Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Autumn Colour - Nikon D90 and 50mm f/1.8 manual focus lens.

 Autumn has well and truly arrived here in Wigan. I was toying with shooting some colour film, but the lure of my Nikon D90 and Nikon AIS 50mm f/1.8 longnose was too good to pass by. I needed to go into town for my annual Covid jab and I took the opportunity to take a walk in Mesnes Park to capture some Autumn colour. I was also shooting Ilford HP5 in Baldy the Baldax for the Frugal Film Project and using my D90 for metering the glorious light we had that day.

There's a few things to like about the Nikon D90, I have waxed lyrical about this camera many times and it never ceases to make me smile. It was marketed as the top of the enthusiast range of Nikon DSLR's and aimed at the enthusiastic amateur who wanted pro features and decent manual control, but without the pro price tag. On this day I was in full manual mode and fitted my manual focus AIS 50mm f/1.8 longnose lens to take full advantage of the colour science Nikon built into the software for this gem of a camera.

Nikon positioned the D90 immediately below it's professional grade APSC camera of the time, the D300 and it's easy to see why. The 12 mega pixel sensor is very similar to the one in the D300 and the colour profile ensures I get great colour every time. Dynamic range is also excellent and you can easily produce bangers with it. It's also a lot lighter than the D300, but don't expect to use it in bad weather unless you are hiding under an umbrella as there's no weather sealing.

It didn't matter on this day as the weather only threatened me with dark ominous clouds that stayed to the north and helped me out by adding a little drama to several of my compositions. I was enjoying the autumn colour on display in Mesnes Park and time always flies by when I'm having fun. I had finished my roll of film I was shooting in Baldy the Baldax for the Frugal Film Project and headed towards the bus station for my ride home.

I processed my RAW files over the course of a few days with Affinity Photo 2. Nikon made the colour profile for the D90 to be easy to work with and I enjoyed being able to use a few simple adjustments to bring my digital photos to life. Autumn is full of vibrant colours and my D90 paired with my Nikon AIS 50mm f /1.8 was definitely the right tool for the job.

Here's a few of my favourite photos of the autumn colour in Mesnes Park during Autumn 2024. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Autumn In Mesnes Park Wigan

 
 







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