Messages

1

Animal Kingdom / Re: Show your Bird Portraits

« on: June 07, 2013, 09:12:43 PM »

Thank you AmbientLight for your kind advice. I think you are right about FF since I was having a lot of trouble with the 7D obtaining focus and also keeping the whole bird in the frame. One day I hope to upgrade to the 5D3 or something similar in the future.

What lens are you using?  I use a 70-300L with a 7D for birds in flight and would just use less zoom than buy a new full frame body.  The auto focus of the 7D is more than adequate for sharp birds in flight when used with a fast enough shutter speed.  If birds are flying laterally, it's hard to get a high percentage of keepers, but with the 7D's frames/second, you should get some.  Do you use back button focus in servo?  That change helped my "keep" rate a lot.

Hi CT John,

I started out using my 100-400L but I was usually shooting in the late afternoon and often it is overcast and cloudy then. The light was not bright and so I had low shutter speed and large apertures to keep ISO <800. The focus and IS on the 100-400 was not great. So I started using my recently purchased 70-200L f/2.8 ii for the f/2.8 focusing speed. I also was often too high on the focal range on the 400mm and the 200mm made me not zoom in so much which helped like you suggested. I have never tried back button focus (I'm an old guy who is very timid or slow to try new things) but I know I should learn that technique. Also, I need to practice panning skills. The heron was flying both laterally and towards me at the same time. I was using AI servo, expanded or manual select center zone AF, high speed continuous shutter, and AI Servo tracking sensitivity on "slow". Are those the correct settings to use? Thanks everyone for any advice.

Those settings look fine - I use auto select for auto focus most of the time, and my Servo tracking sensitivity on normal....not sure it that makes a lot of difference.  I would recommend trying back button focusing because I think it's easier to keep that depressed while panning rather than half depressing the shutter release button.

2

Animal Kingdom / Re: Show your Bird Portraits

« on: June 07, 2013, 08:18:36 AM »

Thank you AmbientLight for your kind advice. I think you are right about FF since I was having a lot of trouble with the 7D obtaining focus and also keeping the whole bird in the frame. One day I hope to upgrade to the 5D3 or something similar in the future.

What lens are you using?  I use a 70-300L with a 7D for birds in flight and would just use less zoom than buy a new full frame body.  The auto focus of the 7D is more than adequate for sharp birds in flight when used with a fast enough shutter speed.  If birds are flying laterally, it's hard to get a high percentage of keepers, but with the 7D's frames/second, you should get some.  Do you use back button focus in servo?  That change helped my "keep" rate a lot.

3

Canon General / Re: EOS 5D Mark III w/24-70 f/4L IS Kit Coming Soon

« on: June 05, 2013, 06:12:02 PM »

I love my 24-105L, it's a great walk around lens, and gives me a lot of flexibility.  I'd really hate to be stuck at 70mm on the long side, especially since I bought a 6D.  I haven't used the 24-70, but can't imagine the image upgrade would be enough to make me want to give up 70-105 coverage and have to lug around a second lens.

4

Reviews / Re: Why I Chose a Canon EOS 6D over a 5D MKIII

« on: June 05, 2013, 09:52:11 AM »

I'm loving the first month with my 6D, but have one question.  Does anyone else think the 6D underexposes more than your previous Canon DSLR?  In full daylight, the 6D is awesome, but on extreme closeups (flowers for example) and some indoor shooting, it seems to underexpose more than my several year experience with my 7D.

5

Portrait / Re: Wedding pics. need critique

« on: June 05, 2013, 09:01:15 AM »

Sorry but I don't critique photos on open public forums. Why teach the countless wannabies who browse through these pages? Especially for free. My skill and tallent was learned the hard way, by trial and error...but a lot of wannabies want to take quick short cuts and think that a learnt skill can be downloaded and is free. For every poster and replier, there are hundreds of readers.

Why teach?

Because life is not a zero sum game? Because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?

At my age I go to a lot more funerals than weddings. I've noticed the people who are grieved and who are genuinely missed are those who were generous -- with time and talent and love. They were the ones who gave back to their communities, and the photographic community is a community. Those who come here to learn are to be applauded, not considered leeches.

You might do well to sit down this evening and read a little story by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. He wrote it so people might understand the joy of giving to one another. It's available free in e-reader editions, but you probably don't want to take it for free so there are versions you can pay for.

The community of people who genuinely care about the art of pictures is small. Those of us who do need to stick together and help one another -- even those too timid to come out and speak openly.

