ICUR Digital Photography Forum - Blogs

Share Your Passion

Admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:54:07 GMT

I was thinking about this last night and decided to write a Blog on this, it's funny how we all start out taking pictures of anything and everything with our cameras and it doesn't matter what it is when we first start out. We just want to push that shutter button get home to see our images with all the flaws with the hopes of nailing a picture or 2 even with the camera in auto mode. I know I've been there and done that, and now I watch Lynn doing the same thing that I have done many years ago, and this was my thought that I had last night while going to bed and it's strange how these things come to mind.

I watched Lynn out in the field shoot birds with their backs and heads facing away from the camera, or birds behind a bush and asked her why she would bother with these types of shots and she replied because it's there. I told her that she needed to pick and choose her subjects, but than I needed to remind myself that I did the same thing as well. Since than she has become better at this and is more selective with her images and is learning more all the time about her camera and the settings. The one thing when I started out was I was all on my own, and learning as I went, the good thing is that I can pass along this to Lynn.

So you get your first camera, set it in auto mode and start shooting everything in sight, and you start to view the images you had taken over time, and all of a sudden you just want to learn more and more, so you read magazines and get onto the Internet for your thirst of knowledge about photography. Then you read the camera manual and take it out of auto mode, and switch from JPEG to RAW mode. You go out and shoot more and more again come home and view the images, get on the Internet and learn about processing your images this time. You have just caught the Photography Bug.

After some time at going out and taking pictures you have discovered what you like to photograph best, may it be people, buildings, landscape, nature, macro etc... You concentrate more in that type of photography and want to push the envelope and get better each time out and will search to gain more knowledge in forum areas that meet our needs.

It is strange how our passion for one type of photography begins, and yet there is always that thirst to know more about it and one thing about photography is, that it's never ending. Each and every day we go out there is a chance to learn something new every time out in the field. Weather from a friend, or someone you meet in the field and talk photography or that you see some one starting out and throw some advice to them I guess you call this Paying It Foreword remember we where once starting out too.

I can tell you this, when I started out and seen photographers in the field, some are willing to help you, and others will not. I once asked for help when I got my Canon 1D-MKIII for settings to use, and was told go get this PDF file from the Internet, but did not tell me I had to pay for the settings for the camera. I found that I was used in order for them to capture the best image and I got nothing out of it that day. Even before this when I first started out in Digital Photography and got on some sites it was so hard to get people to share information to you. That is why even today, I'm willing to share information and my knoweldge to others and don't hold back and that is why I run a Forum as well to share my passion with others about photography and to help out those that are new to all this. That is why I mentioned "Pay It Foreword", it makes you feel good first of all and second you are sharing part of your photograhy skills with someone starting out and that is a good thing.

Dennis
icurdigital.com

TIP Capturing Birds In Flight

Admin — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:04:52 GMT

One of the hardest thing for me when I got my Nikon 500mm lens was that I could not locate the bird in flight so easy since the narrow field of a long lens. If I spotted the subject further away I had time to locate the subject and follow it through. But the closer the subject the harder it was. Even with a 400mm lens or say the 300mm lens users could have a problem locating the bird it flight. So here is a tip that I have used with the 500mm and even on the 300mm Canon lens that I use to have.

On the 500mm lens and the 300mm canon lens that I had there is a big knob on the lens hood, if you place that knob facing up in the center of the camera you can uses this like a riffle site by pointing it at your subject and in most cases you will be able to locate the subject much faster. Just think of it as looking down the barrel of the shot gun. So now what if you don't have a know on the end of your lens hood and you have the pull out type and twist to lock it in, how can I apply this to that lens? I had Lynn my wife outside to get her to try to track some gulls and see if she can track them, she had a bit of a time doing so. So this is what I said to her, in order to make this easier for you, lift your eye just a bit from the view finder and look right down the middle where the flash goes into, again like looking down the barrel. She tried this a number of times and was able to track the birds in flight a lot better. With a little pratice try this out and see if it will work for you. Now you have a sight that you can used that you can at least use to lock onto your targert, rather then lifting the lens up in the air and hoping that you can find your subject. Just a little tip that I used and it has helped Lynn and myself lock on to the bird in flight.

