Photoshop

[walter_karroll]

<p>Hi, I am semi new to photography and extremly new to adobe photoshop. My question is this. Why should I buy lets say a cokin filter set when you can be more creative in adobe? Also I have a canon ae1-program with the motor drive. Is there any advice on focusing fast so you don't miss out on a great shot? I was at the zoo the other day, and there was a girafe bent down towards the ground with his knees sticking in and his butt towards me. Great background too, but he moved right when i focused him in. It was frustrating.</p>

[maximphotostudio]

<p>Walter, you can do almost anything in Photoshop, but the answer is you want to limit the amount of post processing by gettting it right in the field. For example, it is a lot easier to correct blown out images while shooting than to go back and make corrections to 100s of images. Same thing with filters whether using IR, ND or polarizing types, make sure you understand how to use it rather than relying on working in Post.<br>

As far as focusing goes, it has a lot to do with your glass. I tend to use center focusing and then recomposing. This way the camera isn't trying to understand which are is in focus. I am not sure what focusing system ae-1 uses, but as with filters, make sure you completely understand your camera's functionality.</p>

[jackaldridge]

<p>Walter since your AE-1 program doesn't autofocus you have to give yourself as much leeway as possible. Use a film and shutter speed that allows you to stop the lens down so that you have more depth of field. You can also look up the hyperfocal distance for your lens (just google 'hyperfocal distance' if you don't know what that means) and try that.<br />Focusing on a spot and waiting for the action to come to you is another trick...<br />The rest of it is just practice in getting the camera controls down and being used to changing situations. In other words practice...practice...practice.<br />One of the advantages of the newer cameras is the autofocus feature. Sometimes that can really save your bacon...<br /><br />As far as using Photoshop there are a bunch of us who feel you should shoot the photo right in the camera whenever possible. Trying to get the same effect in a post processing fashion sometimes just isn't the same. I guess it depends on where your creativity lies...in taking the photo or in playing with the possibilities on a computer later. In any case knowing how to take the photo correctly to achieve the result you want will always help you come out ahead.<br />By the way...I might suggest taking the motor drive off until you feel comfortable with the camera...otherwise you're gonna eat a lot of film...</p>

[vilk_inc]

<p><em>Is there any advice on focusing fast so you don't miss out on a great shot?<br /><br /></em>use your imagination and focus in advance on the spot where the action will unfold. the technique has been used with great success for at least a century. yes, it's faster than any autofocus device :)<br /><br /><em>Why should I buy lets say a cokin filter set when you can be more creative in adobe?<br /><br /></em>garbage in, garbage out. you use filters in order to maximize the amount of visual information you capture or to improve the ratio of the information you want to the information you don't want. for example, shooting a landscape on a cloudy day you may be forced to overexpose the sky or to underexpose the ground, losing detail you cannot put back in later. other times, reflections from some surfaces will obscure your subject; you will not be able to remove these reflections in photoshop and reveal what they obscured<br /><br />there are filters to make these corrections while you still have access to the original information</p>

[jasminabalic]

<p>is anybody using Tiffen software?</p>

[walter_karroll]

<p>Thanks for your posts. Helped out. One of my biggest problems is over exposing the sky in a landscape shot. It makes it more of pain because then you need try and make your sky. Would be easier to to you lets say a polorizer filter to deepen the color of the sky but still get the detail of the land scape. Thanks again. Going to google the hyper focal distance.</p>