greg_campbell1

<p>Sorry to hear that. <br>

Suggest you find an old, long expired roll of film and practice loading the camera. 'Shoot' the roll too, and then verify that the back is feeding correctly, without folding, spindling, or mutilating the film.</p>

 

<p>How long will you be in the area?<br>

What sort of photography are you interested in?<br>

Willing / able to hike a few easy miles?</p>

There are bazillions in S. Utah.<br>

http://naturalbornhikers.com/trails/wahweaphoodoos.html<br>

http://www.naturalbornhikers.com/trails/toadstoolhoodoos.html<br>

Several places along Cottonwood Canyon Rd.<br>

Hoodoo-ish balanced rocks at Lee's Ferry.<br>

Kodachrome Basin S.P.<br>

Both N. and S. Coyote Buttes areas are full of interesting formations.<br><br>

 

Spend an hour at

<p>A diffusion filter can help. http://www.allari-photo.com/scanhancer.html<br>

http://www.scanhancer.com/ can make a custom size for your Nikon.<br>

A quality slice of frosted glass will do much the same...</p>

 

<p>A deep lens hood, large zip bag, and a rubber band will do a great job. To avoid rain splattering off the bottom, inside surface of the hood, add a small piece of flexible plastic to extend the top as needed. This has worked well on the occasions that I get 'run over' by Az. thunderstorms, but want to continue shooting.</p>

<p>I suspect your computer (either the OS or PS) will be hammering their swap file(s?) almost immediately.<br>

Transferring your OS and a few apps to a shiny new SSD would help greatly. One of the SSD cache-drive setups would work just as well. Either option can be had for well under $100.</p>

Only if you want to pay almost 3x the commodity rate for the SSD. I assume iMacs are user serviceable? If so, a 128GB drive can be bought for about a hundred bucks. ~$200 for a 256gb. Either will provided plenty of storage for system and oft-used files and apps.

 

Installing the OS, Apps, and WIP files on a SSD will do wonders for your computer's responsiveness. File browsing, indexing, etc. will be much faster. As mentioned, actual image editing won't benefit much at all.

<p>Cool!</p>

FWIW, mine isn't nearly that soft wide open. (It'd hardly razor sharp either!) Barring mechanical damage, yours might be a statistical oddity, with several edge-of-spec lens elements that combine in the worst possible way to soften the lens when it's wide open.

 

Have you tried shining a nice bright light through it with the iris fully opened? Maybe there's some haze or other nasties near the edge of one of the optics?

<p>More often than not, the 'right place' is far away from the crowds and shot-to-death hotspots. Be prepared to hike a short distance, or drive down some slightly dodgy dirt road. This tends to slow you down and feeds the 'immersion' factor Dan mentioned. If nothing else, you won't have the mental image of someone else's shot subconsciously composing the scene for you!</p>

<p>Good trip report, thanks!</p>

<p>The people who run Lower may let your wife and kid tag along for the whole 2 hours, even if they don't have a tripod. This was my experience, as of a year ago. Suggest you shoot your way down to the climb-out ladder, then ignore the ladder and reverse course, shooting more on the way up. The light will have changed significantly.</p>

<p>Upper is an utter zoo. IMO, the shot-to-death light beams aren't worth fighting the mob... You've been warned! :)<br>

<br />Instead, try an early morning jaunt to Buckskin, and/or tour the half dozen slots along Cottonwood Canyon Rd.</p>

<p>Yea, almost certainly Lake Powell. Exactly where this shot was taken, I've no clue. There are many hundreds of miles of shore line, and scores of side canyons. Suggest you get a good mapping satellite program/site and search for likely sites. Keep in mind that fluctuating water levels may have significantly changed the appearance of this particular area.</p>

<p>Find your own secrets! :)<br>

Try http://www.flickr.com/map/ or Panoramio or Google Maps, or run an app like Google Earth. Enable the appropriate function so that the page/app displays photographs taken in the area. Cruise around within the program and check out photos others have taken. </p>

 

<p>Here's a slightly slow, but rather scenic route to the coast. http://goo.gl/maps/qHzm<br>

