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ron_steedman

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Posts posted by ron_steedman

    What ONE Piece of Advice Do You Wish Someone Would Have Told You Before Your First Wedding?

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=5197496">Tom Collins</a>:<em> "What ONE Piece of Advice Do You Wish Someone Would Have Told You Before Your First Wedding?"</em></p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>The vendor meal at that country club is a fried chicken sandwich drenched in mayo with french fries on the side--remember to bring a backup meal so you'll actually get a chance to eat!</p>

    EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS vs. Tamron SP AF 17-50MM F/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) for Canon

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>I own both lenses. The image quality of the Tamron and Canon is fairly comparable. So, what do you get for spending an extra $500 on a Canon lens and an extra $50 on a Canon lens hood? Primarily, you get a USM motor for silent and faster auto-focus, 3-stop IS, and +5mm reach. Whether those advantages are worth more than doubling the price is up to you and your budget. I don't regret owning either.</p>

    Lenses or Camera ?

    in Casual Photo Conversations

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=1665456">Harry Joseph</a> When I first got into photography I was told that lenses are the most important investment you can make, when it comes to photography because they last a life time.</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>I value <em>training</em> above cameras or lenses. Often people blame their camera for blurry or flashy images, when the real cause is they don't understand how light, iso, shutter speed, and aperture interact or how flash compensation works. I feel bad when they invest in ever more expensive equipment only to be frustrated by the same problems. Now, if a camera lacks these controls, maybe it's fair to blame the camera. :D</p>

    Low distraction snap-shooter

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p>Kodak EasyShare Z950 is the only camera rated Excellent for both first-shot delay and next-shot delay by a leading consumer magazine.</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>To put these camera's first-shot and next-shot delays into numbers, according to CNET. Note, zooming in or out or otherwise changing settings would add to these base times.</p>

    <p>FZ50 - 1.1s first-shot, 1.2s next-shot<br />SD700 - 1.5s first-shot, 1.6s next-shot<br />Z950 - 3.2s first-shot, 3.5s next-shot</p>

    Low distraction snap-shooter

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p><strong>Perlis</strong>: <em>I often see interesting things while driving in Los Angeles. I would like to take pictures with the minimum amout of fiddling with buttons, menus, screens, etc. needed to get a shot. I got lucky... with the burning car 'cause the traffic stopped dead while I was across from it.</em></p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>If you plan to shoot from a moving car, the most important setting is shutter speed, so set your SD700 to Tv mode. As far as the shutter speed to select in the daytime, 1/500s or 1/1000s should freeze motion-but do experiment with one stop faster and slower. Your camera will auto-select aperture and iso, so no fiddling is necessary unless you want a creative effect or don't agree with its exposure of the subject.</p>

    What is your opinion on the Canon 28-135mm Ef USM lens

    in Canon EOS Mount

    What is your opinion on the Canon 28-135mm Ef USM lens

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>The 28-135's a good walk-around lens <em>outdoors</em> <em>if not shooting landscapes nor architecture</em>. It can also be a useful extra lens to add telephoto capabilities to your portfolio. Professional photographer Monte Zucker frequently used the lens on a Canon 10D when shooting portraits.</p>

    <p> </p>

    <blockquote>

    <p>Nathan Gardner: I think its useless in the digital age.... I can imagine the 28-135mm being better than the 17-55 or 15-85 in any aspect</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>The 28-135 exceeds the 17-55 f/2.8 in one obvious aspect--reach! Similarly, when you need to drive a nail, a hammer beats a fancy screwdriver everytime. It's a bit soft on the telephoto end, but it's cheap, sharp enough even then for most uses, and comes with IS and USM. I use a 17-50 or 17-55 more often, but use the 28-135 often enough to justify keeping it.</p>

    Do the photographer as a profession still exits in the future?

    in Casual Photo Conversations

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p>anyone who have a camera can take a picture.</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>Certainly. I would go further and say anyone who has a camera can take <em>many</em> pictures. The well-intentioned photographer who covered my wedding indeed took many bad pictures.<br /><br />If you need good or great images, ones that facilitate selling your home or car, ones that show your better side without making you look fat... if you want a photographer with the skill and reflexes to capture your once-in-a-lifetime event despite bad lighting and trouble with equipment... hire an experienced pro.<br /><br />I don't see that changing within the next few years.</p>

    How can I improve this picture in CS5?

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>The general steps are:</p>

    <p>Step 1 - Create a selection of all of the parts of the image you don't want blurred. You can use the quick selection tool, magic wand tool, lasso tools, color range, a quick mask, or the pen tool.<br />Step 2 - Use the Refine Edge wizard to improve your selection.<br />Step 3 - Create a new layer and set the selection (or its inverse) as your layer mask.<br />Step 4 - Apply the lens blur filter to your new layer.</p>

    <p>Getting good results can take 10-30 minutes, so of course next time, if you possibly can, re-shoot with a lower f-stop to achieve the same results faster, in-camera. There are a gazillion YouTube videos explaining this aspect or that in Photoshop worth checking out. But if you end up buying it, a book or tutorial that explains all the various tools is a wise investment.</p>

    Bird Photography in Florida

    in Travel

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p>Is Ding Darling the place to be?</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>Sanibel is the place to go for birds, between the beaches and Ding Darling. But, if you can, visit nearer to December when the weather's milder and birds fly south for the winter. You don't have to actually stay on Sanibel--Captiva, Fort Myers, and Cape Coral are a short drive away.<br /><br />Ding Darling is a great little park. You can walk on well-maintained wooden boardwalks, or take a guided tourbus where they identify all the birds and teach you about mangroves.</p>

