danny_low

December 7, 2013

Neither of the photos show much blurring so it looks like a long exposure at a very small aperture so ambient light does not create much of an image. Otherwise you would see more blurring in the faint images. A series of exposures are made on the same image. First a series of flash images are created at a fraction of the flash power to get the faint images. Then one final image is created at a higher flash power to get the one clear solid image. This is the traditional way to do this type of photo.

The simpler digital age way is do a series of shots with the flash at regular power and use an editing program to merge them while making all but one image translucent. However this requires something more than your basic editing software.

And it helps to have a model who can control their body so your various images line up well.

Danny Low

November 25, 2013

"Not really - there's a lot more to it than that, Danny - and (assuming we're shooting Raw), in-camera algorithms have little or nothing to do with noise handling."

What you point out is theory. Reality is tests done by magazines such as Digital Photo Pro with photos that show that noise does vary up and down as ISO increases.

The noise that you expect to get at high ISO is the camera amplifying the noise as well as the information signal from the sensors. However it is not a simple amplification. Noise reduction algorithms are also applied as the signals are amplified. Depending on the algorithms used, the amount of noise that get amplified along with the information will vary. Hence the actual real world test results found by people who have actually tested various cameras.

Danny

November 24, 2013

The 1/lens mm is correct but it is also the minimum shutter speed that you should be using if hand holding a lens. Part of your problem may be you are not using the proper technique to hand hold your camera as steady as possible.

AF cameras usually have a variety of focusing modes. I am not a Nikon user so I am not familiar with what modes are available with the D90 but with my camera, all the modes are available in MF mode and there is an audio beep when the AF systems detects the lens is in focus. I would try different modes and turn on all MF assistance available to you, not just the green dot.

As you are using MF prime lenses, you should have hyperfocal focusing scales on the lens. Use them and you will always be in focus.

Are you saying that the image you see to focus gets darker when you use f11 instead of f5.6? That is strange as my old manual lenses all focus wide open and automatically step down to the shooting aperture only when I press ther shutter. I cannot think of any MF DSLR lens that does not do that. Exactly whose lenses are your using? Nikon or some one else's?

Noise does not automatically rise with ISO with digital cameras. ISO determines how much processing the camera does to get a good image from a low light source. The noise depends on the algorithm used by the camera. Some magazines have found the noise goes both up and down as ISO goes up with many cameras. Do not be afraid to use high ISO with a digital camera.

Danny Low

November 23, 2013

The 135mm photo looks to lack proper depth of field. Telephotos have shallow depth of field so only a narrow portion of the image is in focus and everything in front and behind that portion is out of focus. I normally shoot landscape at f11-f16 or even smaller to counter this problem. Unless you are using a tripod or other rest, camera shake can be a problem with a 135mm. I normally try to shoot at 1/250 or faster to avoid this problem. However since landscapes rarely run away, I would advise getting a tripod and using it. Finally to get everything in focus you need to focus on what is known as the hyperfocal distance. There are apps for smartphones that can calculate if for you. There are distance markers on a prime lens such as the 135mm that you can use to pre-focus on the hyperfocal distance. Or you can focus on a point 1/3 into the landscape

The 35mm photo was a completely out of focus. A wide angle lens has great depth of field so you should have gotten something much sharper even at f5.6. Again I can only suggest f8 as the widest aperture for a landscape. The only cause I can think of is camera shake or focus being totally off. I recommend getting a tripod and using that.

Finally, DSLRS usually give you several options in processing jpeg files. I assume that is what you are shooting as the default is usually jpeg. Try seeing if another jpeg processing option will give you sharper images.

Danny

November 17, 2013

I use stacking drawers on wire shelves. The drawers come in various sizes. I use the drawers to also organize my equipment. One drawer has my basic shooting kit (body, most used lens and flash). Another drawer has accessories. Another has additional lenses. Yet another has stuff that I rarely use but have found to be very useful when I need them.

You can have as many drawers as you want to organize your gear as precisely as you want. They and the wire shelving are cheap and can be found in any hardware store or Container Store.

Danny

November 17, 2013

The Havasupai village is remote. It will be a full day's hike down. You can hire a mule ride down or take a helicopter ride directly to the village. Other than the helicopter ride, you can count on 3 days of travel time to and from the village. That assumes you are within a day's drive to the trail head.

Your travel schedule is too aggressive. You will only be able to get to a quarter of the places you plan unless all you plan to do is stop the car, take some photos and drive on.

