jephotog

September 26, 2009

I feel the same way. While not a professional photographer I am a passionate one, but have to do something else to pay rent. When I want to show off my skills to my coworkers, I open LR and start moving the sliders as I move down the right side of the develop module. I hear or imagine I hear oohs and aahs as I take an okay photo and slide it into the masterpiece I saw when I looked through the viewfinder.

I am reminded of an article I read a decade or so ago about a photograph of zebras where a photographer cut and past another zebra to round it out and was called a fraud. I know the next time I opened the same photo , I would create a different photo.

I am looking forward to LR 3 where they will add the "Coolness" and "Rad" slider so i can add those factors to my art. I like working in LR but not sure I get it and long for the days of Velvia when I clicked (with my camera) and sent it out to be processed and printed if i liked it.

May 5, 2009

Where in Utah are you? I am unfamiliar with watercolor paper or do not know the labs well but Borg Anderson did work for me when I lived in WY. Nichols lab on 3300 S in SLC has an extensive choice in papers and finishes.

May 4, 2009

I have a 30D and 580 ex. I need to have them work together with the flash off camera. I have been using a cheap knock-off wireless transmitter and receiver combo. I had it work in the past bit it is unreliable in my current configuration. The flash is going off at random times and not at other times.

I have a Knockoff of the canon E-TTL cord coming in the mail. I chose the knockoff because it is 3 feet long. It may work but I may need 4 feet or more. What are my options for placing the flash off camera? It is to be used inside a vehicle to fill the internal light, so the TTL is not needed. I will have both the camera and flash set on manual mode I just need the camera to trigger the flash reliably.

April 24, 2009

Just an update on my previous recommendation:

I have been trying to do what I had suggested to you but have run into some problems with it. The last external HD I bought was a Rosewill and it had USB and E-sata external options for plugging it into the laptop it also has a receptacle that you install into an external bay like one that will hold a DVD drive. It allows me to plug the external HD directly into the computer and run it as though it is an internal HD. It is a great setup. I had just ordered a new 2.5" 500GB WD HD to plug in to this setup but have run into a problem. The new HD I got is a SATA the old external disk has only an IDE connector. This probably means the e-sata external hook up does not work at E-sata speeds, but means the two are not compatible.

As I look around for options I am finding a lot of the external have limitations of the size of HD they will work with many between 160-320GB. I have found some coolmax ones that claim to support all sized HDs up to 750GB.

Just a word of warning so you buy the right components to make it work. Do some research on components to make sure you get two that work together.

April 22, 2009

I have been shooting mulltiple images in a difficult lighting situation. It is in a moving vehicle and I have a flash setup with an attempt to fill the interior with the flash to match the outside. I have done a fairly decent job of it but the wide range of light has left some of the details and range out.

I had a similar problem about 3 years ago and was told here how to use a multiple exposure then blend in Photoshop. HDR was in its infancy then there were only a few web sites to get info then, now there are so much information it is hard to find the information I need.

I have discovered Photomatix in my current research and am going to try it. I am hoping to find a way to streamline the whole process with a plugin or preset function in Lightroom and Photomatix. I may have 100s or even 1000s of images to work with so a batch processing method is needed.

April 22, 2009

Why not go out and take a bunch of out of focus backdrops. Shoot a bunch of fields, flower beds and whatever to use as a backdrop in the flower photos.

April 22, 2009

While no longer a mac user but, I know a little bit about HDs. My recomendation on the external HD is to buy an enclosure instead. When you buy an external HD you are buying an HD and an enclosure all in one, but with a protective seal to prevent your from opening or tampering with it, also some have put the hardware driver on the HD in the external to prevent you from swapping out HDs. If you buy an enclosure and 2 HDs you can easily swap out the HDs in the enclosure. So you can backup your HD once in a while to the External enclosure and then once a month swap out the HDs in the enclosure and keep the other HD at another location, like work or a friends house. That way your portfolio is protected from theft, fire or HD crashes. Also when HD sizes grow you can easily upgrade the size of your backup HD.

Not sure if this is applicable to Macs but research your plugin options. PCs are using ESATA as an option to plug in to externals. USB 2 will give you 480KBS you can get 3-6 times that with your external hooked up with an ESATA connector.

April 13, 2009

I have thought of doing this but cutting the print in half cleanly was too intimidating. I just got a 12x36" print from ez prints. for about $15. Prints look nice, took about 8 days to get. They can also do 20x60.

April 13, 2009

I have only been on a raft a few times but lots of time in sailboats and kayaks (sea and white water). A dry bag would "likely" keep your equipment dry, as long as you don't want to use your camera. Every time you open it it will expose the folds to water and will eventually let moisture into the bag and your camera. If you want to keep your camera safe you need a pelican case. I would suggest a waterproof p&s or disposable for the possible cool images from the boat while on the water.

A pelican case to carry your camera and all lenses are big and ackward to carry and you will hate it whenver you are not on the water. I would suggest one zoom or one prime in a pelican for some possible awesome shots in between landings. Maybe a dry bag to be able to shoot from and then drop the camera back in before the next set of rapids. If you want to carry more lenses maybe a set of two dry bags one inside the other to carry your lenses to the next landing zone for shooting. Make sure you strap all your bags and cases to the boat.

