in the middle of a jump. Unless of course it’s you’re jumping to the counts of a exercise trainer. =P
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@ember: That’s a good question when it comes to ISO. I always try to keep it as low as possible as the condition permits – for this case, ISO100 fared pretty well at 1/800th seconds primarily because of the strong light source (the evening sun) coming from the back of the subjects. But when it comes to indoor photography I will set ISO to automatic because I would trade a tad bit of graininess at ISO200~400 for a quicker shutter speed.
Thanks for the compliments! I guess they were all elated during the photo taking because all of us just had a really busy Saturday and the photo was taken before we headed for dinner (and then back to our rooms for more zzz). Now you remind me of this paper published by a group of mathematicians (who eventually won the Ig Nobel Prize) on the number of photos needed to be taken so that nobody in a group with ‘n’ number of people blinked during the shot.
Hey terry,
Nice shot XD I’ve tried out jump shots as well. Its one of the top things in my list after I got a dslr. So far its quite easy, even in relatively dark light as long as you set the shutter speed lower than 1/250.
And yeah, RAW files really hold much better details and light information but they are really huge. I should’ve gotten myself an 8GB or 16GB card instead. Haha. Or multiple 4GB cards perhaps.
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@Chia Wei: Oh wow, lower than 1/250th of a second and you can get a jumpshot under low light conditions? Even at slightly darker indoors I get a maximum shutter speed of around 1/40th for f/3.5, lol.
RAW files are almost 2~3 times larger than JPEG files, so it’s always hand to have either a large capacity card or multiple ones. Just a question – are you using a microSD CF-card adaptor or simply a CF card?
@teddY:
Yup yup! But obviously hi-ISO. But i guess since you’re shooting in RAW post-processing and noise-removal is controllable.
I did one at ISO400 at 1/100 and it was indoors only with minimal outside light yet the subject was still decently lit. But it was still slightly blur so I thought 1/250 at ISO800 should be fine…
@Chia Wei: I’m not a particularly big fan of noise – in fact, I would usually forcibly turn down the ISO to 100 unless it’s necessary for me to relinquish control over it. Talking about the little perfectionist inside me!
For A200, the noise level at ISO 400 is still within acceptable limits but when it shoots beyond that, every photo looks like a miniature disaster to me. And I rarely trust photoshop’s noise reduction filter. How much I wish I have Noise Ninja!
omg nice FIRST FRAME jump shot! haha rare oppurtunities like these comes by once a while!
LOL ur last statement is definitely trueeee! spend some money on ur ego! haha. omg but i think i kinda read it tooo late! its 9pm!! spend it on supper i guess =D
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@sue: Thank you! It’s indeed quite rare to have so many people gathering on a Saturday evening (most people would opt to stay home) and such a lovely weather.
I get to spend more money on my other camera equipments! For the moment being I think I’m saving up for ‘bokeh’ or wideangle lenses. I’m so torn! It’s going to take so many Valentine’s Day to save up to that amount, lol!
How was your Valentine’s Day?
Fill flash?
@frankchn: Nope. It’s just tweaking the RAW file with PS3. There’s an option called Fill Light. The more you fill, the brighter the shadows will be – if you overdo it, you’ll get lotsa noise though.
hey, i’ve been wondering what’s the RAW file thingy.
do you convert it or set it in the camera??
btw i got my lumix LX-3 de… haha.. =)
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@Jeremy Choy: RAW file simply represents the data your CMOS/CCD sensor gets when the shutter is open, without any conversion by the camera’s in-built algorithm into JPEG. Means that every single pixel in the RAW file is taken right off the sensor, without processing. So it gives you the ultimate flexibility in post processing :)
Shooting in RAW can be enabled in the camera settings. I’ve checked the details of your camera model and yes, it does support shooting in RAW.