Megapixel gap running 2 bodies

[KennyRay]

Hey folks! Of you that are running 2 bodies on a project, are you shooting 2 different megapixel boxes? If so, what are the advantages/pitfalls?  For example, using the higher res exclusively for longer lenses for possible cropping but less MP for shorter and wide angle....

[wq9nsc · Accepted solution]

I don't think there is a single answer to this because it is so dependent upon what you are trying to accomplish.

Most of my photography is sports related and normally I shoot with both a 1DX and 1DX 2 with different lens setups for close and distant action but these two cameras have very similar sensor size/resolution.  But tonight I am going to throw a third camera in the mix briefly for basketball just to try something different and will shoot a few using a 5DS R with a 24-70 F2.8 lens for some different shot angles to see if I like the results. 

Possible benefits will be either the ability to crop more aggressively or to have more detail in a wide angle view with multiple players and if the results are at all compelling I will try it again to give the 5DS R a fair chance after I get used to it.  Right now it feels like a toy with a 24-70 2.8 lens mounted since I usually have a 200 F2 or 300 F2.8 on the 1DX 2 and a 70-200 F2.8 on the 1DX 🙂

If you aren't doing fast action photography, then I would use your "normal" size sensor camera and fill the sensor area to the extent that the layout of the scene allows.  If you need detailed large prints, then the higher MP camera comes into its own but it also creates big file sizes.  My 1DX 2 RAW files average 24-26 Mb in size while the test shots I did this morning with the 5DS R range from 62 to 75 Mb and even with a fast workstation the change in processing speed is noticeable when working with those big files.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

"...I wasn't going to have hours to spend going through a lot of images"

Been there done that!  They are lucky to have you.  I have had so many parents tell me how greatful and nice it was to get shots of their kids. Shots they couldn't get. They don't have the freedom of the school that I get.  One time shots. But that makes it all worth it.

I still get requests for photos years after the student is gone.  You are likely to get such requests too.  Although the scrapbook craze is largely dying down, still some do it.  I often wonder why the parent didn't just keep the photo but that is a fact of life with digital.  What do you do with it? How do you keep them?

I got a request just last week for photos that I shot over six years ago!  One time I got a tearful request from a bride for photos of her wedding that I shot more than 10 years ago.   Sadly their house burned down and they lost almost everything including the wedding album. I was able to reconstruct it for her. Not often but it happens.  My reason for telling these stories is make sure you have a way to keep and save these photos. You just may need them again one day.  Most of what you shoot becomes trash as time goes by but .......................ya never know.

[wq9nsc]

Ernie,

Archival storage is an ongoing issue.  I first started shooting soccer back in 2007 and branched out from there in later years so there are a lot of images from over the years.  For games and other occasions where my daughter is involved, I have a triple backup with one backup set at home, another in a bank, and a third with a friend who also does photography.  For stuff involving Anna, I keep the original RAW files plus any JPG files created from them. 

For the other photos, I have a backup here and one stored with a friend but for those I am primarily keeping JPG files.  Finding a file without a known date or at least date range would be nearly impossible because I archive by year with sub-directories by shooting date. 

I have thought about cloud storage but initial upload is time consuming since I don't have fiber optic speed here and more importantly cloud storage is very dependent upon the behavior of the corporation so even if I decide to start using it in the future it will be just one part of a redundant backup.

Rodger

[cicopo]

I also can't upload to a cloud nor would I. I've got several sets of BU Hard drives & a separate storage building I keep some of them in. It's a safe environment but I keep the hard drives in Pelican cases and the family sets are in Fire Safes as well. 11 years of RC Events have now been donated to the non profir organization that sanctions them & insures us as members. Where possible I gave them the low res on line versions & the high res originals. That's something in the range of 25,000 images plus their low res versions. They were organized by year using the event name rather than date. Now when I die those files will live on as our Zones history. 

[ebiggs1]

Wow, I don't take as great of care as either of you two guys.  I have five 2 TB external HDs. I keep adding or updating capacity it seems.  But at this pint in my life, retirement, my system has worked. I actually only guarantee storage for 6 months. That's all I ever did but as shown I have them a whole lot longer. I also store by date. If you don't know the date of the photo good luck in finding them.

