General Photography Questions Megathread v4 - Don't Listen to Any of These Freaks

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > General Photography Questions Megathread v4 - Don't Listen to Any of These Freaks

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evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

The Finn posted:

Dumbass question time: When people say "I metered off his face or the wall or whatever" do they mean pointing the camera at something, pressing the shutter halfway down and letting the camera get a reading and set the exposure? Is that how you meter something with your DSLR?

Put center point on face/wall, EV-lock, recompose, shoot. The problem with that of course is that unless the face/wall is 18% grey it'll only get you in the ballpark. Still, ballpark is good if you can shoot raw and you're in a hurry.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2009 08:51

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:15

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Martytoof posted:

By which of course I mean serious amateur photographers and up. If I had to explain to my mom, who uses a four year old Fuji P&S and iPhoto, about the ins and outs of RAW I think I might have to hang myself.

Haha that's something I'd rather not think about :ohdear:

# ¿ Aug 19, 2009 09:53

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

jackpot posted:

I just go "yes it sure does" then hand them the camera. It's no use getting aggravated

# ¿ Sep 1, 2009 08:11

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Not a book, but I got the Luminous Landscapes videos for LR2 when I first bought it and they're pretty nice. The 2 overly polite old geezers can be annoying sometimes, but they talk sense.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2009 15:25

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

AIIAZNSK8ER posted:

Does anyone know what would cause this? I changed batteries in the flash and it didn't help. I made sure that the AF setting was AF-A on my D90.

The AF LED always comes on on my 900 when using AF-A or AF-S. Does you still have that problem or was it a one time thing?

# ¿ Sep 23, 2009 00:02

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

It's easier with front curtain, but you can do both. Rear curtain can look nicer.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2009 15:16

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

As you as you can keep control of the aperture you can use zone focusing. The problem is that most/all modern lenses don't come with any kind of useful scales.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2009 11:47

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

You can get away with pushing/pulling a RAW shot at base ISO at least a stop without any horrible IQ degradation, but if you could have shot a bunch of jpegs, just shoot a couple of RAWs instead and be on your way.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2009 09:08

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

HPL posted:

There's no hard and fast rule. A lot depends on the actual scene being photographed. If it's very low contrast, it's going to look like a train wreck if you push it more than a quarter or half stop.

Never really had that problem, but still that's good to know =)

# ¿ Oct 9, 2009 08:58

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Shoot RAW then mix your colors in LR.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2009 14:22

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

It's simple enough to write metadata to your file then re-import.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2009 13:05

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Cyberbob posted:

It does mean less control over the outcome, so it might need a few reshoots.. and can only be done in near darkness.. but it'd work, no?

Yes. Put your flash on strobe mode and go wild.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2009 23:31

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

On digital you just have to be a bit careful about noise in long exposures.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2009 10:19

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

DreadCthulhu posted:

I'm visiting some Western Europe in December and I'm probably going to be taking a lot of city and landscape shots (I love the area around San Marino in winter). The thing I'm not so sure about is if I should get one or two additional lenses with me to make sure that those pictures are as awesome as they can be. As I understand, the 18-105mm lens that comes in that Nikon offer is a very generic lens that works "ok" for most cases, but would you guys recommend additional lenses for my situation?

I very much love my D90, but I'd get a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and a fast prime.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2009 00:52

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

torgeaux posted:

The 50mm f/1.8 and f/1.4 are good, reasonably priced fast primes. Sigma's 30mm f/1.4 gets great reviews also.

And if you're going Nikon, the 35mm f/1.8 DX is both good and cheap.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2009 12:57

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

torgeaux posted:

No, I'm saying all canons of any kind are better than any nikon. Canon 300D versus Nikon D3x? Take the canon. It's just superior in every possible way.

This.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2009 13:41

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Looks like you're trying to load a *printer* icc profile on your monitor? Which you know, may not work.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2009 23:12

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Why a Sony?

# ¿ Dec 1, 2009 21:56

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Films differ in speed (sensitivity), white balance, color saturation and grain.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2009 23:57

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Where are you going, and what kind of weather should you expect? Do you want to take photos inside without a flash? In general, what do you expect to be shooting?

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Dec 22, 2009

# ¿ Dec 22, 2009 12:35

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Fractaling it up is a much better solution. Can you not source an HD version of the movie? That'd help a bunch too.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2009 10:24

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Do you people wake up at 5am or something?
For short runs I just have a smoke break, for the longer stuff I just do something else. If you're smart about it you'll never wait more than a couple of minutes, but huge DNG imports are going to take ages no matter what you're running on. Switching to 64bit (OS + LR) helps a little, and so does having a bunch of fast cores.
I don't think LR2 offloads anything interesting to the GPU.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2009 14:40

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Snaily posted:

the nicest place I've thought of yet is just above the knee, between the legs, since that will always be out of the way.

