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Thanks to frunksock for coming back to his thread, now we get to have a new one (after god knows how many pages). I'll update the OP over the next day or two with some more up to date information, below is the OP from the current thread. This is the thread for general questions. About photography. It is less than a billion pages long, unlike the previous questions thread. Ask a question, get some answers, and probably like fifty comedy answers as well.  This is not the gear thread. If your question has to do with what to buy rather than how to use it, you are probably in the wrong thread. Please check out the Gear Thread. Old threads: v3.0 v2.0 v1.0 (Archived). Other Photography Threads: The Centralized Camera Gear Thread: Ask questions and post your thoughts about anything gear-related here, including purchase recommendations (except for your first DSLR purchase, see below). The Photoshop tips and tricks extravaganza: Photoshop for photographers (Archived). (current month) Photo A Day and also Snapshot A Day should both be on the first page, and are great places to get critique. The Lighting Thread: For all your photographic lighting questions fEE: For all things Nikon The Sony Thread: Discuss hotshoe superiority itt. The 4/3 Thread: It's DESIGNED FOR DI... I can't even say it. Go here to discuss Olympus stuff. The Pentax Thread: If I had to guess I'd say this was about Pentax cameras. The Canon Thread: Nikon paid me $500 to wait a day before linking it. My First DSLR: Between good advice and senseless dickwaving, all you could ever need to know about buying your first DSLR. The Film Thread: For those of you who enjoy film. Photography links: I tried to comb through the last thread and pull out some useful links, and well as some sites from my own bookmarks. If you'd like anything added here, just let me know. Photo.net: Check out the tutorials for a pretty good introduction to photography. FredMiranda.com: Lens reviews and forums. Mat-cutting guide Resolution / print-size calculator Photozone.de: Objective and concise lens reviews / tests. photonotes.org: Everything you ever wanted to know ever about the Canon EOS flash system. BobAtkins.com: A lot of Canon-centric gear discussion, but also good technical articles of optics topics such as Digital Depth of Field. The Luminous Landscape: Many tutorials, articles, and reviews, such as this one on creating an HDR image in Photoshop. The Radiant Vista: Video and PDF Photoshop tutorials and photo critiques. How to make a light box. Photo Editing 101: A quick basic tutorial on adjusting black point, white point, rotation, sharpening, and saturation. dg28.com: Various articles on lighting and other techniques from a PJ perspective. Strobist's Lighting 101: Flash Lighting Techniques. Correcting for film reciprocity DSLR sensor cleaning Stock photo price calculator "What to Charge," Releases, Licensing and Other Resources Neutral Density and Graduated ND Filters Guide How to shoot fireworks #creatives wiki - Only click if you can withstand trolling mixed in with your photography information. Don't be afraid to consult Wikipedia for subjects as 'what is aperture or f/stop?', either. I'll be updating the OP over the next couple days, so if there's any awesome links I missed, let me know. EDIT THE FIRST: Some books to read, courtesy of a dude. DJExile posted:A great overall starter is Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson knows his poo poo really well, but can come across as a little dickish at times. It's still a very good read. Tom Ang's How to Photograph Absolutely Anything was fantastic for me when I started out as well. Both give a lot of good little rules of thumb to keep in mind (shooting f/8 to f/11 to grab just about anything, when to use fill flash, shooting motion with slow shutter & panning, etc). SoundMonkey fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Feb 19, 2010 |
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Aug 11, 2009 01:41
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The visual demonstration of how focal length affects composition and faces is nice The OG of posing, Joe Zeltsman Online DOF calculator
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Aug 11, 2009 02:09
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Fantastic thread title  Speaking of ISO, would shooting in B&W do anything to help sharpen up pictures in higher ISOs like 800 and 1600?
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Aug 11, 2009 04:30
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DJExile posted:Fantastic thread title No, it would not get you a sharper capture in camera as you would still be using the same colour sensor element as when you shoot in colour. However, I think that aesthetically people accept grainy/noisy B&W images better than colour ones.
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Aug 11, 2009 04:43
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Interrupting Moss posted:Online DOF calculator Near limit - 4.92 ft Far limit - 5.08 ft Total - 0.16 ft = ~2 inches. And to anyone wondering whether they can buy a macro lens and shoot wide open, go for it: 
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Aug 11, 2009 05:49
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spog posted:However, I think that aesthetically people accept grainy/noisy B&W images better than colour ones. It all has to do with the type of noise. A lot of the time when you see noise in a colour shot it's chroma noise which just makes an image look terribly sloppy most of the time. This tends to be a LOT more evident in underexposed, making them look like they've been hit with a bad case of JPEG artifacting. When you go B&W you remove the colour so all the noise is more or less the same shade which becomes much more acceptable. By no means do all colour grainy photos look terrible. I happen to LOVE grain in photos and prefer them a little grainy over a buttery smooth crisp and sharp image. A little grime adds a lot of character, especially digital photos which tend to fall in the buttery smooth category most of the time.
