garydem

<p>some points-<br>

same as others have said, you do say where the images look great. on the lcd of the camera, in the raw converter(you are not saying which you are using or what you are doing to the images or when you transfer them to the pp program(are you?) are you using sRGB or RGB color?)<br>

you are not saying what pp program you are using AFTER the the raw conversion. i am assuming you are, but which. the image is not fully transformed into a image for viewing unless it goes to a pp program even if its just to sharpen it. more info is needed before anyone can suggest things.</p>

<p>as for shooting raw, i do not. but i also have 40yrs of shooting behind me to draw on for knowledge. to shoot raw means that you fully intend to do all or most of the image processing out of the dslr and in your pc. with raw you shoot to provide the file to work with later. this does not mean that it is going to be shot incorrectly. wrong, it still has to shot well in the camera for best results. if you shoot jpeg, as i do, then you need the photo knowledge to make it work. to shoot a jpeg well means that a premium is put on getting the shot almost totallly right when it is shot. a jpeg does not let you make the massive adjustments that a raw file will. this does not mean that the jpeg cannot be pped, i do it all the time. but just not the major changes. also, the camera has to be setup to shoot the good accurate high quality jpeg. the way the camera comes from the factory is not going to do that. it took me 2+hrs each to setup my 2 dslrs. and once setup, you leave those settings alone. at least the ones that need be adjusted for the setup. any adjustments to the image can be done in pping. </p>

<p>originally, the focal length/shutter speed rule was 1/focal length in mms. but the crop factor has altered this. the rule now is 1/focal length in mms X crop factor. the crop factor is used as a multiplier since that altered focal length is what the dslr is actually using.<br>

it should be be noted that the resulting shutter speed is to be regarded as the MINAMUM shutter speed. if you have a fast moving subject across the fov or you just had 8 cups of coffee then you would have to up the shutter speed to compensate. and do not go below 1/60sec unless you put the rig on a tripod. use 1/125 if you have any intention of doing larger prints. OR, if printing big, or max IQ is desired or needed, use a tripod period. and do not rely on IS/SR/VR too much; antishake only helps so far.</p>

<p>geraint h-nsporry if i thpought you were a novice. am assuming you know what you are doing with a dslr.<br>

is the 50d new to you? read the manual and repeat.<br>

when the image from the 50d appears on your monitor screen, are you looking at it no bigger than the monitor's screen? the reason i am asking this is the images from my dslr would open to about 42x65inches or so. and of course i would never print that size. so it unnecessary for me to look at them so big. i never look at an image bigger than i will ever print it. since that is my intended use. so asking-are you looking at the image at 100%+ or even higher? if yes then it is very hard not to see some noise/grain if the image is enlarged enough. suggest you look at the image at a more normal size and see if the grain/noise bothers you.<br>

i am assuming that the exposures are close to normal, since any underexposure will just make the noise worse. while overexposure will blow highlights. the trick is to expose/shoot in that middle ground to max the exposure without blowing the highlights while minamizing the noise. you can also try any of the separate noise reduction programs available. i use noise ninja and it works well. there are others.</p>

<p>i am using IE8 on windows xp pro service pack 3. it has every update microsoft has got for my machine. the copy paste work fine for me one day then suddenly did not. no other indications of anything. just checked in the area below this writing. used a very sort photo thing i wrote-the first try i could copypaste, the second i could not paste, the 3rd 4th and 5th i could. as for what that means=?</p>

<p>=</p>

<p> </p>

<p>does anyone know why the user of these forums cannot copy and paste any more? up till a little while ago i did this fairly regularly, now i cannot. i copy a prewritten article of mine(which is in my documents) but when i right clicxk expecting to get the choices that include paste i get a totally different list of choices that does not include paste.</p>

 

