steve_justice

<p>I recently purchased a Pentax Spotmatic II and a 50mm f1.4 Super Takumar lens for <a href="http://www.stevesteinhardt.com/">wedding photography here is Los Angeles</a>. The lens was purchased off Ebay for $60. It was in great condition but had bad yellowing as well. I wrapped it in tin foil and left it on the windowsill for about 3 days, checked on it and nothing changed. The window just filters out too much UV. So I went to Home Depot and bought this plug in GE Black light. It is 22"" T8 form fixture. I put the lens in a cardboard box lined with reflective aluminum foil. Placed the foil wrapped lens with the rear element facing the tube (the tube was about 4-5" away. After just 24hrs, the lens looks crystal clear. the viewfinder image now looks much brighter, and I see no color cast between what my eye sees and what I see through the lens. Blacklights are the way to go with these things.</p>

<p>-Steve Steinhardt<br>

<a href="http://www.stevesteinhardtblog.com/">Blog</a></p>

<p>why can't they just make a smaller sub division? There is still a market for it. Ilford is still around. </p>

<p>I know a photographer who shoots P with all her wedding photos. She sets the exp comp to +1 and everything turns out fine from the lab. I shoot digital and have found that Manual mode gives more consistent results. You really just have to know how to meter. I use the spot meter in my camera and the zone system to determine exposure, it is very consistent and reliable. Evaluative or matrix metering is easily thrown off by white dresses, backlighting, etc. You have to learn how to read your light meter!</p>

<p>I know a photographer who only shoots 35mm film at a wedding, she stays very busy and she is 27 years old. I am 24 and made the switch from digital to film. It looks better for weddings IMHO. And the workflow is much nicer.</p>

The 14bit Sensor allows me to get more tonal gradations in my RAW workflow with lightroom. The recover feature allows me to bring back highlight detail you wouldn't think possible. My images look a lot more like film now. And once we get 16bit sensors, film will look even less appealing to many professionals.

never listen to anyone named larry...they are lying to you. Seriously now though, what I'm saying is it's the wizard, not the wand. Give Jimmy Hendrix a $100 guitar and he will rock out just the same. Any shortcomings that any camera has can easily be overcome, the camera wont do anything for you, you have to do it yourself, thats why I say lenses matter more, I thought everyone new this... there is really no argument here. I'm just trying to save you all some green, why spend the extra $1000 on the D300 when you could just buy the Rebel and get some L lenses with money left over.... Go to the store right now and hold the rebel and the 40D if the 40D feels $600 better, then be my guest. I'm speaking from personal experience because I currently own the 40D, I like it. But I'd rather have more L lenses.

I upgraded to the 40D from the XT and I like it, but for weddings the wight tends to take it's toll on me. I will definitely sell the 40D for the new Xsi, because in another year the new rebel Xpi will come out then the new rebel Xlt....it never ends. Go tthe store right now, if you like the way the rebel feels then you will probably like the Xsi. If you think the 40D will make you a better photographer (hint: it wont) then get that.

The Camera does not matter...I repeat the camera does not matter. Either will let you take pictures and share them, make prints or whatever. The bigger factors are editing techniques, exposure, lighting, and lens choice. With that said, I prefer canon lenses, they offer faster and cheaper lenses then Nikon. I own the 40D and my personal opinion is to wait for the new rebel Xsi. Technology changes every year for digital cameras, and it makes more sense to buy the rebel and splurge on really great lenses since thats what really matters anyway. Plus the rebel will give you better image quality anyway, it uses the same digic chip and has a 12mp sensor. Just don't get caught up in thinking the camera will do all the work for you. The camera's are supposed to make what you already know easier, thats all. If you don't know what you need specifically out of a camera then just grab whatever is cheaper. All I know is I want something that is fast, has a large LCD screen, a bright large viewfinder, and good low light autofocus performance, which pretty much every new digital SLR will have.

I provided all clients with a disc of images as part of their package for 4+ years. Until I realized that there is a lot of money I was throwing down the drain for no reason. People will book you if they like your work, the giving away negatives or not is not much of a "selling point" if you ask me. If I was hiring someone for my wedding, the important thing is that I like the work they do, not if I get to keep the originals... Plus to better serve my clients, I feel it's best not to make them do any more work then they have too. Thats what they hired you for, your service and expertise. The same way you can sell someone on why they should keep the negatives, I could sell them on why they shouldn't. Most people who book me know they want me as their photographer before they even see my prices, and no one is going to question how I run my business. So my advice to all of you is...learn how to sell your images, thats a lot of income you are throwing away for no reason.

All that a custom white balance does is neutralize any color casts present on your reference target, if you look at a piece of white paper in the shade, it is blueish, when you take a picture of it and set your white balance to this target the camera neutralizes the blue to make it white again thus correcting the color. You should be shootig with an 18% gray card, take the reading in Ap or Tv. The reason to shoot in Aperture Priority is because cameras built in meters will expose any seen to be of 18% gray reflecance. Thats why if you shoot an 18% gray card as your reference, your camera will expose it properly without having to do manual exposure, this makes taking readings quick and easy. White cards are trickier but still work. If you shoot a white card in Ap, you camera will still make an 18% gray frame by underexposing the shot. The problem with white cards is that it's harder to set CWB in manual mode. If you overexpose the white card, there is no detail for the camera to neutralize so you will get results that are way off, same if you undersexpose. To make this easy.

 

Step 1: switch your camera to Aperture Priority mode.

 

Step 2: Shoot a white card or 18% gray card and fill the majority of the frame with this shot (doesn't have to be 100%) make sure there is no glare coming off the card when shooting your target, what your current WB setting is doesn't matter, I usually just leave it on autoWB.

 

Step 3: In the camera menu set the frame that you just took as the custom WB refernce target.

 

Step 4: exit menu, Set your camera's WB to custom

 

Step 5: Start shooting, you can alter exposure, ISO, etc. as long as you're in the same lighting you do not need to take another reading.

 

When you get used to this you can do CWB in less than 10sec. Custom white balance is far superior to any WB mode, but is still not perfect, some color tweaks are still necessary in Photoshop sometimes, but you wont have to dramatically alter color, thus retaining more color information.<div></div>