Enjoy this tip...

Photograhy and Cloning

Admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:11:52 GMT

It's funny that with the Digital Camera era how things have changed in photography.

In my early days shooting film and slides, you took the shot and and everything in that picture is there nothing removed from that image at all, and yet when others looked at your slides and photographs the wow factor was there and no one complained about anything being distractive in the photograph. Sure you had more control if you did your own black and white film or colour by Dodging and Burning but this was the limit of editing your prints. You could not remove content from those prints.

Then along came the digital cameras that allowed you to edit your images remove content from them. The big question that I always look at is how much is too much? I'm sort of old school on this and like to leave as much in the image that I took as that is the way that the camera seen things. So what happened to why we need to clone out this and that, or remove a part of the image with content aware. Well this all comes from those that are new to photography and probably never owed a film camera and jumped right into a digital camera, took some courses or learned from others that the way to make the image better is to clone out, and or use content aware editing to make that picture better that the original looked like.

So for those that used film cameras and have moved over to the digital age now have to keep up with the younger generation as this is the now the considered the standard process. You use the Internet allows us to put up our images on sites like here and others can view and comment on your images. How many times have you heard the word Clone Out with a comment on your image, plenty of times I bet as well the word Crop comes into play a lot as well. Things are so subjective to us all, and some will like the image, well others don't and that is the fun part of photography in general and the point here is that we learn from others and there point of views on our images. You may not always agree with the comments but that is OK, the image is yours and the way you present it is the way that you see it.

So how much is to much depends I guess on the image in the first place and what is considered distracting? Again this is subjective to us all. A good case in point, I had put a few images on another system of some bird shots that I took, and the comments on these images had been about 50 50. The questioning of the birds beak was the comments and some did not like the stuff that was on the beak and others did not mind. A little thing like this gets centered out of all things stange but true. Why so picky I will never know, but I came back with a reply and said that I liked it the way it is as it adds character to the bird and shows that the bird was eating seeds of some sort. The replies back were I never really thought of it that way and that was a good point on my part.

Really there is no bad or good way of saying how much is too much it is all up to you and how you look at your own image and what you want to remove from it. For me I try to look more at the crop of the image than looking at this should have been cloned out. Look more at the content rather than pick out the areas that should have been cloned out or not. Some people are just out there looking for an image to tear apart, and you take the comments for what is worth and just let it slide by.

So when you work on your images and you are going to clone out parts of it, please just remember to take your time at doing it, but do it right and making the changes seemless as possible. There is nothing like doing some changes and one look and you can see the flaws of your editing, just pratice on images every time you have a chance to perfect your skills. I do this even today, see an image that I have never posted and try to edit it again with the new skills i've found that I can now post that image where before I would have never thought of posting it.

Enjoy!

Photoshop CS5 Puppet Wrap

Admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:02:40 GMT

Hello all, and I have to say that in the last week I have been using the new Photoshop CS5. Now during this time I have been just going through images and processing them. But than I got more into the new feature Content Aware in photoshop CS5. There are some tutorials out there that I have been looking at and testing them on my own images and I have to say WOW! In most cases the software does a great job working with content aware, but there are times it just does not do a great job, and than you need to go to plan B and use your clone tool. When you want to remove spots in the image the healing brush with content aware chosen it will do a very good job at removing the spot in the image without any problem at all. So it's not perfect, but it will save you time in the long run.

Having the new Content Aware available to you, is a photographers dream, removing and cleaning up your images are easier than ever, and as I mentioned in most cases will work and well worth the upgrade to this version. There are more things like moving your subject in another location in your images, and I was impressed with that sort of thing as well. I have not played with this feature yet, but I need to get better with one thing at a time before I move onto the next new thing added into PS5. I think getting a book on this new version is the next thing on my list as well, and I will have to see what is out there that will help me better understand the new features of this software.

Let me first start off by saying that I'm far from knowing enough about the new features, but the one thing that caught my eye was "Puppet Wrap" New in PS5. When I seen the video on how this is done, I just needed to find an image and do this myself to see the results. By the way, the vBa Links area in the Lightroom-Photoshop area you will find the links to the sites of these demos.

