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Mt Spokane Photography · May 27, 2013

omar said:
guys, thanks for the replies
>> IIRC, and if it is similar to the T3i, you have to switch to video, then
>> go to Menu, and then you will find it in there somewhere.
i think this is where i'm going wrong
i haven't gone near this menu
i just needed to point and shoot as quickly as possible (just needed to do this)
i'll give this a go
thanks!

Successfully using a DSLR for video requires that you plan each step, setup the lighting, focus, etc. That is why Canon recommends using Camcorders for most users. There are many situations where using a DSLR for video is totally impractical. Taking a video of the kids soccer game is far better done with a camcorder, for example.

I've seen some fantastic videos from DSLR's and a lot of really crappy ones.

privatebydesign · May 27, 2013

If you want to really go to town create your own profile at each aperture with the free Adobe Lens Profile Creator http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5489 it takes a little effort but the results can be well worth it, particularly if you use the lens a lot.

brett b · May 27, 2013

jebrady03 said:
beckstoy said:

I love the shot and don't think you need to do anything to the colors.
...what about a little contrast?

Click to expand...

pdirestajr said:

A few suggestions for what they are worth.

1. Composition- I'd just really work with the angles and framing here to come up with more dynamic shots. Look at the entire right 1/3 side of your image, All I look at is that little weed popping up in the foreground. Now if that weed was the snake's food, that's a different story. Then the snake head is just kinda floating in the middle, with no more significance than the rest of the image. My eyes don't know where to look.

I want there to be something in the foreground in the bottom left of the image to balance with the flow of the head.

An even lower angle would also give a more unique perspective. I don't want to get that close to snakes, but it looks like you are fine with it, so you have the ability to show people something new.

I made a quick crop of your image to show a different visual flow. I wouldn't necessarily have cropped this shot square, but from the image you provided, it was the best I could come up with.

2. Focus- I'd make sure you nail focus on the snake's head to make it pop out at you. The top of his head looks like it is behind the plane of focus.

3. Contrast- It is pretty flat. Even the histogram I pulled looked like it was missing the whole right side.

The macro is cool, but again, it's a standard straight on shot. Play with angles and composition!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions!

As for contrast - it's actually interesting. This is what a normal boa constrictor looks like (random image pulled off of a google search...

This animal has lots of contrast, obviously.

The animal in my pictures has actually been selectively bred for several different traits. The first is what's known in the hobby as "pastel" - it's basically just a reduction of black that gives a washed out look. The reason this is so popular is because as they age, most boa constrictors darken and the little black specks increase in number. This trait is an attempt to minimize that to allow the color underneath to remain move vibrant and appealing as an adult. "Pastel" is a polygenic trait in boas (like skin color in people).

The animal in my pictures is also exhibiting another trait known as "hypomelanism". For those without a background in science, "hypo" means under, low, less, beneath, etc. (think hypodermic needle - a needle for injecting under the dermis, or hypoglycemia - low blood sugar). Melanism refers to black pigment. So, this animal has less than normal black pigment. That sounds like the above trait, but it's very different. The above trait just kind of washes the dark pigment away, the hypomelanistic trait actually removes it to a large degree. It's especially noticeable in the latter half of the body - for instance, look at the first picture and at the lower left corner - those orange blotches (known as saddles) are generally surrounded by black but in a hypo, the black has been mostly removed and the color underneath shows through. Hypomelanism is an incomplete dominant trait meaning when a "hypo" is bred to a normal animal - 50% of the babies will receive the hypo gene.

So, this boa is a pastel hypomelanistic boa. It's kind of a double shot of black (contrast) reduction - so it should appear to be absent of contrast.

This animal is also hiding a trait. What I mean by that is that it also has a recessive trait - albinism. Albinism is simple recessive meaning BOTH parents need to contribute the gene to the offspring for the offspring to express the trait. In this case, the mother was an albino and the father was a pastel hypo. So, this animal received the pastel and hypo trait from dad (low odds of happening in one animal) and one copy of the albino gene from mom. So, when this boy is bred in the future, if bred to an animal with one or two copies of the albino gene (either non-visual or "heterozygous" like my male or a visual albino aka "homozygous") he could produce pastel hypo albinos which are GLOWING pink/orange animals like this:

Again, the above image was just pulled from a google search.

So, adding contrast to the photo (I did play with it based on your suggestions) actually end up misrepresenting the animal and actually, in a negative way. People want the washed out coloration and pay more money for it as it results in more beautiful hypo albinos (known as sunglows in the hobby).

JB!! How have you been? Weird seeing you here!