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Aug 11, 2009 07:41
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The Zack Arias white seamless tutorial has been a great resource for setting up my home studio. I am sure it could be of use to many others as well. http://www.zarias.com/?p=71
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Aug 11, 2009 08:16
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Has anyone here used a Boots KL-7 lightmeter? I bought one today for my zorki but its giving exposure settings I think are very optimistic. For example my palm facing away from the sun gets 1/30 at f8. I have an D60 I could use for metering, but its not convenient to carry two cameras like that. Its strange in that it doesnt use batteries, the light meter absorbs solar power which moves the exposure indicator.
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Aug 11, 2009 18:03
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Did you intentionally not link to the canon thread?
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Aug 11, 2009 18:14
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Paragon8 posted:Did you intentionally not link to the canon thread? Or the Pentax thread?
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Aug 11, 2009 18:23
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Nikon paid me to not link either of those threads for 24 hours (or I only looked for threads on the first page of CC).
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Aug 11, 2009 19:04
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What's some good settings for trying to shoot meteor showers? Last year I left my D70 take 30 sec exposures, and while I got nice starry skies, I didn't get a drat meteor streak (and if I did, it sure didn't show up or looked more like noise to me). Speaking of ISO, what works best? I was bouncing between 400 and 800 last year.
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Aug 12, 2009 01:56
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Butt Reactor posted:What's some good settings for trying to shoot meteor showers? Last year I left my D70 take 30 sec exposures, and while I got nice starry skies, I didn't get a drat meteor streak (and if I did, it sure didn't show up or looked more like noise to me). Speaking of ISO, what works best? I was bouncing between 400 and 800 last year. You need a longer shutter speed. The ISO setting will only affect the f-stop and digital noise. Either of which wont attain the star streak you are looking for. I recommend anywhere from 1-3min and see if you attain the level of exposure you want then adjust your aperture setting for the amount of ambient light you want. I would use a lower ISO (100-200) to obtain a cleaner shot with less noise. Times longer than 30sec create additional noise on the image. Definitely practice under a starry sky first and you will need some sort of remote trigger because hand holding the Bulb even on a tripod will cause blur.
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Aug 12, 2009 02:13
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MANOWAR KILL posted:Has anyone here used a Boots KL-7 lightmeter? I bought one today for my zorki but its giving exposure settings I think are very optimistic. For example my palm facing away from the sun gets 1/30 at f8. I'e never used that particular model, but have you tried calibrating it? It might have a recessed screw on the reverse you can use.
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Aug 12, 2009 14:21
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I just bought an old Honeywell Pentax at the thrift store for $6.99 (the service date listed on the sticker inside the back panel is 1973). I blew 5 bucks on a new battery for the analog light meter that came with it, but the needle won't move so I'm assuming the meter is broken. Is there a way to futz the aperture settings for common light conditions? Could I just guess the level of light and set generalized shutter speed and f/stop levels to compensate? For example, 1/30 and f/11 in indoor light, 1/30 and f/5.6 in sunlight, etc? You can probably tell that I don't know much about photography. All I'm looking for are pictures that come out decently enough that I don't lose a lot of detail and can Photoshop them to a reasonable level of quality. I don't want to buy a new light meter or anything, since I've already spent twice the cost of the camera on film and a battery and then there's the cost to develop the film why didn't i just buy a $90 digital camera at wal-mart argh
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Aug 12, 2009 23:35
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wasabimilkshake posted:I just bought an old Honeywell Pentax at the thrift store for $6.99 (the service date listed on the sticker inside the back panel is 1973). I blew 5 bucks on a new battery for the analog light meter that came with it, but the needle won't move so I'm assuming the meter is broken. Is there a way to futz the aperture settings for common light conditions? Could I just guess the level of light and set generalized shutter speed and f/stop levels to compensate? For example, 1/30 and f/11 in indoor light, 1/30 and f/5.6 in sunlight, etc? The Sunny 16 Rule is what you're looking for. You're looking at approximately 1/100th of a second, at ISO 100, and f/16 in bright sunlight. Photogs have been using Sunny 16 for decades. There's also the settings which I use for a typical indoor lighting scenario (aka, someone's living room). It's 1/60th at f/4 at ISO 400. I don't remember where I read this one, but it works pretty well for an average room of average brightness. Neither is perfect, but both will get you in the ballpark.
