Messages

31

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: a digital photography noob has a question about image quality

« on: January 31, 2013, 02:28:17 AM »

To everyone: AWESOME THREAD and POSTS!  Best, ever.

To the original poster: RSA for 8 weeks! I wish I was going with you. As for your camera woes, do what you feel comfortable with. If the 5D3 feels overkill, it might just be. Someone else suggested the 7D as an alternative, I can definitely recommend that. The 7D with nice glass is an awesome device.
The 650D however, a good camera, but the sealing is not quite on par with the 7D or the 5D3, and where you're going I would say that should be part of your decision.
Also, another hint, whichever camera you do eventually stick with, get rid of the 'steal me!' Canon neck-strap. Plus the comfort factor using a Black Rapid RS-7 or Sunsniper shoulder strap cannot be underestimated when walking around with the camera for long periods of time.
Good luck with your trip and please, post some pics for us when you get back.

32

Canon General / Re: Curious Distraction: Explain your username, avatar picture, etc...

« on: January 29, 2013, 02:54:45 AM »

I've been using this nick since the time of dial-up BBS' at mindblowing speeds of 2400bps. I couldn't think of a better one at the time, but it stuck and has been with me since.
As for the avatar picture, it's an HDR of the Ebonite Skull Bowling ball that I use for my other hobby, bowling. 

33

Canon General / Re: Why did you choose Canon?

« on: January 29, 2013, 02:50:41 AM »

Hmm.. having used Casio, Panasonic, Fuji etc etc small pocketcams or 'superzooms' for a number of years for the occasional snapshot photography wasn't really a big deal for me. Until 2011. I was getting fed up about missing shots of my dogs due to the slow responsiveness of the pocketcams.
I researched a little and found the Canon 7D matching what I was looking for pretty nicely. I had no experience with DSLR and didn't even know what the terms, aperture, focal length meant or, more importantly did.
I went to a store, tried Canons, Nikons, Sony, but the only one that felt right in my paws was the 7D, so I bought it.
My next thought was, ok, I now have a camera that I KNOW can take the shots I want, but I still really don't know how. Amazon, here I come. I ordered a whole bunch of books, about the camera, flash, post-processing and spent the next two months getting to grips with it. I figured as I invested so much in a camera, it'd be a bit embarrassing to use auto mode.
Then I went out and started taking pictures, first I did a day using only Av mode. Went back, checked the results and tried working out how and why something worked or didn't. Next stop, Tv-mode. And so on and so forth. Needless to say, my first shot in Bulb-mode was less than successful.
As I've come to realize, and many of you as well, nothing beats experience and experimenting.
This sort of then lead to trying one more thing, then another, then a third and pretty soon I found myself loving it. I'd made myself a hobby without ever setting out to do so.
One of the things I like most is... there's always something new to learn. And now I get a bit anxious if I can't get out shooting often enough.

This turned out longer than I thought and went a bit off topic too.
As for why Canon, it just felt right, at the time that was my only justification. And I am very happy with my choice.

34

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Best carry set-up for 7D & 70-200 f/2.8L

« on: January 25, 2013, 05:58:10 AM »

Got myself a Black Rapid RS-7 after killing my neck on a long shoot and haven't looked back since. It is great. I attach mine to the tripod collar on the 70-200mm f/2.8L MkII and find my camera has a nice balance when used in that way.

35

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Up to what ISO are you willing to set? Aperture?

« on: January 25, 2013, 05:56:02 AM »

From the replies I've seen on this topic, people tend to shoot at whatever ISO and aperture gets the shot. Granted, across the board, lower ISO is better, but there doesn't really seem to be a trend where people would consistently not use high ISO, the shot is more important.

So I guess you could say, don't worry about it too much and get the shot instead. 

36

Sports / Re: Tenpin Bowling

« on: January 23, 2013, 01:49:11 PM »

Yay! The login worked from home... Anyway... The promised Aperture 3 import settings I use and found useful. Ofcourse the processing doesn't stop here, but it makes things easier when moving on to the next bits in the workflow.

Indoor - High ISO preset: (this usually means some sporting event of exhibition, no flash allowed)
Boost: 0.70
Hue Boost: 0.55

Sharpening: 0.85
Detail: 0.75

Moire: 0.50
Radius: 4.00
De-Noise: 0.60

These settings don't vary much between profiles. My base preset for low ISO imports (100-1250 (about)):
Boost: 0.65
Hue Boost: 0.50

Sharpening: 0.85
Detail: 0.70

Moire: 0.50
Radius: 4.00
De-noise: 0.30

After that the other tools come in... PS5, Noise Ninja etc..

Hope this helps.

37

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D Noise Reduction Tips

« on: January 23, 2013, 01:43:30 PM »

I use a combination of softwares, whatever gets the end result I'm looking for. Some of them work better in some conditions and some better in others, but my few go-to programs are:
Aperture 3 + Noise Ninja plugin (need to upgrade to new Photo Ninja but resent the idea of another stand-alone app).
PS5 Extended (inc. ACR) and Color Efex Pro 3.

