Messages

1

Lenses / 8-15mm or 15mm fisheye?

« on: April 11, 2013, 10:22:19 AM »

Hey guys,

Just a quick question... I did try looking but there seems to be a fair bit of conflicting info on both these lens... I have at the moment a Canon 15mm 2.8 fisheye. I am looking to use this as my main surf lens in my water proof housing... I have read that the 15mm suffers a lot from CA and that the autofocus isn't very good, to be honest I have never noticed it... My girlfriend really wants to buy my 15mm off me which is why I was looking at the 8-15mm. Am I going to be better off keeping the 15mm or will the L lens make a night and day difference?

Cheers
Alex

2

Technical Support / Re: Is this dust or sensor damage?!

« on: April 11, 2013, 10:15:17 AM »

It could just be a cluster of stuck pixels... Its a really easy fix, I had it on my new 5D 3. All you have to do is go to manual sensor clean then remove the lens hold the camera under a bright light for 2or 3 seconds, lens back on and take another shot... Best to find crop in on the older pic then move to the new one to see if it has gone. If it doesn't work first time try it again with a slightly longer time under the light... Try it, it cant hurt your camera and might save you waiting for a week

3

Sports / Re: Trying to get noticed...

« on: March 16, 2013, 02:16:04 PM »

After seeing your edit on my image it really inspired me to take another stab at it... What do you guys think? Could I do with changing anything?

4

Sports / Re: Trying to get noticed...

« on: March 16, 2013, 11:10:08 AM »

I suggest you start a website and put only your best work on it.
As you improve, get rid of the ones that aren't up to the new standard.
Put only your best photos on social media.
People will refer you to their friends who surf (if they have any).
Offer to shoot promo photos for events at no charge, and make sure they credit/tag you somewhere when promoting the event with the image.
Get some business cards made, and you'll be noticed, and eventually paid.

For fun, I threw one of your pictures into Aperture and cropped off the not so interesting bits and tried to make the day look less dreary.
If you can consistently PP the images in an identifiable way, that helps as well.

That is amazing. I never thought it could look like that. How did you edit the water?

By the way, I really like the natural look of your signature on the image.

Thank you. I did that on sketch time on the iPad then imported it into CS6

5

Sports / Re: Trying to get noticed...

« on: March 15, 2013, 02:41:04 PM »

If it's good, solid critique you're after, I think local camera clubs and some classes are good. Take everything with the old grain of salt though, as no one is you or has your vision. Take what you need, and leave the rest! The suggestion made about looking at the great pictures, the ones that tear your eyes out is a good one. Study those pictures and try to figure out how they made it happen -- then go out and make it happen yourself.

Have fun, and keep asking for help. Eventually, if you keep at it, someone will be asking you for help. Be prepared to give back!

I very much do appreciated all the help and advice that I can get... What you say sounds like a great idea, the only problem is that where I live the camera clubs are very few and far between... It also rains 360 days of the year and the other 5 days it snows... It's very unusual to get a sunny day....

This is my other flickr account which just has a mixture on it... http://www.flickr.com/photos/66876906@N06/

6

Sports / Re: Trying to get noticed...

« on: March 15, 2013, 01:44:04 PM »

"Trying to get noticed..." is probably an unfortunate choice of subject title, as the comments indicate.

There are lots of way to try to get noticed. If you are serious about it, do them all. I'm generally not all that enthusiastic about "how to" books and books on marketing are pretty much all the same (perhaps because I've spent a lifetime in marketing in one way or another) but a pretty good primer is David DuChemin's Vision Mongers.

My personal advice sounds trite, but I still think it is the best path: follow your passion and strive to be the best. Worry about getting noticed after you've built up a body of work.

Your pictures are great. Spend another thousand hours shooting the same subject and they'll be even better. Another couple thousand after that, and on and on. You have a leg up on most others since you don't expect to be able to earn a living at this. After you've done it for a few years and built up a reputation you may find that the work finds you.

