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Digital Photography talk thread, noobz welcome (questions & answers)


Mercer

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85 1.4 is a nice lens. I own a D300s, haven't really read much about the new Nikon models but I've heard the D7000 is good, I think I read somewhere it's like a 'baby D700'. Although if you've just recently got the D5100 I'd hold onto it man, get the 85 1.4 and keep shooting with that body and just acquire better glass. Good glass is key.

50mm 1.4 + 24-70mm 2.8 would be the only combo I'd ever need shooting a dslr.

Then when you're ready to upgrade you can take a big step and move to full frame. D700 or whatever new model they release. Or even a D3 or something if you're ready and have the cash.

No point going step by step up their range of cameras. If you can learn to take great photos on a lower level model then you can move to a full frame model later.

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after reading this thread im sure this post will most likely get overlooked or responded with vast amounts of n00b hate, but after using disposable cameras for years and years, i got given a Canon S95 for a present.

 

Could someone please point me in the direction of how to go about starting to learn how to use it properly? im shooting on the auto setting and i know theres alot more to this camera then that.

 

I understand i need to learn the basics of a camera, so im reading online tutorials on shutter speed and what not aswell just to get some basic photography knowledge.

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  • 5 months later...

There's no real resource to tell you how to shoot anything. If there is it's generally gonna be bullshit. You can only work it out yourself because you have to work out the things that work best for you.

 

Generally a few things will help. You want to shoot with natural lighting, don't get a complete lighting setup for food. It's gonna ruin it. If you need to cut out some shadows or just balance the light a bit get a speedlight or two with some softboxes, or even just a reflector. If you're shooting meals with fresh fruit a good trick is to get one of those little water sprayers, set it to 'mist' and make it look like it's just been picked and washed.

Get close, just not too close, include some background stuff like the cutlery or a bottle of wine/glasses in the background but keep the focus on the food. If you shoot it with a tight depth of field make sure you get all the important parts of the meal in focus otherwise shoot a smaller aperture to fit them in.

 

There's some basic ideas, otherwise... Just shoot some at home, trial and error. Shooting food is fun, getting to eat the meals afterwards is probably the best part.

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Daily operations is right. Unless you have a food stylist and you have a good concept of lighting then dont go to crazy. Keep it simple thats what i do. ill be shooting raw foods this week if i can ill post some photos

 

Window light is actually your best friend for any type of shoot weather its food or people. if you bring in a ONE flash use it to bring up the shadows or a white reflective surface like a big piece of white board will do as long as its not in your shot. that will help out with your shadows.

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Of course levels of manipulation should be off limits. After a certain point it's not even photography anymore. It's simply digital manipulation. Taking a photo is capturing a moment, capturing light and that's it.

I'm with Mercer, I will never process outside of the basic RAW editing when I shoot digital.

Once people start becoming okay with photo manipulation then boundaries become blurred.

 

Lately there's been a few cases of press photographers ending up in the shit because they've manipulated images to get across what they want, not what actually happened. Which has resulted in some losing their jobs, good. That's not photojournalism and should not be accepted. Of course it has always happened over time with photojournalism but never the photographer themselves so much as now. Usually in times of war/conflict and it would be a government decision for propaganda uses.

If you want to remove someone from a scene, or change the lighting, etc... Then wait until the person leaves the scene, and change the lighting yourself. Use strobes or change your white balance/film.

People spend hours cloning out subjects from their photos. Fuck that, it was there in the first place, leave it there. That's how it was. My opinion anyway.

 

If people want to produce stuff like the elephant image, that's cool. As long as they don't call it photography, because it's not, in any way.

 

williameugenesmith-darkroom-02.jpg

 

Darkroom forever.

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It's still a rad picture, but definitely super bitch to claim it wasn't staged so he could try to walk home with a prestigious award.

 

 

In regards to the digital manipulation talk, this pretty much sums it up:

After a certain point it's not even photography anymore. It's simply digital manipulation.

If you're amazing at digitally composing images that you didn't actually capture, I'm not mad at you. But don't claim it's photography, because it isn't.

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If you're amazing at digitally composing images that you didn't actually capture, I'm not mad at you. But don't claim it's photography, because it isn't.

case closed, 4 pros summed it up in 4 well executed statements.