+1

6

Camera Body Gallery / Re: 7D - Anything shot BY a 7D

« on: June 05, 2013, 07:53:48 AM »

More

7

Camera Body Gallery / Re: 7D - Anything shot BY a 7D

« on: June 05, 2013, 07:52:22 AM »

Love my 7D, although my new 6D is getting more attention now.  Off to Yellowstone next week where I expect both to be very useful.

8

HDR - High Dynamic Range / Re: Post your HDR images:

« on: June 03, 2013, 07:19:18 AM »

Here you go

Great use of HDR.

9

HDR - High Dynamic Range / Re: Post your HDR images:

« on: June 01, 2013, 06:52:56 AM »

Baptist Church, Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains

10

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: What flash should I get for my 60D?

« on: May 31, 2013, 07:48:42 AM »

I never thought about needing a flash. I've seen looads of youtube videos and think I'm right in saying that I need a flash

The current 430ex2 is a good flash, it supports high speed sync, is versatile and has a nice size. Look for a Canon rebate or a used unit, I've used it for a year as my single flash on my 60d - you cannot go wrong with this. With the 60d, you can use the 430ex2 off camera as an optical slave.

The tricky bit comes later - you'll want more than one flash, and for outdoors you then have to decide between the very expensive Canon rt system (430ex2 is optical only, not radio) and 3rd party flashes & radio triggers - my advice is to buy Syl Arena's book Speedlighter's Guide and then figure out what lies ahead.

+1 on Syl Arena's book - "Speedliter's Handbook."

11

Software & Accessories / Re: A good online place to have simple prints made and delivered....?

« on: May 31, 2013, 07:44:55 AM »

.
I use Bay Photo Lab. They do fine work, prices are reasonable and they'll drop ship anywhere you want.

A 5X7 is  $2 and 8X10 is $3.50 (color corrected). Downside is you have to download their interface and it can be a pain in the ass to learn the first time.

The Walgreen's, as suggested, may be good for what you want. I don't care for their work, but they are quick and cheap. I can upload here, and by the time I walk three blocks to their store, prints are ready.

I've tried to use them, but you have to download an odd app to upload to them.  I use it so infrequently that it takes forever to figure it out.  I'd probably use them some if the upload were as easy as other providers.

12

Software & Accessories / Re: A good online place to have simple prints made and delivered....?

« on: May 31, 2013, 07:43:14 AM »

Funny, I've had nothing but lousy results from Adorama and wouldn't use them again.  Especially book production and metal prints - awful, and everything is slow turnaround.

13

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Advice needed: performance of 6D

« on: May 30, 2013, 09:57:39 PM »

I'm quickly finding out that the 6D is better than it appears on paper. Still, don't think it would be the right fit for someone doing sports or birds...

+1.  I've been very pleasantly surprised by my 6D.  The ISO performance changes photography for me.

14

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Bag for 60D - what should I buy?

« on: May 30, 2013, 09:55:31 PM »

I use this and have been very happy with the quality.  I also like the interior color - easier to find black items.  I started with a T1i and one extra lens, now up to two bodies, 3 lenses including a 70-300L, and can still take a Speedlite with it as well.  Also has a pretty good sized laptop case.  It has a base which is nice because it does not fall over when you put it down.

http://www.amazon.com/Case-Logic-SLRC-206-15-4-Inch-Backpack/dp/B002DW99H8/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1369965159&sr=1-4&keywords=photo+backpack

15

Software & Accessories / Re: A good online place to have simple prints made and delivered....?

« on: May 30, 2013, 09:50:30 PM »

Hi all,

My dad was visiting me not long back, and I took some pics of us while he was here.

I'd like to send my images (I shot in RAW and have finished PP) somewhere online for simple prints, much like you'd get in the old days when you took your film to the drugstore. 

Can someone recommend a service? I've heard of Snapfish, is that a good one?

What size am I talking about...4x6 or maybe 5x7? 

What format do I send and at what quality? jpg at 50%?  Tiff?

Do I need to crop my pics to a certain size or will what I shoot out of camera have the aspect ratio of the proper size?

Suggestions and comments greatly appreciated!!!


cayenne

MPIX is great.  They have a lot of 2x3 formats available - 4x6, 6x9, 8x12, 10x15, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30, and 24x36 so you don't have to crop from DSLR aspect ratio.  I think they require JPEG - I send full size conversions from RAW via Lightroom.