Brother EE fancies himself an amature photographer..

by elderelite 75 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  HintOfLime

  Nice, shots of the moon, kurtbethel.

  A question for all who posted photos, can you say if you photoshopped them or were they SOOC?

  CuriousButterfly: I wouldn't say 'photoshopped' - in fact, none of the ones I posted above were taken into photoshop. (Photoshop is more what I'd use if I needed to remove something, like power lines, from a shot. Obvoiusly you can do level adjustments as well, I just prefer other tools.)

  I use lightroom to tweek the exposure, white blance, color balance, etc. I consider the ability to immediately make digital adjustments like these, combined with RAW shooting modes, to be one of the prime advantages of digital SLRs. (And really every digital camera does it's own internal image optimization - white balance for example is not a mechanical adjustment. So at some level every shot has been adjusted. I just prefer to do the adjustments myself rather than relying on a camera preset.)

  In my local photography meetup, there one guy with a 5D Mark II who insists on his shots being SOOC. It's just silly to me. The rest are of the 'use every available tool' sort.

  In fact, I'd say that once you have a good camera - software should probably be the next investment. It'll present more potential to produce eye-catching photos than a new lens will.

  - Lime
• 

  Leolaia

  I don't think any of mine posted here are SOOC. If I lack a graduated filter (which is more often than not), I shoot many of my pictures -0.5 EV of whatever the meter recommends, as that helps keep highlights, and then I make the exposure adjustment in Photoshop. I usually tweak saturation (which could be done in camera) and sharpness levels as well. And if there is sensor noise, then I use a noise reduction algorithm as well to clean up the image. Oh and of course cropping if needed.

  I just prefer to do the adjustments myself rather than relying on a camera preset

  I agree. I had to turn my camera's saturation preset down because it made the reds too garish. I prefer to tweak saturation one color at a time; it gives me much more control.

  Also doing stuff in post can often help make the photo look much more like my eyes see in real life, such as increasing the camera's limited dynamic range to what is closer to human vision. So exposure bracketing and compositing in Photoshop can help produce an image that better represents the actual scene as glimpsed than any single frame.
• 

  CuriousButterfly

  EE, what camera are you using? What quality setting? Are your lenses able to shoot in low light? i.e. f/2.8 or lower etc? Also, just a tip, shoot in the RAW, when you go to crop your shot it won't lose pixels as it would in JPEG.

  My camera gear is as follows:

  Nikon D700

  Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

  Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8

  Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 (Wide Angle)

  Nikkor 50mm f/1.4

  SB900 Flash

  I still need a few things, but gear wise I'm pretty set. I'll try to remember to post my pics when I get home.

  OMG I SO covet the D700. I heard the D7000 is set to be released this year. The Nikon 24-70MM is a lens I really want but I cannot justify spending $1700 for the lens....yet. I love the 50mm 1.4, excellent in low light.
• 

  CuriousButterfly

  I use lightroom to tweek the exposure, white blance, color balance, etc. I consider the ability to immediately make digital adjustments like these, combined with RAW shooting modes, to be one of the prime advantages of digital SLRs. (And really every digital camera does it's own internal image optimization - white balance for example is not a mechanical adjustment. So at some level every shot has been adjusted. I just prefer to do the adjustments myself rather than relying on a camera preset.)

  My apologies I meant any editing besides being SOOC. I heard LR is awesome.
• 

  snowbird

  Nice pics, all.

  Syl
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  Adobe Lightroom FTW!

  Shooting RAW changes my exposure strategy, primarily in that I like to 'expose to the right.' I typically rely on the camera's meter but then I like to chimp and verify on the histogram that I'm pushing highlight values almost to the point of clipping. Then when processing the RAW files, I find that pulling highlights back (if there's not a total loss of RGB values in those parts) preserves the image better than pushing shadows up, which tends to introduce noise in dark areas. But that's just me, and not 100% of the time.

  I still need a grad ND filter, a good set of NDs and a circular polarizer for landscape shots. Until then, gotta rely on bracketed exposures or Lightroom's grad filter adjustment tool and local adjustment brush. Mmm-mm, deeelish!
• 

  Soldier77

  CuriousButterfly, the D700 is absolutely worth every single penny. As for the new D7000 coming out, it looks like a good DX camera. The 24-70mm is great, it is a hefty beast to lug around though. Even the 17-35mm is pretty hefty, but I love all of them. The saturation and color are absolutely stunning without having to do much post editing. I do shoot in Manual mode, I like having it set right before I shoot so I spend less time editing afterwards.

  I love my 50mm prime lens, when I want to conserve weight on a hike or bike ride, I'll toss this lens on and it's perfect.

  SweetBabyCheezits, a Circular Polarizer is a must for landscape photography, you will not regret that purchase at all. My filter I use at night or extreme low light is a ND or UV filter, gives me good saturation and color too.
• 

  Leolaia

  Yeah you do the opposite strategy and maybe I should go in the other direction. The problem is that I cannot shoot RAW all the time because my camera is old and can't handle the higher capacity SDHD cards, and space goes very quickly when I am traveling. But I absolutely hate clipping highlights and when you're on the go (especially when traveling with a partner who doesn't like you to constantly spend time setting up shots), you can't be constantly checking the histogram.

  I used to be better with the filters than in the last two years. I always travelled with a circular polarizer (a must for shooting in a car through a windshield), two graduated ND filters (hard and soft edges), and sometimes a graduated blue filter. Last year I also created my own sun filter using Baader Astrosolar film.
• 

  HintOfLime

  Leolaia: You might try Amazon. Amazon offers some cards now without the packaging (they just come in a plastic bag with the plastic cover) at 1/3 the cost.

  I try to always carry 3x what I think I'll need worth of storage and batteries.

  Is your camera dSLR? Or point&shoot?

  Personally, I always turn the EV to -0.5 myself. Noise can be easily removed in lightroom - but an overexposed area is information lost forever.

  - Lime
• 

  Soldier77

  Leolaia, I usually set it to Program or Aperture mode (P) or (A) when traveling. I know what you maen about impatient partners!! The only thing I could suggest so that you can shoot more in the RAW would be to see if you can get a couple more spare memory cards for it. I run around with an 8gb CF card and that allows me to take 400 RAW photos. I need to get a couple more for back up, I have been known to take a thousand shots a day.

  Love your photos btw! Everyone elses too!