dave404

<p>I shoot RAW+JPG and send JPEGs via my EiFi to my tablet so I can post (Facebook say) and view and share without having to go home and fire up camera RAW. One big issue with shooting both JPG vs RAW is, why have two processing flows? Yes if I am on vacation and want to post a shot, I will post the JPG to Facebook so my girlfriend gets off my back about not being able to post right away. When I am home I import with my python script and suck all the files and videos to a working directories. Now which do I process? Which folder? Which do I archive? The RAW has all the data so after DNG conversion, that is what gets archived. I also like doing my initial processing in ACR. <br> What I need to do more in my process is select all the RAW files that have not been marked as good or processed and hit the delete key. </p>

<p>I have a NAS with two redundant drives and I have Carbonite for finished stuff. The on line backup is not good for large amounts of files like a drive full of RAW files. So, I also backup to two drives when I run my import python script, so it gets copied to two drives and converted to Adobe DNG before I remove the card. I want to auto sync to the NAS at this step but have not made it work, also the RAW files are really huge. Follow a strict procedure to import - mine is scripted - import.py <project_name> and its done and each file is verified that is good as it imports. The only time I varied my approach :-( a wedding a few months after delivery I had a hard drive crash. So the only RAW files I have missed in all these years are those. <br> I still stagger under the amount of files I have and need to use the delete key more often. </p>

<p>The 5D sensor is very nice and you can do a lot with it. It does not compare to my 5D MKIII at low light and is now my backup (unused) camera right now :-( . Still, the moment I tried the full frame 5D compared to my 20D I loved it and ordered it the next day. Once you have lenses like the 24-70 2.8L and 70-200 2.8L you sorta have to go this route. Those lenses need full frame. The better AF and the higher ISO on the 5D3 really put it way ahead, but the 5DMK1 was still a great camera. Regarding updating the MK2 still has the same old AF system as the 5D1 and the 20D. The 5D3 was a quantum improvement. </p>

<p>I much prefer this lens on my full frame 5D and 5D MK3 than on my old cropped sensor 20D. On the cropped sensor camera I did not the range, especially the 24*1.6 wide angle equivalent. Too narrow, especially at a wedding. </p>

<p>If you are considering the Sigma you should also consider the Tamron 150-600. It is lower cost and and I was very surprised how good it is. Its big and heavy and of course its not a fast lens but now we can crank the ISO to get away with it. <br> I have not like the use of TC in past but have not tried the newer ones. Stay with the 1.4x if you do.<br> Switching to another camera vendor is tough choice to make unless you have very good reasons. </p> <p> </p>

<p>I suffered a serious fall while hiking with my 5DMk3 and my light wide angle hiking lens the 17-40 f.4 L. As my feet slipped out from under me smashing my arm and the camera lens direct on the granite I bleed quite a bit and received some large scars on my elbow. The camera with UV filter (this is the lens I take to nasty places) came down direct on the lens/filter.</p> <p>I had this lens repaired at Canon factory service in Jamestown NJ and it cost $500 to repair. The key thing, I had an insurance policy on it and all my major pieces were listed on the policy. So I forwarded the quote to my insurer and had the repair done and was reimbursed without any deductible. The glass itself did not break, the filter took the brunt of the impact. We'll she how much insurance policy goes up but it it finally paid out. I pay $150 a year or so with 5D3,70-200 2.8L, 24-70 2.8L, etc.</p> <p>The lens is now good as new. They verified it matches the optical specs. </p><div></div>

<p>I never got over my abhorrence to the fact Lightroom sucks all your files into their file system losing my backup control and I primarily use Photoshop to do my work starting in ACR converter and then Photoshop itself. Correct me if I am wrong, I know a lot of people use Lightroom with success. I run my own scripts to suck in the files, convert to my standard naming, convert to DNG and replicate across several hard drives. The only time I deviated from this procedure I suffered a major data loss, when my primary drive crashed. I process with ACR and then cropping and running my standard actions in Photoshop. </p>

<p>I took David Henderson's advice on Blurb and made a photobook for my girlfriend of all our trips and various adventures for Christmas. It came out awesome on the first shot. Sure I could make a few tweaks to my editing but the color was quality of the book was excellent. <br> I used AdobeINDesign with the Blurb color profiles, came up with actions to default sharpening, color profile conversion to CMYK and processed in Photoshop CS6 sRGB going back to the original RAW images. So my book came out at around 100 pages and it looks good. I chose the hardcover book option. Also I did a recalibrate of my monitor with the Spyder 5 before starting. <br> I should have had more time before Christmas to do all this work, especially since I needed to Learn InDesign from scratch and watch youtube videos. <br> Thanks for giving me a winning idea.</p>

<p>The Tamron at high focal lengths and even using a good tripod, its reminds me of my telescope where walking nearby also causes the image to bounce. Using mirror lock up is often necessary such as this shot with the 150-600. which they allow the link to stay.