Puppet Wrap

I decided that I was going to take one off my Wood Duck images and try Puppet Wrap on that image, so below is the Original image. Notice the tail feathers are straight out, and this was the area that I wanted to see what would happen with puppet wrap.

Now with the image above you create a new Layer

Goto Edit, and select puppet warp

At this point you will see a grid over the whole image

Remember that the tail feathers on the bird are straight out, well what I wanted to do is lift the tail more into the air and than on the reflection move it down to give it the same effect in the water. With me so far? Now what you are going to do on the background image with the grid, is add pin points to the tip of the tail on the bird, and again add points to the parts in the reflection in the water.

Now once you have the points selected, move them up slowly until you like the effect I found that the image seems to get angled and by moving the other points seems to straighten it out. Do the same for the lower part and once you are happy with the look hit the enter key. See the change that I did to the above image below. This is really neat stuff.

So as you can see in the above shot the little change that I made to having the tail feathers pointing up a but more.

This is just one thing I wanted to show you, but the things that you can change in your images could be endless, like moving the foot of the bird in a different angel, or even the beak more up in the air. As I said, content aware is a great tool in your post processing, and I think that by using this feature a lot of your photographs that had flaws in them could be easily removed or fixed. I'm very sure that there is may other things out there that fix a photograph using content aware technology and I found one that allows to you add content to an old building that was missing part of the arch on the building and it filled in the missing pieces and was blow away with that.

Conclusion

I have shown you one simple thing about the new Adobe Photoshop, and there is plenty more stuff out there. I think that you should checkout all the demos and what ever is out there if you are considering the upgrade, for me I just like the fact that it will allow me to remove flaws in the images, and that I can change the image to suit my needs. I think that this is a photographers version of PS, and one that it makes it easier overall.

Photoshop Levels

Admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:48:57 GMT

Photoshop levels should be part of your work flow process, I use the levels to check all my images, and if need be make the changes needed. With the Photoshop levels you can adjust the Blacks, Mid-tones and Hight-lights, as well as your Black and White Points within that photo. For those that are using Photoshop, all you need to to is hold the (CTRL-L) key to bring up the levels adjustment tool. You should see the following below.

Darlene a member who took this beautiful image but to me the head on the bird was a tad blown out, and I felt that if she used the levels she could recover and gain details not only in the head of this bird, but also in the birds wing feathers as well. So this is for you Darlene.

As you can see from the image above that we have the levels opened in Photoshop and you can see the histogram in the Input Levels box, so that you are aware your histogram may look very different than this one so don't panic. At the base of the histogram you notice the 3 triangles, well the one on the left controls your BLACKS, the middle one controls you MID-TONES, and the far right controls your HIGH-LIGHTS. Now the boxes below the triangles are the values of the adjustments, but that's about it, I never really use this numbers at all. When you first start up the LEVELS these VALUE numbers are (0, 1.00, 255) 0=BLACK, 1.00=MID-TONES, 255=HIGH-LIGHTS.

How to Adjust Levels

Open up an image and than open the Levels Tool (CTRL-L) and what we are going to do is move down to the triangles, now we are going to make adjustments with the Left and Right ones only, don't worry about the middle one right now there is a reason why I don't touch this until the end. You could just move the left and right triangles to see the results, but there is a little trick I found to make this work perfect everytime.
Lets do the left one, now HOLD the ALT-Key down and now move the slider with your mouse remember to keep that ALT=Key held down and move it to the right until you see about 3 different colors show up on the screen and stop and release the ALT-Key. If you are not happy with the results, hold the ALT-Key down and move the slider a bit back to the left and check your results. Very simple, and once you know what you are looking for on the screen, you will make the adjustment alomost every time. You just adjusted your blacks in the image, now do the same with the right triangle to make adjustments to the high-lights and you are almost there. Remember that I said leave the middle triagle to last, well this does not work with the ALT-Key, you can adjust this one just by moving the slider until you get the mid-tones where you want them.

Just one last step, and your done. See the Output Levels below, when you first open up the Levels Tool there values are 0, 255 0=Black and 255=Whites. I have never had to make adjustments to the BLACKS, but the WHITE point helps toning down the whites in your images and it really can help with getting a bit more details in your images, you need to play around with this slider a bit to understand it.