<B>Moderator's note: This was transferred here from the Beginners' forum</B>

<p>Geraint h- some points. 1. a wedding is no place to learn basic phtotography or wonder what is in the owner's manual. the whole idea of how to operate the dslr and take a correct picture is something the wediing photog has to have down cold BEFORE he even accepts a gig. the wedding photog is only concerned with the shooting framing and composing the wedding pics. the how to operate the dslr and what settings to use and the basic photo knowledge is a given:he already knows this. the wedding shoot is totally unlike any casual shooting. at a wedding the moment of the shot comes and the photog HAS GOT to get it right. there is no such thing as a reshoot. the moment comes and the photog as to know how to get the shot where to be and stand and to make the dslr accomplish this. if the bride and groom see the pics and they are not totally pleased with the quality, they are not going to be happy at all. and there is NO EXCUSE that the photog can use. the wedding photog MUST GET THE SHOT RIGHT AND EVERY TIME. and is the difference between the weddsing and the casual shooter.<br />2. if the wedding photog is not capable of properey doing a wedding, then he has no business acccepting the job. not only is the photog's reputation on the line, but he alao dealing with any recommndations for future jobs. if he messes up the wedding shoot then he will get no recommendatrions and no future clients.<br />3. if you insist on doing a wedding then you should have the manual read at least twice, preferably more times. and all basic photo technique and skill and known already. </p>

<p>the human eye has a DR of about 24 stops. the catch is that you cannot see all 24 stops at any one time. the eye is picking up about a DR of 12 stops at any time. what is changing is that those 12 stops are not the same 12 from 5 minutes ago or 10 minutes ago or in some cases even 1 minute ago. the eye is adjusting itself to the brightness of what it is looking at then after it settles down gives you the 12 stops. one way to see this is to simply go to a theater and watch a movie. the film will not seem dim since you eye has adjusted to the brightness level in the theater and is giving you the 12 stops of DR it normally does. but when you leave the theater you end squinting and partly closing your eyes against the outside much higher brightness. after a few minutes that is gone, the eye has adjusted. and is giving you the 12 stops of DR it should. BUT, those 12 stops of DR outside the theater are not the same 12 stops that you had inside. you are still getting 12 continous stops of DR but the group of 12 has shifted in the whole range of 24.</p>

<p>justin s- when i took my startrail images some yrs ago, they were taken in state parks. after dark noone bothers you at all and it is as dark as you could ever want.</p>

<p>as far as taking the shots in urban areas with higher background light. no thank you. if i am investing 6hrs in the shot i want those trails to stand out in all their glory as much as possible. and that includes the unreal color and the streaks. in an urban setting the sky would wash out after a time. but in a state park and the super dark surroundings, there is no such headaches. besides if going to a state park is not on the user's list of places to go in my state i can think of plenty of very dark places that would do quite well for startrail pics.</p>

<p>also, if you are interupted after 3 hrs then you still would have a pretty good trail. that is after all 1/8 of a full circle.</p>

<p>take a look at what Program exposure mode is, starts on page 102 of the d300 owner's manual. i believe it will do what you want. that is, after the metering sets the proper exposure settings you still can change the shutter speed or fstop and still maintain a proper exposure.<br>

it is the way i operate my 2 dslrs almost all the time.</p>

<p>i would like to add 1 item. if i ever decided to shoot any more startrails, i would not use a dslr. i have 3 film slrs in my basement that could be made to work just by giving them new batteries. if i shot statrails i would bypass the digital potential problems and just shoot film slides, then scan the image to my pc with my nikon coolscan v ed. far less problems and virtually no work. and the shooter is not limited by any short shots, just shoot for the hrs needed. as i said somewhere above in the past i have shot with film for 2-6hrs, no problems at all. just set the slr on a treipod with cable release, open the shutter on bulb and wait out the time.</p>

<p>the real headache is not the method. it finding suitable location that free from lights and sky glow with the right atmospheric conditions. as justin mentioned above the desert comes to mind.</p>

<p>Laurentiu c- i think your shutter time for the 9 exposures was too long. if you go to startrails.exe website he is using 30sec exposures. you end up with a broken line with short breaks. also, just shoot at less than the time when the long exposure NR turns on, it is stated in the manual. also another method is to turn LENR off then when you are done shoot 1 dark frame exposure manually and subtract it from each of the regular shots in photoshop.</p>

<p>i have also read that for image stacking not startrails a digicam is used and simply let the cam shoot 200 or shots and stack the bunch. there are web sites that mention this. try google and image stacking.</p>