Death Valley has some interesting places such as Scotty's Castle and can be a long day trip from Vegas. The Mojave Desert is boring miles and miles of desert all looking the same. Joshua Tree Park is more interesting and you have to drive through the Mojave to get there so you can visit both sites together. However it is most of a day just to get to the park, so this is also a minimum of 3 days round trip with one day to sightsee. Longer if you stop to see some of sights along the way.

Zion is also another day's drive from Vegas and well worth the trip.

Between Red Rock, Death Valley and Joshua Park, you have used up most of your 2 weeks and about 3 days of it will be travel time from Vegas to those places.

Danny Low

November 11, 2013

"Again, an f/3.5-5.6 or 4.0-5.6 zoom is really only serviceable shooting in bright daylight (or, when either flash-assisted or tripod-ed)."

I routinely shoot available light indoors at parties, conventions, etc. with zoom lenses in this in this f-stop range all the time. I do not use a tripod or a flash.

First with DSLRs you can increase the ISO to 1600, 3200 or higher for low light shooting. Unlike film where you had significant image degradation at high ISO, with digital you can get very good images at high ISO. The key is shoot RAW so you can maximize the ability of programs such as Photoshop to process the image.

Second, most of the time you are not shooting wide open. The rule of thumb is the best image quality is around f8-f11. Second the depth of field with, e.g. a f1.8 50mm lens at f1.8 is very shallow and only certain compositions need such shallow dof. Most of the time you will be shooting at f8 or even f16 for the depth of field. So even if you have a fast prime lens, more often than not, you are shooting at a smaller aperature.

The only significant advantage of a fast speed lens is you get more light coming through the lens for focusing. However DSLRs typically have infrared focusing beams for low light focusing assist.

So there is really no need for fast lenses except for certain specific types of photgraphy such sports photography or night photography. If you do a lot of these types of photography, spending the extra bucks for a fast lens may be worth while. A 18-55mm slow kit lens is typically around $100. A fast 50mm is around $200. That is a big price difference for a fast lens so you had better really be needing that speed.

Danny Low

November 9, 2013

Greg

I would add one more bit of information. The camera makers and some independent lens makers have a consumer line and a pro line of lenses. The consumer lines are made to a specific price point while the pro line is made for the best quality and the price is secondary. That is why Nikon has 3 different 70-200mm lenses with almost a 2:1 price difference. So sometimes a long range pro zoom is at least as good as shorter range consumer zoom.

When shopping for lenses I always try to find reviews of the lenses I am looking at, preferably from the same source.There are plenty of web sites and magazines with loads of lens reviews. However if you cannot find one for the lenses you are interested in, it could mean that it is a mediocre lens. There are enough good lenses around that publishers do not want to waste space on a mediocre lens. However if the lens is new, it could just be that no one has gotten around to publishing their reviews.

Danny Low

October 29, 2013

"Incorrect. Public figures have no special rights over private individuals. In terms of editorial content and commentary it's just the opposite."

This is not what I wrote. And you are wrong about them having less rights. They have exactly the same rights. PLUS as they make money from their image, certain public figures can sue you for lost income. A private individual can also sue and get suitable compensation, which is typically $0.00 for most people. For someone like George Clooney, that can be a lot of money.

You clearly are confusing editorial content and commentary with news. Legally they are different.

"Incorrect. In the U.S. a monograph would generally fall into the same category as editorial usage."

Editorial useage is not the same as news usage. A monograph is a basically a book. It is not a news publication that comes out periodically. A news publisher such as Time Life can publish monographs using photographs from their news magazines and that would be considered "news" but photographs that were never published in a news publication would not be consider news.

"Also incorrect in the U.S. The photograph does not become public domain merely because it is published in a newspaper, cropped or uncropped."

Again this is not what I wrote. I wrote the copy of the photograph published is public domain. The common contract you sign when you sell the photograph lets you retain rights to the original but gives re-publication rights to the news organization. If the news organization is small, like a local advertizer, you can often negotiate first publication rights only but the larger organizations such as TV stations usually want re-publication rights so they can give copies to their national networks.

Danny Low

October 29, 2013

Note that "public figures" own the rights to the use of their images as much if not more so than a private individual. George Clooney is a public figure but he also makes money from his image so he controls the use of his image. Publish his image without permission and you may get a letter from his lawyers to cease and desist.

