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Interested in learning art photography? Want to become a master photographer? The following questions and answers are divided into two main groups - digital imaging and traditional, film-based photography. Learn the techniques of both here. If you want to learn more about how to make great photos take Jed Manwaring's Getting Started: How to Make Great Photographs online photography course.
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Jaime A. Schulz
jaimeann-designs-photography.com
member since: 6/27/2007
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81
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Proper Settings for Walking down the Aisle
To all you Nikon Wedding Photographers-Any pointers on getting the perfect shot of the couples and bride walking down the aisle?? Been having some issues that I just cant figure out. Read lots of books and did lots of testing on how to set my new Nikon D5100 but its hit and miss with these shots. Gear: Nikon D5100
Lense either 17-50mm 2.8 or 35mm 1.8
Speedlight SB-900 flash with allowed during procession. Currently set at AF-S, Matrix Merering, AF Area or Single Point. (Both are jit and miss) HELP PLEASE! Just feel like I went backwards with this and Ive been doing this for 8 plus years... Not sure whats going on....Grrrrr Cheers,
Jaime
5/15/2012 4:35:45 PM
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David B. Spooner
Contact David
David's Gallery
member since: 7/21/2007
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82
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a word of thanks
I would like to say thank you to 3 gentlemen here on BP that have been very instrumental in teaching and encouraging me to continue to learn and practice then learn and practice even more. They have also given me very solid business advice and direction.
Mr Lynn Powers has been more than just someone who responds to posts. He invested time and experience and took me on as a work in progress and I can never say how greatful I am for his freindship.
Mr. Carlton Ward and Mr. Thomas Schoeller have been very instrumental in helping me develop skills and again some really sound business advice.
My heartfelt thanks to all 3 of you. Be blessed.
5/9/2012 11:06:56 AM
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You are right on, David. These guys are always there and regularly contribute to the BP discussion threads with their useful (at least for me) knowledge and expertise. So Kudos to Lynn, Carlton and Thomas!!! UB.
5/10/2012 8:45:56 PM
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My weakness is I always love to help, providing I have some experience that may be of some assistance and maybee point someone in the right direction at a fork in the road. I've asked for advice from seasoned Pro's in the past - Tony Sweet comes to mind..and I feel that if I can return the favor for someone it makes me feel good.
I appreciate the kind words David and it's been a pleasure. :)
5/13/2012 5:41:55 PM
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You're most welcome Thomas..thanks to you and many others I am all set to do my first show June 15/16
5/14/2012 5:34:41 AM
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I'm going to agree with David, too! Lynn, Carlton, and Thomas have been a huge help and inspiration to me as well.
5/14/2012 5:41:41 AM
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Thank you Pat. I also enjoy reading both Carltons and Lynns post.
5/14/2012 3:55:29 PM
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David B. Spooner
Contact David
David's Gallery
member since: 7/21/2007
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83
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JPEG to TIFF
I have a number of photos that I took last fall with what is now my back up camera..Nikon Coolpix P100 (I now have a DSLR)
The above mentioned photos are all in JPEG files as the P100 had no option to shoot in RAW and I may need to convert these files to TIFF files using PSE9...have any of you done this with any success? Any tips or advice appreciated
5/8/2012 1:30:23 PM
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There's not much benefit to changing something shot as a jpeg into a tiff file.
All you have to do is save as a tiff, and you're done. You may get an option to save as 8 bit or 16 bit. Save as 8 bit.
5/8/2012 3:25:56 PM
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Keep in mind that those JPG's (if you're worrying about loss of quality over time) only lose quality/get compressed further, when you repeatedly re-Save (Save or Save As) a file, or successive Saves of that file. If you're done editing your existing JPG's to your liking, and all you'll ever do with them is view or print them, you won't inflict degradation on them by just opening/viewing/closing them.
5/8/2012 3:56:55 PM
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Thank you both very much. I am submitting an article with photos to Texas Highways magazine and the photo editor want the photos in TIFF...thanks again.
5/8/2012 6:01:28 PM
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Just a note: when you "save as" you are creating a brand new file. The original JPEG file now exist as a seperate file. You can make a TIFF file in PS or PSE by opening the JPG and "save as" a TIFF. (again, you retain the original JPG as a seperate file) You can add notes in PSE so you know which is which. The new TIFF file is now saved in a non-destructive format which can be processed many times over. That would be one huge benefit.