<p>to those who commented above concerning mirror slap and some vibration from that. if you check your self timer info on a dslr you will generally find 2 settings-a 10- or 12 delay and a 2 second delay. if you check your owner's manual the 2 sec delay is also coupled with MLU. this 2 sec gives the mirror time to do its thing and settle down before the pic is taken. thus your vibration from mirror slap is zero. that is what the feature is for.</p>

<p>no, and you do not want to turn long exposure nr off. the result would be very noisy pics. the problem with a dslr(or any digital camera) is that heat builds up in the sensor and electronics and noise is the result. the longer the exposure the more noise you have.</p>

<p>for film slrs you could just open the shutter and let it run. i have done this for 2-6hrs, and it worked fine. but with digital a different technique is used. what is done is to make series of much shorter images and then let softrware put them together. see the following-<br>

<a href="http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html">http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html</a></p>

<p>another method which is used for planets and stars is to make series of images and stack them one above the other. see-<br>

<a href="http://www.astrostack.com/">http://www.astrostack.com/</a><br>

there are other programs that do this. try google.</p>

<p>my wife and i made a trip west to many national parks in 08/09. i took 543 pics using 2 dslrs. later looking at the exif data on my pc, the lens i used most was the 12-24mm sigma. and using that lens BY FAR the most used mm settings were 16-20mm. your 18mm on 1 end of your zoom is right in the middle. when i was not using the 12-24, my 2 leaveon lenses were used the most. my 2 leaveon lens are a sigma 24-135 and a pentax 18-250.<br>

my experience has been that the farther a lens is towards the wideangle or the telephoto the less it is used. the midranges is where most of the images are shot.</p>

<p>joanne r-be aware that the bigger the mm in a macro lens, the bigger the camera to subject distance. and this is nprecisely why the 150-200mm macros were made. theses lenses allow you to be a distance away from the subject, the insect. it does not help jusat when you shoot to have the subject walk away. thenproblem with the 150-200mm lenses is the price the size the good technique required to to use them properly.<br>

the more versatle macro lens is the 90-105mm group. they are cheaper and easy to handle. in shooting a 2-4 or 3-4 inch flower on a 1.5crop dslr you will be shooting at about 24-30 inches. i have the sigma 105mm macro. and it takes very nice images.<br>

below taken at iso 1600 with the sigma 105.</p>

<div></div>

<p >wrote the following for another person who was talking about shooting a wedding. </p>

<p >i realize there are many pros who are wedding phtographers, so ignore this. </p>

<p ><br />many yrs ago i shot 2 weddings; one for a friend and one for my brother in law. afterwards i made myself a promise that i have kept: NEVER AGAIN.</p>

<p >if you must- <br />-do your research. there are plenty of web sites available. find out what scenes EXACTLY to shoot and what to shoot it with. make yourself a list of expected shots and take it with you. make it in order of the shots.</p>

<p > -for the bride and groom, especially the bride, this is their day. the once in a lifetime event. you cannot look at this as just another day for to take pictures and have fun with a hobby. weddings are extremely serious business and the pressure is on the photographer to DELIVER. there are no excuses for poor or not gotten shots at a wedding for the photographer. rpt no excuses for not getting the shots.</p>

<p >-check out the church and check out the reception hall. this means go to them. can you use flash in the church? ASK the minister without fail before the ceremony starts, preferably when you check out the church. are you supposed to be at the brides home BEFORE everything on wedding day for pictures? which pictures of who, are they going to be there, who tells them to be there? i was for one of my weddings. my day started at 5:00am and i didn't leave the reception till past 2:00am. it was almost 24hrs on my feet. get rest and prior to wedding no liquid courage. at wedding and reception, pop or water only. you will be the soberest one there. your job is to produce pictures nothing else. what shots are needed at every place? of who are the shots at everyplace needed? where are these people? you are going to tell/ask anyone that you need after the ceremony to remain? if you do not ask them, who is?</p>

<p >-get a external flash, as big as you can buy. also brackets, cables, more batteries(if flash takes extra), any other needed accessories. you do have more than one camera battery, right? and charger? do you need a12volt charger as well???</p>

