dan_spellman

<p>Howdy yall,<br>

New Profoto user here. The B1 won me over. :) Very happy and just bought my first modifier, the Wide zoom reflector. I was just wondering if there's a reason that only positions 6-10 are marked on the unit? Are you not meant to attach your modifier further along the unit beyond the 6? Or is it not significant?<br>

(I also noticed on the modifier, it gives you the beam angle for positions 10 and 6 - wouldn't the angles of 10 and 1 be more useful to know?!)<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>Hi there. Am I blaming my own sharpness problems on my equipment, or do I have a real problem!?</p>

<p>I work for a newspaper and all my gear is owned by work. Now, I've noticed problems with the 70-200 lens. There is often bluriness, in the same spot (left of the image when horizontal, top of the image when vertical - it's the same place because of the way I hold veritcally). The blurriness doesn't look like "normal" bluriness, if that makes sense, but it's hard to describe why. <br>

I'm often using this lens wide open or nearly wide open, so my original conclusion was simply that I had done something wrong. However, I've been extremely cautious about it and was recently using it for a shoot. Shutter at 1/250, continuous focus point with the focus point ON THE SUBJECT'S FACE... and it's still blurry! Plus, I took MANY shots and they are all blurry! <br>

<br />When we had a Nikon service guy visit, he took a look at my lens and notice at the "end" (you know, where you put the filters :P) it sort of caved in a bit, and remarked "You dropped it!". Well, some photographer before me certainly had! He took a hammer and hammered it out so it looked better... but it seems like it still may have a flaw? </p>

<p>So what do you think? With my focusing technique above, is it reasonably to suspect the gear may be at fault?</p>

<p>Hey there,</p>

<p>Finally getting a website together. What are everyones thoughts on naming your "art" category. Eg stuff that was not paid for but I want to show it because it's meaningful, or shows my technical skills, or has been exhibited in galleries. It seems wanky to have a category called "Fine Art", which is one option Ive seen used. But then is something like "Projects" a bit plain and vauge? "Conceptual"? Argh! What to do!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Hey there,</p>

<p>Its a little embarrasing to come across a focusing problem - I'm not exactly a beginner! But some portraits I took today have baffled me. All the conditions seem good for focusing, yet part of the image is quite soft...</p>

<p>I was shooting tethered full body portraits today with a D700 and the 70-200. I stayed on 70mm and the camera was on a tripod. I used autofocus on the subject and would then switch it to manual and leave it (for faster shooting). I was using an Alienbees strobe, camera on 125/sec at f8.</p>

<p>Most of the image - the models body and clothes, is perfectly sharp. But as you look higher from the body to face, things get progressively soft. At the top of the head its pretty damn soft! While we were shooting tethered, the fact that the body seemed in focus threw me off, and things look okay at 50%. But 100% they are pretty bad in the face, which I only see now after the shoot!<br>

<br />I would understand whats going on if NONE of the subject was in focus - presumably the camera backfocused or just focused in the wrong spot. But whats going on if your at f8, 80% of the subject is in focus but things get progessively blurry towards the head? I understand that if you focus on the subjects middle/torso at a big aperture, their feet and head might be out of focus. But I was at f8, and very far from the subject at 70mm! To add to the confusion, I shot a portrait of two people next to eachother under these exact same conditions a few days ago, and EVERYTHING is in perfect focus! Aargh!</p>

<p>Any suggestions appreciated! </p>

<p>The Photographers Ephemeris confuses the f outta me... XD The yellow line is "Sunrise", but in what way is it depicting sunrise? Is it saying that at sunrise if Im looking in the direction of that line, Im looking at the sun? What if I want to calculate the suns position when it isnt surise?<br>

Arrrgh!</p>

<p>I recently was challenged with the task of shooting a house whilst the sun was blaring at me - above the house. I had to move quite close to the house so that the sun was hidden behind the house's roof...it was not good! I have not been shoting buildings for very long so I havnt thought about the sun's position too much. Are there any tools online, or any other method, where you can figure out what direction the sun will be at a partiular time and location?<br>

