Messages

1

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Alaska: 5D2 or 1D4

« on: March 04, 2013, 08:07:50 PM »

#6 - before you come in after a good long time in the cold, put your camera and lenses in plastic bags, seal them, and let

I'd add silica satchels to the bag; speeds up the process and makes it pretty much foolproof.

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Lenses / Re: Reverse teleconverter

« on: February 19, 2013, 01:42:12 PM »

You should check out the Metabones Speed booster.   There's a review over on LR's blog.  http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/01/metabones-magic

So, it does exist and apparently works. Unfortunately it is currently only available CanonEF>SonyNEX but we can hope...

3

Software & Accessories / Re: For those using Lightroom... what are your settings

« on: December 20, 2012, 12:15:16 PM »

I almost always have to mess with whitebalance and then usually up the saturation and vibrance about +5-+10.  Sometimes I find myself oversaturating my pictures if I'm not careful and then I make a good shot look bad.  Also what are you guys usually doing for contrast settings?  Thanks

The WB dropper is always a good starting point, then fine-tune as needed.
Work your way from the top from the options.   Contrast is usually + around 20. Setting whites+/blacks-/shades-/highlights+ is important.

I usually go +vibrance (around 20) and -saturation (around 10, yeah, minus.) and clarity is important (please don't over-do it! pet peeve of mine) around 20.    These settings of course vary WILDLY from picture to picture, but basically the + and - stay the same (that is, I mostly +whites, -shades, etc. )

4

Canon General / Re: necessity of photography school

« on: December 19, 2012, 01:16:27 PM »

I am mostly self-taught in most things technical. However, I did sign up last year to a photo course that covered from the very basics (this-shiny-end-takes-pictures, kind of thing) and while some weeks it was decidedly very boring, I still think it was one of the best choices I've had. Being in contact with other photographers (aspiring, mostly) and the sense of belonging into a photo-community has been awesome.

Full disclosure, after the course I signed up for I actually received a job offering at that school and have been teaching since. I have had the chance of dropping into lecures, courses, etc and the chats with the students and other photographers are really illuminating.

Bottom line, I absolutely recommend signing up for a course. Maybe you will understand better things you think you know pretty good, or maybe even learn some new tricks (perhaps not theoretical, but practical aspects of photo) and the photo-community is decidedly a plus! Even if theory-wise you learn nothing new.

5

Software & Accessories / Re: DXO Pro 8 - workflow with Aperture

« on: December 18, 2012, 05:54:22 PM »

  Once I am done with my editing, I export from Lightroom into JPG files and those go in another "Exports" directory structure organized much like the one mentioned above.  After that, I manually upload the exported pics to a Zenfolio online gallery.

Why would you keep a copy of the exported pics?  Is keeping the raws+catalog entries not enough for you? (How about automatically generating snapshots on export?)  Sorry for offtopic.

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Pricewatch Deals / Re: Price War! Canon EOS 5D Mark II at Amazon for $1529

« on: December 18, 2012, 01:09:02 PM »

Card alone makes B&H's deal worth it.

Also, bad link to amazon. Should say "http://", says "ttp://"

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Contests / Re: Gura Gear Giveaway!

« on: December 07, 2012, 01:37:08 AM »

I want to win!