david_barts1

<p>I'm sure every technological advance has its uses (even if it doesn't, some will be invented). However, as far as I know the most iconic photos, by W Eugene Smith, HCB etc were not taken with a zoom, nor a supertelephoto.</p>

<p>Also the saying is 'if your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough' and not '... you should get a bigger zoom'.</p>

<p>Hello</p>

<p>I had to buy some film - I don't use much so it's been a while. I mostly use Reala and Provia 100 so was looking for those. So it turns out that B&H is out of the print film (either US or imp), and Adorama is out of the slide. </p>

<p>Is finding film now an issue, is it just a bad day or is Fuji falling behind (Kodak?)</p>

<p>Also, could someone recommend a lab that will both develop and scan film. I know A&I does - are there other options?</p>

<p>Many thanks!</p>

<p><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10274730-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5">New York State cracks down on Brooklyn-based scamsters</a></p>

 

<p>People have mentioned bounce flash, and I would like to add that this is IMHO the single biggest image improvement you can make. Here's Canon's own tutorial:<br>

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/flashwork/techniques/bounce/index.html<br>

I have two children and neither minds the bounce flash in the least -- I've been using it from birth (theirs). It's not at all like having a flashgun fired in your face!<br>

Personally, I think the light from a window is better, but it's not really applicable to an infant. Plus, in the wonderful world of digital, window light (blue) combined with indoor electric light (yellow) yields the dreaded 'mixed lighting' -- hours spent with Photoshop!<br>

Shallow depth of field is nice, but having one eye in focus and the other blurry is not that pretty. I find that even though I have fast primes I rarely open beyond f/4.<br>

So I would go for the 430EX II (less than $250) or a used older one. I'm perfectly happy with my 420EX.</p>

<p>Bob Atkins wrote:<br>

> ... doing dessert combat photography ...<br>

Dessert combat, do you mean pie in the face? Seems to call for a high fps rate...</p>

Hi,

 

I'm moving my operations to iMac. So far I only have iPhoto ('08) software-wise

(more on that below). I have an Epson PictureMate printer; I am able to print

but a lot of functionality I had on Windows is missing. For example, a dialog

allowing me to switch off the printer's color management and another one showing

the ink level.

 

Question 1: Is this a limitation of Epson's Mac version of the driver or of iPhoto?

 

Question 2: Software. Photoshop is definitely overkill for me, I'd be fine

something simple - but perhaps not quite so simple as iPhoto. I'd like to be

able to selectively darken/lighten areas and set the exact image size. Plus the

iPhoto capabilities: raw, tweaking wb etc. What are the options? Adobe Lightroom

or Apple Aperture? -- or wait for the Mactel version of Elements? What do people

use now? I'd rather not use my existing Photoshop via Bootcamp - I like the

Mac's look/feel and would rather use something that fits with it.

 

Thanks a lot!

It was my first ever EF lens, along with a 50/1.8 II. I'm no great expert but soon noticed that the slides taken with the 50 would 'bite' while those from the 28-105 would not. So I preferred the 50 despite its handling shortcomings and have since built up a collection of cheap primes. However when I finally got to put the 28-105 on eBay a few months ago I received over $220 for it, so no ill feelings at all.

Thanks, Lightroom seems a good idea. What's a good book about it (like Barry Haynes's Artistry) or is it mostly similar to Photoshop?

Thanks Michael, I'm thinking 20-inch as well. I didn't realize the emulator could run windoze apps although I'd heard Tiger is Linux-based and there's been talk of emulators running within Linux for years. The question is, is it just a proof-of concept kind of thing or something useable every day hassle-free.

Hello

 

I'm considering getting an iMac (I've only ever used PCs); one of the main uses

would be photo editing. I have Photoshop CS2 although most of the work is done

in CameraRaw - I don't use most Photoshop features.

 

Having googled for a bit I see that Elements 4 is not natively supported and it

seems that Photoshop itself is in beta (I assume it refers to CS3). Well how

good/bad is it in Rosetta, is it stable/fast? Will it be any better on 2Ghz Core

Duo iMac than on my current 1.1GHz PC?