I personally like your image. Having been in the boa breeding industry myself (yes...I'm that Brett, JB), I appreciate that the image is color accurate. I also like your choice of composition and depth of field. I do understand the critique of others who suggest a greater dof and getting a lower perspective. But, too much lower and you would reduce the viewers ability to see the saddles which is a must.

Are you using Lightroom? If so, which version? I think you should bump up the exposure just a bit. If you have LR4, you might want to increase shadows a bit and maybe bump the clarity slider to 20-30 which will add a little mid tone contrast...but not a lot.

What was your light source? I see square shaped catchlights in the snake's eye...2nd & 3rd images.

The image you attached from your google search was probably taken with a point & shoot. It's likely that sharpening, contrast, saturation, etc. were all added in camera...which is what P&S cameras do. So, your attempts to add contrast to an already crummy image file cannot be compared to adding contrast to a raw file.

Are you shooting raw? If not, please start. Or at least shoot raw + jpeg so you have a raw file to work with when the jpeg isn't accurate. Does your camera have picture styles? If so, what setting do you use?

How is Rose?

I hope you are well! I haven't talked to you in years!!

TommyLee · May 27, 2013

adhocphotographer

you think I am over reacting....?

ok...
I found London to be very safe been there a lot...
My brother lived ther 35 yrs..I visited regularly....felt at home

just a few times to Paris...LOVE it.. but there is a known thread of thieves as I described....
I stand by my report

the issues I described were also described by a number of posts I read...upon return and asking about other's experiences...

packs opened in 3-4 attempts ... zipping a bit at a time...
by trailing pair of thieves - one at watch - one behind you...in the tube or a crowd

so I believe Paris is a bit more risk.... and recognized as such.

but I am not an expert.....I defer to your expertise on Parisian/London Crime ...
me...I will stay alert....more alert in Paris

TOM

May 27, 2013

omar said:
>> 438 level
i've looked this up and it's about £70
i'm pretty sure the tripod has a spirit level
i assume therefore that's pants and a level is required?

The 438 isn't a level, it's a leveling base - enables you to make the platform for the head level, easily.

omar said:
am i ok to buy a kit from ebay for under £25? or are there better branded models that i should choose?

Looking at this thread and your macro flash thread, etc., I see a theme. Here's the thing...there are cheap products on eBay to meet most needs, and most of them are...cheap. They don't cost much because they are cheaply designed and even more cheaply made. They don't work from the outset, they fail (usually when you need them most), they are inconvenient to use, and if they are part of the optical or audio chain, they usually produce poor results. Can you get by with the cheap stuff? Sometimes (depending on your standards). Are there 'diamonds in the rough' out there? Rarely (very rarely). The bottom line is that you get what you pay for - and chances are of you opt for cheap gear, your results will reflect those choices.

I realize a budget is a reality. The solution is to focus on one thing, build your setup for that first. If you try to be a jack of all trades, all at once, you'll be expert at none...and paying clientele will notice.

May 27, 2013

rpt said:
The lens is shaped such that the focus of an image on the sensor or film is done for a plane parallel to the plane of the receptor.

Correct - the lens is designed to project a flat image onto the image plane. However, not all lenses are perfect - when a lens doesn't project a flat image, it's called field curvature. The 24-70/2.8L (MkI) has that problem.

eninja · May 27, 2013

When I got home, i re-look into the view finder.
My perspective change.
Now I am aware how bright it is,
its like looking in an arbitrary painting,
I can now see how easy it is to compose my shot.

JBeckwith · May 27, 2013

Even though the last picture had the ISO cranked too high, it's still a nice shot. Blue jays are just so beautiful that it's almost hard to get a bad shot of them. The noise is almost unnoticeable if the picture isn't blown up too much.

bchernicoff · May 27, 2013

eml58 said:
bchernicoff said:

I don't think the background blur looks very good at all. And looking at the focal lengths printed under the images, I feel like everyone of them would have been better shot at 300mm f/2.8 and cropped if necessary. This assumes these weren't crops already.

Click to expand...

Well the lens is never going to be all things to all photographers, but I own the 200f/2, 300f/2.8 & 400f/2.8 Version 2 Lenses, Plus the 600f/4 Version 2, and more based on what I've seen in Andy Rousse's Review, I'de have to disagree that @ f/4 this Lens isn't just as good as any of the Primes I mentioned above, time will tell of course, once we have a few being used and start to see the Images, but I'm sold. If you haven't already, have a look here, can't see too much wrong with Bokah @ f/4, or at any other f/stop. I imagine the Photographer didn't shoot his Images at f/2.8 is because this is an f/4 Lens through the Zoom Range without the 1.4x Converter in place.

http://www.andyrouse.co.uk/index.php?page_id=174

I was suggesting that the photographer could have just used the 300mm f/2.8 II lens. Andy's images look fantastic though and I'm sure the flexibility of having a zoom is a big help in a lot of scenarios.

jrista · May 27, 2013

LetTheRightLensIn said:
jrista said:

pete vella said:

...
Gimmie Chuck Westfalls number so he can explain why canon left out this feature.
...

