glenbarrington

William, that is the single most idiotic answer I have ever seen.

 

The kind of computer you have is totally irrelevant to the quality of your photos. I suspect you are more of a troll than a serious photographer yourself. Why don't you sit down in the corner and let real photographers have a say?

 

Furthermore, I asked how it compares to PSP not to Photoshop.

In a way, this thread has taken on a, 'how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" argument. Neither side can really prove all that much. In fact, the future of ANY format is always unknown since it involves the future.

 

I convert my .orf files (Olympus) to dng using Lightroom. I like the dng/Lightroom combination very much. DNG is a bit smaller than .orf files and I have seen no decrease in image quality as a result.

 

In Lightroom, with raw files, you can store the edit data in the database or in the sidecar files as you wish. However, dng gives you a third option. Lightroom stores the edit data in a special area of the dng file format itself, giving you not only the unedited original image but the stored LR edits in the same file as well. This has made backup and offline storage issues very easy to deal with.

 

Also, it is my hope that as dng and Lightroom become more of an infrastructural force in digital photography, other products, such as ACDSee will be able to eventually be able to read the stored Lightroom edits and work with them as they would with any other formats.

 

Just a wish at this point, but if LR turns out to be as influential to workflow as Photoshop proper has been to editing, then it is not beyond the realm of possibility.

This is cross posted from DPR, no response there, so I thought I'd try here.

 

I used to use PhotoPlus 7. I liked it rather well, but I moved on when I

realized I needed color management. I was doing some research on low cost

editors and re-discovered PhotoPlus now up to V11. I have long recommended the

Serif give away version 6, but I never really looked at the recent commercial

versions.

 

For $79 USD it claims to offer a LOT of editing power. It seems about as

powerful as the more recent versions of PSP.

 

Does anyone have any experience with it? How does it compare to PSP? How is the

raw support? Does anyone know how it might integrate with Lightroom? How

powerful is the scripting language and the batch processing?

 

for the curious:

 

http://www.serif.com/photoplus/photoplus11/index.asp

Running fine on an A75 Toshiba laptop with a P4 chip and a little over 1 gig of RAM. That goes for the Beta versions, V1.0 and V1.1

 

I had some probolems with getting a decent print out of LR, but I finally got that worked out.

I have no problems running LR 1.1 on a Toshiba A75 P4 3.2 Ghz with 1.152 gig of ram. I frequently use it CONCURRENTLY with ACDSee Pro 2 Beta, PSE5 editor, and the Trend 2007 Security Suite. And occasionally, all of the other stuff plus MS Outlook 2003 and IE7.

 

I have absolutely NO performance problems with LR, but sometimes PSE5 is a bit sluggish with all that stuff running if the photo is a pretty big file. This is my only PC.

 

It seems to me that the reported performance problems with LR is a different case with each set up. Your best bet is to try the free trial before putting down any money.

I'm using a combination of ACDSee Pro2 Beta, Lightroom, and occasionally, PSE5.

 

I like ACDSee as my organizer, but I really dislike its raw developer. I love the Lightroom raw developer, but its organizing capabilities are just awful IMO. And for those rare occasions wen I need a real editor, PSE5 works well for me.

Just because many Leica users are snobs, is no reason to not acknowledge the fact that a Leica camera is a very GOOD camera indeed. Don't forget it got its snob appeal by being THE camera for candid and Photo Journalists for a couple of generations.

 

As to Ray's original question. As much as I love my Oly E500, I do not believe 4/3s is the wave of the future. I'm pretty sure it is fated to be a moderately successful niche system. Leica and Olympus are alike in that they cater to people who are content to NOT be in the mainstream albeit for, perhaps, different reasons.

 

4/3s makes sense for Leica in a lot of ways, primarily for market positioning. 4/3s makes sense for Panasonic, I think for different reasons, primarily I think, in that they can learn from some of the best camera manufacturers in the world and that relationship can only enhance their own reputation. Whatever the reason Panasonic and Leica have joined the 4/3s system, I seriously doubt you will see many more manufacturers start making 4/3s DSLRs. I don't think the 4/3s market could support more than 1 mass producer and 1 or 2 "boutique" manufacturers.

 

If you feel a strong need to be a part of the usual herd (nothing wrong with that), Canon or Nikon is still the way to go. But I don't think I'd worry too much about the long term stability of 4/3s at this point either.

Thank you Ellis! Your explanation was the key as to why I just didn't 'GET' Lightroom and color! You've earned a couple of 'attaboys' and an exra pat on the back for that explanation!

 

So LR doesn't REALLY use ProPhoto colorspace! Just KINDA ProPhoto! That may be why my printed photo colors were just KINDA right! Now if I cant get my photos to KINDA good, I'll be set for life!

Having worked in government most of my adult life, I'm pretty sure they have no idea of how to go about buying the rights to a photo. A brilliant idea was had, and it got pushed down the line until no one any lower in the food chain existed.

 

I'm also pretty sure this is a one time thing. It isn't going to be that big an opportunity for you. Stick to your guns on price and make sure they understand totally what rights they are buying. Even then, in two years, they will want to use it again and they will because the one person who understands the sales contract will have retired even if they know the photo doesn't belong to them and if they can even FIND a copy of the sales contract.

 

My advise is to hold out for the money AND a photo credit.

The Wein SafeSynch (About $50 USD)is actually a voltage regulator that fits on your hotshoe and allows you to safely use older high voltage electronic flash units on the modern low voltage digital cameras. Why you need to know this is that it also has a PC sync connector on it so you can use it with non hotshoe flash units. It's really handy with external flash units of all types.

At this point he has no reason to assume you want to get paid. He probably assumes you are satisfied with the arrangement. You need to tell him you want to get paid well BEFORE another wedding comes up.

