danielransom

<p>I am running DPP 3.8.2 on my beloved iMac iLamp G4 OS 10.5.8 It is admittedly a little clunky on this machine, and I never run PS CS2 at the same time, but it converts RAW files better than PS. My original disk is DPP 2.1 I know this is not a complete answer, but I am assuming if I got there, you can too. A search for system requirements didn't turn up any hiccups.</p>

<p>I have a 30D and mainly shoot with a Canon 17-55mm 2.8 EFS and get great results. If I were to give you any advice on improving the existing cam, I would say purchase a down loadable version of Noise Ninja, an anti noise program starting at about $35. Well worth the investment, and it really changed my production technique. The 30D can begin producing noise as low as ISO 400. It can produce very noticeable noise at ISO 640. This is no put down of the cam, just trying to inform. My best results come from my standard settings:<br>

Shoot RAW & Large-Fine JPEG/ Evaluative metering/ one shot center point auto-focus on (for the most part)/ Standard JPEG Picture Style, with the color chart pushed a bit to the blue quadrant and contrast and sharpness bumped a bit/ Auto white balance in outdoor sunshine, Custom white balance with grey card everywhere else/ and continuous file numbering.<br>

Not to talk you up a bit in terms of equipment, but if you do not have an external flash, the Canon 420EX is a very reliable, and ridiculously inexpensive as a used piece.</p>

<p>Hey Chris, <br />I second everyone, especially John.<br>

1.) Reading the manual can be a pain for some. My technique with my first cams was to read through it in one setting like a novel. You are not going to retain much, but you get an overview. After that, I would read one chapter a night, until I felt generally comfortable shooting. You should always carry it, and it should be one of the most dogeared books in your library. The best attitude as to the manual is that it explains all the great possibilities of your cam.<br>

2.) Manual focus can be a little tough. John is right on about the dioptric. Also, search your manual for the various focusing techniques, especially focus points. It is most important to keep in mind that the way the camera focuses is by detecting contrast. Let's say for example, you choose the center focus point in your cam viewfinder. You will then want to place that point over a point of most contrast, (usually light to dark) in your picture frame. An example would be the line between a dark suit and a white shirt. If you look in the upper right corner of your viewfinder while focusing, you will see a focus number, and a "focus spot". Refer to your manual for a more exacting explanation of this.</p>

<p>Thanks to JC for including fun :-) I think that is what photography is really about. Just kind of messing around inside the parameters of human experience. Discovering to ourselves our personal thoughts in a quite space.</p>

<p>I personally, would not want to do without it. The advantages to picture improvement are so great.<br>

That being said, I think what you are really asking is, "Will digital manipulation software help my photography?" I would still say yes. The digital revolution is just that. I would advise getting a scanner and software, and learn the ropes. PS Elements is fairly inexpensive, and the free Gimp program is a nice alternative.<br>

As far as "needing" PS, maybe you don't. But how about, let's talk FUN. PS is fun. It can make your pics so much better, so fast. It can make your pics crazy. It can combine several pics easily, to create all new context. It is as valuable to me as my camera.</p>

<p>I have had some quite good success using an 18% digital grey card to solve the problem of color skews in mixed light. I use the card for indoor situations that have building and window light, as well as my studio lights and flash. The color is not perfect, but is much closer than any of the other in camera WB settings, and usually needs very little tweaking. I would be more inclined to use a grey card than a piece of “white” paper, which could have any conceivable secondary tone.<br>

You have most of the technique for a grey card correct. Along with what you wrote, you need to use manual focus, and fill the frame with the card. You need to hold it parallel to the focal plane, which means hold it straight up in front of the lens. I think the reason you are seeing photographers hold the card at arm’s length is due to the focal length of the lens. The card should be in even light, with no highlights or shadows. Tutorials I have read say to only hold the card in front of you, perpendicular to a level floor, but I have also had success placing it on the floor and shooting downward. If you are using on camera flash, make sure the flash fires when you are setting the WB. Any grey card should have complete instructions.<br>

As I said, I use CWB mainly for indoor, mixed light settings. If you are shooting an indoor, controlled light setting, with one temperature of light, you would shoot at the appropriate Kelvin. Auto WB works quite well in direct outdoor light, but in shadowy situations outdoors, I turn to CWB, especially when using flash.<br>