The exception that Joe Willmore alludes to is for "news worthy" photographs and not public figures. In general you can take a photograph of a news worthy event and sell that photograph to a news publisher without the need for any releases. So if you come across a car accident involving George Clooney you can take a photograph and sell it to the National Enquirer without getting a release from George Clooney. OTOH if you were to publish that photo as part of a mongraph, that is not news and you will need a release.

Also any photograph that you sell to a news publisher that actually get published becomes public domain. Here the law gets a bit tricky. It is the version that is published that is public domain. If a newspaper crops the photo, the cropped photo is public domain. Your original uncropped version is still yours.

Again, get a book on photographer's copyrights. It will give far more details than the postings here.

Danny Low

October 29, 2013

1. Go to amazon or a bookstore and get a book on copyrights for photographers. You will need a handy legal reference book if you plan to get into the business. You may end up with several such books.

2. You own the photographs but the people in them own the right to their images so you must get a release form if you plan to ever publish the photographs. The copyrights books will give the details and a standard release form that you can have the people sign. BTW the owners of buildings also own the right to the images of the buildings and you must also get release forms signed by them for any buildings in your photo that is recognizable. There are exception such as when the building is part of a general landscape BUT again the legal details matter. And that is something you will find in the copyrights book.

Danny Low

October 24, 2013

The answer is Photoshop, Photoshop and Photoshop. The photographers shoot RAW and process the images through an editor, usually Photoshop, that will adust color temperature, exposure, remove wrinkles, etc. There are also specialized editing programs specifically intended for wedding photos that will smooth out wrinkles, remove skin discolorations and all the other edits that make couples look so perfect. That is why they all look so perfect and the same. The photographers are using the same editing programs and procedures on the photos.

Danny Low

October 20, 2013

Years ago the Ansel Adams museum in San Francisco had an exhibit of the evolution of the moonrise photo. It started with a contact print of the negative and showed chronologically the various prints Adams made of the photo over the years. It took several years and major revisions of the print to arrive at what is now considered the final print. This final print looks nothing at all like the contact print.

So the exposure of the negative is only 10% of the final print. Darkrrom manipulation was 90% and it changed over the years.

Danny Low

September 26, 2013

My recommendation for a beginner is Scott Kelby's book. The reason is the book is organized by tasks. So if you want to remove red eyes, go to the chapter on removing red eyes and everything you need to know is in that chapter. There is no need to read the entire book first to do anything.

For advance work I recommend the Classroom in a Book from Adobe. It will show how flexible Photoshop can be. I know professionals who have used Photoshops for years and discovered features of Photoshop they never knew existed when they read the book.

Beyond that, the Bible series is a good reference book if you decide you want to really get into all aspects of Photoshop.

Danny Low

August 22, 2013

If you want to start using it immediately, I recommend Scott Kelby's book on Photoshop CS6. The book is organized by tasks. So if you want to convert a color photo to a B&W, just go to that chapter and follow its instructions. Since you are experienced with an older Photoshop you should be able to go straight to work with this book. It is worth while to go through the table of contents and look for new features that did not exist in Photoshop 7 and read up on them.

Danny Low

August 15, 2013

As a general rule, larger ink cartridges from printer makers are more cost effective. It is a different matter with refills. Consumer Reports has found that some refills have smaller amounts of ink in them, so you are actually paying more per page. Then there are the low ink chips in the cartridges.

Ink cartridges generally have an ink level measuring chip in them and will signal the printer to stop using this cartridge when it sees the ink level is too low. The problem is the chip can be way too pessimistic about when too low is too low. Epson lost a class action suit a while back because their chips signaled the ink was too low when there was plenty of ink left. Customers got refunds and Epson reprogrammed the chips. You can buy software that disables the chip and you can continue printing at your own risk when the chips says there is no more ink, as there usually is more. You can ruin the print heads if the ink level actually goes to zero.

However the big problem with all ink cartridges is they have a "use by" date that starts ticking when you first use the cartridge. If your printing needs are low, you could still have ink left in the cartridge when its "used by" date expires. In my experience, you have quite a bit of time left after the expiration date but this is something you need to be aware of when buying the larger cartridges.

Danny Low

August 9, 2013

"If you go with the canonical Pentax K1000, I've read that the ones marked "Asahi Pentax" are better build quality."

Pentax cameras are made by the Asahi Optical Co. The early cameras were labeled "Asahi Pentax". This was later simplified to just "Pentax". The idea that the "Asahi" models are better is just a wives tale. In the case of the K1000, this is probably due to production changes to the camera to take advantage of the latest space age material, aka plastic. The later K1000 had many plastic parts which made it lighter and more rust resistant as well as cheaper for Pentax to make.