Click to expand...

http://fakechuckwestfall.wordpress.com/

Enjoy.

Click to expand...

Oh dear though he seems to have gone all moon landings/9/11 conspiracy theorist though....

Of course! It's highly controversial...and that guy LOVES controversy!

ZoeEnPhos · May 27, 2013

eml58 said:
I ordered mine through the guys at Cathay Photo in Singapore where I buy all my gear, I've been advised they have 2 Lenses Due June 10th, One earmarked for me, hopefully the info is correct as I head out to Tanzania on June 15th.

Hi I hope you will get yours before taking off to Tanzania! Will you also bring the zoom to Iceland later=?
Happy Shootings sir!
/Charl

dirtcastle · May 27, 2013

LetTheRightLensIn said:
I heard someone tried it with SilverFX and it was said to have come out wicked awesome!! But they said it took like years to render a short little thing.

SilverEfex is slow with stills, so it's no surprise. I will test it out. I haven't messed with Resolve, but I'd be curious to know if it has capabilities beyond ACR or LR.

LetTheRightLensIn said:
If you do AE/ACR or PS/ACR workflow make sure to check my post in the video forum here as you will get a mismatch between sRGB tone response and gamma 2.2 so after all the hard work perfecting things it will suddenly look wrong in Premiere Pro or played back by most video software since your monitor/HDTV is probably set to gamma 2.2 or so but AE/ACR and PS/ACR worklflows can get you stuck in footage saved as sRGB TRC so you get a slight contrast and saturation boost and shadows and lower mid-tones look too dark. The difference is surprisingly noticeable at times. But there are ways to force those workflows to save out in gamma 2.2. See my posts.

Yup, I'm struggling with this color space issue too. I've been getting a washed-out look after running the RAWs through Lightroom and QuickTime7. I will try a bunch of settings variations, including some you've mentioned. Sometimes I just experiment until I get the best results.

GMCPhotographics · May 26, 2013

For my needs and wants, a 7DII must offer two things over the current model:
Iso noise which is a lot better (I'm talking about a huge disparity between a 5DII and 7D) and the general per pixel image quality. When compared to the output from a 5DII/III the 7D was often left wanting. The rest of the original 7D is still very competitive and very usable...but anything over Iso 400 wasn't for me.
I loved the AF system, the 8fps, the handling, everything except the sensor...the most un-Canon camera Canon have made!

May 26, 2013

tron said:
I don't agree they sent a useless brochure. If I recall correctly you have 2 daughters, so the 2 Rebels - which by the way are of different size - would suit them both!
(OK may be in a few years)
;D ;D ;D

Touché, Sir!

My 5 year old daughter has been asking for a camera, and using the old S95 from time to time...so an SL3 might be just the ticket in a few years...

privatebydesign · May 26, 2013

As an aside, like most things, you can dig deep and actually do volume anamorphosis adjustments in Photoshop, but it takes a bit of trial and error and a little more time than the DxO one button solution.

The basis of the adjustment is in the Filter drop down menu go Distort-Spherize in that menu under Mode choose Horizontal Only (or Vertical Only) then move the slider, when you have done that select all and go free transform and change the width percent to around 90%, click the arrow and you are done. Now most times it helps if you increase the canvas width first as this moves where the spherize bands adjust within the frame, like I said a bit of trial and error but good results and cheaper than the plugin if you have PS.

Spherical anamorphosis adjustments are easily done in the lens correction panel with the distortion slider.

docholliday · May 26, 2013

ookkerpak said:
Hi, and thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately I live in Finland, and the nights here are not so dark in the summertime, so the otherwise good idea about shooting at night would have to wait until winter. So maybe I'll try to use sunlight instead, maybe even turn off the lights in the dojo and use max amount of flashes with gels. I hadn't heard about gelling windows before, don't know where to get that kind of stuff. Got to check out different webstores.

It doesn't have to be *that* dark...just darker than the interior lights. 2 stops will usually do it. The higher shutter speed you'd have to shoot will cut the background light (ambient coming in from the windows). It's about learning the exposure compensation vs. the flash exposure compensation). You can dial the EC down -2 stops to darken the whole ambient exposure, then dial the FEC up to +2 and get some really neat shots that drop out the background.

