dan_catinella

<p>A lot to digest here. Thanks a lot for your time everyone. </p>

<p>Sorry, pretty slammed at work. <br>

Right now I'm on DX -- D7000. The only reason I'm interested in the 70-200 is I have a focal to fill the missing length caused by the magnification of FX on a DX sensor and I plan on buying an FX body sometime in the near future. I'd rather by nice glass once and put up with the difference in the length for the time being. </p>

<p>Wow. Thanks all for the great responses. </p>

<p>I'm interested in getting the Nikkor 105 macro but with the price tag I can't help but wonder why I shouldn't wait another six months or so and save for the versatility of the 70-200. <br /><br />The price tag is obviously beyond my skill level, but I feel like it would be an investment that I would use and grow into rather than a Tamron I would eventually replace and pay handsomely for in the end.<br /><br />My question is what are the actual pros and cons of using a 105 prime vs a 70-200 set to around the same focal length. Or for that matter, the 80-200. I'd be shooting food and other object photography. <br /><br />I've come to find out the lens production differences between macro and regular lenses, but at what point do the changes become noticeable. Would the distortion from a 70-200 really be that significant for whats considered to be one of Nikon's best lenses?<br>

I would definitely get use out of the rest of the focal length on the 70-200. </p>

<p>I really want to get a Nikon 17-55. Budget's tight to spend 1400 but I can find used lenses for between 900 and 1000 in the area. <br>

With something as finicky as a piece of glass I'm hesitant to purchase anything used. I'm curious what peoples experiences are.</p>

<p>You could check out http://www.livebooks.com/<br>

live preview can be found at www.darrenornitz.com <br>

Maybe that will at least open some doors. You could google sites like livebooks. I'm sure something will come up.</p>

<p>Not quite at that point. Right now I'm working on monitor calibration and dealing with color profiles and all that junk. It's a slow process when it's only a part time hobby. </p>

<p>Ha. Thanks Matt. Nothing like a simple answer to make me feel like an idiot. </p>

<p>Hey guys. I'm very new to printing prints for frames and matted frames. I have a few questions that I'm hoping some more experienced photographers may be able to help with. </p>

<p>I shot the picture with a D7000 Raw at 4928x3264. I have a a frame that is 16x20 matted down to 11.5x15.25.<br>

I'm trying to print a shot at adorama just outside the margin of the matting so I can mount it without cropping the photo but Adorama doesn't seem to offer any sizes that come close.<br>

They have 11x14 prints and 16x20 prints. If I print at 16x20 to fit the frame I obviously have to cut out a big part of the composition. If I print at 11x14 than I have gaps around the photo after mounting.......... What am I missing?</p>

 

<p>Sorry raw was a bad choice of words. I just meant unedited. I know he is live updating the files right now so I highly doubt he is spending time editing them before pumping them to flickr.</p>

<p>Hey all,<br>

I've been following several food photographers shooting with Nikon. Several use the D700 and a few are using the D800 and D600. I've noticed across both that the raw files have a lot of contrast and saturation without going into Lightroom or another software. I've tried shooting vivid from my D7000 but it just doesn't fill in quite right. I'm curious if you guys might be able to look at a couple of photos and suggest if they are using filters for the effect.</p>

<p>The skin is usually abornally rosey or even red, which makes me think it's definitely a filter.</p>

<p><a href="

<p><a href="

<p>wow thats a very cool effect.<br>

This picture was taken a long time ago. If i remember it was with a POS and not an SLR. I really didn't know anything about photography at the time. Now I'm shooting a D7000 with some nice lenses and some training under my belt. I use grey cards and whatnot for white balance or I'll adjust in post with Raw files. </p>

<p>I appreciate your guys time on this</p>

<p>I'm not looking for freeby retouches! I just want to see what some people with more experience are capable of and learn what programs, plugins and techniques they use. </p>

<p>I have no problem with someone retouching and uploading a photo with a crazy watermark or a terrible crop just so I can see some ideas. </p>

<p>Hey Hans,<br>

Thanks for the reply. The presets that were shown as examples are all things I'm capable of now using lightroom. Have you used the presets yourself? Are they capable of more then the things the sample photos show? </p>

<p>Hey Matt,<br>

Thanks for the suggestions. I am definitely a new contributor to photo.net. I have usually just tried commenting on people's threads on fotoblur and sites like that. I haven't really joined any photo forums and spend my time on some food and baking forums instead. I studied a little bit of photography and recently graduated and realized I am going to miss the back and forth and crowd critique so I googled what sites were recommended and this came up. I know I'm new but I'm not just looking for someone to retouch images and than disappear. <br>

I uploaded the files to my server for easy download. I have three file types, .tif .psd and .jpg. The .tif may be a little compromised. I exported the PSD as a JPG and then opened the JPG in Lightroom for adjustments, which obviously isn't the correct workflow but I was just messing around really. I already sent a version out to be printed, but I would really love to see how far retouching can be taken on a simple image. The image is quite old, but I've always loved it and had it sitting on my server for years. <br>

Feel free to post results. If anyone has a high quality image they would like to upload to my server to be shared that's completely fine as well. I just ask that no one uses any portion or version of the photo for commercial use unless I give permission. </p>

<p>www.dancatinella.com/pistol.jpg<br>

www.dancatinella.com/pistol.psd<br>

www.dancatinella.com/pistol.tif<br>

I took the photo as four separate photos. Imported with photoshop ---scripts ----stack and then auto blended and layered. Some of the original files can be seen at <br>

www.dancatinella.com/Pistol/range1.tif<br />www.dancatinella.com/Pistol/range2.tif<br />www.dancatinella.com/Pistol/range3.tif<br />www.dancatinella.com/Pistol/range4.tif<br /><br />You have to right click ---save as or else it may open in quicktime for you. </p>

 

<p>So I'm new to drastic retouching techniques. I use Lightroom 4 and do mainly photojournalism so my photos tend to be true to life without much artistic expression outside of composition and contrast. I can adjust contrast and white balance and things like that very well and create nice looking photos and portraits, but I have this panoramic photo that I would be really interested in seeing if someone would be able to make pop. I've messed with saturation and clarity quite a bit and have an interesting looking photo but would love to see someone elses magic. If anyone is willing to give it a shot real quickly and maybe post a copy online or something I would love for you to email me at catinella@gmail.com and let me know. I can send the file over or you can download it from my server. </p>