I have told several mother's they are welcome to come over and go through any and all photos. A couple have but not many are willing to do so.  If I did the searching even though it is minor it would take up a lot of my time.

I have three 2 TB HDs in my computer. One stores current projects, yearbook is coming up, and one is given to PS and LR exclusively. PS and LR love a lot of real estate..

[wq9nsc]

Ernie,

I take a LOT of care with family photos but not nearly as much with other photos and at some point I will delete everything more than a few years old except for family stuff which stays on different storage.  Backup is a pain and finding backed up images is more of a pain. 

Sports photos, unless they have the date, is going to be a problem unless it is one of the few games that I clearly remembered.  This past summer, the incredibly talented head coach of a nearby Catholic high school spent a lot of time working on soccer skills with my daughter and one of his students he was preparing for her first year of college soccer.  He wouldn't let me pay him so I volunteered to shoot a couple of his boys games and really enjoyed watching his kids in action.  He and his players I will remember, but most other games just run together and I might remember a shot but unless I remember the opposing team and can find it from the schedule I won't waste time looking for a photo.

These two images were from one of the games I shot when Anna and I attended as guests of his high school and it was probably the most fun I have ever had watching any school play soccer.  Non-stop action combined with a group of players who really adored the game and their coach, it doesn't get any better than that combination for high school sports!

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

I just got a 4TB external HD and put 1262 folders on it.  If each folder has a hundred photos in it, that's a lot of photos. Do the math!

Truth be known when I am gone nobody is going to want any of that.  And, nobody is going to want to go through it if they did. 

[ebiggs1]

Oh, BTW, those are great shots!  

[wq9nsc]

Thanks Ernie! I really had fun at that game. 

We arrived early and Anna provided some kicks to help their goalie warm up.  At one point during warm up she sneezed and the keeper ran up to her and asked, "are you OK dear?" and that was the only time I have ever seen my daughter blush 🙂  I was laughing so hard I didn't get a photo of the encounter and Anna is probably very happy that I didn't. 

It is a really nice school and sports program with a great group of young men.

And I think one of Murphy's laws is that if you have 1 million files, only one of them is what the clients wants months later and that will be the only corrupted file on the entire backup device 😞

Rodger

[wq9nsc]

And a major reason I love shooting high school sports is you can always count on some interesting images.  Last night was the basketball game between two high schools from 70 miles apart but united by both using a Spartan as their mascot.  The schools work together for that game to raise funds for the St. Jude Children's Research hospital and they put in a lot of effort.  Basketball is still a big part of the evening but not the only part.

I wasn't planning to attend because my daughter is in Chicago for a speech tournament so I was planning on a relaxing weekend but got a call a short time before the evening started to see if I could be there.  So I did an impromptu group shot between the JV and Varsity games of all of the student athletes and cheerleaders from both schools wearing their St. Jude shirts.  I got a lot of fun photographs but my favorite was one of our young men going up for a shot and it looked like he was being lifted into place by one of his opponents 🙂

And I HATE doing large group shots but especially when I only get a few minutes notice AND there was only 60 seconds to get everyone together and take the shot before the players had to change and resume play. They had already decided on the layout so about all I had to do was decide on settings and push a button. I wasn't happy with it but the school is and in this case I will just go with it is the thought that counts when you get two competing high schools to work together on the same good project.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

Rodger you know there is always a critic in the audience!

  I do large groups all the time. Always under a short time constraint. Just the way it is.  However, one thing you can do to make your shots better is to make sure you are in the exact center of the group and you are perpendicular to that group. You may not have complete control over the large group but you do have complete control over you. Its not that you shot or anybodies shot isn't good. No, not at all. It's when you compare the two shots, one done as I suggest and the other not, you say, boy, this one is better.  Perhaps you don't even now why, it just looks better.

Most of the time people are so glad to get any shot they are happy.  But that little extra effort is what gets you the reputation and the next job.