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Aug 12, 2009 23:40
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wasabimilkshake posted:I just bought an old Honeywell Pentax at the thrift store for $6.99 (the service date listed on the sticker inside the back panel is 1973). I blew 5 bucks on a new battery for the analog light meter that came with it, but the needle won't move so I'm assuming the meter is broken. Is there a way to futz the aperture settings for common light conditions? Could I just guess the level of light and set generalized shutter speed and f/stop levels to compensate? For example, 1/30 and f/11 in indoor light, 1/30 and f/5.6 in sunlight, etc? Sunny f/16 rule. On a bright day outside set the aperture at f/16 and the shutter at 1/film ISO. On overcast days open up a stop or two. If you are gonna go with out a meter this might help too http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
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Aug 12, 2009 23:40
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Ah, thanks. 1/60th and f/4 at ISO 400 would be 1/30th and f/4 at ISO 200, right? Another question: Exposing undeveloped film to 60 watt lights and touching it with my hands is a sure-fire way to irrevocably gently caress it up, right? i.e. opening the back of the camera in a lit area when film is loaded is a bad idea?
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Aug 13, 2009 00:27
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wasabimilkshake posted:Ah, thanks. 1/60th and f/4 at ISO 400 would be 1/30th and f/4 at ISO 200, right? Yeah, this is called reciprocity. And yeah you probably hosed your film up.
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Aug 13, 2009 00:37
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wasabimilkshake posted:opening the back of the camera in a lit area when film is loaded is a bad idea? It's a terrible idea. What do you think happens when you push the shutter button on your camera?
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Aug 13, 2009 01:04
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Can somebody give me a stupid-person's rundown of what your workflow order is? Like, reject the useless, rate suchandsuch 1, rate these 2, process then move to 3 rating...you'd think this would be simple, but I've got 600+ pictures from last weekend that I've turned into a loving mess between the different ratings, flags (why use flags?), and colors that Lightroom lets me use. If anyone's got a surefire way to get things done efficiently, I'm all ears.
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Aug 13, 2009 01:21
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I just go through quickly and rate anything worth looking at a 1 star. Then, anything that I touch or like is a 2 star. Three stars means it's worth showing/posting, 4 is the client likes it/chooses it (!!) and 5 is a port-worthy. I don't bother with the flags and colors because I'm easily confused  so if you have the same problem, you could probably work out something similar like you got so far.
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Aug 13, 2009 01:29
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I use ratings the same way as nonanone. I use flags to mark images which are not heros, but have elements that I want to composite into the actual hero.
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Aug 13, 2009 01:32
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Thanks. Next question: I use Bridge in the beginning because it's a lot faster than Lightroom for sorting the poo poo from the not-poo poo (due to my aging computer). Once I'm done rating things I usually move exclusively to Lightroom. I've noticed, though, that if I go back to Bridge to browse, that Bridge doesn't recognize many of the changes I've made in Lightroom, especially if I'm using a preset. Can I gently caress things up just looking at things in Bridge after Lightroom? Could I inadvertently undo something I did in Lightroom, if the file has something going on that Bridge doesn't support? I basically just need to stop using Bridge, don't I?
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Aug 13, 2009 01:51
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Yeah pretty much, the only thing I use Bridge for anymore is batch renaming.
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Aug 13, 2009 02:00
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unrated: technical error/worthless 1 star: not bad technically 2 star: good technically, worth keeping around just in case 3 star: decent photo, sellable 4 star: great photo 5 star: the shot for the whole shoot i'll flag images that go in the porfolio I color things for further editing. I import everything straight from the card reader through LR. Make what adjustments are necessary. I then edit anything in Photoshop that needs it. PS is then used for composites and the like. I use ACDSee when I'm shooting jpeg, meaning a football game. After I'm done tagging and editing in ACDsee I import to LR for general management purposes.
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Aug 13, 2009 02:39
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Why in hell did someone change the icon for the thread?  Ha, well this answers my earlier question: I just saw this after opening Lightroom: "The metadata for this photo has been changed by both Lightroom and another application. How should Lightroom synchronize this data?" Lightroom, grayscale: what does this actually mean? Say I've got a photo that I want to go black and white, like this one:  Then I start by picking grayscale from the presets, or however I want to do it, and this is what I have:  But...this is not black and white, this is almost sepia. It's monochrome, but not black and white. However, when I export it as a jpg, this is what I get:  which would piss me off for not being accurate, if not for the fact that it's close to what I wanted in the first place. What's going on here? What's wrong with my colors? jackpot fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Aug 13, 2009 |
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Aug 13, 2009 06:01
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I use lightroom. I tag as I edit. I flag rejects and color code images for further post in CS3. Red for noise reduction. Purple for skin retouch. Blue for sky retouch. Green for possible composites. I don't do much compositing on a wedding though, mostly just opening blinking eyes. This is why I never shoot TTL flash and always make several shots of each setup.