<p >-again. read. research so you know everything about taking wedding pics. <br />-after reading. do you need any more lenses? what kind, what size, what fstop? <br />- memory cards. do you have enough gb? if no, buy major brands only. do not take a chance on any great deals on memory cards. if you have el chepo cards do not use them, replace them. in all respects this is when you go with the best and most dependable equipment you can find.</p>

<p >- consider a backup dslr. if you do not have one-buy, rent, borrow. <br />-you mentioned setting up your tripod and taking many pics with it. do you absolutely have permission of the priest/vicar to use a tripod at that location. do not assume. also the same question about flash in the church.</p>

<p >-find some way to talk the couple into using a wedding pro. this couple may not be your friends AFTER the wedding.</p>

<p >try these web sites- <br /> <a href="http://www.creehanweddings.com/shotlist.shtml">http://www.creehanweddings.com/shotlist.shtml</a></p>

<p ><a href="http://wedding-photographers-directory.com/">http://wedding-photographers-directory.com/</a></p>

<p ><a href="http://www.christophermaxwell.com/wedding-photography-tips.htm">http://www.christophermaxwell.com/wedding-photography-tips.htm</a></p>

<p > </p>

<p >this is a pdf file, 79 pages. <br />http://www.aljacobs.com/NEW%20WEDDING.pdf <br /><br />you should read the following web site. very interesting. <br />http://tips.romanzolin.com/articles/article006.php <br /><br />where do wedding photographers learn their trade??? <br />by being an assistant to a PRO wedding photographer. do it without fee if you have to but get the experience.</p>

<p >- and very lastly. THE VERY VERY BEST OF LUCK. you will need it. <br /><br />gary <br /><br />another reply- <br />at the wedding i was referring to i was in the house with the brides and all the bridesmaids at 7:40am, having arrived 10min earlier. at the reception i was shooting till about 2am when the bride/groom finally left. that ended up at just under 18hrs shooting. when i did this it was with film, not digital.</p>

<p >though i have been asked, the one thing i learned was never again. the 2 weddings were done gratis, no fee, that was the wedding present.</p>

<p >if you want to do more weddings i suggest glen johnson's book "digital wedding photography". not cheap, but well worth it. i have read it, and my conclusion is anybody who reads the book will never do a wedding. he simply tells what you have to do to photograph a wedding.</p>

<p > </p>

<p>nathan young- i put your after shot on pse7 and checked the histogram. BOTH ends of the histo are blown out. the purpose of hdr is to allow the hdr system to contain the full dr of the scene in the final image. this was not done. the reason was that the brackets were not carried out far enough from center to get the full dr recorded. the first step in any hdr to be image is to determine how far out do you carry the brackets. how much dr are you really dealing with?<br>

below is a hdr howto i wrote awhile back. hopefully it has some tips for you. note-this is the same method i use, so i know it works.</p>

 

<p >HDR=High Dynamic Range photography</p>

<p >to do hdr- </p>

<p >if you put camera into full auto matrix metering, take first shot note fstop and shutter speed. put camera into full manual, see if camera still has the matrix fstop and shutter speed. if yes, then using shutter speed go up 2-4 shutter speeds 1 fstop worth of shutter speed at a time. then back to matrix shutter speed and go down same number of shutter speeds.</p>

<p >christian bloch in his hdri handbook did a test of 1 fstop bracketing vs 2fstop bracketing. there was an obvious image quality falloff using the 2fstop bracketing. if the image quality decline in 2stop bracketing is acceptable to you then use the 2 stop. 1 stop is recommended for max image quality, though of course it needed more shots. personally, if you can see the difference in 1 stop brackets then you might well have to use that. But if you cannot then 2stop brackets work fine.</p>

<p >this is on a tripod with cable release. </p>

<p >no, you should not use 1 raw shot and convert 1 stop up and down, because their is not enough dynamic range in the 1 raw shot. dynamic range is why we are doing this, hdr is trying to get all it can. If you use a single raw shot and triple convert it, you still end up with no more DR than the single raw shot.</p>

<p >the group of shots can be raw or jpeg. if jpeg they can be used as is. if raw remember that you HAVE to batch process all 3-9(?) shots. this is because the pp has to be all the same on every pic. you cannot, for example make any attempt to get the shadow details of the group of raw pics, because that would require different amounts of pp, and you cannot do that with hdr. the pp for all shots has to be identical.</p>

