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amin_siminati

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    D300 + 50mm 1.8

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>

    <p>It's great! I love using it for portraits, wrestling, and basketball. Most people prefer something longer for basketball, but I like it. It's really sharp, and fast compared to zoom lenses.</p>

    <p> I currently use my schools camera, but will be buying my own next year. I don't know which camera i will get, or how much i will spend. I don't know which lense I will get for my everyday use, or what flash i'll buy, or anything like that, but know this lense will be part of my kit. For the price, you really can't go wrong. </p>

    </p>

    Nx2 questions

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>I do have 2 hard drives.. Well i have 4, but 2 of them are really old.. I bought a 500gb hard drive 2 years ago when i put my computer together, and i bought a 1.5 terra during the summer. I've unplugged the 500gb since then.. I'll replug it, and dedicate it to my images. I've got a 64 bit, ultimate 7 installed, and will be doing a fresh install probably today. my mother board can handle up to 8gbs of ddr2 ram running at 1333mhz (p5k premium black pearl edit.) I'm currently running 4 gigs of 800mhz ram.</p>

    <p>yesterday i posted something, but i guess i must of not hit confirm, cause it's not up right now.. Anyways, i looked at the videos on the nikon site, and edited 2 images. I would like to get some feedback on how to improve them. There still in raw format, so all the changes cna be seen... I'm partially colour blind, and have problem setting white balance, so that might be off. i try to always shoot raw, and will be getting a gray card soon, which will make setting the white balance easier.</p>

    <p>http://www.4shared.com/file/184317515/adadef77/DSC_2247.html<br>

    http://www.4shared.com/file/184315635/37d4fb27/DSC_2292.html</p>

    <p>I'll probably buy the book, and i'm also looking for a book on portrait, and flash photography since i'm really interested in it. I also enjoy sport photography, but i feel like i'm currently improving at a decent pace, and know what I need to work on. When ever i feel like i've hit a plato, i'll get a book or two.</p>

    Nikon 50mm f/1.8?

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>it's a great lense to get. If you want to shoot portrait, night/low light, or indoor sports from close up , and it's an outstanding lense for the price. The images are prob going to be sharper to.. (haven't used the 18-70mm, but it's sharper than the 18-135mm.)</p>

    <p>I love shooting wrestling, and basketball with it...</p>

    Nx2 questions

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>thank you for the quick response. I will be looking at the tutorials, , and will oc my cpu in the coming days. I'll installing a fresh copy of windows 7 soon, so that might help to.</p>

    <p>thank you.</p>

    17 - 35 AFS worth the investment?

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>how bout a tamron 17-50mm f2.8? Haven't used it, but from what i've read it's as sharp as the nikon one, just not as heavy duty, and doesn't focus as fast. But it adds vr, and is lighter so that's a plus.. it costs more than the 18-105, but not nearly as much as the nikon 17-55mm f2.8.</p>

    Nx2 questions

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>

    <p >Hello,</p>

    <p > </p>

    <p ><br /></p>

    <p >I'm fairly new to photography, but I've got the basics covered. I always shoot in manual, and have no problem making technical decisions quickly (shutter, iso, aperture, focus mode, etc ) . My problem is composition, and post processing. I'm working on my composition, and it's improving at a good rate, and I'm decent with photoshop, and it's almost okay for when I'm shooting jpeg (still working on it), but i've started shooting raw (schools d300) so i can adjust white balance later. I've got nx2, but I don't really know how to use it. I'm not dumb, I realize the noise reduction bar does noise reduction, and stuff like that, but I'm not fluent at it, and am not quite sure what things i need to adjust in a raw image besides white balance, and noise reduction, crops, and contrast... I also find that I do way to much trial and error when doing contrast, and it takes me way to long until I'm satisfied with the image. </p>

    <p > </p>

    <p > </p>

    <p >So I'm looking for some tutorials, preferably video ones, to start mastering nx2. Also, once I have it mastered, how long should i spending on each image (i know there's aloooooooot of variables, but assuming i did a fairly decent job while shooting..)</p>

    <p > </p>

    <p > </p>

    <p >One last question, nx2 needs to load when I change noise reduction settings, like it's not instant. I have a quad core (q6600) running at 2.4 ghz, 4 gigs of 800mhz ram, and a 512mb 8800gt graphic card. I'm guessing the main issue is the slightly outdated graphic card, but would over clocking my cpu help a lot to? Don't worry, I know what I'm doing , I had it up to 3.8 ghz one air, and it was stable, but almost too hot. I could bring it up to 3.6ghz with no issues (brought it down, cause everything was running full speed before to), but would I really gain performance, or is it the gpu holding me back? </p>