<p>I think sending the Tamron back is a mistake. I found this lens very sharp, staying at f/8 and cranking the ISO to get the shutter speed up and got some great shots of birds and events that were out of reach before with just the 70-200 f2.8L IS. The only negative experience was leaving my hotel room in Saint Marten and venturing out into the hot humid air outside and having internal condensation on the lens that took a long time to dissipate (while good targets were staring me in the face of course). I got good shots from a floating kayak in the Delaware of bald Eagles - not perfect since it was hand held and a moving platform and backlit, still not bad. I would use it more often but its very heavy, especially if you go out on a hike. </p>

<p>One thing you want to set up is the custom menu where you can select the items you use the most. There are a boatload of settings on the 5D3 and here you can simplify some of it. My choices: image quality, mirror lockup, format card, custom controls (back focus), HDR mode. You can select what you want. </p>

<p>This is still sort of automatic adjustment that a camera algorithm can do and fail at, but it points to how to find likely reference points. Another way would be to devine what the colorsshould be in the info palette and adjust the the color components using Curves on individual RGB, CYMK or LAB components as described in the various Margulis books. Usually for me the the issue is never a continuous color cast over the whole image but a region that has trouble, a window letting noticeable "blue" light in or a tunsten casts on the background. Using a gel over your flash can help a lot if you have incandecent lights but now there are so many with different color temps from different light sources it is tougher. If you have a small region that should be neutral you can always put a photo filter adjustment layer over it, use the color picker to select the region that should be neutral, look in color picker and flip the LAB A and B components to negate their value (toggle the sign) and use this as a filter to remove the cast. You must mask of the area with the problem. </p>

<p>Well I have results of the Carbonite experiment. Forget backing up RAW files, it takes over a week to upload just 300G. JPGS and my local files are all done, which is nice. My video? You must be very selective in what you back up. </p>

<p>One you do not mention is the camera body. Is this full frame or a crop sensor? I assume it's full frame. I do not like the image scale of my 24-70 f2.8 MkI on my 20D since it was just too tight at a 38-112 35mm equivalent, but love it performance on my full frame 5dI and my 5dIII. On the crop sensor it was not wide enough for landscapes or even wedding table shots. I do like the performance of the lens very much, especially in dark areas like clubs or wedding venues. That said, it is heavy. I have taken it to Europe, China and 20 Mile hikes in the Catskills. For hiking the weight is a bit much so I bought the 17-40 f/4 to save my neck the extra pound which even with the Cotton carrier starts to hurt seriously at the end of the day. It is still a heavy lens especially if you are traveling internationally with lots of baggage. <br> I would like to have IS on this lens but usually the problem I have with dragging the shutter is going too long in the shutter speed in a dark venue and getting motion blur. I see that much more often as I am shy to crank the ISO. So image stabilization is not as much as a problem as it is with my 70-200 or other large telephoto.</p>

<p>Currently I use a 2T NAS and have some HDs jukeboxed off line. Then I have 5 HD drives on my machine so I mirror locally. Hence its a big nightmare. The NAS has 2 disks so its fairly safe, but its only 2T total. There are much bigger, pricier NAS drives, but as its mentioned in other posts I should have stuff backed up off site. <br> So I bit the bullet I have just decided to try Carbonite and the upload is a bit slow, but the amount of data is huge. the biggest headache are all the raw RAW files, I keep to many and need to follow Ansel Adams advice about the garbage can being the most useful piece of equipment in a darkroom. There is way too much stuff. <br> So the processed stuff and the current working set, I will try to use Carbonite to back up, plus I will use my NAS but I have to avoid running out of space. I will continue to offload files to HD drives, until I throw in the towel. <br> I think its impossible to keep all this stuff forever and I need to prioritize what I keep and blow away most of it that will no longer be used. The finished product should always remain, the RAW files of the winning pictures also but the garbage can or the delete key is an important piece of equipment I have to use more often. </p>

<p><br />Glass holds it value. No brainer. Choose your upgrade path. I went from 20D to 5D to 5D3 but started with L lenses. The path was clear. Of course I spent a lot of money.</p>

<p>I see quantization error whether its an adjustment layer curves, image adjustments curves or even apply layer. Its almost like an aliasing artifact as pixels gets mathematically pushed into another bin. I am not sure how you surmise the processing is in 8-bit mode. </p>

<p>A lot of times you use adjustment layers and layer masks to brighten up or otherwise change a certain portion of the image. Using a soft light neutral layer is a nice way to soften wrinkles and imperfections. You can trace out what you are trying to lighten up. Using luminosity blending mode there are a lot of things you can do by first converting a channel or group to channels to a B&W image and blending it in Luminosity mode. There are plenty of books on the subject including those by Katrin Eismann which deal a great deal with portrait retouching. Regarding blending modes the books by Dan Margulus are good, especially when using LAB or CYMK. Just remember if you overdo it, back off with the layer opacity. Also learn to use the blend-if sliders. Good luck.</p>

<p>Insurance?</p>