<br />So eg if Im at a certain location and shooting in a south eastern direction, how can I determine if the sun will be behind me?<br /> :/</p>

<p>Howdy,</p>

<p>I was looking for find my accutations for my 500D. Sadly, EOSInfo doesnt work. Now, on the LCD screen there is the number on the top right, but presumably it has ticked over from 9999 at least once because it says 2481, which seems low. Also, to the left of that number is another number and I have no idea what it means? It's 102... so the top right of my LCD screen says "102-2481". 2481 is the shuttercount (since last 9999), what is the 102?</p>

<p>Do 500D owners have any way of finding their shuttercount?</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>Hey there,</p>

<p>Im looking for some advice regarding customisation of tablets for use with Photoshop...</p>

<p>I have had a Intuos 4 for some time, however I usually place my keyboard to the left of the tablet sitting on top of all of the Intuos shortcut buttons and scroll wheels, because otherwise the keyboard would be too far or awkward to use. Recently though I've started trying to customise the Intuos so I can actually use the tablet's buttons and wheel, and moving the keyboard to the side. Its been pretty frustrating though, given the sheer number of shortcuts availible in Photoshop through a keyboard. I was wondering how someone else goes about it? One thought I had was to map the most common shortcuts to the Radial Menu (I hadnt previously used the Radial menu much)</p>

<p>So how have you customised your tablet for PS? Still use a keyboard much?</p>

<p>Hey,<br>

What are some methods of evening out, or blurring, a backdrop in a photo? I mean a single colour backdrop, such as paper of fabric. I tried applying a gaussian blur to it, but these a really bad sort of "banding" effect...</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Aah, so sorry about the 404 guys. Thats a spelling error... I thought I changed it actually :/</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks so much for the feedback everyone. It seems different browsers are the variable that was causing my confusion. The question now is... do I change the frontpage to maximise compatibility, or leave it as is so I have a flashy frontpage?<br>

Any thoughts? Or is this something Ill just have to decide on a personal basis? XD</p>

<p>Hey guys,<br /> <br /> My website:<a href="http://www.danielspellman.com/I" target="_blank">http://www.danielspellman.com/</a><br>

I have my first Wordpress with a photography theme that I purchased. As you can see it has a fancy slidey thing for the front page. The thing is, on some computers I access my site from, it works well...but sometimes its slow and choppy. If its commonly slow and choppy for users, I would consider replacing it with the standard thumbnail view that I have on the other galleries...<br /> <br /> Can you please tell me how the performace of the front page works for you?<br /> Thankyou very much <img title="Smile" src="http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt="" border="0" /></p>

<blockquote>

<p>Note that some browsers (IE and Chrome) upsize images when you type Ctrl + and downsize with Ctrl -. To see original size, which certainly will look better, try Firefox with the setting View > Zoom > Zoom Text Only.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Ooh far out, THAT is probably why the images look bad on my monitor!!! I totally overlooked that I have my pages zoomed in considerably to match my large monitor. Thankyou. Most people Ive asked have said they looked fine, which was confusing me. Also your right, I may up the JPEG quality a bit and try that setting in Firefox.<br>

Its sometimes the simplest thing one overlooks. Im silly. Thankyou people!!</p>

<p>Maybe I'm being too fussy...</p>

<p>1. Not all of the images on the site are, but the page I sent you to should be (just started doing this)<br>

2. I have no idea about FancyBox - this is just the way the theme I purchased, Core, displays images (the theme: http://themeforest.net/item/core-minimalist-photography-portfolio/240185 )<br />3. I originally asked how to prevent any resizing to the theme's support and was told that yes it's resized to fit the screen, but no he can't help and it needs custom coding to prevent that.<br>