 

wanted to come back and report back on the job i got doing real estate photography last year.

the company actually hooked me up with an aftermarket flash (promaster is the brand name)

so that's been getting the job done. it communicates with the camera directly, so i can't adjust

the light, but what i've been doing is try to trick it here and there.

 

the toughest part of my job ( in terms of technical proficiency with the camera) is to balance

out the light coming through the windows with the light inside. except the flash, its all natural

lighting, so if its a dimly lit room, i can pretty much forget it. pretty much all the realtors are

super-psyched with the work i do, and so are my bosses, but i know the truth about my incompetence.

 

 

 

its been said over and over, "if you don't know what shutter speed is, look on the first

page", but then i hear y'all 4 using terminology that just flies right over my head. where's

the tech advice for intermediate heads? i still have so much to learn about the craft of photography,

and i understand "we all do, learn new things everyday", but where's a good place to do some

reading and help really nail down some of these more advanced concepts? 'ppreciate it.

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There's really no good place to just do some reading, even if there was it wouldn't let you nail the practical sides of things. You just need to shoot to do that. You can read blogs, watch YouTube clips, etc... If you're getting stuck on specific areas, but other then that the best way is just to shoot. Take photos every day.

It's like anything new you need to learn. Learning to play an instrument, learning a language. Once you understand the basics the rest comes with time and practice.

 

I'm assuming you already have an understanding of ISO, shutter speed and aperture, so you've really got the basics right there. Working in real estate photography you're going to want to understand white balance which is also a fairly simple area, and then lighting. The lighting side you should just practice, all the time. In your home, get friends let you use their places to trial some new things.

Remember every situation and every job will be a bit different.

 

Do you have a tripod? A cable release? If not you should invest in them. You'll be able to use the flash to help compensate for the darker areas and a longer exposure will also help that. Again, trial and error. Also, post your photos here. Maybe not the paid work, but take some test shots.

There's also quite a few blogs that post lighting diagrams after each shot, you can find these fairly easily.

Untitled is probably the best section on the Oontz for getting legitimate replies and help and that's a fact. Everyone here is always willing to offer some ideas.

 

Photography is just that, a craft. So once you've learned the basics, the rest will come through personal development, taking photos and finding your own way of working, your own style of shooting. Everyone has different methods. I've never done any training in photography, any online courses, no books. Just shooting, all the time. A long process but you'll get there.

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once again, well put. and you're absolutely right, my greatest folly is a lack of zeal.

i appreciate all the tips man, i do have a tripod (pistol grip FTW), thats the one thing

i really pride myself on is shot composition, i've been complimented on it often. these

cats also financed me on a super-wide angle lens (10-24 mm), so that's taught me a

thing or 2 about how to get a better looking image. while i have the glass, i what i really

need to do is some video work with this Nikon, do some interior shots/car shots.

 

once again, thanks again!

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  • 1 month later...

has anyone been using lightroom for editing? i recently decided to give it a shot after seeing some advertisements for it. i mostly just use photoshop for slight editing to my photos and don't really use it for much else. it seems like pretty intuitive software. do any of you prefer it to PS or have an opinion on it one way or another?

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I can honestly say that the only time I find myself opening PS is for bullshit like DAO photoshop pictures . All of my actual photo editing is in Lightroom. Far quicker and more conveniently laid out workflow than PS. Basically everything I need is easily accessible all at once, without having to pull up different windows and whatnot. I tend to keep most of my editing pretty minimal. Minor touch ups on contrast/shadows/highlights/saturation/exposure/whatever. It's easy to tear through a bunch of photos in Lightroom with really quick adjustments, but it also has a ton of options if you want to get more in depth with your post production.

 

It's easy enough to bounce between PS and LR too, if you really have something that you prefer PS for. I'm sure some folks in here will also vouch for Aperture, which has very similar functionality to LR. And I think Mercer is an ACR only guy. At the end of the day, I would recommend using whatever you're comfortable with and works best for your workflow. Photoshop/Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, and Aperture are all good programs.

 

Edit: I should also mention that I've been using LR1 forever, so it's only gotten better than what I'm basing my statements on. Now that they finally dropped the price along with the release of LR4, I'll be updating in the next month or two. And LR4 looks really fucking nice.