<p >for me i just shoot them in jpeg and use them from the camera, that way they are all identical because the camera jpeg settings are the same for every shot. i also put my hand stretched in front of the lens and take a check shot and when done take a ending shot with hand. this tells me where the hdr group is on my memory card when i transfer to the pc.</p>

<p >the only important item is to bracket using shutter speeds only. if fstops are used it changes dof between shots. and shoot enough shots, 3-9(?) is the optimum. the only other thought is to shoot a scene that deserves the the hdr technique, too many people are shooting hdr because it is new or different or whatever. many people are using hdr software on scenes that do not have enough dynamic range; they end up with images that have been enhanced by hdr software, they are not hdr images. the dynamic range was not in the scene to begin with. the scene for hdr should have a very wide dynamic range. this can be checked with a spotmeter on different areas. NOTE: use of auto bracketing on a camera may not work unless you know the bracketing is using the shutter speeds to bracket. in any event, you really need 3-9(?) shots for hdr; this is more than the auto bracket fcn on almost all cameras. and the bracketing has to be both sides of the middle shot. make you use enough brackets to cover the previously checked dynamic range. it does little good to bracket for a 10stop dynamic range when the scene has 14stops.</p>

<p >and the scene should have no movement, if so the item will blur in the hdr image.</p>

<p >do not adjust the focus. set the focus on infinity or use a hyperfocal setup for focus.</p>

<p >do not adjust the white balance for individual shots. go with awb or 1 setting and do not change it.</p>

<p >remember, hdr was created and meant for scene that have a dynamic range that exceeds the dynamic range of the camera sensor, about 5-6stops for jpeg or 7-9 for raw. hdr with the required software allows the user to capture a scene that has very high dynamic range. </p>

<p >I currently use Dynamic-Photo HDR and recommend it. Less than ½ the price of photomatrix and it has 6 different looks, (the photomatrix look is included), and each of the 6 looks can be fine tuned. Get Dynamic-Photo hdr here-http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/index.html; also included is a program that is part of DP hdr that can make a fake hdr look image from a jpeg.</p>

<p >pp. after the hdri is made and is in a folder, i open in pe6. there i use noise ninja(to reduce noise), auto levels(to give a normal overall brightness amount), and focus magic(to sharpen and give a better focus. also if focus magic is used do not sharpen at all, that is double sharpening and is guaranteed to make artifacts.). save as tiff. DO NOT USE AUTO CONTRAST OR ANY OTHER CONTRAST ADJUSTMENT. that is what you just did in the hdr software. also do not adjust any shadows or bright areas. the point of hdr is to let the shooting of multiple shots and the hdr software combining of those shots take care of the dark areas and bright areas. if any areas are dark or highlight blown, then the brackets were not extended out far enough from center.</p>

<p > </p>

<p > </p>

<p > </p>

 

<p>jennifer g- it is not that you have to GET OUT OF AUTO MODE. it is more that you have to recognize which modes are appropiate for which shots/scenes. i have been shooting with a slr/dslr for 40 yrs, probably a very high % of all my shots are done in Auto mode or program. the catch to what i just said is that i KNOW when to override the auto or program settings to get the effect i want. i have at one time or another used every mode that the dslr has.<br>

to say that a user does not use auto or program mode ever is just as wrong as someone saying that they user aperture priority or manual all the time. the correct statement is to use the shooting mode that is appropiate for the subject scene lignting situation and the wishes of the photographer. and the only way you know which settings to use is with experience.<br>

a simple rule of thumb is as follows: use the lowest iso you can and still get reasonable settings in shutter speed and fstop. use a shutter speed of 1/125 or faster(you might get away with 1/60 depending on subject). use a fstop in the range of f5.6 to f11.0(you might be able to use f4.0 depending on subject, but do not go over f11.0 or you will have diffraction distorsion).</p>

<p>are your 80mb files in 8 or 16 bit? if 16 then you will never get them to be a jpeg. you have to convert them to 8 bit first. i have scanned in film slides at 131mb each, but they are 16 bit. after pp i change them to 8bit and THEN i can make the jpeg. i simply do a save as. that way the original tiff of 131mb is still there and untouched.</p>

every 2 weeks i make a copies of my pics folder for backup. it is 180gb and take 4 1/2 -5hrs on usb. it is NTFS.