One last thing, as I mentioned the histogram for each image will be different, and therfore how much you move the triangle slider depends on that histogram, some times just a little, and some times a lot.
Using levels in your work flow is a must really, it will make that photo snap when you are done with the rest of your work flow, give it a try, it is really not hard to do, and once you get the hang of it, I think that you will be glad that you did levels.

I hope that this was of some use

Author Dennis NMSBAGS5Z64R

Micro Focus Adjustment

Admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:30:28 GMT

Calibration Guidelines
What is the best way to use the Micro Focus Adjustment

The question is simple enough, but the answer really depends on the lenses you're using and the way you use them.

1.. Mount the camera to a sturdy tripod.

2.. Position a reference target for the camera to focus on. The reference target should have sufficient contrast for the AF system to read, should be flat and parallel to the camera's focal plane, and should be centered with respect to the picture area.

3.. Lighting should be bright and even.

4.. Camera-to-subject distance should be no less than 50 times the focal length of the lens. For a 50mm lens, that would be at least 2.5 meters, or approximately 8.2 feet.

For a 500mm lens, that would be at least 25 meters, or approximately 82 feet.

5.. Set the lens for AF and the camera for One-Shot AF, and manually select the center focusing point.

6.. Shoot at the maximum aperture of the lens via manual mode or aperture-priority AE, and adjust the exposure level if necessary to achieve an accurate exposure of the reference target. Use a low ISO setting to reduce noise. So 500 mm lens F4

7.. If the lens has VR, shut it off.

8.. Use a remote switch and/or the camera's self-timer to release the shutter. Use mirror lock as well. (Optional)

9.. Take three sets of images at microadjustment settings of -5, 0 and +5, i.e, three consecutive images at -5, three consecutive images at 0, and three consecutive images at +5. I did it from -20 to +20 at 5 step intervals.

10.. Examine the resulting images on your computer monitor at 100% pixel magnification.

11.. Take additional sets of test images at different microadjustment settings if necessary until the sharpest image is achieved.

12.. Register the corresponding microadjustment settings in the camera.

Here are a few additional precautions to observe:

Do not attempt to autofocus on an angled chart, because doing so will degrade the consistency of the camera's focusing measurement. Keep in mind that the camera's AF sensor is comprised of multiple pairs of linear pixel arrays. If you attempt to autofocus on a single line in an angled focusing chart, only a few pixels from each active pixel array will "see" the target.
Ideally, the contrast in the reference target should cover the entire area of the camera's center focusing point, and the reference target should be perfectly parallel to the camera's focal plane.

For best results, manually set the focus on the lens to infinity for every exposure before allowing the camera to autofocus the reference target.

Expect some minor variations in focusing accuracy within each set of three test images, even though they were all taken at the same microadjustment setting. This is completely normal, and is due to the tolerances of the camera's AF system.

Expect smaller microadjustment settings to have a greater effect with telephoto lenses, and vice versa for wide-angle lenses.

If you are attempting to set microadjustments for a zoom lens, it is important to realize that the camera's setting may only be accurate for the focal length setting you test. The instruction book suggests testing at the longest focal length of the lens, but you may find it more efficient to choose the focal length you use most often.

Last but not least, there is no "official" Nikon method for setting AF microadjustments, so this procedure is unofficial. If you think you can do better, then by all means, go for it.

Author: Paul Janosi

Dennis - Admin

Sunset and Sunrise Tip

Admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:46:57 GMT

Here is the tip: When you want to take a picture of either the sunset or sunrise mainly sunsets is what I used this for, point your index finger and thumb like a gun at the sun and look where you thumb is pointing in the sky, you take a meter reading where your thumb is pointed and lock the exposure, now with those readings take the shot. The best way to do this is in manual mode if you don't know how to lock the exposure. A simple tip that works every time.

Camera Exposure Compensation

Admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:13:27 GMT

If you are just starting out, here is a tip that you should learn to master.

Exposure compensation is something that I use on a every day basis, and this is something that if you are just starting out in photography to check your manual for your camera on how to do this. Mine is set for 1/3 increments which allows better control to the overall exposure of the image. What this function will allow you to do is make adjustments to the exposure of your subject, but what if the whites are too white, and the shadows are too dark with that image you are taking, and this is what we use the exposure compensation for.