5/13/2012 5:53:49 PM
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Pamela K. Barrett
Contact Pamela
Pamela's Gallery
member since: 2/26/2007
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84
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Traveling Solo
I plan on going to Alaska this summer by myself. I'll have my medium-sized Lowepro Roller X200 and a backpack of some sort. Would a 4000 cubit pack be too large for an 8-day trip? I'm planning on going on the independent Railroad Package tour from Anchorage to Seward back up to Anchorage, Talkeetna, and then to Denali and back to Anchorage. Any advice on how to pack and travel alone with these two heavy items? Also, I have a Canon 300mm, Canon 24-70, and a Canon 50mm lens. Any advice on which one(s) will be the best for this type trip. Want to photograph the landscape, and the wildlife. I've traveled alone before on business but never on pleasure. How common is it for a woman to travel alone like this? I tried to get a member of my family or a friend to go, but couldn't get anyone to go with me. I want to go so bad that I'm seriously planning to go it alone. Any advice?
5/3/2012 8:22:30 AM
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I'm afraid I have no advice to give you for the packing questions, but thought I'd chime in on your travel-alone question---my mother (69, retired & single) is taking her 3rd consecutive annual trip to Europe tomorrow, completely alone--no group tours, no package deals or travel agent arrangements... she plans the trip, finds the lodgings, decides her activities... and off she goes for 3 weeks on her own (this time Nice & Paris, Amsterdam and Germany. Last time, Tuscany region two years in a row.) She absolutely loves it! She takes her little pocket point-and-shoot & a netbook, and blogs daily during her vacation, sharing her photos along the way.
Not sure if that helps... Perhaps Alaska is a completely different animal than vacationing overseas in urban areas, but I personally feel you shouldn't let traveling alone deter you. As a photographer, you'll likely find it easier anyway, than taking a friend or family member, who *ISN'T* a photographer!
5/8/2012 5:29:35 AM
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Go for it, Pam. You will sharpen your travel skills, discovering what to take and what to leave at home next time. Having said that, I'd consider adequate clothing for the climate, a fleece warmth layer and a Gore-Tex-type outer shell. I wash underwear, shirts and socks in the shower, drying them overnight, in stead of carrying umpteen changes of clothes.
You might leave the 50mm at home, unless its a macro. You have a top-of-the-heap zoom and a long lens for wildlife. Be careful out in the wild; consider a tour for that trip. There are critters out there that can eat ya up.
5/24/2012 9:57:36 AM
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Christopher, your mother's travels sound so exciting; would love to read some of her blogs! She's a brave woman in my opinion. Doug, thanks for the good advice on packing. I've also read somewhere to just pack your camera, 2 lenses, some CF cards, and a charger.
5/24/2012 2:39:05 PM
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She has a great time! I'll send you a BP Mail with the link.
5/24/2012 2:50:25 PM
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I believe that's the first time anybody has brought up the subject of underwear washing.
5/24/2012 3:09:20 PM
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Frank P. Luongo
Contact Frank
Frank's Gallery
member since: 6/7/2004
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85
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Need Critique
I have been shooting digital for around 6 mos with a Canon EOS rebel xsi.
I like shooting flowers and occasionally against a black background.I shot this white Gerbera with a black background.
Lens 75-300,Tv at f/11. I need just a general critique aside from need for cropping. I appreciate your feedback as it is a necessary learning tool. Frank
5/3/2012 8:05:30 AM
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Hi Frank... A few questions, to frame any critique others might give...
A) Are you using a tripod when you do these shots? Or are they mostly hand-held?
B) Are you familiar with the exposure compensation feature/setting on your Rebel?
C) Do you have a "preset" idea in mind when shooting these shots, for what you want in the final result? ie, soft and dreamy, or maybe selective focus, or maybe full front-to-back razor sharpness?
D) For this shot, do you recall how far the camera body (not front of lens, necessarily) was from the flower?
5/3/2012 3:15:16 PM
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To me...on my screen, it looks underexposed. Nick.
5/5/2012 2:27:35 AM
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It looks under-exposed to me too, by at least a stop, maybe even a stop and a half.
The biggest problem with programmed exposure modes like TV (a.k.a., Shutter Priority Mode), is that they tend to assume that everything defaults to a "neutral grey" exposure.
Properly exposing a white flower against a black background is kind'a tricky. Success depends heavily upon the light which is falling upon those bright petals.
Typically, in bright sunlight, the photographer needs to get in really close and meter the brightest parts of the flower petals, then over-compensate by opening the aperture two stops beyond the meter reading (or, by keeping the aperture the same and selecting a shutter speed two stops slower).
This will render a much brighter flower...a more accurate naked-eye view.
In diffused light, such as on an overcast day, one stop over (or perhaps one and a half) would suffice to render those white petals in their true brilliance.When we depend upon our machines to decide what is correct, more often than not we are limited to only what they perceive and what they think might be best. Too often, our results end up being not what we expected.