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i use bridge, PS and LR. I use all of them for different things

 

Bridge/camera raw- too look through rate and catalog the photos and create minor adjustments

PS- when i have to create composites that require layering and adjustments in a non destructive way.

LR- when i want to save time on adjustments and do not need composite anything.

 

theyre all boss!

 

 

You can shoot at 1/8000 at 1.8 with an sb900 or the new sb-910 how the hell did i not know that!!! shits bananas gonna have to borrow one from school when i get a chance

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unfortunately mercer we seem to be in the same boat i have THOUSANDS of photos i would hate too lose for the same reason. im to broke to afford a raid system or drobo and online storage doesnt seem to be an option.

 

buying a couple terabyte hard drives might be an answer, keep one give someone to your parents or trusted friend who wouldnt get in trouble

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i've wanted to try shooting tethered but i really don't do photoshoots where i take a ton of images at once so it's really not something i need to do. i guess a smartphone does the same shit with instagram or whatever, but i hate smartphones. my wife just got one so i'm sure she'll be all about that shit soon enough.

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  • 7 months later...

By the way, great thread Mercer.

Did not read the whole thing yet, but already found some useful thoughts.

Thanks for the effort and the readiness to help others.

 

I guess this is not an active debate right now,

but if people are having trouble deciding whether to buy a Canon or Nikon DSLR,

I found some really thorough and intelligent reviews / comparisons of different models on that site.

 

Are there people on here owning / shooting a Fuji X-Pro1 / X100 / X-E1 ?

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  • 4 months later...

 

So, my kid needs headshots for college applications

I would love to be able to do these for her.

As much as I can read about it, I figured I would pop in here and see if there are any pointers that could be given.

I think you all are fantastic and know what you're doing.

 

If theres no simple pointers to be given, I wont hold it against you...I figure it would be worth it to ask.

 

these are all helpful suggestions..and im honestly excited to try this.i appreciate it more than you know. hopefully soon (after the 1st of the year) i will be able to direct questions like these to a teacher as well.

 

her school is hosting a few days in December which reps from colleges will come out, interview the kids that are interested, take resumes and headshots. It is very much dance/drama/musical theatre related. She wants to head east...

She also will be auditioning for Disneyland in January as well.

 

UPDATE:

 

we played around a bit, but soon after this, the photography students at the school had the assignment of doing the shots for the 'potentials'. full body shots, in a certain ballet position. She used a picture from them.

 

Last Saturday was the auditons. 6 colleges came to her school she was 'called back' to interview with 4 of them.

 

AMDA.

Columbia College of Chicago.

UNLV.

Southern utah University.

 

I understand it is nothing that is set in stone, but I am very pround for her to do alot of this by self motivation. ...and wanted to share the update.

 

 

hella bumping old shit with updates. I have spent the last hour..possibly two, re-reading this thread. It has great advice and i understand more each time i refer to it. you guys really are a big help. real help.

 

gotta give an update, though.

 

Kid went through another set of auditions her senior year.

AMDA

POINT PARK UNIVERSITY

and HERBERGER INSTITUTE of ARTS at ASU

 

head and body shot submitted was taken by me.

up against a deadline and a friend (i believe) sabotaging her attempt at the headshots, in her attempt to guide me....I was in tears, fearing i fucked it up for my kid.

the headshot was eh...editing helped (and cannot find the drive with headshots on it currently)

but found some body shots that were a close second to being used.

 

DSC00106_zpsfa925018.jpg

 

DSC_0731_zps13c4b6a6.jpg

 

DSC_0735_zpsaadd62b1.jpg

 

she ended up in Pittsburgh and finishing her freshman year already.

next set of headshots i post proudly.

 

 

 

 

also just wanted to bump this thread because it is full of goodness.

thanks all.

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  • 7 months later...

any ears out there?

 

got a shoot tomorrow, its an indoor fundraiser, basicall taking shots of realtors schmoozing,

taking mini-group shots, etc.

 

ive got my nikon d7000, thinkin the 18-55mm lens is best right? no need for the 18-200,

im not shooting anyone from across the block. i have my nikon sb-800 flash, how should

i be positioning the flash? straight on? straight up? should i buy one of those rubber diffuser

shoes?

 

any advice on the manual settings? thinkin low f/stop, low ISO makes sense, what else?

 

any advice is always welcome. thanks in advance.

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