*OFFICIAL* general photography conversation thread

[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

cool! Looking forward to reading your review.

haha, me too, I took a couple test shots with it. And so far i like it.

Everything seems sharp form the 3"lcd displays point of view...

the F2 at that focal length seems like it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun!!!

will write full review later if i find anything cool to shoot with it today.

[M_Six]

Some CL ads are just too funny. No lowballers!! This guy wants his $200 above the new price. "First come first sever!!"

I wonder what he'll sever? An arm and a leg?

[rodi]

Originally Posted by The1

Woot!!!! picked up my 135 F2L today!!! can't wait to try it out... Much smaller in size then i had expected, but that's good for making it an easier lens to have around people and not making them feel uncomfortable like a big hand canon would.

love love love this lens. use it for video on every job.

[The1]

Originally Posted by rodi

love love love this lens. use it for video on every job.

nice, good to know!

I was going to try it out tonight, and it just ended up being severe thunderstorms, and i'm just tired of shooting things around my appartment.

I may have to settle for the appartment shots if this weather holds out as the weather people are saying it might. Seems like a waste of the lens to shoot random garbage

[Chewy734]

I just uploaded the last video from the workshop to my site. It's day 3, scene 1 with the student shooting live. Enjoy.

[Litos]

silly question, kind of emberrased.

how the eff do i get rid of the chromatic abbaration !?!?

it may me being hardheaded trying to shoot wide open on less than 200 ISO on a bright sunny day.

you think that's the problem !?!?

[The1]

in the first picture, i think you're catching hot air rising in the background, the second picture looks a bit more like shutter speed.

but programs like DxO have a check box for chromatic ab... the program also downloads info for each of your lenses and camera bodies so it can do that as well as get rid of some of the distortion.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Litos

silly question, kind of emberrased.

how the eff do i get rid of the chromatic abbaration !?!?

it may me being hardheaded trying to shoot wide open on less than 200 ISO on a bright sunny day.

you think that's the problem !?!?

No need to be embarrassed. This is how you learn.

Yeah, no need for wide open aperture on a shot like this. Why would you even consider it, since doesn't seem to be a bokeh shot? I only ask because it seemed like you have a bias towards wide open aperture for some reason.

The yellow car is OOF and everything behind it. I'd have been tempted to use f/11 or f/16, wait for the chrome-dome to get out of the way and crop tighter to keep most of the factory in the BG out of the shot. Let the DOF from the small aperture work for you on focus. If you wanted bokeh, then get in tighter on the subject car that you wanted in focus and shoot wide open, throwing the BG cars way OOF. Using a longer lens helps with bokeh also.

Generally, f/8 to f/11 is the sweet spot for most lenses, giving sharp IQ, good DOF and reasonable shutter speeds.

Can you repost the second one without any saturation adjustment or any other adjustment? Either you've got serious Chromatic Aberration or you went crazy with the saturation slider or both. Look at the telephone pole! That's more than your average purple fringing. A 100% crop of that pole with no adjustment might help the diagnosis. Looks like CA to me, but you may have pushed too far with Saturation or color adjustment.

Lightroom and DxO Optics Pro will correct for most CA, among other things, with most pro level lenses and many popular lenses. I recommend shooting everything in RAW and using one of those conversion programs for the best end result.

What lens and camera?

Dave

[M_Six]

'Bout the best I could do in a short time. That was seriously bad CA, and maybe a bit too much saturation.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by M_Six

'Bout the best I could do in a short time. That was seriously bad CA, and maybe a bit too much saturation.

Yeah, much better Mark and you didn't even have the RAW file.

This demonstrates how important your processing software is and knowing how to use it. With Lens Correction turned on and converting from RAW, even medium quality lenses can yield stunning results.

