As promised and after shooting with the Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game, this is my opinion of the lens.

Remember to read my earlier post about calibrating this lens HERE. If you don’t calibrate, you will not see how sharp this lens can be.

Build

I need to agree with almost all other reviews of the lens when it comes to your first impression of the lens. It is well built and I love the new black matte finish as compared to the earlier finishes that Sigma used on their lenses.

Unlike the predecessors, this lens comes with a lens cap, which I prefer over the fabric one.

The lens hood is more prolonged and substantial with ridges inside, which help keep light from bouncing around and give you lens flair. In addition, the attachment to the lens seems much more sturdy.

The good news is you do not need to buy another 1.4 or 2x converter if you already have one of the Sigma ones. My earlier 1.4 converters worked just incredible with the lens.

The tripod mount is more substantial than the earlier model.

This lens update compares a tank to a truck if you compare the current model to earlier Sigma 120-300mm lenses.

Bokeh

The Bokeh on this lens is much silkier than I had with the early version. When shooting wide open and close, the background of clutter goes to a smooth, soft tone.

Color/Contrast

I think the color and contrast are also an improvement over the previous model.

Focus

The four photos above are all part of a series I shot of a long touchdown run. There were more than 30 images, and all were in focus. So the lens and the camera combination kept up with the play. Not always possible with lenses.

I know this is quicker than the earlier version and faster than the first Nikon 200-400mm ƒ/4 lens. However, it is one stop brighter than the Nikon 200-400mm, so it may perform a little better with the Nikon D4 in low light, which was the case at the Georgia Dome.

Sharpness

Since photographers tend to talk about how sharp a lens is by something like you can see the sweat bead on the face, I chose to show you can count the threads in the patch on the end zone for my comparison.

I think this is highly sharp after calibrating the lens with the USB docking station that Sigma sells.

This lens also has Optical Stabilization, which helps keep those images sharp when the action is way down the field, and I am using a 1.4 converter and the 2X crop mode on the Nikon D4. I was optically shooting at 840mm ƒ/4 during much of the game. At that distance, just small vibrations affect the sharpness of the photo. The OS helped me get sharper images than I have in the past.

Bottom Line

For my Pixel Peeping skills, this lens rocks. For $3,599.00, this is a no-brainer for me to buy over the Nikon 200-400mm, which sells for $6,500.00. I will not consider the pain for the Canon shooters looking to the new Canon 200-400mm ƒ/4 for $11,799.00. Anyone putting out $8,200.00 more for the Canon lens had better be selling many photos for that price.

The new lens is not comparing apples, so it has it over the Nikon for me.

With a 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 starting point, I can easily just put on the Sigma 1.4 and now have a 168-420 ƒ/4 lens. Instead of the 1.4, I could stick on the 2x converter and have a 240-600mm ƒ/5.6.

The lens design makes the lens three practical lenses for different venues. I have used my Sigma 120-300mm in the past for meetings where the 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 was just not enough to reach. I put my 70-200mm on the shelf for the past ten years due to owning the Sigma 120-300mm. However, on rare occasions, I thought the 70-200 was more warranted than the 120-300mm, which was more due to weight issues.

I recommend that if you are in the market for a lens in this range, this would be a great lens, even if it was the same price as the Nikon 200-400mm because it is more versatile and makes it more valuable. Being $3,000 less in price makes this a no-brainer decision for me.

For the Prime Lens Lover

Rumor has it that Sigma is coming out with a new 300mm, 400mm, and 600mm, announcement shortly. So if you like primes, then one is on the way that will be custom calibratable with the USB Dock.

Photo by Dorie Griggs

The last shot was made by my wife when I was in the press box shooting some photos with the lens of the field.

The day before a big game like the Chick-fil-A Kickoff, I am getting my gear ready. I am charging all the batteries and ensuring I have all the equipment packed before the next day.

One of the things we are now more aware of with digital cameras is the front or back focus of a camera. When the camera and lenses ship, they have some tolerance which gives you reasonably acceptable images, but if you want to get the sharpest images, you need to calibrate. This diagram is from Nikon’s website showing you the concept of calibrating I am doing.