Also, interestingly enough, custom white balance settings are attached to both JPEG and RAW files in PS and DPP.</p>

<p>An interesting fact of flashes is you can actually meter to the left, and still get a better shot. Rent the flash a week or two before the wedding, and practice, practice. And learn to read your camera's histograms. That function is well covered in the written manual. Also remember, if you flip your cam to lengthen the vertical over the horizontal, you need to reorient your flash upward. And keep in mind this can often produce more light on the flash side.</p>

<p>Hey Dima,<br>

I have built guitars for a living for thirty years, and occasionally shoot my friends’ and clients’ gigs. Here are a few tips:<br>

1. Don’t be afraid of high ISO’s and noise. Most bands don’t mind. They think it looks more like the actual event.<br>

2. Use your 50mm more. You need to push your cam and lenses abilities far outside the norm, in order to get good results. Shoot in fully manual, and try using ISO 1600, f/stop 1.8, and shutter speed 1/50. I guarantee you, that there will be some few shots where you will overexpose the shot. Make sure you have Image Stabilization on, as 1/50^th is about as slow as most people can handhold. And make sure to be conscious of holding the cam steady.<br>

3. Set your WB to tungsten. I shoot Canon, but Nikon should have a similar mode. Most stage lighting is dominated by red lights. Tungsten will emphasize the blue spectrum, balance the noise in the red lights, and have little effect on other colors.<br>

4. Spend some time at the beginning of the show to watch how the band performs, and how the lights work. Most performances get pretty repetitive. Figure out the routine, and you can learn to position yourself.<br>

5. Shoot some pics when the lights are white. And, related to this, be prepared to shoot as the whites are being changed to the next color. If you catch the transition, you will have the color of the changing light and the exposure help of the whites.<br>

6. Focus on the microphones to get the singer. Mikes usually are black, and give a good contrast for your auto focus, and they don’t move. Given even extremely shallow DOF, you can usually get the singer.<br>

7.That said, don’t worry too much about f/stop, DOF except for exposure. Bands pretty much line up side by side, especially in a small club. This sadly doesn’t help much with pics of the drummer. Getting those will drive you nuts.<br>

8. Take lots of pics if the band uses a smoke pot. You can get really great shots because the lights bounce off the smoke.<br>

9.Wear ear plugs. The word most said around my shop is “What”?</p>

<p>I have a 580EX II. It would be the best of the Canon flashes for you. It has a longer throw and much faster recycle time then the 430EX II. Since you are new to this, you should read the manual, but you will probably shoot in the ETTL (Evaluative Through The Lens) function. As mentioned before, you should absolutely get a diffuser. The Sto-Fen line is inexpensive and works very well. Your approach should mainly be (indoors) to angle the flash at the ceiling to bounce it. Put the flash in full vertical position and then move it down and forward two clicks. This is what I use most of the time, if the ceiling is 15' or lower. If it is higher, you will have to experiment. This will help fill the room with light. Outdoors you can point the flash more directly at the subject. This will help prevent "raccoon eyes" and back lighting.</p>

<p>I would say this is a great lesson in sizing up professional websites and companies. Nothing in their website grammar or spelling displays expertise. The same is true in their videos. I state this after being corrected several times for spelling and grammar in just this forum. I do think this is a regular standard to look for in any company, no matter the language.<br>

As to the sensor dust problems, I would second the motion to have Canon repair it. I have gotten some pretty big blobs on my sensor, and have always been able to get them off with a blower.</p>

<p>One trick wedding photographers use when shooting a wedding party walking the isle is to focus on a non moving subject somewhere along the path. In this illustration, a pew or railing. In a fashion shoot, perhaps a runway marker, or a member of the audience. You can use auto focus for this. Use just the center focal point. Then switch your cam to manual focus, and don't touch the lens. When the subject model comes parallel to your marker, take the pic. Make sure you are in the same position you were in for auto focus, are shooting fast enough to capture the motion, and have a generous depth of field. I find I can capture most walking motion between 1/160 and 1/250. The rest of the settings can be worked out on sight.<br>

This will limit you to one chosen place at a time on the runway, but is effective, without having to to rely on AI Servo.</p>

