garydem

<p>personally, i do not see the point to primes, though i have some. they simply limit your composition. with that certain prime mm lens you simply may not be able to get the frsaming and composition you want. and you have no other lens to use. and though you might have gotten the scene you wanted, you now have excess subject material that has to be cropped away. a zoom gets around this, and also forces the user to compose with some thought instead of just firing away. i have heard of people shooting a 1000pics on a afternoon then deleting 995 of them just to get the 5 wants and some of tjhose may not be what was resally desired. my preferenc is to shoot the 5 and delete nothing. this gives me more time for worthwhile purposes instead of just wasting it shooting the 995 unneeded shots and soon to be deleted pics. my efforts are to think about what i want from the scene and shoot THAT. this is far different from shooting 100 shots with hope that 1 or 2 will be what is wanted. for me EACH pic is thought of ahead of time then THAT shot is taken.<br />last august, my wife and i went on a driving trip out west to national parks. i took 543 pics using 2 dslrs. of the 543 how many were off is terms of exposure or wb? zero. how many needed cropping? about 5 or 6. this is because each pic was considered before it was taken. also, my tripods were used quite a bit, and a cable release. i may not take as many images as another user but when i shoot i expect that image to be of keeper quality the moment it is taken.</p>

<p>to do this successfully, you must have a knowledge and skill set concerning the exposure of the shots that is second nature. when i shoot i barely glance at the fstop and shutter speed, knowing that it is already going to be fine. the sewtting and use of the shutter speed and fstop automatically takes care of itself. i am far more concerned about the framing and composition of WHAT i am shooting that the HOW. the how after 40yrs of shooting with an slr/dslr takes care of itself. to me a large part of the problems and issues with the current buyers of dslr is that they are patient enough and expect that they will be experts the moment the dslr is bought. nothing is further from the truth. it takes time to simply meet the photographic challenges of different scenes lighting and the photrographic desires of the shooter and the user is not going to meet those scenew in a day or a week. it takes time to try to take a image under all the combinations that exist. and as you successfully shoot you gain knowledsge and skill that you can iuse in futuer shots.</p>

<p>to achieve gallery grade prints, you need to be doing everything right. that is, your technique is letter perfect. if not then any flaws or errors in technique will show up in the final print. are you using the hcorrect handholding technique for your wildlife pic? are you using a triupod(a good one) for your landscape shots? and that means just about every landscape shot. is the fstop and shutter speed correct for the type of shot you are trying to get? gatting 300mm or 400mmor 500mm lens for yoiur wildlife shoits is a good ida. but, are you aware that to get the quality level that those lenses have to offer requires even more letter perfect technique. your dslr is good enough to take the pics you want, but is your technique and glass good enough? by far the biggest improvent in image quality comes from YOU and the technique used for the pic.</p>

<p>and do not think that by goimng to MF you will automatically get a better pic. using a MF, digital or film, requires even more perfect technique than c senspor or FF dslr. please remember that as you increase the mps to get more resolution you also increase the dslr ability to any errors that the user is making. that extra resolution is giving more detail in the pic but it is also showing the imperfections in technique easier too.<br>

i have read too many threads on forums of people who moved from a c sensor dslr to FF dslr and the images got worse. the reason is that they were not prepared to or unable to up their photographic game to properly use the extra mps.</p>

<p>james dainis-i stick with "spot meter the dog". you are forgetting that you are going to see the image and the correctness of the exposure on the lcd screen immediately after the shot. any wrong exposure based on dog color can be corrected with EC(exposure compensation) on the next shot. then for subsequent shots jiust leave the settings at the correct ones.</p>

<p>or simply take the shot in any background the op wishes and do what i did with the flower shot. not to mention you can then put any color that is desired as background. simply go out side and take the shot, then crop away all that is not wanted, then select the dog, and put the selection on the color image background desired.</p>

<p>spot meter the dog in the light that you going to take the pic in. then switch to manual and use that fstop and shutterspeed.</p>

<p>this is the image on the white background. you can also change the color from white to off white, if the pure white is not what you want.</p><div></div>

<p>OR, the other way is to do a select in pse or csx. then create a blank white new image. and simply drag the selected image to the white new image. you now have your subject on a white background. you can also use any color that pse or csx is capable of making for your background. see below. the normal image first.</p><div></div>