5/5/2012 4:04:41 PM
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This work is obviously important to you. It is important enough to shoot in RAW, and to get the softwware you need to process RAW images. Secondly, learn the "expose-to-the-right" technique. The procedure explained in the previous post is another way of doing the same thing. Check out your histogram after the shot. You should see your highlights almost against the right side but not "trainwreck" or pile up. WHen you open a properly exposed image in a RAW processor (I use the one in CS 2) you will be able to move the "exposure" slider to eliminate any highlight blowout. Of course, in this shot, highlight blowout is not even an issue.
5/7/2012 7:49:45 AM
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...I wonder if Frank isn't set up to get notices that we've replied to his question...
5/7/2012 7:55:29 AM
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Jeff Dewey
member since: 8/29/2005
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86
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Recommendations for Hilton Head trip
I'm planning a golf/photography trip to Hilton Head in early June and not having been there before I wanted to see if anyone can make some recommendations on some great places to shoot.
5/3/2012 6:07:07 AM
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David B. Spooner
Contact David
David's Gallery
member since: 7/21/2007
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87
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shooting indoor events
This past saturday I took pictures at a family function (graduation party for my grandaughter). I was very unhapphy with the results, especially skin tones. It became very apparent that I have a lot to learn about shooting indoors. I have Bryan Petersons book on exposure but was wondering if there are other books, tutorials you might recommend.
4/30/2012 5:44:02 AM
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I am willing to bet that you had your WB set to AWB when you should have set it for Tungsten or Florescent depending u[on which light source was being used. Also you may have had the ISO too low and the photos are somewhat under exposed. You live in Dallas which has a Barnes a Noble. You will find books there on about anything you are going to shoot. Up here I find the used book stores have even more books on photography than B&N does. Look around but don't just go by the cover only because some of them will be for studio work.
4/30/2012 1:16:18 PM
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You hit the nail square on the head...I got to thinking about what I did and did not do prior to shooting and changing WB was the biggie, Did a lot of practice shots last night around the house with various modes of room lighting...really helped
Really good to hear from you, Lynn..you're a great guy and a fantastic mentor...
ds
5/1/2012 7:11:22 AM
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Shooting in RAW would also have helped, David. As you can adjust for the correct WB later in post processing software such as Adobe's camera RAW. However, I have recently found out that even RAW could not entirely correct the WB when shooting under the sodium vapor lights. I would love to know what to do in such circumstances, hoping Lynn could throw some light on this. UB.
5/1/2012 8:27:05 AM
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Usman...saw your earlier post RE: sodium vapor lights...if anyone can help you Lynn and some of the other regulars have my vote
5/1/2012 8:43:36 AM
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No, I can't be of any assistance with sodium vaport lights because I have never done it and do not what tyhe images are like when photographed. Probably as bad as Mercury vapor lights where everything turns green. At ;east in film but again I have not done it with a digital camera. Perhaps Carlton will come riding in on Silver and rescue all of us. :-)
5/1/2012 9:40:04 AM
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come on big red!!!
5/1/2012 12:39:01 PM
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Usman Bajwa
Contact Usman
Usman's Gallery
member since: 4/11/2006
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88
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How to adjust WB when shooting in Sodium Lights?
When it comes to shooting functions I am a total novice. My problems were exacerbated when in a recent wedding shoot of a relative in the night under the Sodium Lights, I tried my hand with my camera. I did shoot in both RAW and Jpeg modes but all of the images had a very yellowish color cast to them and true colors could not be achieved. I tried all the WB settings on my Nikon D40 and also tried correcting it in post-processing with RAW images, but still to no avail.
A friend of mine told me its just the way it is when shooting under the Sodium vapor lights. I think there must be some way of getting the right color under the circumstances. How does the pros do it while shooting weddings. Sitting perplexed!UB.
4/23/2012 2:54:26 AM
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Usman, did you try any custom white balance settings during the RAW conversion? (Such as in Adobe Camera RAW, you can alter the Temperature slider, and the other---color or hue, can't remember what it is called.)
4/23/2012 9:28:51 AM
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Thanks Chris, I tried but even this won't completely remove the yellow hue. And Jpegs are a total waste :( UB.
4/25/2012 2:32:57 AM
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You sure they were sodium lights? It's kinda irrelevant because it's still about the yellow tint, regardless of where it's from. But I was just curious because those are usually used for street lights or softball/baseball fields.
Custom white balance may not work for everything because not each individual light will have the same color balance. Although I did look up sodium lights and the low pressure kind seems to have a narrow range of color temp. If your camera has a custom white balance where you use a shot of a white card taken in the light your shooting, use that to set the white balance. That's a possible option to trying to set white balance after shooting.
If you still get too much yellow, sometimes just going into 'hue/saturation' with photoshop and just desaturating or lightening the yellow will get closer to what you want.