    580EX ll cuts out

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    <p>+1 You probably fired too many flashes too quickly and its overheating protection kicked in. That actually happened to me the first time I tested the CP-E4. The moral of the story is that you can fire the flash rapidly <em>in short bursts</em> but not continuously, carry a back-up, and it's worth reading up on the overheating protection feature so you know exactly what limits you're working with and how long to wait if you do goof up.<br /><br />(This assumes you weren't very low on batteries, usually first indicated by high flash recycling times, and easier to detect if you set the custom function so flash power only draws from the CP-E4.)</p>

    Rechargeable Batteries for Canon 430 Speedlite Flash?

    in Beginner Questions

    Posted

    <p>I use Sanyo Eneloops and Powerex. Sanyo Eneloops only contains 2000 mAh of energy, but they hold their charge for a long time--an excellent choice for back-up batteries or if you find you shoot here and there. Powerex contain a whopping 2700 mAh of energy but they lose their charge quickly. A great option for 4+ hour shoots. Both are durable if you charge them slowly in a good charger say from Maha.</p>

    Shooting in low-light environments

    in Lighting Equipment

    Posted

    <p>Taryn, I would encourage you to re-consider using flash in these circumstances.</p>

    <p>Flash does not have to be in-your-face and blinding. In fact, Neil Van Neikerk's book discusses bouncing flash against various surfaces while using a black half-snoot which has the dual purposes of more directional lighting than direct flash and avoids the blinding effect.</p>

    <p>In Joe McNally's "Hot Shoe Diaries" (a good book, but not specific to your situation) he talks about being assigned to shoot the astronaut training program at NASA, but with the prohibition not to use flash. But McNally was able to convince NASA that he had unobstrusive ways to use the flash and those ended up working well for him and the space program.</p>

    Starting in Weddings and events

    in Beginner Questions

    Posted

    <p>At a minimum you would need a backup camera, lens, flash, and adequate accessories such as batteries and flash cards--besides experience assisting others--before shooting a wedding solo.<br>

    <br />It's cliché to say, but a 50D in the right hands can delivery quality wedding coverage that will make the bride ooh, ahh, and smile (as well as landing a paycheck). A 1D in the wrong hands will not.</p>

    My Wedding Photography Nightmare.

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p>HERE IT IS, MY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY NIGHTMARE!!!</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>I'm very sorry to hear that the photographer you hired failed to capture your wedding day to the satisfaction of you and your wife! My wife and I went through that pain myself many years ago. :(</p>

    <blockquote>

    <p>It sure looks like equipment failure is a real possibility. For that I feel sorry for her... I would not have been so concerned about her equipment.</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>If she promised to bring "2 Canon Bodies, one with a 24-70 f/2.8 and one with a 70-200 f/2.8" as Richard claims, and the problem was due to an equipment malfunction as Tom & Ed claim, then I don't feel too sorry for her as she apparently misrepresented her equipment. If she had brought two Canon bodies and lenses as promised then that one malfunction likely wouldn't have spelled disaster.</p>

    <p>Keep in mind that damages are not necessarily limited to what you paid, especially if she misrepresented herself and you need to pay a professional to correct those images. That sounds like exactly what you will need to do. Of course, I'm only hearing one side of the story--there may be more to this.</p>

    <p>I bring two camera bodies, two flashes, extra batteries, extra cards, etc. on every shoot. Actually, that's the case for most non-Craigslist wedding photographers. We have only one wedding our whole lives--or so we hope! Capturing those moments right so you can look back on the day with fodness for years to come is a wedding photographer's duty. Bargain photographers often turn out not to be bargains.</p>

    First Wedding

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <blockquote>

    <p>I agree with Mark T and would lease the equipment you need.</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>Personally, I only rent lenses I don't use too frequently like the 10-22mm EF-S, although I would have no qualms about renting backups. For the speed required to shoot weddings I would aim to know key gear intimately, especially if one doesn't have the experience to anticipate what's coming next.</p>

    First Wedding

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>Jocelyn, I know you didn't ask, but I third this sounds like a recipe for disaster. For many, weddings are a once-in-a-lifetime event, and in any case, they will look at and share these images for years and decades to come. Your inexperience with weddings makes you more likely to miss key moments, and your inexperience with on-camera flash makes you more likely to not adjust to surprises quickly enough. Definitely reconsider this idea. You don't want to ruin a friendship or drag your name through the mud on social media sites.</p>

    <p>If you decide to go through with this anyway, I hope everything turns out well. A few more tips:</p>

     

    <ul>

    <li>Get more CF cards, camera batteries, and flash batteries than you dream you'll need.</li>

    <li>If you're using multiple lenses, plan how they'll be stored and swapped.</li>

    <li>Don't let 'guest photographers' prevent getting key shots.</li>

    </ul>

    Why are all my photos overexposed?

    in Beginner Questions

    Posted

    <p>+1 to Matt response.</p>

    <blockquote>

    <p>I lowered my shutter speed to lose the graininess with my Nikon D40.</p>

    </blockquote>

    <p>Besides ISO, aperture, and shutter speed consider changing the lighting.<br /><br />To reduce noise while maintaining the same exposure, reduce your ISO at the same time you reduce your shutter speed. Eg, 1/120s @ ISO800 => 1/60s @ ISO400.</p>

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