The adjustments on most camera's will allow you to do the following (-3,-2-1 0 +1,+2+3) These numbers represent f/stop adjusts from the minus to the plus side of things

First of all, you take a picture and in most cases you have your "Blacks, Shadows, and Whites". Now what happens if your whites are over exposed, but you tried a different aperture or shutter speed and it's still too bright, or what we call blown out whites. By this I mean there is no details at all in the whites, for example take a wedding dress that has a lot of details in the dress from top to bottom, or an Egret (Bird) which is white in colour and you can see the details in the feathers, now you can see the details with your own eyes, but the camera is a bit over exposed you will not see the fine details in that wedding dress, or the feather details in the Egret, in fact all you will see is a very bright object. Now you could move that person into the shade a bit, but what if you cannot move the subject like the Egret.

Simple, we compensate by using the - minus compensation adjustments on the camera, now how much depends on how bright the subject is in the current lighting, we could use -1 -2 etc.... Now you could adjust the settings on the camera and drop the aperture down, but this full f/stop is maybe to much of an adjustment for the correct exposure, so this is why we set the camera to do 1/3 increments for a finer adjustment to the overall image.
In the case of darker subjects, you just reverse the the above, instead of -Minis you would do the +Plus changes.

After you do this enough times you will be able to hone in on the right ajustment just by looking at the subject, and maybe a tweak here or there.

Just a little tip

Someone will ask this question? What if the subject has both Black and White in it, than what. The answer is simple, expose for the whites, as I mentioned they get blown out and you cannot recover any details once this happens they are lost for good. After you can try to bring out the mid tones and are shadows with Photoshop

ICUR Digital Photography

Admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:43:42 GMT

Hello All, well it seems that we have done all we can with the upgrade to vBulletin 4 on this site, and the only thing that we can really do is look for plug-ins that would benefit the forum in some way. I'm sure with future releases of vBulletin there will be bug fixes and maybe a few more options for other things as well that can be added to the system here as will as more Plug-ins for the the software as well. vBa Links still has a few small issues that need to be addressed, but there is a support ticket open to resolve the issues with that area. Remember there is no Widgets or Blocks that show you anything has been added in this area, so from time to time you may want to check out this area out, you could find something good in this area.

Also, if you have found a good link, did you know that you could submit that link yourself, in fact I would encourage you to do so. I really would like to see this area grow in time, just make sure that the subject matter deals with the areas listed....

So happy shooting, and keep posting!

Mirror Folder Backup

Admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:11:39 GMT

I thought I would tell you about a Killer App that works very well. I use this program to backup my Digital Images to my Home Server and external Drobo unit. I have the program to move the images in Real Time, so as soon as I copy the files from my work folder and the images I want to keep to the destination folders, Mirror Folder will back them up right away to the 2 systems I mentioned above. Not only will this backup for you, but you can compare folders to insure what is one is in the other folder as well. All this works in the backround as well, and the cost is $39.99 US funds. You can download a demo here Mirror Folder

Below is a screen shot, notice top left Master Digital Images, this is the source folder on Drive D. In the bottom box, you see the two areas that the files get copied to, Server and Drive G.

MirrorFolder is a real-time mirroring and synchronization software to backup files from your local computer drive to another local/removable/network drive.

You can setup mirrors for your important folders, or even an entire drive, to another local/removable/network drive in either automatic synchronization or real-time mirroring mode. Once you setup mirror(s) for a folder, mirroring/synchronization will be done silently in the background without requiring any further effort or attention from you. You may also optionally archive older versions of mirror files inside a series of zip files in a third location periodically.

Some common uses of MirrorFolder are:

Mirroring on local hard disk - MirrorFolder is ideal for real-time mirroring on a separate local hard disk. In this mode, files in the mirror folder will remain identical with their source at any point of time. In case the source disk fails, you will have all of your files on the mirror folder/disk for immediate use. You may also use auto-synchronization mode of mirroring on local hard disk and choose to move older versions of files in the mirror folder to recycle bin duringsynchronization.