<p>jim air-in camera editing is just an unnneeded item and very probably a marketing gimmick. some cameras do have the ability to make say hdris in camera but as far as i know the original pics are still there the camera just adds the hdr image. this is would be the only way a incamera editing should work-that is it creates another modified image while leaving the original image(s) untouched and still on the memory card. if the incamera editing does not do this i would not use it. i have a dslr with incamera editing, i will very very very probably never use it ever. what you can do with the image in a pc's pp program is far more complete and better besides.</p>

<p>if you are using f22-32 for your fstop, then you are running into diffraction distorsion. diffraction is what happens when light passes through a small hole. the smaller the hole the more it diffracts or distorts. for a c sensor dslr diffraction starts at about any fstop beyond f11.0 does this mean that at f12 it is fully diffracted? no, but it is beginning, and distorsion is starting. you can get more dof at higher fstops but it is for the trade off in getting the diffraction.</p>

<p>the next and very important item is do you need to use high fstops, f16 and beyond? the answer is no. note that a c sensor dslr is getting about the same dof as a FF or film camera is at f16. so you are getting about 1 fstop worth of dof for free with the smaller sensor. this is why the p&s camera have so much dof at seemingly wide fstops. their sensor is much smaller. also, for lenses their best performing fstop range is between f5.6 and f11.0, with the sweet spot of best performance also in this range. so, no matter the desires for dof, once out of this range you are also out of the best performance for the lens. a wideopen lens at f1.4 is going to let a lot of light through but not perform the best. conversely a stopped down lens at f22 is going to give a lot of dof but at the price of diffraction. personly i never use my lenses stopped down beyond f11.0. this gives plenty of dof and works fine. again that f11 is about the same as a film or FF dslr stopped to f16. see this website for dof info at various fstops and distances and with differrent lenses-<br /><a href="http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html">http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html</a><br />a common mistake is thinking that to get the dof you NEED you have to stop down to f22. nothing is further from the truth. that route means that ALL pics will have everything in focus. the virtue of a dslr is to CONTROL the dof to get the effect you the photog wants. and not endlessly have everything in focus in every picture. i went out west to national parks in august, my pics were shot in the f8-11 range. the dof was fine.</p>

<p>for sharp pics-use a moderate fstop, a fast enough shutter speed to not only stop the subject's motion but yours, properly hold the camera, squeeze the shutter button-DO NOT PUNCH OR JERK IT DOWN, make sure your stance is right(feet one shoulder width apart), take your time with the shot(this is not a race). for a tripod- as above except mount the rig on the tripod, use a cable release or selftimer(the cable release is MUCH more convienent), if you have it TURN OFF THE ANTISHAKE SYSTEM if on it will actually cause motion in the pics(this is because the SR when it checks for movement, that check will cause shake but there is no correction since the SR did not find any but itself and will not correct, use mirror lockup if desired(this for almost all shots is really not needed, just for shots when exceptional steadiness is required(perhaps a moon shot)), after adjustments lock the tripod adjustment controls. i shot a lot of image in the west nps and never used mirror lockup, the sharpness was fine.</p>

<p>as a general rule, you might try this- use a fstop of at least f5.6 but not exceeding f11.0, and a shutter speed of at least 1/125sec or faster. if you do you will have successfully taken at least 90% of your shots correctly.</p>

<p>t lookingbill-with a focal plane shutter(which the dslr has) max shuuter speed with flash is the sspeed that you get when the first edge of the shutter reaches the far side of the frame, BUT the trailing edge has not yet started across. if you attempt ot go faster the the trailing edge will have already started across and a strip under the trailing edge will not get the flashes light. you can go slower than xsync but not faster.</p>

<p>also note the following, in any situation/scene in which the flash is the primary light source. it is the flash's duration that stops motion NOT THE SHUTTER SPEED. the flash duration can be as fast as 1/50000sec depending on the flash. this is how you see bullets stopped in flight. they are stopping motion with the flash not the shutter speed. another scene is the fired arrow going through a egg with half the arrow one side and the other half on the other side of the egg. this is done with flash speed.</p>