<p>kendra w-<br>

"I actually checked the WB in-camera when the first shots ended up looking a little green on the camera's LCD, and it was set at "Standard." I didn't do any customization of the WB before using it."<br>

kendra if the wb is saying it is set to standard, i do not tjhink that you are looking at the wb setting. i think that you are looking at the PICTURE MODE. this is where the general color tone of the images are set. see your manual. look for white balance, go there and set it to AWB(auto white balance).</p>

<p>justin is quiyte right. normally the istD goes to to iso 1600, but in custon settings 3200 can be added. i have the istd. and i can count on the fingers of 1 hand the shots i have ever taken with 3200, if i ever did. for some macro work in dimmish conditions i have gone to 1600 with good results, but only when i have to. normally i simply put the iso at 200 and leave it there.<br>

below is a butterfly taken at the niagara falls butterfly conservatory. used iso 1600, f5.6, 1/350, 105mm macro lens.</p><div></div>

<p>jonathan k- yes for photo purposes you should use a calibrated monitor. otherwise you could be wasting your time, since you have no idea on a uncalibrated monitor if the red you see is the true red. also, lcd monitors come from the factory to you with the brightness turned up to very unrealistic levels for photography.<br>

also, note that p&s cameras are designed so that you can print directly from the camera. just take the memory card to the walmart. a dslr is not like that. it is assumed that you are going to be doing some pp on the images, even if a minamal amount. a dslr's images ALL NEED SHARPENING in a pp program. another issue is that a p&s will generally take a good image without you. all that is needed is for the user to push the shutter button, since the p&s is doing all the thinking for you. a dslr is not like that at all. a dslr is waiting for the user to make all the decisions then tell the dslr what to do. the user of the dslr has to decide what settings to use then put them in, then take the pic.</p>

<p>dave s-<br>

" Forgive my obvious ignorance regarding this, but what situation would warrant an f/22 setting? Macro?"<br>

frankly, i cannot think of one. the penalty in diffraction distorsion is just too high. i shoot my macfos at f11.0 and have no problem getting what i want in focus. as stated the f16-22 range on the lenses is a holdover from film shooting. with film it was very common for me to shoot f16 for macro shots. not anymore the penalty in diffraction is just too much. i went on a trip out west in 0809 and the highest fstop used was f13.0. and that was because of the super bright conditions, in one location.<br>

note many lenses can go both dslr and slr, so it is possibke to need the f16-22 ranhge for film, while it would not get used for digital. also, the best performance for lenses is in the range from f5.6 to f11.0, maybe including f4.0 maybe. below f4 you let a lot of light in but the lens itself is not performing at its best. above f11 you get into diffraction distorsion.<br>

as for macro. below is a image iso 800, 105mm macro, 1/1000, f11.0.</p><div></div>

<p>tammy m- some thoughts. first the contract of lack of one. if the contract was written what did it say exactly, what are you bound to deliver? if no written contract then you have an oral agreement, do not kid yourself and oral argeement is just as binding as a written one, especially if that oral agreement was said before wittnesses. you are going to have to spend some time thinking about what exactly you are bound by contract(written or oral) to deliver.<br>

also, if you do not deliver something that satisfies the client, you can forget about doing any more shooting for that client, like a wedding.<br>

me, if you shoot 10-40-or 100 pics and deliver 3, that just seems like too few. no matter what the agreement was. you do have some options. one would be to stick mto your guns and deliver what you said you would and at the same time say goodbye to a wedding shoot. the other would be to deliver the 3 pp shots on disc along with the rest(assuming all 37 came out) but deliver the 37 at a reduced resolution and NO PPING. in other words just the images. or same as just said but the 37 at full resolution but no pping. in any event i would at this point not deliver the 37 at any resolution and do the pping. that last is your expertise and specialized knowledge, if you do it the client is getting it for free. if the client says that he really likes and wants say 4 of the 37 and wishes you to pp them, fine. but make it clear that this is an added expense since it is more work for you.</p>