99% of the time these will do.

I've created some Aperture Import Presets for different scenarios I seem to find myself in more often than others:

Indoor - High ISO preset: (this usually means some sporting event of exhibition, no flash allowed)
Boost: 0.70
Hue Boost: 0.55

Sharpening: 0.85
Detail: 0.75

Moire: 0.50
Radius: 4.00
De-Noise: 0.60

This will be applied to each RAW image as it is imported from a High ISO shoot. I then use either the Noise Ninja or PS5 to clean house and make the final image. I'd say processing time varies from 2-10minutes depending on what I want the final result to be, and how much in a playing mood I am. 

38

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Up to what ISO are you willing to set? Aperture?

« on: January 23, 2013, 09:19:54 AM »

My experience with the 5d iii is that i cannot go above 3200 without losing significant sharpness.  Interestingly I was shooting at a high school basketball game with a guy using a nikon D4 and the pics were tack sharp at iso 8000.  Will the 1dX tolerate this high of ISO?  This is an honest question not a nikon vs canon comment.

1D-X does better than that. It is unbelievable the shots they are able to pull out of that sensor.

39

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D - How bad is it? Really?

« on: January 23, 2013, 09:18:50 AM »

I say get the 7D now, especially if you can find a good price, which shouldn't be too hard. It's a step up from your current gear and will serve you well.
There's always the option of upgrading to the next bells-and-whistles device that's "just around the corner", and then you'll make a decision on keeping the 7D as a backup body or selling it, it's not a hard sell by any stretch.
I will probably keep mine even when I do upgrade as I simply LOVE the way the 7D works. It is awesome. I haven't tried 1D-series stuff which I'm told are brilliant as well.
But, when and if you get the 7D, take the time to learn its ways, it'll pay off.

40

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Up to what ISO are you willing to set? Aperture?

« on: January 23, 2013, 09:13:07 AM »

eninja,

 your comparison of apertures between the g12 and the 6D will be problematic. you are dealing with a lot less depth of field on your 6D.

 for max apertures i will only go to 2.8 or wider if i am dealing with a single subject and it depends greatly on the lens. on the 35L i am comfortable with the IQ down to F2.0...on my 70-200 2.8L i feel better at F4 but will go to F2.8 with the understanding that i will probably be getting soft results on a percentage of shots.

 for group small shots (2 to 3 people) i dont feel comfortable going wider than F5.6 but i will sometimes fudge it at F4 if i am desperate for light. for corporate head shots i try not to go wider than F8. for creative head shots i'll go to an F2 if i can.

 for sports i tried to stay at 5.6 or smaller as i wanted greater depth of field to compensate for the players movement throughout the frame. if i tried to shoot at F2.8 often times the players had moved out of my depth of field in the fraction of a second that it took the camera to focus and release the shutter. this was on the 5D series cameras which of course were less than ideal for action in terms of that focusing system.

 its all highly dependent upon then lens (focal length) that i am using and what the situation calls for. the full frame format is an entirely different animal in terms of Depth of Field and you should not reference your experiences on your G12 as to what apertures will work in certain situations.

+10

41

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Up to what ISO are you willing to set? Aperture?

« on: January 23, 2013, 06:19:26 AM »

Can't remember who said it but it went something like: A sharp image with noise will always outsell a blurry image with no noise. 

And there's of course the artistic exception, where blur might be the point. Then go for it.

42

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D - How bad is it? Really?

« on: January 23, 2013, 06:14:15 AM »

One more thing... If you go to my flickr stream and checkout the Ballmaster 2013 set you'll see a bunch of images NOT edited, which will give you an idea of high ISO before the edits. Them images are only there for certain organizations to make their selections and then I'll do proper edits as they let me know which ones they want.

43

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 7D - How bad is it? Really?

« on: January 23, 2013, 06:09:22 AM »

Feel free to check out the Tenpin Bowling thread in the Sports section of this forum. I routinely shoot certain events above ISO3200. Granted, it takes some post-proc to get it looking alright but it is ok I think. The shots I posted there are a 7D at 4000+ ISO. Should give you an idea what you can get out of it. 

44

Sports / Re: Tenpin Bowling

« on: January 23, 2013, 05:45:06 AM »

K3nt I would love to see your specific Aperture 3 preset settings, if you can post them 

By the way, nice shots!

Cheers

I'll post them tomorrow as I don't have them handy at work. But no problem. And thanks for the appreciation. 

45

Sports / Re: Tenpin Bowling

« on: January 23, 2013, 04:14:44 AM »

Noise Ninja is nowadays known as Photo Ninja, PictureCodes standalone RAW converter and editing software. But it has all the features of Noise Ninja and then some. But I do miss the simplicity of the pure plugin, therefore my change of favorite to ACR.