You're loving crazy.

I carry my SLR in my pack, but I wear dorsal protection under my coat.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2010 19:02

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Keep your poo poo organized on your computer and it'll sync fine to your phone (just point it at the directory you want).

If you use smugmug, smugwallet rules.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2010 15:49

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Basically you expose so that your highlights are just below the clipping point. It's quite easy to do with the histogram in stable light.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2010 10:38

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Just drag the shutter a wee bit to get some ambient. On a fisheye you won't need to stop down much to get humorously deep DoF, so just a dab of flash should be enough.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2010 23:07

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

What's the resolution on the iMac 24?

# ¿ Jan 21, 2010 11:43

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

nonanone posted:

How many other people use back-button AF? I recently decided to permanently switch over, because I like the control more and it fits the way I shoot. I only know of one other photographer that actually does this though, so I'm curious about who else does.

Meh. I switch pretty often between single and continuous AF, but my lock button's for exposure only (I use auto ISO mostly, and usually set f-stop and shutter manually). I'm left-eye dominant so I already have my face in front of half the controls anyway.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2010 21:35

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Shmoogy posted:

e: Wait so which do you guys use AE lock/AF, or AE/AF, no AE lock?

My lock does AE, but no AF.

Shmoogy posted:

Or rather which is preferred.

There's a reason you can change it. The correct way's the one that works for you. I'd worry about what's in front of the lens instead.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2010 00:30

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

XTimmy posted:

I need something I can take with me outdoors

Score an iPhone, problem solved!
TBH it's easy enough to remember what kind of apertures are going to gently caress you if you aren't careful. (85mm f/1.8 at 1m? Better triple check focus)

# ¿ Feb 4, 2010 17:58

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

If you shoot Nikon, switch to AF-C (will switch to shutter-release priority shooting and pew when you press the shutter instead of whenever it locks focus).

I don't understand what the problem is with choosing the AF-point that's closest to what you want focused so you limit your recomposing. The focus plane is perpendicular to the lens axis, so unless your off-centre AF-points are defective, minimizing re-composition once you've locked focus is a good thing.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2010 09:36

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Eutheria posted:

What's the general consensus on SmugMug?

Have it, like it. HPL uses it more extensively than I do so pester him about it.
With Friedl's LR2 plugin it becomes a 2-click breeze to toss stuff online.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2010 10:51

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Pretty sure that'd be like 3 clicks in smugmug if you don't mind them grabbing a slice.
Password-protect a gallery and allow prints, done.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2010 10:47

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Just use 1.5x? :confused:

Something to keep in mind is that a beginner might not be able to actually keep 1/(effective focal length) stable, so having a bit of a buffer can help when your start.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2010 10:42

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

TheFuglyStik posted:

Go past eight MP or so and you're past the point of diminishing returns compared to ISO handling, AF speed, and several other forms of performance.

Look how wrong you are. What's the resolution of the camera with the best ISO performance? Do you know how phase detection AF works?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2010 10:40

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

I was more trying to nudge him in the right direction. Best camera for shooting high ISO is probably a Nikon D3s (12MP), but Nikon's got shitall modern superfast glass.
5dII might be the best Canon, but a Canon guy can answer that question better than I.

Phase detection autofocus (the kind in SLR's with a mirror box) explained there. Since it doesn't use the sensor, pixel density or sensor size is completely irrelevant.
Compact digital cameras use contrast detection AF.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2010 17:06

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

HPL posted:

Who needs super fast glass when your high ISO performance is a stop or two better than the competition?

The other way to look at it is "You need high ISO performance a stop or two better than the competition because you have no decent fast glass options". The new 24mm is a good start (Now a 35mm please), but the new wide zoom being f/4 is just retarded.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2010 22:25

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

The thing is that on a really close subject you'll need a ridiculously tight aperture to get decent DoF.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2010 16:09

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

InternetJunky posted:

At what temps do I have to worry about condensation in the lens when coming from outdoors to inside? I just bought a Canon 100-400mm and am paranoid about this now.

If there's a 15C+ difference I let my camera in its bag for a while or toss it in a Ziploc.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2010 13:31

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:15

evil_bunnY: Apr 2, 2003

Fungah posted:

Anybody here play paintball?

Your D90's not sealed, so I'd leave it well away from a speedball field. Just look at how much even referees get shot at and you'll have an idea of what to expect (hint: gonna get shot at).

If you can shoot from behind a curtain/plexi, use the 50-150.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2010 12:49

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > General Photography Questions Megathread v4 - Don't Listen to Any of These Freaks

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