Danny Low

August 7, 2013

"...if the course includes traditional darkroom work that would make sense. If not, it wouldn't,..."

No darkroom work is needed for the requirement to make sense. The course looks like an introduction to the basics of photography. The best way to learn the effects of aperture, shutter speed, focus points, etc. is to manually adjust them one by one and see the results. A totally manual camera insures that the student does not deliberately or accidentally go into a semi-auto or full auto mode. Since there are no digital cameras that has only manual mode, the course would have to use a 35mm film camera. The film and development could be by prior arrangement with a local lab so the student would not have to deal with the darkroom side of photography yet.

Danny Low

August 7, 2013

The old Pentax K1000 35mm was the quintessential student camera. It meets all your class requirements and is dirt cheap but very rugged and reliable. Pentax made a zillion of these cameras so they should still be readily available from any place that sells used 35mm cameras. You should be able to find one on eBay for about $50.

Danny Low

August 6, 2013

I live in the area and most of the open spaces here will be brown with a chance of fire. The best place for any type of landscape that is green and not likely to burst into flames is the Grizzly Island Wildlife area. You might see tule elk and otters. Just be aware that the roads in the wildlife area are unimproved which means a street vehicle will have a hard time on them. If you are going through Vallejo there is the Mare Island Heritage Preserve. It has a nice cemetery with roses and some high hills overlooking the area that are photogenic.

July 23, 2013

The iPad, especially the models with the retina display, are superb monitors for editing photos. Photoshop can be used in a dual monitor mode. In this mode, the image is displayed on the iPad and the controls on the laptop. You will need an app, air display is one, that will make the iPad act as a second monitor on the laptop. This is a solution that is worth considering rather than buying an external monitor.

Danny Low

July 21, 2013

For restaurants and real estate, a narrower angle lens and stitching could be better. You get less distortion due to the narrower angle lens. You can also get wider coverage. Sometimes the room is too small and there is no way to get full coverage of it with anything other than a fisheye. In that case taking several photographs and stitching would be the only workable solution. Another advantage of stitching is objects in the room appear closer to normal size due to the narrower angle lens. OTOH an ultra wide angle lens can make a small room look larger which can be good, if somewhat deceptive, for real estate interiors.

Stitching requires more work both when you take the shots and then when you stitch them together but the results can be worth it.

Danny Low

July 20, 2013

This is an ultra wide angle lens so it needs a special hood that will not block the angle of view at the edges. Unless a 3rd party lens specifically is for this lens, it may not work.

The Tokina hood is what you should buy and I found one on ebay.com, so I would check there.

Danny Low

July 18, 2013

The best thing I ever did to improve my photography was to join a photography workshop put on by an instructor at my local community college. Getting good feedback from a good teacher does wonders to improve your photography. I was lucky in that the workshop instructor was first rate.

So I would check your local adult high school classes, community college classes and even the local universities. Some of them may have workshop classes for photographers like the one I took. If you are willing to spend the big bucks, many professional photographers hold workshops. They advertise in the photo magazines such as Popular Photography.

Danny Low

May 23, 2013

"...the OP's photo, a single 1600 x 1600 pixel image, is absurd. The image has been down sampled. The image has been shot at ISO 3200 and is out-of-focus, shot at f/1.8 on a lens that can be soft at that aperture. The image cannot possibly tell you anything that would allow you to conclude the ONLY possible solution is to buy a new, higher resolution, body. Resolution is not the problem."

The OP wrote in the posting that it was not a technically good photo but it did show off well the "noise" problem that the OP was seeing in the photos. So your criticism of the photo misses the entire point of it. It is not to show off the quality of the photos from the T1i but the one specific problem that the OP was seeing.

Based on my own experience with the T1i and T3i, the only thing that I saw in the photo that could be considered "noise" is simply the "fuzziness" that comes from having too few pixels in the original image file. I ignored all the other problems with the photo because they were not relevant.

Being out of focus would not affect the noise. Tests reported in various magazines such Digital Photo Pro show that with digital SLRs, the ISO does not correlate well with noise. Noise in a DSLR comes from the processing algorithm built into the camera. It does not monotonically increase with ISO but can have sweet spots in high ISO settings where it is better than in lower ISO settings.

Regardless of whether the "noise" is due to low pixel count or high ISO, this all means that solution is a better camera with a high pixel count and a newer better ISO algorithm. All of which I got when I went to the T3i.

Danny Low

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