<p>Hard drive space is still one of the last cheap forms of real property. I would suggest buying at least two external drives. One backs up the other. Each drive should be at least a terabyte in size. These days external drives of this size from such manufacturers as Seagate and Western Digital run $100 or less. You should make room in your budget for this. Most importantly, each drive should be the same size. Makes the math so much easier. Copy everything you value to each of them, and then clear your computer. Make sure you back up every day, or each time you upload or manip a file, if you can. And, to answer your question, don't delete anything. If you have a good filing system, and can find your photos easily, there is just no need to consider file storage vs. cost. I keep shots now I would never have before, in anticipation of the next greatest software.</p>

<p>I'd get in touch with Lowepro. You have a great ad possibility.</p>

<p>Since you will be shooting in the summer, I would suggest you take some time to learn about the equipment you might need. I would start out by renting various lenses. This can be amazingly cheap. Calumet, in my area, rents lenses for $25-30 a day for most. Check out the Canon 50mm 1.2L, 85mm 1.2L II, 17-55mm 2.8 EFS IS, 24-70mm 2.8L, and one of the 70-200mm that fits your budget. Stick to continuous fstop lenses with image stabilization. Variable fstop lenses are just to much of a pain. And most of the better Canon lenses start at a continuous f/2.8. If you do not already know, the 70-200mm 2.8L IS is incredibly heavy. I usually only use it on a tripod. Also rent an external flash. Just rent the top of the line Canon 580EX II. Get good with it in dark, indoor situations. My overall suggestion, is to have a good prime for portraits, like the 50mm and a good telephoto zoom for action shots, like the 17-55 or the 24-70. After this, I would consider renting something like the 7D. Bodies are more expensive to rent than other equipment, so save it for last. I suggest the 7D because it is crop sensor, and you should be used to that. You want to go into a wedding, or any other shoot, not having to guess at your equipment. Control of your equipment, what it can do, control layout, etc., has to be something on the order of muscle memory. Otherwise, you are thinking to much and am slow, or you dumb down the cam to some kind of auto setting, which usually produces lesser image quality. Good luck, weddings ain't easy.</p>

<p>Check out the Canon customer loyalty program.</p>

<p>So Erin, think of digital ISO as a kind of "fluid" film ASA. It is as if, with the touch of a button, you could change film types in your camera. Not quite the same, but close. The "hidden" ISO you discovered in your cam is probably just the camera's ISO button showing you what ISO is selected. Dude, we have all been there. Students of the art. And I at least, continue to be, as evidenced by the camera settings William showed me. At this point I am "duh shoulda known", and excited to go and try them out. Sometimes all of life exists just one step outside of our regular path. Keep in mind that one of the greatest differences between digital photography and film is that mistakes in digital photography provide much greater lessons than in film, with much fewer consequences. Specifically, when using a DSLR there are almost no monetary drawbacks to shooting as much as you want. It becomes a grand personal learning curve. All on your own time and within your own understanding. I think this is the primary reason behind the universal popularity of digital photography. <br>

So I worked your pic to try to eliminate the noise. I used Noise Ninja on your original sepia pic and then converted that pic to B&W. Most noise exists in color, so the changes are not so great. One little trick you can use on your own is to size the pic to 940 pixels on the vertical size. This will size the pic for common screen size, which is very forgiving. Make you a deal.<br>

Email me the original at danransomphoto@yahoo.com and I'll do what I can to clean it up. If you like it, you buy me and William lunch.<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drcheapskate/5168182617/in/photostream/<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drcheapskate/5168781168/in/photostream/</p>

<p>Classic, the post did not take the pics.<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drcheapskate/5165429387/in/set-72157625039306230/</p>

<p>So Erin here is a pic I took that parallels your photo, a human subject lit with natural window light and no camera flash. I have posted two versions, one in Adobe RGB and one in sRGB, just for comparison. They are a bit of a crop, and Noise Ninja was applied. Click on "actions" above the pic to view exif data. I would suggest, if you do not already have one, to get an external flash. Just gives you one more tool.<br>

William, I am going out early morning this weekend, probably to overcast San Francisco skies, and try out your techniques. Interested to see what happens. <img src=" alt="" /><img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drcheapskate/5165429387/in/set-72157625039306230/" alt="" /></p>

 

<p>"Fast sport in an (low) EV which requires 1/1600s, to arrest the action And shooting outside (early morning - overcast day)"<br>