<p>if you inside a home or a building in dimish conditions, then the flash is the primary light source. simply set the dslr you are using to the way flashes are used and you will stop any motion in the scene. for example, you do not see any motion in a wedding ceremony or reception. the flash stops it all.</p>

<p>for normal ext flash operation, not fill or highspeed, simply mount your pentax 360 or 540 flash to the dslr(this works for the istD, k210,k20. do not know about the k7) turn on dslr first, set sspeed to xsync, turn on flash, set flash to pttl, set fstop to be used(i use f8.0. this makes the whole thing full auto to 39ft without bounce flash, if bounce about 25ft or so. this is for the 540), all flash settings to default, frame your scene and shoot. i use this for all my flash shot and the exposure is fine. this was the method i got from pentax boulder colorado when i called them on the phone. if you wish to use a flsh defuser, like the stofen omnibounce do so. but the range is not what the flash says on the back, it is about half or 2/3. still, with the described rig above the makes diffused flash full auto to about 20-22ft.</p>

<p>david stephens - i shoot jpeg almost always because i CAN DO IT and get a quality image. i am the first one to admit that not everyone can, for a lot of reasons. it takes skill patience experience effort care and time. if all or any part of this is missing or the user does not have enough, or not willing to do enough, then the user has no choice but to find another way of getting the quality image. i hope strongly that my method works ONLY if the user has the abilities to do it and make it work. if no then the user if going to be in a worse off position that before he started. i point out super strongly that what i do is only good, and going to work, if the user has the skill and experience and effort to make it work. it most definately is not for everone. please super note-i have been shooting with a slr/dslr since 1970. i am in my 40th yrs of shooting with a slr/dslr. that has given me a great amount of skill knowledge and experience in shooting in all kinds of situations. not everyone can say this. i hope the op knows this.</p>

<p>g mitchell + david stephens-"good photographers get it right in the camera", yes they do. or are you saying shoot the image any old way even if the wb is off and the exposure is off by 2 stops that is fine? then you simply spend 2 hrs fixing what should have been done right in the pping. a adams is quite often used as the one who spent a lot of time in the darkroom and ended up with masterpieces. sure he did, but is anyone going to say that the images he took were not as letter perfect as is possible to take them? then he did his darkroom magic. my point is that i have already adjusted the dslr to give the image that most of the work in pping gets after the pping(except for sharpening). this leaves me in the position to only do touchup work pping and then sharpen. this is how you get the 60sec or less situation. you make sure that image when you get to the pc is as good as it is possible to make it. so what i start with is what after an hour of pping the others THEN start with.</p>

<p>i shot slide film for 32yrs. for me it was ecktachrome 64, almost always. when i switched to digital i shot jpeg and just kept shooting as though i was still shootimng slide film. it worked great. for me having a very limited dr and no headroom was normal. because that is what slide film has. you have zero headroom and a dr of about 4+stops. so getting a dr of 6stops with jpeg is heaven. not to mention the 1/2 stop or so of headroom, compared to zero with slides this also great.</p>

<p>"If you do shoot jpeg only, then you need to expose as if your using slide film and will have little or no opportunity to adjust subsequently". this is great since the image quality coming from the camera is so good. what exactly am i going to adjust? the composition is fine, so no cropping. the wb and exposure are dead on, so no adjustment there either. what is left to adjust? i fully realize that this way of shooting takes all the fun away from playing with the pp software, but that is exactly what i want. i, and a lot of shooters like me, never had pp software to do any pping to slides. you got it right in the camera or threw it out. there was no fix EVER RPT EVER. once you overexposed a slide it was a dead duck there was no fix with anything. the part of the slide that was overexposed simply went clear and there was no material to recover. if the composition was wrong there was no cropping either, you are simply stuck with what you shot. you projected the slide and then you groaned because you composed it wrong. but this is how i learnd to shoot. shooting a great many slides and getting a great many in the trash. after awhile you got better and did not throw very many or none out. before i switched to digital i got a least 95%(100% on a good day) right in terms of wb exposure and cropping. with my digital jpegs i am getting the same results now. when i started with slides in 1970 virtually every slide got thrown out. this was expensive. by the time i switched to digital i had reversed the percentage, and that score has stayed with me.<br>

i should mention that yrs ago i shot weddings with film. i said to myself never again, thoug the images turned out fine. IF i ever shot a digital wedding i would shoot all raw. this is because of the mixed and unknown lighting at weddings. and i would use white test shots for each lighting scene and later adjust the test shot then any images that were shot under the same lighting. i carry a 3 card test color card in the bottom of my camera case, just in case i need it. since the lighting was an unknown to me that was why i shot the raw+jpeg at carlsbad caverns. i wanted a hedge against the situation. as it turned out, the raws never got used. the jpegs were better.</p>