 

Finally, perhaps I don't have need Photoshop at all at the moment. What I do is

basically:

1. Open a raw file from my Canon DSLR in 16-bit mode

2. Crop, sometimes with rotation.

3. I really like WB presets in CameraRaw so I need something similar.

4. Adjust highlights and shadows.

5. Do selective lighening/darkening (I've been using select/levels)

6. Usharp mask.

7. Send to Epson Picturemate and save in some lossless format.

 

Is GIMP OK? Or anything else that works on iMac and doesn't necessarily cost a

fortune?

 

Thanks!

I think this complexity is part of the experience. Digital photography seems process-oriented (rather than image-oriented). One can fiddle with the thing for days on end, isn't that what a hobby is all about?

 

More seriously, I think the technology is not good enough yet. For example, when the car starters were not reliable enough, cars had a hole for the crank; now this extra way of "controlling" the car is happily forgotten. Likewise, when I press the shutter of my film EOS with Provia in it, I know the results will be good (unless it gets lost in the mail to/from the lab). With my 350D, based on 6 months experience, they will mostly be awful - but there's a lot of buttons to at least take my mind off it.

Unless you have several identical boxed items in your luggage I'd be very surprised if you run into problems with HM customs. Although, having shuttled across the Atlantic 2 dozen times I've never been frisked, so I don't know. I wouldn't worry as you obviously will have played with your toys so they won't be brand-new.

 

B&H probably gets you the best price in the US. If your contact's shipping address is outside New York state s/he won't have to pay 8.375% tax, just shipping (not a lot, about $10 typically)

 

Of course the rebate check is in USD and payable to the person on the sales receipt (which is required). Think of it as a little thank-you for your friend (incidentally, a mate once got B&H to post stuff to my US address. B&H gave us both no end of hassle on account of his UK-issued credit card)

I use a settings bundle called Parameter 1, where sharpening is boosted half way.

The server could've been down, can you try again?

 

http://www.ljplus.ru/img/g/l/gladiolux/IMG_0501.jpg

 

I can't upload it to photo.net due to the size limit.

 

How do you sharpen - via Unsharp Mask? I know 300%/0.3pix/0 is supposed to be good for landscapes, what about portraits?

Patrick, <a href="http://www.ljplus.ru/img/g/l/gladiolux/IMG_0501.jpg">here's one</a>. This one I actually had to correct in PS (overall Levels for each channel) as the colors were off - fortunately there's a white sill that I just made look white (why is it that color is so often wrong? I always used daylight film, no filters; while sometimes things might've looked moody never were they 'ghastly yellow' or 'sickly green' that I see these days)

I've just printed the first pictures on my new PictureMate. (I've searched for

Picturemate on this forum and have found only favorable opinions.) However,

putting the new prints side by side with the 4x6s that I'd got from A&I film

processing, I am unimpressed. The new prints clearly lack 'bite'. It seems the

colors are OK but sharpness is nowhere near.

 

I'm using the Digital Rebel XT with the same lenses I used on my film Rebel

(primes plus my new 17-40). I'm cropping with res=300ppi and I do see some

detail in Photoshop at 100% that doesn't get to the print. I haven't been able

to find the ppi for the PictureMate, only the dpi which is 5760x1440 (what does

that mean?)

 

In general, does the print ppi have to be set to exactly that of the printer?

 

Finally, this may sound like a silly question but how much effort is required to

even match the quality of 35mm - e.g. do I necessarily have to shoot RAW? So

far, I've been shooting jpeg with sRGB color space (I'll try Adobe RGB as well)

and not do much in PS other than crop and adjust the overall levels. Is the

weakest link the printer or my (lack of) workflow?

 

Thanks!

A long time ago I read a magazine piece about Richard Avedon. One of the

illustrations was a potrtait with areas circled by his hand with instructions

for dodging/burning in. I've never had access to a chemical darkroom but now

with a dslr and photoshop this is suddenly within reach. Can someone suggest a

good book on b&w portraiture or perhaps a general b&w book with a good chapter

on portraits? Could very well be pre-digital.

 

Also, any book on lighting for portraits? This I suppose had better be more

equipment-centric as all I can afford at the moment is a few Canon speedlites.

 

Thanks!