Dave

[Litos]

uuughgh, the seocnd picture was "kind of bad".

imagine driving a 300SRT8 with your left hand, and holding a D700 at 1/60th with the 24-70 with the other.

aim, pray to God you don't shake, and hit the button - that's what happened on that one, HAHA !!!!

i may have the original file to upload - i'll have to check when i get home.

[Litos]

Originally Posted by dcstep

I only ask because it seemed like you have a bias towards wide open aperture for some reason.

The yellow car is OOF and everything behind it. I'd have been tempted to use f/11 or f/16, wait for the chrome-dome to get out of the way and crop tighter to keep most of the factory in the BG out of the shot.

i know i could have used F8-F11 like all other lenses, but i wanted blurry cars - i just wanted the black car with black rims in focus.

but wide open shooting at 2PM is a bit tricky.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Litos

i know i could have used F8-F11 like all other lenses, but i wanted blurry cars - i just wanted the black car with black rims in focus.

but wide open shooting at 2PM is a bit tricky.

Well, when you go for OOF, then you have to make it real obvious; otherwise, it just looks like a sad picture. It would have been easier and produced thicker bokeh if you had a longer lens or got closer to the in-focus car.

A 70-200mm lens is a great lens for portraits and auto shooting because it's easier to chose between in-focus or bokeh. Your working distances need to be longer, but, given that, they tend to be great lenses for these subjects.

Dave

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Litos

uuughgh, the seocnd picture was "kind of bad".

imagine driving a 300SRT8 with your left hand, and holding a D700 at 1/60th with the 24-70 with the other.

aim, pray to God you don't shake, and hit the button - that's what happened on that one, HAHA !!!!

i may have the original file to upload - i'll have to check when i get home.

The result, as adjusted by Mark, isn't all that bad. The slow shutter speed resulted in good wheel spin, but made it hard to hold. If you only took one shot and it turned out this good, you did good.

That AC and over-saturation are different matters, that you need to learn to deal with. That's all doable.

Dave

[Chewy734]

All of this post-processing talk has made me want to share with you an upcoming online workshop on artistic post-production. It's on June 10th-11th. If you attend, let me know.

[details are here]

[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

All of this post-processing talk has made me want to share with you an upcoming online workshop on artistic post-production. It's on June 10th-11th. If you attend, let me know.

[details are here]

haha, i was checking that out.... Think i might actually go take a small in person course at the local university here though. Hands on will likely be better in my situation.

But if i'm around when it's going on, i'll tune in for sure.

[Litos]

Originally Posted by dcstep

The result, as adjusted by Mark, isn't all that bad. The slow shutter speed resulted in good wheel spin, but made it hard to hold. If you only took one shot and it turned out this good, you did good.

That AC and over-saturation are different matters, that you need to learn to deal with. That's all doable.

Dave

i took 2 sets of rolling shots on Saturday.

one handed shots where the cars were on my right side

and two handed shots where the cars were rolling to my left

obviously, the second set was easiest, HAHA !!!!


you can clearly tell the differences in these shots: first two were handheld at 1/60th with two hands. last two were handheld at 1/60th ONE HANDED HAHAHA !!!!

[The1]

I was going to make a wife joke, but i didn't want to cross any lines....

long story short, 2 hands are better then 1

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by The1

I was going to make a wife joke, but i didn't want to cross any lines....

like that's ever stopped you before

[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

All of this post-processing talk has made me want to share with you an upcoming online workshop on artistic post-production. It's on June 10th-11th. If you attend, let me know.

[details are here]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

like that's ever stopped you before

haha, there's a limit :P

my limit is just a little further then most.

[Chewy734]

To kind of get back on topic...

Do any of you guys ever focus manually using an aftermarket focusing screen on your dSLR?

[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

To kind of get back on topic...

Do any of you guys ever focus manually using an aftermarket focusing screen on your dSLR?

considered it, but i find the AF systems do a pretty good job as it is.

and most of my lenses allow prefocus and manual focusing after, i'm not too worried. Sometimes i'll adjust.