Messages

1

Lenses / Re: Just Got my Canon 14mm f2.8L II USM - Looking for Inspiration

« on: May 18, 2012, 01:21:23 PM »

These are not my photos, but I came across this guy a little while back on Flickr.  He seems to shoot quite a bit with the 14mm and often crops to square format, to great effect.  Obviously the exotic settings in Iceland are part of what makes these so great, but they can hopefully provide some inspiration for interesting ways to use the 14mm.

Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/

A few photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/5710416302/#
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/5873576945/#
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/5591994614/#

A few sets:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/sets/72157626018891113/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/sets/72157626018825711/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smari/sets/72157626144281176/

2

Animal Kingdom / Re: Kitty

« on: April 27, 2012, 01:42:23 PM »

Numa 

5D Mark III, 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro

3

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: file name scramble

« on: April 13, 2012, 08:31:41 PM »

The first letter of the file name is changed to an underscore if you set the color space to Adobe RGB instead of sRGB (manual page 158 - no idea why).  I just realized this when reading through the manual a few days ago, and suddenly understood why my previous camera, the 50D, had suddenly started naming files with a leading underscore at  one point.

User setting 2 sets the first 3 letters of the filename, and the 4th letter is set to reflect the image size (manual page 153).

So what you're seeing is the last two letters you've chosen, since the first one is replaced by an underscore, and then a "L" or "M" depending on your image size setting.

4

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5DIII minimum shutter speed is not working

« on: March 30, 2012, 05:40:10 PM »

in my understanding it means if you set the ISO to Auto, then it will override the min shutter speed setting.
that's why i tried use manual iso setting. but shutter still go slower.

if it overrides both ways. then what is the limit for?

The minimum shutter speed setting applies only when you're using Auto ISO, not manual ISO.  And if Auto ISO hits the maximum ISO you've specified, it will start moving your shutter speed below the specified minimum, rather than underexposing.

Try raising the maximum ISO for Auto ISO if you hit this consistently.  (Or shoot in better light).

5

EOS Bodies / Re: How reliable is the studio test on dpreview? 7D sharpest of them all.

« on: March 29, 2012, 07:02:23 PM »

It's simply a focal plane issue.  The queen of hearts should not be in focus; the focus is set slightly too far back on the 7D images.

The focal plane is very sensitive in these shots, sometimes a matter of moving the camera forward or back a single millimeter can have a significant effect on how two cameras compare.

6

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D III - is in stock at Cruchfield - no sale tax

« on: March 20, 2012, 05:47:24 PM »

I just ordered the body only from Crutchfield.  It showed "In Stock" when I placed my order, and "Low stock" shortly after, but then my order invoice said the item was temporarily unavailable.  Moments later I received a phone call from a Crutchfield representative apologizing that I didn't make the cut, he said they were just flooded with orders (probably as a result of this post!).  Argh!  I was just about ready to cancel my B&H pre-order... Hopefully I can find it in stock somewhere else, since I didn't pre-order until the 5th!

7

Software & Accessories / Re: post processing for screen.

« on: February 21, 2012, 04:50:35 PM »

I realize that everyone's monitors are different, however that doesn't mean you should just ignore that part of the equation.  Just like making a decent audio recording, mixing it to simply sound good "on my speakers" isn't very professional.  You have to mix it so that it will sound the best it can on a wide variety of playback systems and environments.

You can't control how your images will look on anyone else's monitor.  But if you have a calibrated monitor, then it is more likely to look as good as possible on as many other monitors as possible.

It's the same in audio recording.  Professional mixers use professional monitors that are calibrated to have a flat (normal) frequency response.  They mix so that it sounds good on the reference monitors, and then it is more likely to sound good on as many other speakers as possible.  If you're mixing on speakers with an unknown frequency resposne -- or adjusting colors and tone curves on an uncalibrated monitor -- then the results are unpredictable, unless you have a very good sense for the peculiarities of your specific setup.

Bottom line, calibrate your monitor, and adjust your images so they look good to you there.

As far as sharpening, I personally use Lightroom's default export sharpening set to "low" for most cases, but try a few experiments and see what works for you!