April 12, 2009

Use Bridge in Photoshop under File>Browse in Bridge. The raw format can not be seen by most programs as it is not useable for them. Think of Raw as a negative. It is a very powerful tool but it takes quite a bit more work. Bridge is a browser that can open and look at all your Raw files. You can pick and choose them add metadata, rate them and do a bunch of other things in Bridge and a ton of other things. You can also add global changes to the raw file then open it in Photoshop as a Tiff, jpeg, or PSD whatever you want into Photoshop.

I would recommend a book like Real World Raw to learn what to do with all this potential. Also if you plan on taking a lot of images I would really recommend Lightroom, which makes it easy import, catalog rate, manipulate and export all your raw images.

April 12, 2009

I asked about this a while back and did not get a chance to try the suggestions till now. I have since been studying web design and now have a page needing this logo. I have tried a few other attempts at the logo. I want it to blend nicely into the pages background. My attempts are shown at the top of this page: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jordanepstein.com/photography_2.html" target="_blank">http://www.jordanepstein.com/photography_2.html</a>

The 3rd logo down is my original attempt using GIF, which was too posterized, and did not really blend into the background.

The next one up is saved as a PNG. In Photoshop it has a nice fade into a black background, then the black background fades into a tranparent background (grey and white checks) in the PNG. However when put into the web page the black background has a rough jagged edge and a white halo where the fade to background color should be.

The top logo was made by taking the black based logo and creating an edge by spraying the edge with the background color. I get the background color from the web page and plug that Hexadecimal # into Photoshops color picker. However when imported to the web page the color does not match that of the background.

Any suggestions on what to try next?

April 12, 2009

So its been a while. I decided to concentrate on learing web design and getting a page put together before perfecting a logo. Now I am back to Photoshop to get my logo to work in my website.

I have tried a few other attempts at the logo. I want it to blend nicely into the pages background. My attempts are shown at the top of this page: http://www.jordanepstein.com/photography_2.html

The 3rd logo down is my original attempt using GIF, which was too posterized.

The next one up is saved as a PNG. In Photoshop it has a nice fade into a black background, then the black background fades into a tranparent background (grey and white checks) in the PNG. However when put into the web page the black background has a rough jagged edge and a white halo where the fade to background color should be.

The top logo was made by taking the black based logo and creating an edge by spraying the edge with the background color. I get the background color from the web page and plug that Hexadecimal # into Photoshops color picker. However when imported to the web page the color does not match that of the background.

Any suggestions on what to try next?

April 12, 2009

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April 2, 2009

Derek, Yep it is a Metroliner. I took this about 3 years ago when flying a Piper Chieftain. I thought the Metro was a beautiful looking plane. I started training in the Metro lin Feb. and have been flying myself for two weeks now.

My photoshop skills are a bit rusty at this point as I have not been using it in quite some time. The image is just a rough draft. I took a jpeg with the fade to black and put it on top of a GIF with a transparent background hoping to fade the outer portion of the logo to tranparency. What I am hoping for is a blend from the background color of the web page to the black background of the logo, which will be used to place my name and other info in, then blend into a photo in the center.

The posterization visible is a result of the GIF limitations.

I am now done working for the day and will try experimenting with PNG and multilayered GIFs. One concern with the PNG is, I have heard it has limited acceptance in web browsers. The book was written in 2006, so does anyone know about it's widespread use now?

I will post a result if I come up with something better.

April 2, 2009

I think this is more of a web design question but since it is for my upcoming photographic web-site and I do not know of a web design forum to ask this in, here goes.

I am trying to create a Header/logo for my photographic web page that has a photograph, that blends into a black border that blends into the background color. To arrive at the fade to background I was thinking I need a GIF to create a transparency for the fade into the background. I just tried one rough draft of this and will work some more on it tomorrow but so far it needs some work.

First off the GIF does not represent the photo well, and the fade still needs work. I am looking for an ideas to try on my next effort. I would like to try a dual layer maybe a Black GIF with a the fade to transparent with a Jpeg directly over it, to better show the photo.

Here is the one attempt I have made.

http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm205/Photobug_08/logo-2.gif

March 3, 2009

I built my own a few years ago for about $1300. It was a great learning experience and I can now build my own, fix, upgrade any computer so it was worth it. However If you are in the US or a big city I would look to the used market. A 1-2 year old gaming computer should more than cover the needs for photoshop. I recently bought a computer with similar specs but better and newer than my homebuilt one for under $200.

You don't need 4GB of Ram but it is so cheap nowadays might as well go with it. I would get at least 500GB HD, maybe two or more of those for backup mounted in the same computer. Graphic Card is not too demanding for Photoshop. Any AMD X2 4000 or higher CPU should do. I am not sure of the newer AMD available or Pentiums but anything fairly modern and medium to high end should do okay with PS.