 

The reason is, frankly, that it gives him time to decide if he wants to pay you or not and make alternate arrangements, if he decides that he does not want to pay you. If you don't give him time to react, he will think, correctly, that you are trying to pressure him during a vulnerable time. Any other apporach will likely create an enemy.

 

You have to be prepared that he may well say no. In which case, you will have to either continue on with the current arrangement or walk.

 

You might want to explain to him that you appreciate the training he has given you, but that you think you are of professional caliber now and want to start shooting professionally including shooting weddings on your own.

 

Explain to him that two professional photograpers can double book a given day and that in exchange for using his business reputation, and business infrastructure you will split the fees with him. Also make sure that this is a temporary situation and after say, a year or two that the both of you would reevaluate the situation.

LR 1.1 is built around catalog concept. In order to use a photo with Lightroom, you need to import it into a catalog. You can import them in place, or you can have Lightroom move them to a new location on import.

 

You can also create more than one catalog. for instance, you could separate your personal photos into one catalog and your commercial photos into another. Again, because you can import the photos in place, the photos would not move from their current location. So theoretically, two photos could physically reside right next to each other in your current folder structure and each would logically reside in different LR catalogs. And each could ONLY be used when you are working in its LR catalog.

 

Since I have a file structure already in existence that I like to use. I imported the photos in place. And going forward, I offload the photos from my camera media with a 3rd party utility into that file structure. Then I import those photos in place.

 

I also use a 3rd party BU to DVD. LRs back up functions seem kind of primitive to me. Back-ups are never a bad thing!

Optical quality of the Oly 14 - 54 is excellent. And that 14 mm on the wide end of the zoom really makes a difference. It's the difference between a 36 mm WA and a 28 mm WA.

 

The Sigma would be more useful though, if you think you would be needing a short tele under low light situations.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/6050975

Thomas Hardy,wrote.

 

"Must have been many, many, years ago if he felt $20 was too much."

 

 

Sir, you do NOT know enough old people!

Not that I know of.

I'd do it if I felt the old man was too feeble to do it himself, but otherwise, no.

You don't! Lock it in the car! Why do you need to lug around THREE flash units all evening? I predict that monopod won't go with you to the NEXT wedding! The whole idea is to be inconspicuous and fast enough to move from spot to spot.

 

Everything I carry with me is in a tiny little bag originally designed as a bag for a Nintendo game unit. One body carries one kind of lens and a flash, the other body carries another type of lens and an identical flash. A few extra batteries, some media cards, and I'm good to go. Everything else stays in the car where I can get it if I need it.

I have both a Canon photo printer and a Brother multifunction printer. Frankly, while the Brother is a very good general purpose printer, it is not outstanding as a photo printer.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly adequate for casual photo printing. But I would buy Brother paper and Brother Inks and use only them. (I also pretty much use Canon ink and paper for the Canon.)

 

That will likely give you the most optimised quality that the printer can produce.

Oh! Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not the guy to answer your question!

You can't create actions in PS Elements, and to my knowledge you can't even run them in PSE5. I'm not sure what you are looking at, but I don't think they are actions.

Will,

 

For me, it's an availability issue. And what do we know, FOR SURE, about the E1 successor? Not all that much. In my mind, I would go crazy without a camera!

 

I figure, an E410 or E510 with maybe a 2 lens kit, allows an experienced but new user to inexpensively 'test drive' the system and avoid the lost photo ops he/she might encounter. Then if he wanted to upgrade when the E3 (or whatever it will be called) came out, selling such a fine entry level camera ought to be pretty easy, or it could be kept for a back-up body.

I've been using 'focus by wire' on my E500 for about two years. Using it is more of a mental hurdle than it is a real problem.

 

I didn't like it at first either. There is no tactile feedback when you turn the focus ring, and it can be disorienting when you think you have been used to 'just knowing' how you are focused just by the feel without even looking. But Autofocus is good enough that I suspect you will use AF more often than you think and MF less often.

 

I usually use either single shot auto focus with manual over ride or continuous auto fucus with manual override. I only override the focus when I think the focus mechanism has been fooled by the scene. (Not often, but a backgroud or foreground object with a lot of contrast in it, say from too much light or high contrast patterns, will fool the AF). And when I override the AF it's more of a 'tweak' to focus than it is to radically change something so the focus by wire is perfectly adeqate for such things.

I don't think waiting for the E3, means you will be done for ten years. The way technology changes, I suspect you will consider yourself lucky if it remains competitive for 4 years. That's an economic fact of life with digital cameras nowadays.

 

I disagree about the E300/E330. They are rapidly becoming non competititve in image quality. The IQ is great, but it ISN'T up to the standards set by the E410 or the E510.

 

Buy the E510 if you want image stabilization or the E410 if you think you can do without. Me? As I get older, IS is really starting to look attractive.

 

Bear in mind, many people who are OM lovers, REALLY like the 410. It is clearly the spiritual heir of the OM series. Also remember the OM lenses will be 'manual everything' on the 4/3s bodies.

 

I wouldn't wait for the E3. Since we don't KNOW with absolute certainty when it will be released OR when it will be available in large enough numbers that a reasonable discount from MSRP will be avaialable. You could be waiting a long time, depending on how badly you want it. The E410 and E510 are here, they're great, and they are 'kicking butt!' in the market place by winning new 4/3s users every day.

Scott, I downloaded V1.1 and I'm fully updated. Didn't cost me anything, upgrade went soothly and I'm 'fully vested'.

Jacopo - it was the ONLY way I could get it to work! And even THAT didn't work until I upgraded the printer driver. I got tired of fighting it. Now I just print from ACDSee's fotoSlate (similar to Qimage)

 

Patrick - it isn't the printer, it's the dumb_ass color system Lightroom uses. The printer works perfectly with every other printing software.