Well William you have opened up my horizons. I would never have thought to use those settings. Are those shots taken by a 30D? I just took some experimental shots in my fairly well lit kitchen at settings ISO 1600, shutter 1/1250 and f/stop 2.8 with a Canon 17-55mm EFS IS 2.8 lens. Got nothing but dark greys to black. I find for the most part that my 30D starts getting pretty noisy at ISO 640.</p>

<p>If you are giving them to charity then you are giving them to charity. No watermarks, no holding back. I do this several times a year for a children's theater and an AIDS foundation.<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drcheapskate<br>

I've never done anything better.</p>

<p>Hey Erin,<br>

Your settings seem to be off by more than just ISO. I have been trying to think of a situation when I would shoot ISO 1600 and shutter speed 1/1600 but have not been able to. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen, but in my experience it would be very rare. It seems you set your camera to be very sensitive to light because you were in a low light situation (ISO 1600 and f/stop 2.0), and then negated that sensitivity by reducing the light captured with the shutter speed (1/1600). I have a 30D, and when I am shooting at ISO 1600 I am shooting in a niteclub with a rock band as my subject. My shutter speed at that point would be 1/50 or slower, with a similar f/stop as yours. With your approach in this pic you are negating the advantages of both shutter speed and ISO. Situations when I would be shooting at shutter speed 1/1600 would almost all be daytime outdoors when I would be trying to capture a fast moving subject while using an ISO of 100-200. When shooting in manual, pay attention to your meters in the view finder on every shot. This will give you a good educated guess at the outcome of the pic.<br>

As far as your printed instruction manual, it is your best friend. I know it is tedious, because I go through it every time I buy new equipment, but you have to read it cover to cover. It should be one of the most dogeared books in your library. And it should ride in your camera bag. You really don't want to hear the flamers yell at you about RTFM.</p>

<p>I'd shoot it the way you would shoot bride's makeup. Warm, fuzzy photojournalism. I'd scout the place first, but bet you really won't need much support light. Most salons or barber shops I've been to have plenty of light. They also tend to be pretty crowded, with chairs close together, and each cutter trying to make a buck. They may not take well to you needing their space for equipment. I'd think your greatest difficulties will be with white balance, due to multiple light sources, and mirror reflection. Sounds like a fun shoot. Please post.</p>

<p>To John,<br>

If you want to grow a garden, you might have to know how to use the shovel and the spade. Cameras are (the most beautiful) tools. Photographers are storytellers, no different than songwriters or authors. Full knowledge of the workings of our tools gives us the best ability to tell our stories. Though the modern camera is not always easy to learn, particularly in it's most defined functions, there is always a great reward for the effort. I have been a working artist all my life. I find very often that people who do not succeed in a medium, blame the medium, or the tool.<br>

That being said, I think your sentiments are well placed. There is a great deal of "technical discussion" vs. "emotive-artist interpretation" in photography forums. Some of the artistic side is pretty hard to teach, and also involves personal style. Many people don't want to give insight into their personal style because it is basic to themselves, and they don't want it copied. Rightly so. Many times one's style is what sets you apart from others, and gets you the gig.<br>

So perhaps, you need to start movement toward a new forum.<br>

As far as learning outside of this forum, look into classes in composition, light, color. It all blends into one.</p>

<p>Second William Porter on Zenfolio. A site designed to sell photos that makes them difficult to steal. I would think that most non-programmers would not be able to copy from this site. The site also provides a venue to sell all kinds of fun paraphernalia with the photographer's pics printed on them.</p>

<p>I don't really see camera blur in this, though I have to admit, I can't see how you avoided it. The front edge of the rink is in decent focus. I have shot at 1/30 with IS on my 17-55mm 2.8 EFS IS and not had a problem. More to your real problem, you are pretty much reversed in your approach. You should have a much faster shutter speed, (as much as 1/1000) and then adjust you other settings accordingly. This, of course, in Manual. The other functions just dumb down settings to the lowest common denominator need to get an exposed, focused shot. One trick to use in this kind of shot is to use auto focus on a non-moving element that is in the same side to side plane as the subject will be. Then switch to Manual focus, and don't change position or adjust the lens. Make sure you have a reasonable DOF, and you can shoot faster with less concern for focus.</p>