zensphoto

<p>To answer Spencer's question, the<em> "Auto Light Optimiser setting" </em>can help, what you need to do though is play with it, because it does have some limitations to it's functionality. It is also more for the JPEG shooter, unlike RAW which is suppose to be an exact as it gets of the camera's sensor. So if you are shooting RAW it's not going to really help out the RAW shot as much as it will the JPEG shot.</p>

<p>Why don't you start Tim with the clarification of What HDR is?</p>

<p>Your photographs look like HDR to me, they look more in the range of Halo-max an effect using an application named Dynamic Photo HDR 5 a handy tool used for creating HDR photographs. I like your photographs. Here is what I am doing with my HDR photographs. After I add the effect I like and tweak it a bit, I save it and run it in photoshop CS4 64bit. I have the Topaz B&W script tool and further adjust it there adding color with black and white effects until I find the right combination of what I want to see. I Bracket all my photographs from 3+ to -3 since the application Dynamic Photo HDR 5 supports more than 3 brackets. Here is what I did to <a href="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/14580612-md.jpg">Cleveland Ohio</a> on a sunny day with lots of clouds and wind. It was so windy this day warm out kind of, even with a weight on the tripod hook it was hard to <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/14580612-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="378" /><br /> take super in focus photographs as you can see the clouds are racing past and aren't all that in clear sharp focus as I would have liked them to be. None the less the photograph didn't come out to bad after all for a HDR +3,+2,+1,0,-1,-2,-3 bracketing. A lot of the folks here will probably tell you about using lightroom to further tweak your photographs once you have them in HDR.</p>

<p>Go to <a href="http://www.keh.com/">Keh</a> and look around. Film is always good to know, I still shoot film myself along with digital.</p>

<p>You probably should be taking photographs of your family with it as well. You might find you like to shoot portraits of people, one form of photography. Try taking the camera with you where ever you go for a few weeks and sample everything you like to take photographs of. Then take a look at them and see if you see your niche. </p>

<p>I bought the Canon Powershot SX30 IS in spring of this year. Fell in love with it. However, I also wanted a nice Canon DSLR so I also bought the Canon 60D just a few months later in August because I wanted to use my Film lenses with it. I use both the SX30 because of the x35 optical zoom. Still I love the 60D as well. I recommended the SX40 to a friend last week and he just loves it. I might look at the SX40 for myself next spring. I have heard the Nikon Coolpix P500 does real well too.</p>

<p>Thank you for all the input, The camera software is used from what we have talked about when you're on the run, doing remote gigs such as Photo Booth photographing, to folks that want to make it simple. Very interesting opinions from everyone thanks for your optimistic view JDM.</p>

<p>Here is what I mean by this. My Canon 60D has a lot of nice built in software for post production photographs that I have maybe used once or twice to make a fast CD for some friends when I am out and about. A majority of the time I use Photoshot, lightroom, and some of the Topaz scripts for photoshop to tailor my photographs that actually need tailoring if they need anything. I was wondering if other photographers enthusiasts or Professional like myself ever tinker with all the post production software on the camera?</p>

 

<p>With the Canon batteries you buy say from B&H Video for 69 dollars that say Canon on them and have a real serial number from Canon and are not made from anyone else but Canon I always have one battery when I use both of them on the Canon 60D in the grip that charges faster then the other even if I am out and shoot 1000+ RAW's and both batteries get to about 52% usage. One always charges faster than the other. If I only shoot one 16GB Class 10 SDHC card full of RAW's (588 RAW Photographs) then one will charge in about 10 minutes and one will take about 50 minutes. The camera does a great job at monitoring the battery usage and the authentic grip from Canon for the 60D does a good job at keeping the both batteries equally used around 1 or 2 percent of each other. On the fake batteries you get on say eBay I wouldn't use them if I were you. For the Canon Powershot SX30 IS I have some of these eBay brand batteries that actually work real well, but found ebay batteries don't work very well for the Canon 60D LP-E6 knock offs.</p>

<p>You don't need a top of the line lighting kit to make great studio photographs. What you need to do first is learn about lighting and you might find out you don't need to buy a lighting kit and make your lighting with some cheap tripods and light holders from a local hardware store and some LED Par 30 spot lights from where ever you like to buy them from. Charles has some good idea's for books.</p>

<p>I have the canon 60D as well, use it for professional work as well as shooting around cities and is my main Digital camera for everything from sport news to Occupy. I love using the EF-S 18mm to 200mm that came with the kit. It is on my camera most of the time. I also use from my old EOS 1V film camera. Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 DG APO Macro and Sigma 24-70mm 1:2.8 EX DG these are my two other favorite lenes.</p>