You go to the wrench in the Nikon D4 menu and then Fine Tune. You will adjust the settings here:

Watch this video on how you adjust your lens using Fine Tune on the camera. Sometimes it is easier to adjust the camera by just +/- 10 or 20 points which might be all you need to do, than to go and adopt 16 different focus points. Another issue is you may have gone +/- 20 points and still need more adjustment, and this is where the combination of the two can give you more range for calibrating.

This is OK with fixed lenses, but for zooms, just not enough. Sigma allows you to calibrate even more than with camera calibration.

Before tomorrow’s big day, I am calibrating the new Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S lens.

I am using the Sigma Optimization Pro software coupled with the Sigma USB docking station to calibrate the lens and the Fine Focus on the Nikon D4.

To check the focus point, I am using the LensAlign Pro system.

I set the Camera and LensAlign Pro at a distance I will need to focus and then parallel to each other. The LensAlign direction helps you set that up.

Then I shoot at one of the four zoom positions with this lens: 120mm, 150mm, 200mm, or 300mm. Then there are four focus positions to choose from for each focal length you desire. When you have done all the possible combinations, you will have 16 different customizable calibrations to get the sharpest image possible with your camera.

Now you will find that by fine-tuning your focus at 300mm and the furthest focus point,  ∞ you have a long way to walk to set up the LensAlign Pro.

I would do a test shot that might look like this, and then I needed to zoom in on the photo to see the detail of where the focus point was for the image.

Here you can see the focus point is slighting in front of the 0 where I wanted it to be.

I open the Sigma Optimization software and put the USB dock on the lens, replacing the camera. Going from Camera to Computer is why you need a tripod to do this; you need to lock everything down, make the change, and then reshoot to see if the custom change worked.

I moved the focus point +4 further from the lens in the screen grab. So the software gives you pictures to see what you are doing, which helps.

After doing this a few times, you can see where I ended up with focusing. So now you repeat this 15 more times with 120mm, 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm at four focusing points: Closest, farthest, and two in between.

Stay tuned for my results from the Chick-fil-A Kickoff with the new Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S lens.

Back to school

Around the country, schools have either started or getting ready to start.

[Sidebar] I wish the first day of school was the same around the country. It would make for easier planning for vacations and coordinating of calendars.
Maybe it never was all the same, but I felt like we all started back around Labor Day at one time in our country history.

Communities plan parties around events celebrating. One example is while the kickoff football games for college come this weekend, the parties have already begun. These events are a chance for the cheerleaders, football teams, and bands to get out in front of their fans and help start the rallying cry early.

Importance of Ritual

In creating and experiencing personal rituals, you can find strength and comfort in your life, gain perspective, and move deliberately into your future. People engage in practices to achieve a comprehensive set of desired outcomes, from reducing their anxiety to boosting their confidence, alleviating their grief, performing well in a competition, or even making it rain.

Rituals and ceremonies provide a sense of “before and after,” People come away knowing the experience has positively touched their lives.

My daughter celebrates her first time with High School rituals as a Freshman this year. Each year she celebrates them, she will be counting down and helping her move towards her future.

Create your rituals

Going out for ice cream has been done in our family. My earliest memories are of my grandparents and all of us getting in the car and going to get some ice cream.

Honestly, from a miser’s perspective, it makes no sense to drive to an ice cream shop and spend on one ice cream cone you could have bought a few for if you had gone to the grocery store.

Doing this with my family created a lasting memory for me. Another memory I had with my grandparents was my grandmother making popcorn on the stove.

The one I cherish the most is our family devotion time. I remember all of us taking turns reading the devotional and reading all the missionary names. We would then pray for our family and friends.

For an event to be a ritual, you must do it more than once, preferably all the time.

Rituals for business are how we deliver performance. You most likely already have traditions like coffee time, lunches, and other things that are part of your daily routine.

Maybe you need to create some significant events each year to help your company grow. For example, a simple birthday celebration of the company is a way to have a party and maybe take a moment to commemorate the growth from the previous year.

Successful sports coaches typically use rituals to build social bonds between team members. In addition, it brings team members’ external networks into the family.

I know many companies give out rewards at annual meetings [Rituals]. They invite the spouses to these events often so the spouses may see the tips and encourage them to work hard so they can win the cruise next year.

What is your kickoff event for this year?

What is my kickoff event? I don’t have formal rituals, so I don’t take the time to celebrate what I have accomplished and then take the time to make the necessary changes for the future formally.

