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Post by Will on Jan 22, 2010 11:18:15 GMT -5
Good meeting last night at Fontenelle Nature Center. And, I'd like to learn more. Thanks for having the professor out. If interested I could try to get one of the base photographers out to speak??? Let me know.
EXPOSURE QUESTION? When taking an exposure where the exposure is longer than 1/4 sec don't you have to adjust aperature so as not to wash out the image?
I have always had the problem where I want to shoot flowing water (and I want the water to have that moving look) but doing so forces me to close down the aperature (day time bright light shots).
How do you master this most basic of techniques?
ONLINE DIGITAL IMAGE STORAGE SITES QUESTION? What's a good site for uploading images where I can create an account, upload images, but in order for someone else to view them, the adminstrator would have to grant access?
Thanks
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Post by Will on Jan 22, 2010 19:52:21 GMT -5
Another Question
IMAGE FILE SIZE QUESTION: With respect to digital cameras, in the presentation last night the images ranged from 3 to 6mb each. Is it customary to set the camera image quality to its highest level or an average level? I spoke with one of the photographers a while back on the base, and he told me that he keeps his at the highest level. Of course with the professional Nikons they have, your seeing 10+ Mb per image. That quickly eats at storage space.
Whats the standard practice?
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Post by Frank Comisar on Jan 22, 2010 20:57:21 GMT -5
It was a good meeting indeed; thanks for joining us and thanks for using the message board. I wish more people did. Good questions, I'll take a shot: Long exposures: I don't think you have to compensate for long exposures; it is what it is. In the case of water falls, the longer the exposure, the more "cotton candy" look you get. In my opinion, there is a fine line between too much movement and not enough. Frequently however (and maybe your point), I will darken the waterfall portion of the image in post processing to increase the detail in the water. Here is a recent example with1/2s exposure at f/2.2: With regard to photo hosting sites and the ability to control access; I use Pbase and Zenfolio. Both allow password protection for access to galleries. Each have advantages and disadvantates but my favorite, by far, is Zenfolio. Here's a link to my Zenfolio site fcomisar.zenfolio.com/. And finally, I always shoot in RAW so there are no options for file size. However, when I convert and process the images, I size them for their intended purpose. Files for large prints, of course, must have much higher resolution than images for web posting. If you shoot .jpg, I would recommend shooting at the highest resolution, unless you know they will only be used for web, so that your printing options are not limited. You can always resize down if needed. Of course more disk space will be required, but we are lucky today that disks are so cheap. I have a 1 terabyte external disk that I think cost only about $150; actually I have two. I use one for live data and back up to the other. FWIW, I also back up my finished images on-line. Hope this helps. Glad to have you on the message board. Don't hesitate to post some of your images.
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Post by allenkurth on Jan 23, 2010 14:50:29 GMT -5
Digital cameras simply cannot expose enough of the range of light to make a decent waterfall photo when there is bright sunlight and strong shadows. If you expose for the shadows, you lose the highlights. If you expose for the highlights, you lose the shadows. The photo below has a highlight area that does not contain any detail. I have a setting on my camera that makes over exposed areas blink - I'm sure that this area was blinking. I also have a histogram on my camera that showed a problem in the highlight region. Both of these indicators should have prompted me to stop the camera down enough to save the highlight detail. If I used JEPG, I would be stuck with the photo above. I took the photo in RAW so there is a chance to recover some of the highlights. I used Lightroom to make the photo below from the same file that was used for the first photo.
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Post by Will on Jan 23, 2010 19:57:35 GMT -5
Thanks to you both for posting your images and providing insight... now I have to find that waterfall... and an hour of time...
In any case, RAW seems to be the consensus here. And, post processing. If at all possible, I'd certainly like to stay away from post processing but as someone told me long ago... if the barn needs paint'n... then paint it.
I am lucky enough to have a licensed copy of Photoshop... so I will work with that.
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Post by Will on Jan 23, 2010 20:21:45 GMT -5
Lenses. I have two standard lenses that came with my camera: 18-105 and 70-300.
Both very nice for the beginner like myself. But neither have F stops as wide as the 2.2 mentioned earlier.
So about three weeks ago when we had that good snow, there were some I wanted to take a shot at a snow flake. I could literally see with my eye the crystal pattern built on itsels into a star--quite a miracle by its own design. But neither lens could get it.
The 18-105 forced me to 1.5 ft from the subject and likewise the 70-300 kept me to 4.5 ft away.
Are there thoughts on fixed focal length lenses? Or what would have been the choice lens that would have enabled me to take that shot?
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Post by Frank Comisar on Jan 23, 2010 23:23:36 GMT -5
To get really close, you will need a macro lens. That is an area I have not yet explored, but I am sure there are many people in the club that have macro lenses and can offer adivce.
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Post by Will on Jan 25, 2010 1:45:21 GMT -5
Here's an attempt at flowing water. Ok, I stopped the action. It was a sunrise from the vantage point right here in Hayworth Park, Bellevue, NE.
<img src="http://www.stratroost.org/pix/img0601.jpg"></img>
Its a feeble attempt with a point and shoot hybrid I had...(a NIKON 5700) I accidently left it in a tree overnight in the back yard. Yea, it rained.
But I have a better camera now. And with some luck and work... perhaps I can get some shots like your alls...
I visided your site on zenfolio... amazing imagery... like the bears. But I especially like the local shots of the birds taking to flight near the Platte River. Where on the Platte were you to get those fantastic shots?
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Post by mwcrafts on Jan 25, 2010 1:55:54 GMT -5
Apparently, I know nothing about image tags. Let's try this again.
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Post by mwcrafts on Jan 25, 2010 2:01:51 GMT -5
ummmm, Sorry about that. I didn't know there is an image size problem. What is a good size in pixels across to post an image?
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