<p>I have a 320EX it has an LED light on it that lights up to help you focus in low light. Of course if you want to try to focus on something that is more then 20 meters away then a bright flash light can also help out a lot. I have an LED flashlight I got from Lowes that really helps out for longer away low light shots. Stephen's flashlight idea works great I have used a flash light many of times myself. Manual can be useful, if you take your time with it. Low light is always a challenge, but then that is what makes photography challenging and why we love it so much.</p>

<p>Any camera I want to last for a very long time that is currently on the market I buy new. Anything I can find I like from Keh I buy used from them, they have great deals and everything I have purchased from them has worked perfectly.</p>

<p>There exchange policy isn't very good; <br>

No 30 day money back guarantee?</p>

<p><em>EXCHANGES</em><br /><br /><em>In the unlikely event you are not satisfied with any or all of the products, <strong>they may be exchanged within 5 days of the delivery date</strong>. All components must be returned in a "like-new" condition. Any return product must be in the original packaging; including the original manufacturer's box inserts, documentation, warranty cards (not filled out or tampered with), manuals, and all accessories; and accompanied by the original receipt. Do not mark or deface original manufacturer boxes in any manner. We will not accept returns if packaging is not in its original condition - we will return such items to you at your expense. All returns are subject to a minimum 10% restocking fee. This fee is dependent on the condition of the goods and the packaging material. If you reject that return shipment, DealforDigital.com reserves the right to liquidate the inventory and withhold credit.Shipping charges for orders shipped are none refundable in any way. All costs related to return shipping must be paid by the customer. All return credits will be made 24hrs after merchandise is received for verification purposes excluding original shipping costs. If the item you are exchanging for is of less value than the item you are returning, you will be refunded the difference on the same card that was used to purchase the product.</em><br>

And then the Canceling and order before and after check out, you have a 10% cancellations free that will be charged to cancel the order?</p>

<p><em>CANCELING AN ORDER BEFORE AND AFTER CHECKING OUT</em><br /><br /><em>You can cancel the order process at any time while shopping by clicking on the Shopping Cart button and deleting each item from your shopping cart. Once an order has been placed, processed, charged on credit card and sent to be filled by our shipping dept there is a <strong>10% cancellation fee that will be charged to cancel the order.</strong> Any orders that are canceled before it has been charged and sent to be shipped will have no penalty.</em><br>

These terms are both very not in your favor, I would be cautious when working with this company.<br>

<em><br /></em></p>

<p>After looking at the links provided by Mendel the L whites look the same to me as they have always looked. The older they get from the oily in your skin they do darken. </p>

<p>Yes, it looks like it would at ISO 1600, shutter at 125 and wide open. If you want it to look sharper try f/8 or better yet f/11 or f/16 to make it sharper. I'm sure you already know that though. Nice shot!</p>

<p>I develop black and white because I like developing black and white film. I do it because then I know it will come out the way I want it to. It is also very convenient for me to do this at home than to wait a week for them to send it off site to have it developed. I also develop all my own C-41 using press kits from B&H Video. It works just the same as Black and White development less I develop at 80F degrees. 3 Chemical steps and 2 washes and color comes out just as good as it does from wal greens. I do it because it is easy to do. Ever try and send off 620 color to just anyone to develop? or for that matter B&W 127? Not a lot of people support that development size these days.</p>

<p>Maybe the camera was damaged before you bought it during shipping to the store. I bought a brand new Canon 60D from Adorama and in 35 days it was dead. Canon service had to replace the insides of the circuitry to correct the issue of it just stopping in mid-shot. I was out shooting in upstate NY and the camera with full batteries just stop working. Could be anything with that camera to cause it not to work properly. </p>

<p>Here is the download link for the ES-E1 software from canon.<br /> To make this work in Windows 7 or Vista and or the mac. You can download free from Virtual Box and use that software to create a virtual box on your current OS and install a copy of windows xp in it. Then this application will work as it should. Once you get the cable you need you will need to tell the virtual box what USB port to use to find the cable and the rest is will all fall into place. If you don't know very much about virtual box I suggest you read up on it. It's not real hard to use, it is open source <a href="https://www.virtualbox.org/">https://www.virtualbox.org/</a> they have a ton of help files about it so you shouldn't have to much trouble with it.<br>

<a href="http://web.canon.jp/imaging/ELS/PC/ese1_pc01-e.html">http://web.canon.jp/imaging/ELS/PC/ese1_pc01-e.html</a></p>

<p>I have a copy of the CD you are looking for. However, I'm not exactly sure I am allowed to copy it for you. Let me check with Canon and see what they say before I do. I'll send you a private message if I hear back from them in the next day or so with an answer. They might have a place to down load the CD content for the EOS 1v. I just so happen to have an EOS 1v and the grip and just about everything else for it including the ES-E1. I still shoot film though. I'll keep my eye out for a used ES-E1 cable and If I find one on a site some place I'll send you the link. Keh doesn't have one right now.</p>