Backup on removable drive - MirrorFolder can be used for automatic backup of your important working folders on removable drive like USB flash drive, removable hard disk, etc., preferably in automatic synchronization mode. You may also enable archive option to store older versions of files in a series of ZIP files into a third location.

Mirroring entire system drive - MirrorFolder can be used to mirror entire Windows drive on another internal hard disk drive in real-time mirroring (RAID-1 type) mode. In case the source drive fails, you can use mirror drive to boot Windows without any lose of data/files. Note that MirrorFolder does not support mirroring entire system drive on external removable and network drives at present.

Synchronization between laptop and desktop computers - You can use MirrorFolder to synchronize files between your laptop and desktop computers using bi-directional automatic synchronization mode.

Synchronization between home and office computers through a USB flash drive - You can use MirrorFolder to synchronize important folders between your home and office computers using bi-directional automatic synchronization mode through a USB flash drive.

Workstations to server mirroring - In a networked environment, MirrorFolder can be installed on each workstation computer to mirror important folders on them to one or more servers on the network. Once mirrors are created, MirrorFolder will keep mirrors on the server synchronized with the source folders on each computer on the network without requiring any further effort from individual users. That means, the server(s) will always contain an up-to-date copy of all relevant files of each workstation computer and individual users will no longer have to spend any time backing up his/her computer periodically.

Server to server mirroring - MirrorFolder can be used for mirroring of files/folders from server to server on local network. Since this software runs under system account for both real-time and auto-synchronization mode of mirroring, it can mirror any files irrespective of its access right and who is currently interactively logged on the system. However, you must provide a user name and password to access the the remote server and mirror on it.

HDR Photography

Admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:09:00 GMT

HDR photography has been growing stronger each day, more and more photographers are using software to create their HDR images. HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range". The beautiful thing about HDR is that it produces stunning photos. In order to produce HDR images, you need to take 2 or more images of your subject and have some sort of software to process the images into an HDR image.

The Camera

Lets start out with the cameras first. As I mentioned you need to have two or more images, and most times 3 will do the trick for you, the picture above was with 3 images.
Now to start off you need to put your camera into Exposure Bracking, and I suggest that you set the camera up for full f/stops in order for this to work well, and to get that dynamic range of your subject. 0 +1 -1. The one thing is that you are limited for exposure bracking on the camera, some will do three, others will do five and I know that the Nikon D700 does 7 exposures in this mode.
I know for a fact that the Canon 40D is limited to 3 shots in this mode, but if you wanted to shot 0 +1 +2 +3 -1 -2 -3 in total 7 images with the full range, this can be done without the Bracking, just shot your subject with a normal shot and than use the exposure compensation of the figures above and that sovles that for you. A cable release would be wise to use at this point.

The Software

In order to produce HDR images you need software that can convert your images and process them into the dynamic range for you. I use Photomatix software and they have a demo version that you can download, here is the link --> http://www.hdrsoft.com/

Images at a cost

What I mean here is that when you shot HDR images, in order to get that one good shot, you need to take more than 2 images of that subject, so your shutter on your camera will be taking a hit for producing these images.

With that said, to avoid wasted shots, you have to be aware that you should almost use a tripod, if you can hand hold the camera for this by all means. I have taken the picture above hand holding the camera, and got lucky, but most of the times the images did not turn out. If you have the shutter speed up fast enough you can get away with hand holding.

Static subjects will work well, such as landscapes, buildings. For landscape photography make sure that the trees are not blowing if so, your images with not turn out, and look bad. You see the HDR software tries to align your images the best it can, but trees will show up as a blur or just don't like right, so keep this in mind.

I suggest, as I'm no pro at this and learning as I go, but get on the internet and search for HDR there is lots out there, and look at the link I posted for samples and more information.

Here are some screen shots, of the software that I use.

Main Screen

Import Images

Settings for Processing Images

Here you can change the settings as need be.

Tone Mapping Screen

Right, now you are saying WOW this looks real bad, you are right. But what you are seeing is all images merged into one, but not processed into an HDR until you HIT that Tone Mapping button.

Processing HDR Image

Now we are cooking here, the screen you are looking at is the Details Enhancer.
The one area that you need to look at with this software is the Smoothing, notice that the photo was processed with Mid, going to Min or Low will give a more dramatic effect to this image, well High and Max will be less of an effect on this image.