166 is stark, yet pretty, with little traffic. The mountain passes are cool.<br>

Rent a canoe at Morro Bay State Park and paddle the estuary.<br>

Montanya de Oro has a nice campground, if you're into that sort of thing. Great hiking along the cliffs, beach, and into the eucalyptus groves. <br>

Hike Cone Peak: http://goo.gl/maps/K9la You can see forever.<br>

IMO, Fisherman's Wharf is next to useless, except for the Maritime Museum and nearby WW2 submarine tour. <br>

Walk across the GG bridge at sunset or after dark.<br>

Wander the Marin Headlands in late afternoon. Check out the old gun emplacements and see if the Nike Missile Museum is open. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>What film are you shooting?<br>

If you're running B/W or most color negative films, a DSLR's meter will likely be good enough for most scenes.<br>

If shooting E6, you might be better served by adapting a place-and-fall metering approach. Use the DSLR in spot meter mode to scan the scene's brightness range, and then place an important highlight at +1.5~+2 stops. Let the shadows fall where they will (but measure them to make sure they won't be totally blocked.)</p>

<p>I just hope they're forwarding the suggested 10% tithe to the LDS church! ;)</p>

<p>You are never entirely safe when lightning strikes nearby. Being inside a car is good, but not a 100% guarantee...</p>

<p>Twilight - aperture priority at f/8 or so. Let the camera's AE choose the appropriate shutter speed so as to properly expose the clouds, sky, foreground, etc. Machine-gun away! Alter aperture to match lightning's brightness and distance.</p>

<p>Night - Manual mode, again setting the shutter to expose any interesting aspects of the scene, while adjusting aperture to best expose the lightning. (Not too wimpy, but not wildly blown out either.)</p>

<p>Disable AF if needed, and/or use a distant light to focus on.</p>

<p>Use a cable release toavoid vibration.</p>

<p>A solid tripod is a must.</p>

<p>Here's a good thread.<br>

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1105891/0?keyword=death#10554348</p>

<p>There are a number of home-brew remedies for the stuck mirror. I don't know if any of them are guaranteed to work, but most are fairly easy to try...</p>

<p>

<p>Or try the old"slap it on the butt' technique, as seen at http://www.photo.net/canon-fd-camera-forum/00PNCi</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Consider a dedicated film scanner. Their prices have fallen recently and you can get a 4K dpi (the hardware sort!) for roundabout $200~250. http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?_nkw=%28canon%2C+nikon%29+slide+scanner&_sacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=0&LH_Complete=1&_odkw=canon+slide+scanner&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313</p>

<p>The 2700 dpi units aren't quite as sharp, but should still be comfortably superior to any consumer-grade flatbed.</p>

<p>Look for a unit with FARE, ICE, or a similar infrared-based dust detection system.</p>

<p>I don't think you're grasping the difference between scanned (hardware) DPI (= resolution), and the completely arbitrary 72 DPI assigned to the final image.</p>

<p>At ~3600x2400 pixels, your images were scanned at a hardware setting of ~2500 DPI. This is plenty! You received 6MB files - the lab did not screw up. There is plenty of data there, enough to make a decent print (depending on the quality of that 6MB)</p>

<p>All the '72 dpi' is saying is that the software thinks your image will be printed at 50 inches by 22 inches. This is likely not the case! Just change or ignore this value and you'll be fine. What software are you using??</p>

 

<p>I'd verify that the Gossen spot mode is accurate and then use it as much as possible. Place important highlights at + 1.5 or +2 stops and let the shadows fall where they will. (Meter the shadows and low-mid tones so you know what to expect.) Slide film holds shadow detail down to about -4, but digging that out of a transparency takes a good scanner. -3 is a more practical limit, at which point any tones will be pretty dang dark.</p>

<p>If you're unsure about this whole place/fall thing, head for the local library and look up a copy of Adam's book, 'The Negative' which concisely explains the concepts and application thereof. (Or PM me and I'll send you a .pdf)</p>

<p>You should probably test your metering on 35mm roll before blazing away with those $pendy 4x5 sheets! Rate the film at its nominal speed and try placing something like textured clouds at +1.5 to +3, at 1/2 stop increments, to determine the point at which your meter+film combo saturates the highlights.</p>

<p>Have fun!</p>

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