5/2/2012 2:34:38 PM
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Gregory, the function was being held in the night under a yellowish canopy and on top of it they used the sodium lights, made the situation worse. I think my camera (Nikon D40) has the option of setting WB, however, I have never tried it yet. Never felt the need before as I shoot all my images in RAW and Jpeg and usually put the daylight WB option whenever I am shooting Outside. In this particular occasion, I tried all the modes of the WB present in the camera but none solved the problem. UB.
5/3/2012 12:03:59 PM
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If you can put in the time to color adjust each frame, you can also use the eye drop tool in either levels or curves to set your white point.
If you combine that with changing the white balance settings in the raw conversion, you might get close to what you're wanting.
5/3/2012 5:02:55 PM
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Mary L. Lemley
member since: 8/31/2004
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89
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Saving photos.
Does everyone still save their photos in jpeg, for gallery and contests?? Was just wondering because my photos seem soooooo soft after being uploaded into my gallery. MML.
4/20/2012 10:50:58 PM
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For web use, yes I always save in JPG. Never an issue with images processed to be sharp or in focus front to back. Here on BP, my Flickr stream and my Artistwebsite shopping gallery. Curious as to why your upload this way.
4/21/2012 6:38:22 AM
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Just viewed your gallery. Honestly, everything seems to be just fine viewing your imagery from my PC monitor.
4/21/2012 6:40:17 AM
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Mary L. Lemley
member since: 8/31/2004
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Hi Thomas!!! Thank you for looking at my pics. I seem to always see a difference after editing, saving, then uploading to BP. They just don't look nearly as sharp as when I look at them in my program or just my monitor. When I first came on to BP they said upload a certain size and all, but I know some folks that don't reduce size or change anything, and their photos look so great. My monitor is 23 inches and I can see every little detail. Liked my OLD CRT!!! Thank you Mary Lemley.
4/23/2012 8:43:09 PM
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Hi Mary, It is a known issue on BP. When you upload a photo, BP will automatically resize your photo to 800 pixels on the long side. In this resizing you will loose some of the sharpness.
All the photos you see on BP are max. 800 px. on the long side.
Only thing you can do about it is to resize the photo yourself, apply final adjustments (sharpening) on this smaller photo, save and then upload. Hope it helps, Bojan
4/24/2012 1:57:45 AM
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Bojan makes a great point---Mary, you didn't say what size file your upload JPG is, but you should try "pre-sizing" it to 800 pixels long-side first---then upload THAT jpg. (That lets you make any final sharpness or other tweaks, on the "BP-sized" jpg, before uploading.) If you're uploading a big, high-resolution file, and BP is shrinking it for you, you give up all your control over that resizing process, which could introduce softness.
4/24/2012 5:22:06 AM
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Mary L. Lemley
member since: 8/31/2004
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Thank you so much Bojan and Christopher...I will go back to doing that then. I've been on here so long that I forget about the orginal sizing. You've been a great help!!!! MaryL.
4/24/2012 9:46:23 PM
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Dino L. Rovera
dino-rovera-photography.com
member since: 4/8/2006
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90
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Photoshop CS5 Filter issues
I am having an issue with the filters in CS. I am not a master of Photoshop by any means of the word, and I have more to learn than I know. However, after I open an image and go to use a filter, only six of the filters,(blur, noise,render, sharpen, stylize and video)are "black" and useable, where the others (Artistic, brush strokes, distort, pixelate, sketch and texture) are " gray" and unable to use. Did I somehow turn these off? I have used them many times before but can not figure out why I can not use them now. Please advise...I know it must be a simple fix...at least I hope!! Thank you in advance......Dino
4/19/2012 3:10:57 AM
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I'm not familiar with CS5 but I'm wondering whether you are working on a duplicate layer or on the background layer. Try creating a duplicate layer and then look to see whether the filters are available for use.
4/19/2012 6:53:38 AM
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I think this happens when you are not in 8bit mode? Check Image... Mode... and see if dropping down to 8 bit (or maybe it is 16bit) does it---one of the "higher bit" modes prevents many of the filters from working.
4/19/2012 8:27:24 AM
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Thank you Nikki and Christopher. Nikki, I was thinking along those lines too, but I had duplicated the background layer...so that was not the fix....thank you for your response though....Christopher, that was it. I was in 16bit mode. As soon as I switched over to 8 bit, all the filters were usable...I knew it had to be a quick fix.... BetterPhoto Community to the rescue once again...Thank you both!!
4/19/2012 1:20:04 PM
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Glad to know your problem is solved - and I hope I can remember this (or at least figure out how to search it) if I ever have the problem
4/19/2012 1:27:36 PM
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