<p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=3989561">G Dan Mitchell</a>-first, i am not telling anyone what to do that is up tp ,them. i am saying what i do, and it works FOR ME. if someone asks for info or advce on photography i do supply it to the best i can. i should mention that i have carefully setup my 2 dslr to shoot the high quality accurate jpeg. most people on these forums shoot raw(and the needed converting and pping that goes with it). i have gotten out of shooting raw because for me i get the same results without the extra work. how many users on any forums have spent the 2+hrs on each dslr shooting checking adjusting reshooting to finally get the image that is wanted in order to adjust the jpeg to the quality needed? or are they just going with the defaults and saying jpeg is bad.</p>

<p>my workflow is a success because i have many images framed and hanging in peoples homes and several businesses and i have also shot commercial and weddings. no complaints from anyone. rather many compliments on the pictures.<br>

we went to the western national parks in august and i shot my preferred subject, landscape. all came out great. it should be noted that i shot with 2 dslrs and took 543 pics. of the 543, how many were off in terms of wb or exposure? zero. how many needed cropping in the pc? about 10, maybe. i do my cropping in the camera, it is called composition. like everyone else i have LBA but i also use those lenses for the purpose that they were designed. to adjust what one sees in the viewfinder, to get the right composition, and make cropping unnessessary. and i did shoot raw during the trip, raw +jpeg. during the visit to carlsbad cavern. of the raw shot there how got used? none, the jpegs were better. i simply wanted the raws as a hedge against the lighting.</p>

<p>in reading forums here and elsewhere, the large area of comments is what one does in photoshop and other pp programs. and the many hours are spent doing this. if this is what one wants and desires, fine for them. i just do not care for it, never will. i put my effort into shooting with a setup dslr(which is a rareity), and i shoot jpeg(which after shooting slides for 32yrs is for me the same thing(limited or no headrom m and a smaller dr)), and put a lot care and effort and trime into the field shooting. hence my 60sec limit. that is not to say i never go pp past the 60, but if i do then i know that my efforts in the field with the dslr were simply not good enough. and there fore i have to put more effort into the same kind of shots in the future. i do not shoot a lot of pics at one time but each is carefully thought out and then taken with the effort it takes to make it a keeper from the moment it is taken. this is not to say it will be kept or printed. but the intent and intial effort is there. and i use a tripod and cable release a great deal of the time, shake reduction not withstanding. all this prep work and shooting effort accomplishes for me what the rest are doing later in photoshop. the difference is that instead of photoshop(i have cs2 and pse7) i am doing other things.</p>

<p><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=3989561">G Dan Mitchell</a>-my answer to jason was geared to his desire to keep the pp to a minamum. what you said about making layers and using smart sharpen certainly does not fit with jason's wishes. that was why i said to use the pse or csx auto sharpen. i usually use Focus Magic which if used means that other sharpening is skipped. personally, i would not go to layers and smart sharpen either and for the same reason. i most definately want to stay away from pping. sitting at the pc doing pping is for me akin to root canal and is the same enjoyment, like none. this is why i mput a large effort in the takimng odf the pic in the field to keep the pp at a very low amount. my rule is if i cannot pp an image in 60sec or less, and that includes sharpening, that means that it was not taken right in the field. and that is unacceptable.</p>