    </p>

    Family Portraits didn't turn out- Tips Please

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    <p>Great thread... Theres a good chance i'll be doing portraits of kids soon, so this was a great read... Anyone consider putting a small tv right above the monitor? maybe put up funny images to get the kids laughing? A short youtube video of 3 little pigs or something similar depending on age, sex, and most importantly interest?</p>

    <p>But wow, this has been great, i did a shoot a short while ago at my highschool (stantas breakfast). THe high school kids were great, but the smaller kids were hard. I wanted to wait, play around with them and get that "perfect" shot, but I had about 10 seconds for every group of kids. Sometimes i got up to 20, which was great...</p>

    <p>Another horrible thing was that my big flash went off when ever a parent used a flash, so i had to wait 2 seconds for it to charge up again.. I ended up telling the parents to give me a small 5 second window first, so i could take 2 quick shots..</p>

    High School Bball- Feedback wanted

    in Sports

    Posted

    <p>Hey Jim McKinnon,</p>

    <p>i'm one of those Rotten kids, and i think there is a few things <strong>YOU</strong> need to understand about public schools (cannot speak for private ones).Well, i live in North Vancouver, B,C , Canada, so things might be a little different here, but anyways...</p>

    <p>First of all, the school wouldn't buy our photos, because they have a yearbook class, and part of their mark is taking photos for the yearbook. I'm not in yearbook, i'm in photo, and not only do i let them use my photos, but i want them to.Heres a couple reasons why, all the money made from the year book, goes towards cameras , and other equipment for future students. I don't have my own camera, but get to sign out a d300 with the 18-135mm kit lense, or can request a 50mm 1.8f. (i love that lense, the lenses results are outstanding. although i need to still work alot on my technique ) </p>

    <p>I'm getting to use equipment that's worth almost 2000 free of charge, and got to take it out during our 2 week break. So i think a couple pictures in return is a fair deal<strong>, don't you?</strong> I'm going to be getting my own equipment around this time next year, and will gladly continue shooting for free. It's a school, if i could, and did charge, all i would be doing is leaving less funds for other things. </p>

    <p>A photographer was asking me about the yearbook, and i told him i would get back to him. I talked to the teacher in charge, and he said he's not interested. He wants <strong>STUDENT work</strong>...The idea of me charging for my photos to me, is like the basketball players charging to play on the team. sure pros do it, but it's different for us students. We are students, the school is teaching us to take photos, how could we even think about charging for it?</p>

    <p>Also, just something to note is that we didn't get the money to buy this equipment from the school district, (they have been cutting the budget every year, for the past couple years.), our digital media teachers manage to get donations for other places, and get high discounts on equipment. This year we got a bunch of free flashes (not the ones you mount on cameras, but those big huge ones). I used a portable one that closes like an umbrella, to shoot Santas Breakfast. Bellow is a link to a unedited images. </p>

    <p>http://picasaweb.google.com/nima.sahebi/SantaSBreakfast?feat=directlink</p>

    <p>It was great, i actually enjoyed taking the pictures, it wasn't something i did, cause i had to. I wanted to do it, and was really happy when i got the opportunity to do it. I made some mistakes, learned a few things, and am looking forward to doing it again next year.</p>

    D5000 settings for shooting in a gym

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>For the bluryness you are going to need a prime lense. Shooting with the schools d300 (same sensor), i found the 50mm 1.8 to be amazing for wrestling, and I also liked it for basketball (i was behind the net , all the way to the left).</p>

    <p>With the 50mm you can bring your aperture down to 1.8, which gives you 4 times more light than the 18-55mm at 3.5, and over 8 times the amount of light at 5.6.</p>

    <p>So you will be able to have a really high shutter speed. The lense is also fairly cheap (under 150), and is amazingly sharp. The 1.4 is sharper, focuses faster, and gives you even more light, but it's much more expensive.</p>

    <p>Also for the yellowishness, what i recommend, is downloading googles picasa, and using auto colour. There are better, and more expensive tools out there, (i use lightroom, and photoshop myself most of the time.), but Picasa's gets rid of the yellow great. You will also get 1gb of online storage to share your images. You can post them in full quality.</p>

    <p>What i would recomend is that you start shooting at iso 800, and keep going up, with noise reduction off. Than with low, medium, and high. Compare the images, and realize what you feel comfortable with. I'll attach a few images taken with the d300, and the 50mm lense at a wrestling meet.</p>

    <p>edit: I put a link to a couple images bellow.. They are compressed to less than 1 megapixel, unless you hit download. also, once on a image you can see all the settings used by hitting the "more info" button on the right.</p>

    <p>http://picasaweb.google.com/nima.sahebi/Part1?authkey=Gv1sRgCJSU6bTbsPPhSA&feat=directlink</p>