Can I ask...if you right click on a lightbox image and click View Image, does the size change? It does for me, hence why I thought the resizing was occuring (besides the visual difference I notice). I also have that monitor size.</p>

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I am worried that the browser/resolution dependant automatic resizing of Wordpress websites (or at least mine) is making my images look terrible. Take a look at this page: http://www.danielspellman.com/?gallery=events</p>

<p>So I carefully size and optimise these JPEGS in Photoshop... but I make them quite small so Wordpress automatically resizes them larger on my monitor (quite a large monitor). And they look horrible, of course.</p>

<p>So how do they look for you on my page? It seems like I'm going to have to get custom programing help to overcome this! Fark...:(</p>

<p>Dan</p>

<p>...what is it that I should check?</p>

<p>So Im using a Canon 500D with a 580EX II Speedlite. My radio triggers are Cactus V4.</p>

<p>My shutter is 1/125. What's confusing is that when I press the Cactus' test button, the flash fires every time. But when I press the camera's button to actually take a picture, the flash fires too late or not at all.<br>

I have used these radio triggers well with a Vivitar 285HV. So why no worky with 580EX II? :(</p>

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I've been using some custom brushes, but every time I want to mask those brushstrokes I have to go and select the default brush (the round, standard brush). It's annoying when youre doing it all the time. Is there a quicker or easier way of doing this? How do you personally siwtch between using a brush and masking a layer?</p>

<p>Hey guys,<br>

So I'm a young photographer who just finished his first paid photography job. Yay! So I get home and start to load the images onto my portable HD, which I usually do. After about 100 I'm told "Cannot write to selected folder. Select another folder." No idea why, since theres over 100GB availible. I think it might be some random quirk within the file structure, so I create a new folder within my portable HD - same message.</p>

<p>I try and save onto my laptop's HD itself - same message, even though that has free space too...</p>

<p>Freaking out!</p>

<p>The battery is half charged. I tried rebooting. Any suggestions?</p>

<p>Dan S.</p>

<p>Hiya, I'm just a photography student and I am wondering...<br>

Have you ever / would you consider asking a stranger (a non-model) to model for you? What was your experience?<br>

Sometimes I see people I want to shoot, who have a tremendous look, beauty, or presence. But would a stranger react favourably to someone randomly asking them to model?! I'm paranoid I'd look like a creep...<br>

Even though Im just a student I would be willing to offer them money - say $50 an hour for 2 hours. Do you think that'd sway them?</p>

<p>Please share your thoughts or experiences on this!</p>

<p>Cheers,<br>

Dan</p>

<p>Howdy,</p>

<p>So I have been doing some macros in poorly lit areas, so that I can freeze the motion with a flash. Sometimes its a little hard to see through the small viewfinder since its so dim, but when I use liveview, its completely black because the camera doesnt realise Im using a flash (its using the settings I have dialed in to presume the picture is going to be black).<br>

How can I have the camera 'disregard' the settings I have (exposure and ap) so that I can actually see something in Liveview?</p>

<p>cheers,<br>

dan</p>

<p>I was wondering the same thing. Someone pointed me to this, it may help you:<br>

<a onclick="onClickUnsafeLink(event);" href="../help/imagepro/" target="_blank">http://www.photo.net/help/imagepro/</a></p>

<p>Didn't help me though - I can't login to photography.com no matter what I try...</p>

<p>Hey,<br>

Recently I bought a Canon 100mm 2.8 macro for my 500D, and it has left my aching for a tripod. I only had a cheap flimsy one off ebay... and it broke already. :)<br /> <br /> I saw a Velba Sherpa 250R at TEDs. It seemed fairly sturdy and was $130 which I thought was reasonable. A review I read though, said "The Velbon Sherpa 250 does all I want it to do - except for the inverse pole approach for macros"<br>

I have no idea what that is, but since macros are going to be one of my main uses for this tripod, should I perhaps consider a different one?</p>