<p>albert lee- i do wish to add one note of caution to the buying and use of ultrawide lenses. yes, they are great for getting the big vista in the frame. but, at the same time the subject elements of that vista shrink to dots or near dots. years ago when i was shooting film slides i was using a 17-35mm lens. i went west to see the national parks and take many pics. that was when i noticed that when i shot the big scene, the objects in the scene at the far background shrunk sometimes to the point where you could barely make out what they were. so i decided that the 17mm or so wide angle was my limit. now with a c sensor dslr i have the sigma 12-24mm zoom which does very well. note that the 12 of the sigma is 18mm in FF or almost exactly the same number as the 17 of the 17-35. my wife and i went out west this summer in august. the 12-24 got a lot of work. when i got back and checked the exif on the pc i noticed that almost all images shot with the 12-24 were shot with the zoom at or very near the 18-20mm mark. in composing the shots i just did want to zoom any wider. any time i wanted a wider view i switched and shot a 3-5 shot panorama. the pano kept the background objects a reasonable size and still got the wide vista view.</p>

<p>a ultrawide zoom may be a lens to desire, but in the practical use of that lens; it may have very real limits. not to mention getting less wide zoom is a real gain in the wallet. this is also what m brennan said above.</p>

<p>i suspect the reason that lenses have f stop to f22 is holdover from the film days. also, for some lenses, those that can be used on both digital c sensor and FF sensor, the point of diffarction is not going into come into play at the same fstop. diffraction is what happens to light when it passes through a small hole. it diffracts or distorts. this reduces image quality. whether you can see this or not depends on you and is another matter. the charts on this webpage give a diffraction chart and show the fstop where the image/sensor becomes diffraction limited.<br>

<a href="http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm">http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm</a><br>

lenses do have a sweet spot for best performance. all fstops do not give tjhe same IQ. a low fstop(f1.4) will let in a lot of light but the lens simply is not performing at its best. conversely, a high fstop(f16-22) the lens will supply at lot of dof, but again due to diffraction the IQ is not the best. it is up the the photographer to decide which of the tradeoffs are acceptable. the lens sweet spot is between f5.6 and f11.0. below or above this range the IQ is falling off. personsally i try to keep the fstop in this range. also, THE FSTOP of best performance is also in this range. if your dslr has an adjustable program line, the algorithm is set to keep the fstop in this range if you set the program line to MTF.</p>

<p>lastly, it is simply not true that to get good dof you have to use a fstop at or beyond f16.0. you should check a dof table to see exactly what you are getting in terms of dof. i shoot my macros at f11.0 and have plenty of dof. for one thing there is a difference betwen the dof amounts using various sensors. a c sensor will give about the same dof as a FF sensor but at 1 fstop less, that is a c sensor at f11.0 is about the same dof as the FF at f16.0 this can be checked at the following website. so it is not necessary to crankup the fstop to f16-22 thinking you really need it, you do not. besides the advantage of a dslr is to be able to control the dof rather than simply shoot all the time with the max.<br>

<a href="http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html">http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html</a></p>

<p>jason k- you want to do the sharpening as the last step BEFORE you save as. make sure all other pp steps are done first. and if you do a noise reduction software THAT is the step before the sharpening. if you are going from raw to tiff OR jpeg then you want to do the sharpening to the tiff or the jpeg since that is your final image. again the sharpening is the last item you do do before the save as.</p>

<p>if you really do not want to mess with sharpening in the pc, consider getting/using photoshop elelments 8($99, unless you can get it on a sale) and simply doing AUTO SHARPEN. this is one of the items in the enhance tab. it does a very good job without any fuss.</p>

<p>i for one hate the idea of pping an image. i just do not like the idea of sitting at a pc and fixing an image that should have been shot right in the field. but there is one item i do to all images in the pc and that is sharpen it. the abilities of csx or pse are far better than what is in the camera. so why not use them. the image has to sharpened at some point anyway due to the loss of sharpness that is part of the digital process.</p>

<p>my normal pp workflow is to do whatever touchup the pic needs and i wish then sharpen it and save as. on many pics the touchup is not needed/done, but all images get sharpened. i find myself using a ps plugin for my sharpening. that plugin is Focus Magic, it works very well. there are other software that does the same thing. one item i wish to mention, and that is to me you should never sharpen to a final amount in the camera. the reason is that if you do and pp later and sharpen some more in the pc then you could oversharpen and get bad artifacts from over sharpening. for this reason the sharpening in my 2 dslrs are both set to give a VERY minamal amount of sharpening, knowing the final amount will be done later.</p>