<p>You use HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography to create the photograph. There are countless posts on Photo.net about the subject. HDR has been around for awhile, to create this photograph you need to take about 5 photographs at different brackets such as and I am only speculating because I didn't take that photograph. Stops +3...+2...+1...0...-1...-2...-3 more than likely took this at in between +2 +1 0 -1 and -2 then there are several software products on the market that will combine the 5 or so photographs into one and let you add an effect to create the photograph. The photograph using HDR is a post production creation. Ask the photographer how he did it, being a Photo.net member I bet he will be very excited to hear from you and be happy to share.</p>

<p>You sure spent a lot of cash on this gig. Here's what I do for studio lighting now a days. I built two big stands out 1" PVC white pipes. I made a bunch of attachments and use all LED white lighting with them. The bright white light not the warm lighting. I use thin white material over the lights to soften them since LED's don't get hot like a 300Watt bulb does. I also have a bunch of cheap tripods from walmart that I place other LED lights on to move around the studio to add lighting.<br>

I don't need umbrellas or soft boxes anymore, nor do I use strobes in the studio anymore. I am able to control the light anyway I want it. I use reflectors at times the gold one if I want to bring in a little extra color. I built a dimmer switch setup so I can dim each LED light to control the light even more. The whole gig cost me 200 dollars to build myself to have 10 LED Par 30 spot lights to do what ever I need to do in the studio. One thing I learned was you don't need a bunch of fancy equipment to make great photographs.</p>

<p>I'd use that 50mm f/1.8 lens if this is the work you are going to be doing. I would also set that White Balance: Manual white balance to auto or you can adjust it to Tungsten. However in the photograph you provided it looks a little blue. This is what I would expect from all that lighting you have;<br /> <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/14545092-lg.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="367" /><br /> I see you have some shadows in the background you might want to illuminate the background a little more to avoid that, however it doesn't look bad at all.</p>

<p>I documented my grand mothers funeral including a photograph of her in an open casket for out of town family members and friends that were unable to attend the funeral. I can tell you my Mother wasn't exactly pleased with the idea of taking a photograph of her in the open casket. After the initial shock of the photograph my Mother finally realized it was important to take the photograph.</p>

<p>During the services that were held I didn't use a flash and you will need to obtain permission to photograph during the church services from the church. You might want to take photographs inside the church before the actual funeral. During the church ceremonies if you can photograph it from a balcony it might be a better place to photograph from. People aren't that accustom to having their photographs taken during a funeral because they are very emotional. It is hard to capture them that way and you have to make sure you are in contact with the family at all times. Find a person in the family that can be your all the time contact person.</p>

<p>If you have ever observed what the people that work at the funeral home do, they are very quiet, they do not speak very loudly and act very concerned for you. You will need to be this way as well. If someone wants to speak to you take your conversation out of the Wake room where the casket is, speak outside if you have to, the family doesn't need any disturbance from conversation that has nothing to do with their grieving process.</p>

<p>Observation is important during a funeral. When my mother passed on in 2010 I didn't feel like documenting the funeral as I did for my grand mother. It was difficult for my Brother and I to lose her and so I let other people do the documentation for me. Being on both sides of the camera during a the funeral process isn't an easy thing. Keep in mind at all times how you would feel if it were your relative there and what it would be like to have someone photographing your every move.</p>

<p>You'll also need to coordinate with the funeral home, church as I mentioned before, and the cemetery, along with one family member you can be in contact with all the time as I also mentioned before.</p>

<p>Good Luck with your shoot!</p>

<p>With digital all I use is a C-PL, and ND filters. Perhaps a UV from time to time but that is about it. Digital is a little different than film so most of the time unless I am trying to capture some kind of water effect that I am after that looks like a white smoke effect I don't use any filters at all.</p>

<p>I'm not aware of any way a data file can deteriorate over time. After 24 years in the IT world working with several industrial OS systems, I have never ever had a case where data stored in a file for long periods of time have deteriorated. Yes, we have had to reorganize data in files, expand the file structure to hold more data and even defrag data files in Windows to keep the Hard Drives fresh and functioning at optimal performance levels.</p>

<p>I have some of my photos sitting on twin 1TB drives that have been there since 2006 that I haven't opened, and some that I have since 2000 that have been opened 100's of times with no change to the photograph with in any of the formats I store them in.</p>

<p>A computer virus may be able to cause corruption in data that could cause an image to look different, but then who would write such a virus and for what purpose would that virus serve.</p>

<p>I have never heard of anything like this, perhaps your prospective has changed on how you view your work now then it did a year ago and that is why your photographs don't seem the same. Maybe you changed the tools you use to view your photographs, or like JDM said maybe your eyesight isn't as sharp as it once was.</p>

<p>Data files can become corrupted over time due to hard ware failures and a like, but data files regardless of what kind of data just sitting around don't deteriorate on their own. Interesting idea, but I don't think so.</p>