The areas covered from the arrows are those that I have played with thus far, I need to look at the items below and understand them better. I hope this was a some help to some one out there.

Author Dennis Kaczor 55RH854KJ5DY

Canon 7D Released News

Admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:22:28 GMT

Today September 1, 2009 canon has released the news about this camera.

Canon has introduced a new 18.1-megapixel EOS 7D DSLR camera and three lenses today. This new Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR camera has 18.1 APS-C CMOS sensor with 8fps continuous shooting. With full manual control, one can record 1080p HD video at 24fps and can watch it on the 3-inch LCD.

Targeted at professional photographers and advanced amateurs, EOS 7D costs $1699 (Rs. 81,600 approx.) for the body only and is expected to be available in the US by the end of this month. This DSLC camera will also be offered with Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM zoom lens kit for an estimated price of $1899 (Rs. 91,200 approx.).

Canon boasts of the new advanced 19-point Autofocus system, new Canon iFCL Metering System (Intelligent Focus, Color, Luminance) and new Intelligent Viewfinder.

This EOS 7D model that lies between EOS 50D Digital and EOS 5D Mark II offers full HD recording at 30fps, 24fps and 25p. Equipped with Integrated Speedlite Transmitter, photographers will be able to control external Speedlites without making use of external accessories. For detail specifications, check the official EOS 7D page.

Thanks to Dual "DIGIC 4" image processors with improved electrical system now images can be captured at 8fps without making use of external accessories. The EOS 7D has expandable ISO Range (100-6400) of up to 12,800. Built from magnesium alloy body, the body of EOS 7D is lightweight, tough and can protect against moisture and dust.

One can use EOS 7D with all EF and EF-S lenses as well as Canon EX Speedlites since the compatibility has been taken care of.

GPS Units GEoTagging

Admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:19:20 GMT

GPS units for cameras are a neat thing, just think that you can view the location where you took that holiday or trip to and view it on Google Maps or any other location for that matter. All though the prices of these units are dropping, they are still rather high in costs, but what a great tool to have with you. I purchased this unit above for my trip to Florida which is coming very soon, and could not think of a better way to record where I took those images from.

The unit above is so small it fits on the cameras flash mount, or you can attach it on the camera strap if you needed to use your flash unit. At startup I found it took about 30 to 40 seconds, but after that it found the signal rather quickly. As for the power of this unit, it comes from the camera battery and I had it with me for 7 hours with very little drain on the camera battery.
I could see one day when the prices drop for these devices that they will be in most cameras in a few years time.

Just think that if you went out with your camera with the GPS unit, and some one asked you where you took this picture, you could send them the GPS data with a link on Google Maps, and Bob's your uncle. This is an excellent way of sharing with others that have a GPS device.

Specs For Nikon GP-1

Acquired data: Latitude, longitude, altitude, time information
Time required for satellite acquisition: Approx. 45 sec. (cold start), approx. 5 sec. (hot start)
Power source: Supplied from camera body

Receiving indicators:
Red blinking (GPS data not recorded)

Green blinking (GPS data recorded utilizing three satellites)

Green solid (Four or more satellites detected, GPS data are more accurate)

Compatible models 90 (via accessory terminal cable GP1-CA90), D3, D300, D700, D2Xs and D200 (via 10-pin remote terminal cable GP1-CA10). Some models may require an update to the latest version of firmware.

Attachment: Attaches to camera�s accessory shoe or a camera strap via strap adapter GP1-CL1
Dimensions: Approx. 2 x 1.8 x 1 inches

Supplied Accessories
GP1-CA90 for connection to the D90

GP1-CA10 for connection to the 10-pin remote terminal of supported cameras

Strap adapter GP1-CL1

*Supplied accessories may differ depending on country or area.

NIK Define 2.0

Admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:22:39 GMT

I have been using this software for awhile now, and I really like this software, and the thing is that it does a very good job most of the time with the default settings, which makes my job easier and process the images faster. I have used a few noise programs, and this is the one that I'm impressed with, and is part of my work flow now.

What is Noise

Virtually, all digital cameras inherently create unwanted imperfections known as noise. The amount or type of noise in an image typically depends on the quality and type of imaging sensor with which it was created.