<p>i would think of it that if you buy nikon or canon lenses you are paying a premium for the lenses just to get the same IQ in the pentax lens. if you get nikon or canon top lenses then you paying for the name and for canon the L and also subsidising the pro programs at each maker. if the body of the canon or nikon has a feature that the pentax does not have then you will be getting the canikon. but expect a flatout better picture with canikon, no. check the feature list of the pentax k7 against the $1000-1200 canikon competition, you would be suprised. not to mention that shake reduction is built into the body of pentax dslrs, you buy it once. with canikon you are paying for the shake reduction in the price of every lens you buy. again and again.</p>

<p>the good grade pentax lenses can hold their own with anybody in terms of lens qualkity. check some test reports. awhile back pop photo has a test with the 14mm from pentax canon and nikon. pentax won. read it.</p>

<p>get photoshop elements 8(the current version). 1/6 the price of photoshop and does almost what photoshop does. i have pse 7 and cs2. the one i use first an almost only is pse7.</p>

<p>nick s- for your info. in the basement is a MX body, a ME Super body, and 5n body. all work fine, though the meter batteries have to be changed. the lenses that i can think of are a pentax 50 f1.4, pentax 300 f4.0, a pentax manual 50 f2.8 macro(though this is the one lenses that is upstairs with me), a 17-35 f3.5 sigma, and a 50-150 f2.8 sigma.</p>

<p>i had some other lenses that i used with the film bodies but luckilly they had the A mark.</p>

<p>i shot film slides with pentax gear for 32yrs. in my basement there are 3 film pentax bodies and a number of lenses. and there they stay. they cannot be used with full capabilites with the new digital bodies. i have long since replaced what needed to be in those lenses. the key feature that is there or not there on the lenses is the "A" setting on the fstop ring. if the A is there the lens can be used on a current digital body. if no A then you have to use the procedure mentioned by tony e above. to use a lens with the A setting you simply put the ring to A and leave it there, all adjustments are made from the camera not the lens.</p>

<p >in 35mm terms portraits used lenses from 70-80 to 135mm. the former were the full or 3/4 body shots while the 135mm was for face only. when taking portraits the distances were always in the 10-12 maybe 15ft range in the studio. when one wanted a different type of portrait you simply changed lenses. you did not move the camera to subject distance. if you did and went closer the nose ended up as very pronounced, if you went farther then the face had a very flat one dimensional appearance.</p>

<p >macro lenses are not used for portraits simply because they see too much facial features; no one is going to thank you with every wrinkle or pimple or imperfection shown in all their glory. The image will just not be flattering. if a macro lens is used then you should plan on plenty of pp time to get the bad features back out. it is far simpler to simply use a kit lens size, or a lens similar, that is a 16 to 50 for the 3/4 shots and if desired switch to a 70-200 zoom used at 70 for the face only, which is 105mm, if not tight enough zoom to 90 which is 135mm. but in all this keep the subject distance at the 10-12 to 15ft distance.</p>

<p >for your info- </p>

<p >portraits were done in the studio by pros using, in 35mm terms, about 70mm to 135mm. the distance was fixed you were shooting from 10-12ft. at that distance the 70 gave the 3/4 body shot while the 135 gave a face only. in c sensor the 70mm becomes 47mm while the 135mm becomes 91mm. the distances used were to keep the face and body from distorting from a natural appearance. For digital the f1.4 50mm lenses becomes a very good portrait lens. It can also double a lowlight lens.</p>

<p > </p>

<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>try the following rough and ready guide. film negative and and raw digital have about the same dr which is 8-9 stops. jpeg digital has about 6 stops of dr. slide film has about 4+ stops of dr. if you are talking headroom then film nagative and raw has about 2 stops, while jpeg has about 1 stop. and film slides has zero headroom.</p>

<p>note i shot film slides for over 3 decades, that was kodak ecktachrome 64, which has the 4+ stops of dr and zerio headroom and had no trouble getting pics of any scene i wished to shoot. the limitations on dr and headroom was simply something you got used to and made changes in the technique used. having zero headroom with the ecktachrome 64 simply made sure that you shot carefdully with a full analysis of the exposure before the shot. also with slides if you overexpose there is absolutely no recovery of any highlights.</p>

