Critique Welcomed Torrey Pines Golf

[Chris Dodkin]

With the PGA tour rolling into San Diego this week, the Torrey Pines course is prepped, and open for practice and free access Mon-Wed.

Thursday onwards is the open itself, with paid access and no photography, so Mon-Wed provides a chance to experience the course for free, take some photos, and maybe spot the odd pro doing a practice round.

Spent three hours there today, checking the place out.

Weapons of choice:

Time to roll out the big Canons - 600 f/4L and the 300 f/2.8L

Bodies were 5Dii for digital (still my highest resolution digital body), and EOS 1n for film (Built like a Gatling gun gun, a great sports film body capable of up to 6 fps).

I used some of Ralph's donated stock of Fuji Provia 100 in the EOS 1n - thanks Ralph!

It's been at least 6 months since I picked up a Canon, so that was interesting after using Fuji for so long. It's a very different shooting experience, the viewfinder, the controls, the AF and the final output.

Film has gone to the lab for dev and scan - should be back Tue afternoon - some digital files from the 5DII below:

John Daly

I'm finding such a huge difference in color between the Fuji and Canon cameras, even in RAW, that I'm wondering how I ever managed with the Canon!

I guess Fuji's 'magic' colors have spoiled me

Will add the scanned film images when they get back from the lab.

 

[Beth Carter]

holy crap, i wish those were only some hideous plaid pants in the second image. i think it might be a tad overexposed, or maybe it's just the color combo that hurts my eyes. or maybe that's how he cheats, the other golfer lines up his shot, he shows off his pants and the golfer goes blind..

the third shot is my favorite, great timing, comp. and pants. other than that second shot (which i'm blaming you for entirely, those pants must be photoshopped, they cannot exist in real life), great photos. i know what you mean about the fuji difference, i was processing a few older .cr2s the other day and i was wondering what happened to the color before i realized they were from the canon.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Beth - the disruptive camo pants in #2 were even more vivid in real life - just imagine them in Fuji Velvia!

I think Daly is famous for his pants - in a bad way

#3 remins me of Twilight for some reason

The Canon raw files seem muddy - a little under exposed and rather flat compared to Fuji when you import them to ACR

 

[Hamish Gill]

Nice Chris! Just the other day I was thinking to ask you when you last got the canon monsters out ...
That fuji has really changed your hobby hasn't it?!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Good shots Chris. Daley is looking so much like a washed-out Barney Rubble. What a character.

 

[Kev Pugh]

Nice Chris, I believe the trousers Daley wears are from Loudmouth, they have a very tame range.............

Trousers - Apparel - Men

 

[Brian Moore]

If I saw these in Golf Digest I'd think they were good shots by a top pro. (What do you do for a living when you're not galavanting about in your flying saucer, Chris?)

 

[Pete Askew]

You mean he has time for a job too?!

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Oh. and I agree with Brian's other comment. Although if anyone sees me looking through a copy of Golf Digest could they phone for professional help!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Nice Chris! Just the other day I was thinking to ask you when you last got the canon monsters out ...
That fuji has really changed your hobby hasn't it?!

Yep - and yesterday really brought it home Hamish - lugging all that heavy kit was a real pain!

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Good shots Chris. Daley is looking so much like a washed-out Barney Rubble. What a character.

Thanks Rob - I had to look twice because he's 'aged' so fast - must be hard living I guess

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Nice Chris, I believe the trousers Daley wears are from Loudmouth, they have a very tame range.............

Thanks Kev - I hope he gets paid a LOT to wear them - must be hell putting those on when you have a hangover!! [stalkeyes]

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If I saw these in Golf Digest I'd think they were good shots by a top pro. (What do you do for a living when you're not galavanting about in your flying saucer, Chris?)

Thanks Brian & Pete - Intergalactic travel doesn't take long, what with Infinite Improbability drive and everything, so I have lots of time for actual work

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Here are some of the film shots from the same day - taken with the Canon EOS 1n, using FujiFilm Provia 100ASA (Professional-quality, medium-speed, daylight-type color reversal film with ultrafine grain).

Images were scanned at my local pro lab on their Noritsu scanner.

Film grain size was excellent - really very impressed with this film - The EOS 1n appears to have exposed it well, and like most slide films it exhibits a dense saturation, slightly vivid, and possibly lacking a little tonal contrast on highlights.

Scanning may also play into this - but I've seen it a number of times now when shooting slide film, so I'm seeing it as one of the inherent features of the transparency medium.

I think digital maintains an advantage in absolute image quality - but I have to say I'm very pleased with what 35mm can produce.

 

[Hamish Gill]

How do you quantify the comment about digital having an advantage in absolute image quality ...
not because I agree or disagree, I'm just interested in people's opinion when they decide to (unlike me) get off the fence on the subject

 

[Pete Askew]

Certainly quite a different look. And the scanning would have had some impact on that I guess. For high contrast scenes such as these I guess print film might have given a bit more latitude. An interesting comparison though.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

I see more dense blocks of color with the scanned transparency film - the digital image has more tonal variation and detail within those blocks.

Pete may be right - I used to shoot print film for scan to digital exclusively (Fuji Reala) as I felt it gave better latitude and scanned more effectively.

Slide film is very dense by comparison, and presents more of a challenge for the scanner.

I've heard people say that you really need a drum scanner to get the most from slide film - but this would be a significant cost uplift to the dev/scan process. I'm already paying $20 to dev and scan 36 frames at my local pro lab.

I do like the fine grain of the Provia - quite impressive to see how much detail is available before you see the grain at all.

The color from Provia is typically Fuji - with strong greens and less 'warmth' - I warmed all of the shots in post to get them closer to my norm - but even so they maintain the green signature I think.

I have some Velvia 50 ASA 120 film coming back from the lab today, so it will be interesting to see how that looks.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Nice photos Chris and very interesting having the different media. Would love those two lenses, even if only mounted on the OM-D. I have to say my 5DMKII is getting lots of dust also and the weight issue is very real.

 

[Paul Lange]

Fantastic set Chris and interesting to compare to the digital images. In terms of overall colour and detail I prefer the digital but the film certainly ain't bad. I see what you mean about the highlights on the film scans. I've not really used colour film so these are a good comparison for me.