November 18, 2008

2nd vote for eforecity batteries. Ebay or Amazon not sure where i bought them but you can get a battery and charger for about $12. The chargers are very cheap but smaller than the canon ones so I can keep it in my camera case and the canon one at home. The batteries have all worked well for my P&S and EOS. Can't imagine paying $40 for a battery.

November 15, 2008

I used to shoot a lot of action and boarding back when film was in my camera. I had a 21-35, 28-105 and 100-300 and used all of them on my full frame camera. My cameras have changed since then I own a 10D and just bought a 30D yesterday, I am way psyched.

I own the Sigma 10-20. It is a great lens and makes a world of difference in my current photography, but would not be my go to lens for boarding unless I was just shooting pipe competition and knew where everyone would hit. My new camera came with an 17-85IS which will be a good all around lens and I think would work well for this. 17-40 also may be good. I would have a 70-210 as a second lens, then a 10-20 as my 3rd lens.

October 5, 2008

I need a new laptop. I am currently using a dell inspiron 1510 with xp pro and 768mb of Ram.

I have no particular affinity for Dell, but have been impressed with the XPS's. I have found a XPS 1330 locally

for under $600, here are the specs.

XPS M1330 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB)

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Operating System

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Memory

2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hard Disk Drive

160 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

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Video

Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 3000

8 in 1 Memory card reader

Media remote

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Base

XPS M1330 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media Bay

8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Software Upgrade

Roxio Creator 9.0 Premier

Microsoft Works 8.5 with MS Office Trial Version Software

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Network Interface Card

Intel 4965 802.11a/g/n Dual-Band Mini Card

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardware Upgrade

Fingerprint Reader Touchpad

6 Cell Primary Battery

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System Color

Alpine White

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bluetooth Wireless

Bluetooth Wireless Card 355

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laptop Screen

13.3 inch WXGA Standard Display

I travel for a living so portability is important but could afford to carry a 1530 if I could afford to buy one.

The 1530 that I want is in the $2000 range.

My needs:

Lightroom

Photoshop

Web browsing

Light gaming

Would this 1330 be good for these needs? Yes I know Mac would be better, I used to be a mac user but can't

afford the transition and have too many PC's in my life to try to be bilingual at this point.

December 3, 2007

I am a frequent traveler and rely on my laptop quite a bit. I have been

struggling through with my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 5100. My girlfriend's new

laptop makes me realize what a dinosaur I am carrying around.

When I last looked 6 months ago or so the Dell XPS1210 was highly recommended

here. I have just found one locally for $600. Would it still be a good choice

for photography on the road, or is there another top choice nowadays, for under

$1000.

Thanks for any advice.

July 22, 2007

I have researched but never sent out any of my panos.

Here are a couple of labs I have come up with. I have one shot in particular that a few people want to buy that is a 1:3 ratio, these labs can do this format.

10x30

http://whcc.com/pricing.htm

12x36

http://www.ezprints.com/ezdirect/products.asp?Type=Panorama

40x120

http://www.lightjetsplus.com/pricing/

You might be able to even get a 50x150 pano from them. I am contemplating purchasing a 1/4 roll and making a bunch of panos, some as big as 24x72.

July 22, 2007

I have thought of purchasing a refurbed 1800. Let me know what happens with this.

Thanks

July 22, 2007

Do not wait to go raw. I shot for years once I bought my digital camera in jpeg format because of storage concerns. None of those images are really worth anything, because once I opened processed and saved the images they were degraded. This degradation happens every time you work with a jpeg image. If you get a great image now and it is in jpeg format you limit what you can do with it now and in the future. The last thing you want to do is capture "the" image and have it limited in anyway, by lack of information which is what you do when in anything but Raw. Shoot raw and buy a book on how to use the raw image to its maximum. I suggest Real World Camera Raw, or a Lightroom book.

July 18, 2007

I thinks when I was playing with capture one they had levels buried in the menu somewhere.

But in most Raw engines like Adobe Raw or Lightroom to tweak the exposure you use "Exposure" to adjust the light end and "Shadows" to clip the dark end. There are a couple of other sliders below to adjust the middle point. Use the histogram and preview while working with these sliders. While not exactly levels these achieve the same thing. You should read Real World Camera Raw to get a better understanding of this process and how to use it to your advantage.

July 17, 2007

I would love to own a Mac, its just not in my budget and my real job's software is not mac compatible. I owned macs for years before conversion 4 years ago.

The BIOS battery trick worked, thanks Michael.

Something interesting happened along the way though. After unplugging the power the green light remained on my MOBO. Not until I unplugged all the USB cables from the computer did the light extinguish. After 45 minutes I replaced the BIOS battery and pushed the reset button.....nothing. Not until I plugged in the USB cables did it restart.

Another interesting occurrence: On a previous issue my computer would not boot. Only by holding F8 and going to Boot Menu and choosing the HD with the system on it could I get the computer started up. By switching the SATA cables location on my MOBO this was solved. This happened again after the BIOS reset. I need to go in and replace the cables again.

See if I had a G5, I would not have all this fun problem solving.

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