Thank you for your advice... In hindsight the title wasn't the best but it got me noticed so it can't be all bad. I've taken on board some of the comments already about the images looking underexposed, I was always told never to clip the highlights, but I have to admit that brightening up the images make them (to me) much better...

It's not my intension to upset or piss anyone off, which I can see I have from a few of the comments... All I want to do is learn from others and progress. So I am sorry if my original post has annoyed anyone

7

Sports / Re: Trying to get noticed...

« on: March 15, 2013, 12:18:05 PM »

Thanks for the replies...

To be totally honest I don't ever see myself making money at photography, well not a living anyway. This was just more of a see what people think and what could be changed... This was the main reason that I would like to be noticed a bit more so I can learn.

Your right about flickr is that you can put a crappy shot up and people will say your the next David Bailey... Im just after some constructive criticism so hopefully one day I could submit a few images to Carve and Wave length magazines for example... I know I am no where near that good which is why I want to learn from my mistakes...

.

If you want genuine critique, I'd suggest you leave EXIF intact when posting pictures or explain how each image was processed and what equipment was used. You've got an enormous amount of equipment, I suppose from having worked at Jessop's.

I've reinstated the EXIF data on flickr so you can see what I was using...

8

Sports / Trying to get noticed...

« on: March 15, 2013, 09:22:15 AM »

Hey guys,

As the subject suggests I'm just trying to get my work noticed... I'm mainly focusing towards water sports / Surfing... I've posted 7 pics on flickr so if anyone would like to have a look and has some constructive criticism it would be greatly appreciated...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wave_crest/

Cheers
Alex

9

1D X Sample Images / Re: Any Thing shot with a 1Dx

« on: March 14, 2013, 08:05:05 PM »

1Dx 600mm f/4 Mk2

10

Third Party Manufacturers / Re: Waiting to Shoot the New Pope with Nikkor 1200-1700mm Lens

« on: March 13, 2013, 03:36:36 PM »

Well the wait is over, wonder if the lens worked!

No it came up with lens error then retracted back in

11

Lens Gallery / Re: Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM

« on: March 10, 2013, 05:17:56 PM »

My contribution

12

Lenses / Re: EF70-200 f/2.8L IS ll refurbished @ Canon for $1699.20 & I'm screwed

« on: March 10, 2013, 12:33:29 PM »

I felt the same when I bough my 600mm mk2... As soon as I used it i forgot about the guilt and started thinking what a great investment

13

EOS Bodies / Re: Autofocus modes for 1DX & 5D3

« on: March 10, 2013, 07:40:18 AM »

Thank you guys... The shot was taken in Newent England at a place called the International centre for birds of prey... I am fortunate that my girlfriend works there so I get to see a bit more than the general public.

The wire that you see trailing is the telemetry, basic GPS if the bird was to fly off and do it's own thing...

Just to be clear, I would NOT use the 61 AF points for sports.  The closest player is NOT the player you necessarily want to be in focus.

I agree with RMC33 it depends on the subject and what AF Mode your in... The 61 point is so handy when your trying to track birds in flight that can easily do 80mph +

14

EOS Bodies / Re: 5d mark 2 long exposure processing time

« on: March 09, 2013, 05:06:45 PM »

I have found the same on my 1DX, the noise reduction often makes the noise worse

15

EOS Bodies / Re: Autofocus modes for 1DX & 5D3

« on: March 09, 2013, 12:51:27 PM »

This is worth having a look at http://www.garyluhm.net/bio/tips_0512.html Helped me out when I was at the IBPC trying to track a Red Kite going through trees...

400 may be a bit short.. but you will love it. I don't do much birding but the majority of my sports shooting is 61point auto, case 2 with accel/decel set to 1 and point switch to 0 for skiing. Kayaking I use Case 2 with the slider all the way over to locked on with accel/decel to 2 and switching to 1.

I think depending on the distance a 400mm will be more than enough... Normally I end up using my 70-200 2.8 mk2 and sometimes 200mm can be too much... I've used my 400mm 2.8 mk2 and 600mm 4 mk2 for birds in flight, It takes a lot of practice with the 600mm...