Samples from the Canon T2i / Last night out with the T2i

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canonman

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My company had the usual boring Christmas Party tonight and this is my last time with the T2i. I am selling this and upgrading to the EOS 60D. I took a few pictures of the ladies who work up in the front office. I know a few of the photos are a little soft. I have much sharper examples, but sometimes I like to make portrait pictures soft. It sometimes does more justice for the subject of the photo;)

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/6861/img1214q.jpg

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/5638/img1339od.jpg

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8803/img1361z.jpg
 
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Edwin Herdman

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Well, my T1i is still going strong.

From what I understand, the 60D might help with focus, which appears to be the problem here. But I would rather invest in lenses which will make even that seemingly poor-performing camera work better, and not get frisked for cash every cycle when buying a new camera - if you're interested in candids you might like a faster prime...I'm guessing these are taken with the kit lens? (I sold mine straight away so I have no idea what it's like). Ideally, you'd be able to get the 50mm 1.2 to duplicate that sharp-but-not-unflattering look you're aiming for, but the 50mm 1.4 seems to be good enough in my view (plus on APS-C 50mm is too long for close quarters shots unless you're just going for head and shoulders portraits). I've taken a couple good portraits with it in lower light.

The 60D's focus system has rave reviews, but those like Osiris posted are using better lenses. I would think that if you're just going from one camera with the 18-55mm consumer zoom to another, you might not see nearly as big a difference as getting a better lens. If I were you I'd get the 17-55mm f/2.8 EF-S and save on weight, and just use the center dot for focus. Or you could save a lot of money and just get a faster prime lens.
 
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canonman

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That was taken with the 50mm 1.4. I purposely knocked the focus off in the first shot because it wasnt to my advantage to have that shot in sharp focus. If that was in sharp focus, then you would see all the imperfections of the model to include those skin spots on her chest and face. Now the #2 and #3 photos are sharper and you can see all the skin stuff.

Older persons, I have found, appreciate a very soft focus...almost to the point where its clearly out of focus. That is so they can hide the imperfections.

I don't use photoshop. Dont have that time nowadays to play with it so just go with a soft focus for some portrait shots.
 
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canonman

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This article explains it pretty well. The older woman in the background just does not look that good with a sharp photo and when they blurred it...it came out better. When I first saw "Gausian blur" in these image editing photos I wondered why anyone would want to purposely blur their photos, but then I saw how it would be good for portrait work.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshop/ht/apssoftfocus.htm
 
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Edwin Herdman

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Huh, I wouldn't have guessed. f/1.4 and you're getting color like that? You used the flash, right? Personally I don't think that skin imperfections should be the major focus there - looking at it again, it's blotchy in places (especially images 2 and 3), so maybe there you're right, and a better body would make a difference. But I wonder if better post-processing wouldn't do it: I don't mean photoshop, but rather in-camera JPEG vs. RAW conversion via DPP. Are you using RAW?
 
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canonman

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That might have been a bad example. For the first picture, I was using the flash to meter versus the body.

In this photograph, I had the camera metering versus the flash. The images are a bit sharper.

http://i55.tinypic.com/210f7s7.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2wmnw29.jpg

(Im using this tinypic.com because the bit.ly only accepts 5mb files and less. Is there any better photosharing link facilities?)

I understand the benefits behind shooting in RAW and post processing, but there are a few disadvantages that make me just shoot in JPG. The RAW are sizable files that take time to download and process. If I was shooting an event where I was getting paid, then maybe I might take the time to download and process then maybe...

I get my EOS 60D on Monday and lets see if I can do better with that. The T2i was a great camera and I got a lot of great shots with it. Im hoping to improve upon it with the 60D...
 
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Admin US West

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Nov 30, 2010
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canonman said:
(Im using this tinypic.com because the bit.ly only accepts 5mb files and less. Is there any better photosharing link facilities?)

I use smugmug. Easy to use, 12mb limit of file size, links are generated for several different types of blogs.

Note: if you first click the insert image button in the tools above, and paste in the link to the web site, your image will load and display.

Like this: 50mm f 1.4 wide open

962415299_MQ5N9-XL-2.jpg
 
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canonman

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All of the photos on my personal photography website were taken with the Canon T2i. Although its just a "Rebel", I found it to be a very capable camera and much better then any point&shoot I have had over the years.

http://bit.ly/gAwzR2

If you scroll down on my personal site, then you will find images of the Jersey Shore Snooki Birthday party set. If you do a google image search, you can find photographs from other photographers. The other photographers there were professionals from different news agencies. They were using high dollar camera bodies. I did see some D3-type Nikons and Canons 1-type bodies. There were other full frame cameras there. I believe the pictures obtained by my Canon T2i could not be distinguished from the other photographer's camera by layman on a website. Of course, the devil will be in the details when looked at under the eye of the magnifying glass or a 400% crop, but I think it did well up against cameras that were 6-10 times its price.

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1704&bih=781&tbs=isch:1&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&gs_rfai=&q=snooki%20birthday

For me, the advantage of the Canon T2i was its ease in carrying around. It was a good body to carry all over Europe and Asia. It was not as heavy as some of the other options out there and seemed to carry well. Two big advantages for me in the new camera (the 60D) will be 3 times the battery life and the articulating screen. Anytime I go out to take a photograph in a crowded space an articulating screen would be nice to get some shots that I can't do with the viewfinder. The other big thing is battery life. I have had to work up against the fainting battery on the T2i a few times.
 
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Edwin Herdman

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canonman said:
The T2i was a great camera and I got a lot of great shots with it. Im hoping to improve upon it with the 60D...
Well, I hope so too, but I'd put technique first...you'll like the pentaprism and the screen, I bet, but not sure what it'll do if you're still intentionally throwing the focus off.

It occurred to me after I wrote those posts that an easy way to achieve your intended effect could well be to just shoot the f/1.4 wide open. It'll be blurred but the focus won't be off (which, to get it completely off the subject, will have some strange effects).

Best of luck, look forward to seeing your next shots!
 
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Who's deleting my posts?

Anyhow, better than intentionally missing focus is using soft focus filters (the guide posted above is meant to emulate these, not an out-of-focus shot). A promist or classic soft filter will superimpose a blurry image over the sharp one, providing smooth skin without a loss of fine detail. Bounced, diffused, or off-camera flash (or natural light) will be kinder to skin tones in the first place and show less glare off of make up. Shooting wide open will provide spherical aberration and reduce contrast, and so provide a similar effect to a soft focus filter. Unfortunately, shooting wide open and missing focus will result in green halos around highlights (as seen above) due to secondary chromatic aberration, so it's not the best approach...
 
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