As far as gelling, try any theatre supply company. They are just thin transparent sheets of plastic that are coloured a certain amount. They come in big rolls, so you just unroll them on the outside of the windows and tape them in place. Rosco (Roscolux) and Lee are the names to look for. Here's the light correction gels list from Lee: http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/technical-list.html. They all have a sample book that is a spinner with each color that you can try. Wait until a sunny day, turn on the florescent lights, then hold one of the strip to the left or right side of your lens. Shoot a shot. That way, half your image shows what the "natural" light is and the other half will show what happens if you add that filter to the lighting.

Once you find the right colour, you'd get a few rolls of that stuff and tape it to the windows (hint: it'll be a green tint to change the daylight to match the florescent lights). Now, the incoming outside light and the interior lighting will be close in temperature, so your camera can white balance just one color.

The trick to it is to get a book about lighting color correction, learn some basic color theory (color wheel!), and #1: get some practice testing in before actually shooting!

When we shoot architecture, we commonly gel the windows so that all the lights look natural and crisp. It's also how all motion pictures are done!

lholmes549 · May 26, 2013

Sella174 said:
Doesn't matter, because the (discontinued) DiG!C II produces the best JPEG's.

Because all that matters in photography is which camera produces the best JPEGs...

candyman · May 26, 2013

@op
I kept my 24-105. I like this lens as outdoor walkaround because of the range to 105mm. And, I use it icw with flash indoor. For that it is also a great lens.

Drizzt321 · May 26, 2013

If things are starting to get contentious, I'd talk to a lawyer, or if you're a member of PPA or something similar see if there's a staff legal team for advice. And above all, this is why you get things in writing, even if it's a simple email saying "Here's what we agreed over the phone, please confirm that this is correct."

bornshooter · May 26, 2013

eml58 said:
Yes, the 5DMK II Bad Habits, great Camera, loved it, but that Focus System for me led to some bad habits, Centre Point Focus then recompose being the biggest bad habit, but the Centre Point is the only point worth using, so you work with what you have.

The 5DMK III & 1Dx with the 61 Point system, allows me to dispense with the Bad Habit of recompose, for those that recompose works for, more power to you, really, but I've simply found recompose when ever it's used invariably deals slight out of focus into the Image.

Like others in previous Posts, I use a single point Focus then move the Point in the frame to match the area I want to Focus on, generally on Single Point spot for static objects, single shot. Then for anything else AI Servo it's mostly single Point & set for 61 point so once I lock on I have a reasonable chance that the system will track, I tweek the release/tracking/focus priority settings dependent on what the situation needs.

I still shoot the 5DMK II on single point & recompose as I converted one of my 5DMK II's to Infra Red Sensor, so the Bad Habits do persist.

yeah the 5dmk2 i guess made a lot of us get into this bad habit as the other points were pretty much useless lol maybe i will just stick with my joystick method but maybe have a wee go at a couple of frames with focus and recompose

jdramirez · May 25, 2013

Mt Spokane Photography said:
Welcome to the world of FF bodies with no flash or transmitter.

Once you move to FF, you will need a trigger as Neuro said, and the focal length of all your lenses will appear to have shrunk by a factor of 1.6.
Then, you should consider using CF memory rather than your SD (It will work, just not the best, particularly not for video)

There will be a noticible advantage at very high ISO settings, mucho better autofocus, and AFMA to let you fine tune your lenses. So set some money aside for FoCal.

Don't forget a spare battery

if you drive an suv, you are going to pay more for tires. the same applies for monster trucks and full frame cameras. I'm less concerned about the reach as long as I can keep my subject in the frame and on the af point. I crop with the best of them.

I have a compact flash card, 800x, but only in read speeds. I want the 1000x card that has a write speed of 90mbs.

Mt Spokane Photography · May 25, 2013

I've always hated that lock button arrangement, even with it working, its a pain.

Before ordering a replacement part from ebay, call Canon parts.

Ebay sellers often just buy from Canon and mark up the price. I've even done that, sort of. When my Vitamix needs a gasket, its as cheap to buy three or six due to the shipping, so I sell the extras on ebay for enough to get one free. They get snapped up immediately.

bholliman · May 25, 2013

The D7100 is three years newer than the 7D. A better comparison for the D7100 will be Canons 70D when its announced.

AlexeyD · May 25, 2013

Prague walk

Drizzt321 · May 25, 2013

Obviously the RAW is doing vastly better, but did you do any color grading on the ALL-I at all? That might help it look a bit better, although from what I understand it might take a bit longer than doing a quick import into Lightroom, tweak settings then sync across all frames and export.

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