<p >To do panoramas-</p>

<p >for panoramas- -use tripod. you must keep it level with the horizon. if your tripod does not have a level builtin then buy one that slides into your flash hotshoe. again make a max effort to get the camera level.</p>

<p >-for exposure. set the exposure by pressing halfway and noting the fstop and shutter speed. you are trying to find the brightest part of you panorama scene to be. once you have found the brightest check the fstop and shutter speed. put camera into manual metering mode and use those settings. do not change them for any part of the panorama.</p>

<p >-lens selection. i shoot mine with a 20mm. note: SHOOT THE LENS VERTICALLY. this is the only way to get some vertical scene, otherwise the panorama will be shaped like a hotdog. Note- if the panorama is a vertical panorama then you shoot landscape. this is why i went to a 20mm. in vertical you are cutting your angle of view way down. my tripod has degrees engraved in the mount, i was shooting at only a 15 degree spread and in looking at the shots before stitching there wasn't that much overlap. i later shot panoramas with 35mm 50mm 70mm; the hot dog effect was more pronounced. the panorama itself did work. With higher mm lens you would have to go to double rows.</p>

<p >-determine in advance the center point of the scene and try to go X number of shots on each side of it. for me with my setup a 120 degree scene is 7 shots; the center and 3 on each side. if i go with a 35mm lens then a 120degree scene will take 13 shots. no matter what lens you use realize that you are adding only 33% new scene with every shot, the rest is overlap for the right and left adjoining shots. the only exceptions are the end shots in the whole scene. it is possible to add another row above and/or below the first one. this would help the vertical look especially if you are using a 50mm or longer. for multiple rows are the same as 1 row, but you know have to overlap on the vertical as well as the horizontal. you must make sure that there are no gaps.</p>

<p >- i stick my hand in front of the lens and shoot, then shoot the panorama, the 7 shots, then put hand in front of lens and shoot. later i know that everything between hands is the panorama.</p>

<p >-i have used cs2 or the panorama factory software to make the panorama. for either couldn't be simpler simply select the shots and it does the work. this is where using a level pays off. the software is leveling the scene to make the long rectangle, but if the scene was not as level as possible in the first place the vertical becomes less and less(you end up with hotdog shape). so having the tripod and camera level is very important. also when mount and shooting vertically make sure the camera really is vertical, carefully check by looking threw the viewfinder. some tripod vertical adjustments actually go past true vertical, mine does even though it says 90 degrees.</p>

<p >-be sure to use a cable release or the selftimer.</p>

<p >-on focusing- what i do is to simply preset the 20mm lems at infinity, because of depth of field everything from 5.64ft to infinity is in focus at f11.0 distance 200ft. you can also use a hyperfocal focus setup. but thanks to the DOF table, just setting the lens at infinity is simpler. -i left WB alone, that is set at AWB; or you can use a preset setting like sunny or cloudy, but once set do not change it till panorama shots are done.</p>

<p >-online depth of field calculator available here- <a title="Click to open link in a new browser window" href="http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html" target="_blank">http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html</a> </p>

<p >-parallax error. It is usually not so much a problem outdoor shooting. This is because the distances are greater than inside. In any event if you shoot panoramas outside and at short distances OR any inside any building, you should be thinking of getting a panorama tripod head. This is to eliminate parallax error. I have the panosaurus pano head, cheap durable, and it works.</p>

<p >-for panoramas, the software i use is either panorama factory orPTGui or cs2. the one that works best for me is PTGui. i have since gotton PTGuiPRO, expensive but worth it. has many features and abilities that the other software does not have, including the ability to process 360 and 720degree spherical panoramas, plus many projection types and it does raw and hdr panos.</p>

<p >-on post shooting work. If jpeg DO NOT PP. just use as is. After the pano is made then pp as desired. If raw, does your panorama software do raws? Not all do. If yes raw batch convert only. Do not adjust any 1 shot. All shots must be the same before the pano is made, then do any pp you wish but on the whole pano.</p>

<p >If any pp work is done to the pano before stitching then there will be a difference in the sections, and you could(probably?) get vertical bands where the sections join. </p>

<p >Any questions, please ask. gary</p>