Messages

16

Landscape / Re: Jippieeee! It's spring! Post your first spring pictures here.

« on: March 22, 2013, 04:10:30 PM »

Sure, happy to post today's picture here in Edmonton, Canada. 

Welcome to Canada, eh.  We're tough up here.  We can deal with it.   

17

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

« on: March 19, 2013, 03:51:09 PM »

Great photo, Harv. Just the right moment and framing. Your shot, however, also shows my only gripe with the lens: the bokeh of things just behind the focus plane. That and the weight are the only reasons I sometimes miss my 200mm f/2.8 L, which I sold when I seldom used it any more due to the versatility and stunning sharpness of the 70-200 II.

Thanks a lot.  This is my 'go to' lens for about 20,000 motocross images a season.  It works like a dream.

As far as this shot goes, if you check the EXIF you'll see the aperture is at f/5 and things developed too fast to take time to stop open it up to f/2.8 which would have produced a better background bokeh. 

18

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

« on: March 19, 2013, 03:48:35 PM »

Owls are one of my favorite birds...love the shot.

Thanks a lot.

19

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

« on: March 19, 2013, 03:48:01 PM »

^^^ LOL, one small shriek for mouse, one giant gulp for owl-kind ^^^

I've always been glad we're at the top of the food chain.   

20

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

« on: March 19, 2013, 02:15:05 PM »

This thread is now almost 2 years old, but I'll play... 

21

Animal Kingdom / Re: How would you fix this RAW of 2 baby snow leopards

« on: March 19, 2013, 08:38:22 AM »

I also felt this image lent itself to a portrait crop.  When I cropped it in DPP, I also eliminated all in-camera sharpening as well as some color correction using 'click white balance' on the whiskers as others have done.

I moved the file into CS4 where I cloned out some distracting elements in the lower right of the frame, followed by re-sizing.  I then adjusted the highlight and mid-tone contrast, increasing them slightly.  I sharpened the image in Lab Mode to avoid artifacts and halos.

Here is the result...

22

Lenses / Re: Trade 28-300 for 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8

« on: March 15, 2013, 08:31:43 PM »

The 28-300L is convenient for travel.  If you mean the MkII versions of the 24-70 and the 70-200, the IQ will be much better.  Yes, you can shoot them wide open.  I suspect you'd be fine cropping the 70-200 II images vs. 300mm, or you could add a 1.4xIII down the line for a 280mm f/4 lens that's still a stop faster than the 28-300 at 300mm.

+1

23

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: In-camera noise reduction

« on: March 13, 2013, 10:02:22 AM »

Long exposure NR (where a dark frame is taken after the exposure and subtracted) is applied to the RAW image.  No other form of in-camera NR is applied to the RAW image.

Thanks a lot, Neuro.  I was hoping you might respond.  I suspected that was the case, but could not find any info on the subject.

24

EOS Bodies - For Stills / In-camera noise reduction

« on: March 13, 2013, 09:09:30 AM »

This question is directed to the technically knowledgeable out there and has to do with in-camera noise reduction settings.  Although I'm shooting with a 1D4, I would guess the same would apply to all models.

In a nutshell, is in-camera noise reduction (assuming it's enabled) applied to RAW files or just to JPEGs?  If it's applied to RAW files (which is all I shoot), have any of you shot RAW with noise reduction disabled, and if so, how were the results?

I tried to do a search here on this topic but was unable to find any information.

Thanks.

25

Animal Kingdom / Re: Breakfast is Served

« on: March 12, 2013, 04:33:30 PM »

Thanks a lot, folks.

26

Animal Kingdom / Breakfast is Served

« on: March 11, 2013, 04:27:46 PM »

A Red-breasted Merganser drake enjoying an early morning breakfast of Goby.  This was taken at one of my usual haunts... our local harbor.  The Goby is an invasive species here so it's nice to see this duck reducing the population.   

Shot with 1D4, 300/2.8L IS plus 2xTC III



Thanks for looking.

27

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Why does Canon watermark their manuals

« on: March 10, 2013, 01:34:14 PM »

If memory serves me, some time back Canon stated that their PDF files viewed with older versions of Acrobat Reader would show the watermark, but not the later versions.  It may have something to do with the version of Acrobat Reader you are using.  I think.

28

Landscape / Re: How Would You Edit This Landscape Photo?

« on: March 07, 2013, 03:42:03 PM »

I had nothing else more important to do, so why not?   

First I applied LAB mode sharpening (Google it) in PS CS4.  I then adjusted the tonal contrasts using Nik plugin, followed by a boost in saturation.  I also applied some graduated neutral density filtering, once again using Nik.  I did all this after first resizing.

29

Lenses / Re: Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II "Fix"

« on: February 08, 2013, 03:27:02 PM »

LensCoat (can be removed in seconds and is residue free)..... just sayin'   

30

Software & Accessories / Re: Any value in using DPP along side Lightroom?

« on: January 28, 2013, 11:31:47 AM »

"is there anything it does that lightroom cant?"

Yes there is:

• Display the focus points
• It is free
• Picture styles are much more realistic than in Lightroom
• Lens correction for the available lenses is better than in Lightroom
• The HDR tool can provide really good results if you learn how to use it properly
• It will provide better results out-of-box than Lightroom but if you spend a little bit more time in Lightroom the final result will look better.

The noise reduction is not any better than the one in Lightroom 4 but it is better than Lightroom 3.
Cheers

Nelu

One thing I love about the latest version of DPP is Canon's proprietary DLO (Digital Lens Optimizer).  It's different from the usual lens correction software, and I have not been able to duplicate its effect with other software.  For example, DLO makes images clearer and sharper without the usual sharpening artifacts.  Some samples at link below:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1097029/0

Latest DPP NR is pretty nice, as good as others, but for critical work and difficult NR jobs, I far prefer Imagenomics NoiseWare, which I use in Photoshop after importing from DPP.

The DLO function in DPP does a terrific job in correcting CA which really does enhance the sharpening.  I just wish they had more of the earlier lenses on the list.