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Aug 13, 2009 07:20
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What happened to the photo-a-day thread for August? Can't find it anywhere.
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Aug 13, 2009 14:14
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I need to start an actual workflow in Lightroom instead of wondering just which variation on the picture I liked after I am done editing for the day. Jackpot: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3180186
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Aug 13, 2009 14:20
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Ha, new forum, I didn't even know. Thanks!
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Aug 13, 2009 15:40
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Pretty similar here, except I'm strictly hobbyist and don't really worry about selling anything. I go through my images right after import and mark them: 1* = Everything that isn't beyond hope of repair, absolutely OOF, mysteriously exposed +/-8EV  2* = Go through 1* images, find any image which has any glimmer of hope for post, repair, or is straight up a good photo. 3* = My 2* images usually involve a lot of duplicates since I lay on the shutter a little thick. 3* is where I sift through a lot of duplicates to find one or two images in a series that I'd like to work with. 4* = Any image in 3* that I either like as is, have repaired in post, or have altered in some way to make usable enough to throw up on flickr. 5* = Take a look at 4* images and decide what is going to flickr. I usually apply a little sharpening in Photoshop and mark the final product a 5*. For me, 5* = Ready to upload to Flickr.
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Aug 13, 2009 16:53
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I've started the most boring conversation ever, might as well put in my two cents after working on it for a while: Reject: hosed up poo poo that can't be saved no matter what, and/or photos I can't imagine ever having to use (I mean technically this girl is in focus, but I don't expect many people would want to buy it with that sour-rear end look on her face; drat girl didn't smile all night). I'm running low on HD space, so a lot of these I just delete. *: everything not thrown away, but stuff I probably won't ever want to do anything with. **: Good stuff I want to use, but needs processing. ***: after I've processed a photo (and Lightroom's 'make virtual copy' is loving wonderful, by the way) and it's ready for export to jpg or whatever. ****: After I've exported that 3 star, I move it to 4 star. *****: poo poo, I haven't even gotten that far yet. I guess that'd be for my favorites. But since this is for a job I did I want to push everything that's good, not just the best. I guess I'll five-star my personal favorites and move 'em to Flickr later. jackpot fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Aug 13, 2009 |
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Aug 13, 2009 17:52
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Because I tend to shoot stuff that calls for galleries and generally a larger number of images, I tend not to run stuff through too many layers of editing. I don't use Lightroom but I do something similar to what you all are talking about. I start with the whole lot and tag everything that is decent/good-- generally ok but not great stuff I don't bother with, but that depends on the application. All of that stuff gets toned/processed, then I go through those and essentially just make a case-by-case choice to continue the editing into the 'final' stage (ie local adjustments in photoshop). This stage would also be where I might pick out the best shot from a sequence or something like that. If I am doing something that requires turning in just one or two images, then I will run through and pick out the selects like usual then make a second and third pass to whittle it down.
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Aug 13, 2009 18:09
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After half a year or so, I usually go through my archives and delete all the 1* stuff I'll never touch again. It's a lot easier when I don't have to worry about retaining shots for a client or something.
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Aug 13, 2009 18:12
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Martytoof posted:After half a year or so, I usually go through my archives and delete all the 1* stuff I'll never touch again. It's a lot easier when I don't have to worry about retaining shots for a client or something. Storage is so cheap it seems silly to delete stuff that might have some future value. I generally just delete stuff like black frames, wholly missed focus, or stuff that my hip took while carrying the camera.
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Aug 13, 2009 18:14
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When I first started using Lightroom, I tried using the 5 star rating system just to rate photos, but I got tired of trying to figure out if photos were a 3 or a 4. I then started this system: Flag: Shots I like and want to process. Reject: Out of focus, people walking into the frame. After processing, 5-star favourites.
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Aug 13, 2009 18:21
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jackpot posted:But...this is not black and white, this is almost sepia. It's monochrome, but not black and white. However, when I export it as a jpg, this is what I get: Using Vista? I've had something similar happen, where Vista didn't load my monitor profile but Lightroom for some reason thought it had, and the colors got way hosed up.
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Aug 13, 2009 20:18
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CanuckBassist posted:Flag: Shots I like and want to process. Pretty much the same for me. I do one pass through, flagging good/okay shots, then I enable filters so only the flagged shots show up in the library then I go through the flagged photos and unflag the lesser photos of the batch until I've got a balanced selection and reasonable number to work with, then export them and continue post-processing.
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Aug 13, 2009 20:30
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Clayton Bigsby posted:Using Vista? I've had something similar happen, where Vista didn't load my monitor profile but Lightroom for some reason thought it had, and the colors got way hosed up. jackpot posted:
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Aug 13, 2009 20:39
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