Contrast (Luminance) Noise and Color (Chrominance) Noise can be individually present in an image or might be seen in the same image. Fast or high ISO speeds and low light levels can add noise to images, while some images might exhibit high levels of JPEG artifacts.

New and Improved Noise Reduction Engine
with Automatic Profiling

Dfine 2.0 contains a brand new reduction engine that provides best-in-class noise reduction while retaining an incredible amount of detail.

Automatic camera profiling replaces the need to purchase camera profiles and fine-tunes Dfine�s revamped noise reduction engine to produce the best results for your camera. You can also create and save your own profiles for batch processing images.

Introducing Dfine 2.0

Dfine 2.0 gives you unprecedented control over exactly how much and where to apply noise reduction. This makes it ultra-easy to eliminate noise in your images while maintaining detail and sharpness, thus improving the quality of every digital photo you take. Dfine 2.0 is designed to prevent the loss of detail other noise reduction tools often introduce.

Filters (Lee Filters vs Cokin)

Admin — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:59:00 GMT

I have been looking into both these filter sets for almost 3 weeks now. Lynn and I are heading for Algonquin Park this July 2009.

I have 2 lens that I would like to use on the trip for landscapes and the problem is that one lens is 77mm and the other 82mm. Would be too costly to go out and get seperate filters, so I started to look into the Lee Filter System and the Cokin System.

Many years ago, I started using the Cokin filters, and sold off most of my gear including the filters, as I just wanted to use a point and shoot camera when ever I needed a camera. And yes these where the film and slide days of my photography. Now that I'm into Digital Photography I started to look into this filter set again.

Cokin

The one issue that I had with the Cokin system is that at the time it was very hard to find the filters as there was a change in the company, and items where very hard to find. I had the holder, but the rings to attach the holder were never in stock and or the filters that I wanted. Even today things are hard to find, but it is getting better more stores bringing in stock. The thing that I liked about this system is the filters, they were very well made and worked well. The holder was just a piece of plastic and it did the job. The cost to purchase these filters was very affordable and still is today.

Lee Filters

Here is another filter system that has been out for a number of years. I checked out this system last week, and I have to say it too is very nice. The one thing is the filter holder is very well built and sturdy compared to the Cokin one. I checked a few filters out and they too are very good quality as well. Ring adapters in stock, and if not could be there next day, since the company is up the road from the store.

The one thing, the Lee Filter system is a lot more money than the Cokin filters, holders etc... But are geting very good quality for your money, and also the filters themselfs are much bigger 100mm x 150mm.
Now I have not checked into this, but the salesman stated that there is no colour shift in the Lee Filters where as there is a slight colour shift with the Colkin filters. How much of an effect who knows.

So, now I needed to figure out what my needs are for this trip to Algonquin Park

Ring adapters, 77mm and 82mm.

Filter Holder.

ND Filter set.

Still thinking of what I need for sunsets and sun rise filters.

With this said, both systems are very good and well worth having in your camera bag no matter which system you go with. The major issue with these types of filters are they are plastic and will scratch if you don`t take care of them, so always put them back into there covers, there is no way to get scratches out unlike glass.

If you are on a tight budget, the Cokin filter set is the way to go at a fraction of the cost for the Lee filter sets. But even further is that these filters can be used with almost every lens in your camera bag and all you need is the adapter ring to fit your lens and bob's your uncle. One filter set for almost every lens you have.

Oh yes, some would argue that these are plastic and I prefer glass. Well let me say this, my eye glasses are plastic and most of the people I know that wear glasses, are plastic today and not glass.

And yes I did buy the Lee Filters, only because the store did not have all the Cokin Rings that I required, and only one filter out of 3 out of stock and no ETA on when stock would come in.

For me I wanted the ND filter set, but I'm thinking about filters for sunsets and sun rise shots..... Plus the fact that the filters themselfs are much larger, there is more room to play with the Grad ND filters.

Funny how things are needed when your photography type changes from Nature photography to Landscape photography, filters really come in handy for landscape shots, and an area of photography I have done for years and I'm looking forward to this trip and hoping to be able to bring some images back with me to share with you all.