    <p>Also, heres 2 examples of the auto colour tool in picasa:<br /> (these pictures where not taken with the 50mm, they where taken with the 18-135mm)</p>

    <p>before: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Bfb3CY5pqmgQSS9hSKvbhg?authkey=Gv1sRgCOrpzMTq0P6rywE&feat=directlink<br /> after: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/E6gbVFs-UxQh7RpniTKONg?authkey=Gv1sRgCJfzsIG6387zVQ&feat=directlink</p>

    <p>before: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/obLa_vD85hwrnjldjDzj-A?authkey=Gv1sRgCOrpzMTq0P6rywE&feat=directlink</p>

    <p>after: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VCUO9J5XvHSm2EB5VM_PxA?authkey=Gv1sRgCJfzsIG6387zVQ&feat=directlink</p>

    <p> </p>

    Best lens for D60

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>I'm new, and probably have less experience than you. But from my experience with indoor sports (which isn't much), a prime is the way to go (unless you have money to spend on expensive zoom lenses). With a lense that has a minimum f number of 1.8, you get 8 times more light than a 3.5. And with a 1.4 you get 16 times more light than a 4.0...</p>

    <p>That's something to keep in mind. A little cropping is better than having to use the iso 3200. With 8 times more light you would be able to double your shutter speed, and cut your iso in four. I know it's obvious, but it's something to consider,and keep in mind.</p>

    High school basketball game with d300

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>I posted a message here on saturday, but for some reason it didn't come up..</p>

    <p> The talent show was in the small gym , and the stage lights where broken (the huge, nice ones), so they turned on the lights in the stage itself (a couple of low watt lights, meant to find your way around, not meant for when your doing something on stage), turned the lights at the back of the gym off, and in the front on.. I wasn't able to sign out the 85mm prime, so i had the zoom lense, until halfway through i ran into my photo teacher from last year, and he brought it down for me. Which helped the lighting, but it was an old one, and it only had manual focus. So i forced to manula focus for my first time, and a bunch of my shots where out of focus. I got it about right, but for the last preformence people came in front of my seat, so i had to walk around, and manual focus for the first time ever. I was also out of space, so i had to keep deleting images.</p>

    <p>On friday i went to another school to take pictures of the wrestling match, with a brand new af 50mm f1.8 (i saw him unwrap it.. doesn't make a difference really, but fun fact..) I started taking pictures for first round in a hurry, and didn't really look at my settings. My aperture was up at 3.5. But for the next rounds i brought it down to 1.8, and 2.0.. I really liked the prime, it got me 8 times more light than shooting at 3.5.. So my iso came down, and my shutter speed went up! </p>

    <p>I'll be shooting a basketball game on wednesday, and i'll take out the 50mm 1.8 lense (i know most people recommend the 85mm, but we don't have a auto focus one, and my eyes suck). At 12 megapixels, I have room to crop. It's gonna be fun, i should be able to get a shutter speed of almost 1000, with a iso of 1600. (i found out that the gym lighting wasn't really bad, it's just that i was zoomed, so my minimum apertures of f5.6. Which gives you slightly more than 1/16th of the light (compared to 1.8)...</p>

    <p>O, and what software should i be using? I'm currently using adobe photoshop, I' got lightroom, but don't know how to fully use it yet. I'll be looking into tutorials, and stuff during the break (which starts this saturday.) I might be able to take out a camera during to work on both my shooting ,and editing skills. </p>

    <p>Also, i put in a order for a 8gb memory card, and will buy a 16gb one to if i see one on a good sale. I also bought 80gb of pisaca space for a year. I know i could of got unlimited space with flickr for 5 bucks mroe, but i really like the software included with google, and doubt i'll be going over 80gb. I also use google for everything, so one acount is easier. My only complaint is that people need to download the images to view them in full quality, and i wouldn't mind it if the quality was decent, but it's horrible. Also, people who don't have picasa can't download whole albums at once. (unless i'm missing something here.)</p>

    <p>Anyways, thanks for all the help! </p>

    24-70mm f/2.8 G ED & 70-200mm f/2.8 VR ????

    in Nikon

    Posted

    <p>I'm not the best person to give advice, since i don't have any experience, but one thing to consider, is that if you get the 24-70, and 70-200mm, your future upgrade to fx will be cheaper! (like once the d800, or even d900 comes out, you might decide it's time to upgrade!)</p>

    <p>Something i would suggest is, for "x" amount of time, when using your 18-105mm lense, only use it from 24mm and up, and if you want to use anything under, change lenses the 14-24mm. Also when going above 70mm keep in mind that you would have to change, and try to stay under, and get closer, or crop instead.</p>

    <p>I dunno, just a thought....</p>

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