Very ironically, a few of those showed up <i>on this very page</i> (when I opened it, 4:20PM EST, under "Ads by Google"), e.g. the 20d for

<a href="http://www.bestpricecameras.com/308518-312322-2.html">$799</a> and

<a href="http://www.bestdigitalonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?Catid=439&Sku=EOS20D">$749</a> plus a similarly unbelievable one for the 5D.

When I opened this thread, I noticed the adverts on the right and on the bottom - two of those promised the 5D for $2199 and one went even further at $1999 - right here on photo.net! If you don't go to Brooklyn then Brooklyn comes to you or something like that it seems.

Getting a flash like 420EX will definitely pay off. The head tilts every which way so you can point it towards the ceiling (rather than straight at the baby). This way, you'll get nice, even illumination. It's called bounce flash, there's lots about it on the web.

 

Set exposure mode to M and dial the speed of about 1/30-1/45 and start with aperture 5.6 if you're doing face portraits (I find that with wider apertures it's hard to catch both eyes in focus).

 

I used to use 100 speed film but for the baby I find I often run out of light so have switched to ISO400.

 

I mostly use 50 and 85 mm but a wideangle is also nice especially when the baby starts moving about, I've got a few dynamic-looking shots with my 28mm!

 

Another trick I've discovered is letting the baby play with the camera to get used to it (turning it off first and making sure the lens cap is well attached of course) so when photography time comes she won't immediately go after the strange thing Daddy's holding.

I have the T2 - it's great! I also have an Elan II; I have to say all the gripes with the old Rebels are gone as far as I'm concerned and the T2 is all the camera I need. I've been enjoying photography for a few years and haven't used Elan's features that the Rebel lacks (e.g. flash exposure compensation). Mirror lockup that Yakim's mentioned is somewhat useful - but the Rebel does not have it.

 

Thanks to its digital siblings, the Canon has got a great big LCD with illumination on the back. Very ergonomic!

 

I don't know anything about Nikon, but if you ever decide to go over to the dark side, Canon seems a better choice (Lately I've seen talk about adapters for using Nikon and Leica lenses on EOS digital bodies - surely a Nikon user with a collection of Nikkors would not consider an EOS body unless there was a reason to) So the EOS lenses that you will have accumulated will be directly and fully usable (no adapters)

> why not stay with film?

 

The biggest problem is processing. I've tried a few labs and the better ones do acceptable 4x6's. However even 5x7's look really poor. The reason is, they scan the film (to about 1Mb I reckon) and print the scans. Why wouldn't they scan to high res? I don't know (even at 4x6 I can sometimes see digitally-looking edges)

 

To add insult to injury, for the few shots that I do want to have digitized, I'd need to pay again, to have them re-scan those!

I think if/when the price of EOS 5D drops further, it will be time for

me to go digital. I've been using a couple of EOS film cameras and a

handful of EF primes.

 

I have a few generel questions about digital photography at this stage.

 

Is it better to buy a printer or send the files to a lab? Do labs in

the US do a good enough job or would I need to look for a good one, as

with film? I'll need about 50 4x6" and one or two bigger ones (about

8x12) per month. In case I'm better off buying my own printer, what

would be a good one?

 

What about B&W: do color printers take B&W in stride?

 

I'm generally pretty happy with my slides. From the last roll of

Provia, I've kept 35. Is it conceivable then to eliminate Photoshop

for cases when I don't want to down-size for the Web etc. and print

straight out of the camera? Or do people find that the quality of

modern DSLRs show up the defects that film used to forgive and

post-processing is really a necessity?

 

A suggestion for a good book would be welcome too.

 

Thanks a lot!

The Rebel T2 is so much better you won't believe it. Illuminated focussing points, one-touch focus point selector, 1/125 sync, AF mode uncoupled from exposure mode, great big LCD with illumination on the back, brighter LED in the viewfinder, metal lens mount... All for just $190 plus I think a Canon USA rebate's about to come out.

 

(no I don't work for Canon)

The focusing ring on my EF28/2.8 is stuck at one point (close to

infinity) and I can't move it. In AF mode, the ring gets loose but the

motor is heard struggling to refocus - in vain. The aperture works fine.

 

Should I just write it off [it's only about $150 new]/depend on DOF or

is there a chance to fix it? Is it just Canon who does it? If I mail

it in and the estimate is too much will they send it back/charge for

the estimate/etc?