This year will be the 32nd year of my covering football. So what will be different this year? Stay tuned this week as I tell you how I plan to do some things the same and some things differently.

Surprise

It is pretty standard for me to show up at a photo shoot and find out that the person hiring me is an amateur photographer with a lot of gear. Those amateur customers have great equipment, and we often talk shop.

I mention this because when I meet amateurs, they often talk to me about what they don’t have and what they have in equipment, as if when they get enough gear is when they can turn pro.

One of the groups that hire photographers pretty regularly is agencies. These agencies have camera gear and shoot many photos for their clients. However, when they hire a professional photographer, they rarely hire them because of their equipment; they have that gear just down the hall in their small studio.

They hire photographers for their experience. So here is the concept: now make it better while still accomplishing their intended goal for the photo.

Take this candid photo of a mobile phone. I just shot this a few weeks ago for a website. The creative director hired me for this photo shoot because they didn’t have the gear to take the photo; they hired me to light the phone, create the 3-D feel, and ensure the elements they needed to highlight were easy to see.

There was no glare on the screen, and then you needed details in all the black areas of the phone, which were primarily dark gray to almost black.

I saved them a lot of time lighting the phone and quickly getting what they needed.

I am often hired to photograph black objects. The client knows the black thing is one of the most complex subjects to light and reveal the object’s shape.

Often, once I have done this for clients, they will go out and duplicate the gear and no longer hire me again. As long as they repeat the setup, they are fine until they come up with something new, and then I get that phone call again.

Creativity

Clients contact me for science and technology shoots. Clients get me because of my track record of shooting research that has never been photographed. Research photography is quite different than doing a headshot that you have done many times before with clients. They need me to engage the audience with something often relatively stagnant.

The photo of the researcher holding up the micro-needles on his finger was my idea of communicating how tiny those needles were. When this first came out, the media picked up the photo worldwide. So many talked about the ouch-less needle.

I met the researcher for another assignment when all his gear had just been sent away. So, all we had was his laptop and a spare LCD. He told me his work entailed giving an audience flashlights that would wave in the air, and he had cameras that would pick up those lights, and his software would translate this into music played live by the orchestra on the stage.

I had a Mini MagLight in my camera bag and asked him to wave it around. Then, I converted the flashlight to candle mode, which helped tell the story in one shot.

I had to figure out the three different exposures for the photo and combine them into one image. The exposure of the computer screens, the flashlight, the strobes on the subject’s face, and then two more strobes add color to the photo.

Those are just a few examples where I used my brain to make the photo. Unfortunately, the camera gear didn’t put the picture in “P” mode.

Even if you know how to use the gear and make it work, this isn’t what they are hiring you to do. They are hiring you for your ideas, not just to execute their idea. They can do that without you.

What do you bring to the table besides your camera and lighting gear?

Apple kills Flash for websites.

I have a Love/Hate relationship with Apple. When they rolled out their iTouch, iPhones, and iPads, they refused to support Flash—killing it as a platform.

If your website used Flash, you either updated your website to html5 or just started over. You couldn’t afford to have people come to your website looking to hire you and not be able to see your work or maybe your contact information.

Apple may kill Optical Drives.

Apple may have similarly sealed the fate of the optical disc drives back in October 2010 by leaving out the optical drive in their Macbook computers. Soon, it will go the way of the floppy disk.

Today most people are connecting to the internet for software rather than buying CDs. Adobe even went so far as to move most of its software to the cloud. So there is less need for optical drives than a few years ago.

It’s a common misconception that burned digital media’s shelf-life is infinite. However, unlike pressed original DVDs and CDs, which are near invulnerable to degradation, burned media have a relatively short life span, typically between 2 to 5 years, depending on the quality of the media and the handling of the discs. Had this not been the case, there might not have been the move away from them.

USB Flash Drive as an alternative

What will you use going forward instead of the optical drive? For example, the USB Flash Drive or deliver your images through the cloud with online galleries or something like DropBox.

I ordered my USB Flash Drives from http://www.usbmemorydirect.com/ and had my logo on them. The more you order, the cost per unit goes down quite a bit.

Over a year ago, I was getting ready to do this and asked USB Memory Direct for a quote, and they sent this to me:

Below are additional pricing options for our classic styles. 

Quote 7/24/2012

 I wrote back to them in late July this year and asked for a quote for 50 for the 4G drive. Unfortunately, the price went up a little.

Quote 7/29/2013

 I ordered my on July 31st, and they arrived at my house on August 5th. However, they didn’t promise them before August 12th, so I was pleasantly surprised by the quick turnaround.

While I will continue with some clients to deliver on DVDs, I see these slowly being phased out.

You don’t have to order in bulk.

While buying a couple hundred will save you on unit cost, USB Memory Direct will print in quantities as low as 20. I recommend purchasing the size; you will likely use the most in a more significant amount and then a few in larger capacities in smaller quantities. Hey, buy 100 2G, then maybe 50 4G, and then 20 8G sizes in order.

I recommend starting small and testing the supplier for turnaround time, quality and durability.

USB Flash Drive Benefits

There are a few benefits to using the USB over a DVD or CD. First, putting images on the USB is much faster than burning a disc.

Another benefit is that the USB is a much more stable platform than the DVD. I have gone back to earlier DVDs that worked a few years ago and today do not. I have never had this problem with a USB, but with all digital, if it isn’t in three places, it doesn’t exist.

Once the images have been taken off by the client and put on their computer or network, the USB can be used for other things. They may use this repeatedly and are reminded of me every time they do. It has a similar impact to a postcard I send them that they put up in the office.

USB Flash Drive as deliverable and not archival

I am sure the images are about as safe on a USB Flash Drive as on an SSD drive, for example. But the best archival solution is a system with pictures in three locations.

My use of the USB Flash Drive is to be able to give clients their images using this rather than DVD due to optical drives being less standard on computers.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm [85mm], ISO 800, ƒ/8, 1/400

Squeeze the shutter — Don’t punch the shutter release

Keep the camera as still as possible. If you can shoot with a tripod, all the better. If you can shoot with a monopod. One of the biggest reasons most people’s photos are not sharp is camera movement.

Shutter Speed and Focal Length work together.

If you are paying attention to which lens you have on your camera and how this affects your shutter speed, your photos may be more sharp than they are. The rule of thumb is to turn your lens into a fraction and use that to set your shutter speed. Put one over the focal length and then use the shutter speed closest to that as the slowest for hand-holding the camera.

A 200mm lens should give you 1/200 shutter speed. A 50mm should be held at least 1/50.  If you do not have 1/200 and the closest shutter speed is 1/250, use this, and don’t go under 1/125.

Subject Speed

Photographing a building versus a race car is a big difference. You can have a shutter speed that lasts for hours and not affect the sharpness of a photo, but stopping a bullet in flight might require 1/10,000 to freeze the action. I had always heard 1/500 to stop action. From my personal experience, the razor-sharp photos of sports tend to be about 1/2000 for me. 

Aperture 

The depth-of-field you choose can make a photo appear out of focus even if it is in focus. For example, when you shoot at ƒ/two and the subject is 15 inches from the lens, the sharp area in front and behind the point you are focusing on is most likely less than an inch. However, move that subject to 15 feet, and your depth of field may now be a foot or more.   Find the balance between ƒ/16, keeping everything in focus and wide open ƒ/2.8 with great Bokeh throwing the background out of focus. I often shoot ƒ/four on a Nikon 400mm ƒ/2.8 to get more usable images. Focus Miss On many cameras today, you can have multiple focus points. My Nikon D4 has 51 different points for focusing. 

Depending on my focus mode, it is either more straightforward to focus or more difficult. The point is that people often need to tell the camera where to focus. When doing portraits, I use the eyes as my focus. If they are turned slightly to the camera, one eye is closer than the other, and I always try to get the closest eye in focus. This is when I may change my aperture to be sure they are both in focus.

With Nikon Capture software, I can check where I was focusing later and see if I missed my focus. After using this to help me, I realized I needed more focus due to me and not the camera’s capability.

Post Processing

I use either PhotoShop unsharp mask or Lightroom to sharpen the image for how it is being used. Most images could use just a little sharpening. If you overdo the sharpening, it will not look good. A little will give it a bit of a sharpness “kick.” Use a small radius (perhaps a pixel or less) and a large amount.

Most photos are only processed with sharpening once I export out of Lightroom.

If I post the photos to the web, I choose the setting here when I export Screen and Standard.

You can make other choices when you export paper quality and influence your choice.