DSLR camera tips, techniques, photo sharing, etc

[RUn2it]

these are some of my good ones.

i like the last 2 and the first the best.

What camera and lens did you use. The 1 with the bicycle at night looks cool, no flash it looks like and still got a good exposure and some good color on the sunset pic.

[tylerthehucker]

What camera and lens did you use. The 1 with the bicycle at night looks cool, no flash it looks like and still got a good exposure and some good color on the sunset pic.

its a sony a something with a 28-105 lense. i think that same lense was used in all of these. and with the bikes/skateboards at night i use a cheap external flash set up about 10ft away from me on a tripod that is synced with my camera flash. thats how i get those shadows and different lighting for them. i used it for the quad picture too which was probably the hardest of all of them to get.

Edited March 25, 2009 by tylerthehucker

[dunefreak]

great shots, Tyler

[~JILL~]

What do you guys use to store your pictures? Not just on the computer, memory card or digital photo storage device? Need a place to store photos for back-up.

[80grit]

What do you guys use to store your pictures? Not just on the computer, memory card or digital photo storage device? Need a place to store photos for back-up.

I just use a 1 Tb network drive but you can put a second drive into your computer and back up to that also. Frey's has 1 Tb internal sata's for $ 99.

[dunefreak]

What do you guys use to store your pictures? Not just on the computer, memory card or digital photo storage device? Need a place to store photos for back-up.

I have 3 hard drives in my computer. I put the majority of my pics on another drive other than the C drive and it seems to help with the performance of it. I'd still like to get an external drive for an added backup.

[~JILL~]

Come on guys, all I have is my little Kodak(it's pink so it's cute). And I'm a computer IDIOT! I'm looking for something I can plug in and all my picurtes just go there.

I'll just keep putting them onto my pin drive, thumb drive what ever the hell it's called.

[RUn2it]

What do you guys use to store your pictures? Not just on the computer, memory card or digital photo storage device? Need a place to store photos for back-up.

I had an external hard drive for backup and the 1st time I tried to retrieve something it wouldn't spool up so I just back all pics up to DVDs, when a hard drive won't at least spin even data retrieval/migration software doesn't work, but if my DVD fails my pics are safe.

[ltr450]

Just got a smokin deal on a canon 30d for $400.00 and i'm in the market for a camera lens now...

Getting a camera is the easy part..but lens shopping sucks a$$.. just don't know where too start so many lens out there I thinking of start off with a good starter lens, just don't know what that is

Edited April 6, 2009 by ltr450

[dunefreak]

That's badass, Pete.

Yeah, it can be quite the headache trying to pick out a lens.

For a walk around lens, I really like my 28-135mm though.

B&H is the best place to chop in my opinion. Check em out.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/8454/SL..._for_Canon.html

[ltr450]

thanks-PETE, Got my eye on that same lens for $200.00 on ebay..we'll see what happens tomarrow..

holly hell, I'm going too need a serious geek squad for this thing... wtf is all this stuff on this camera anyways

[ltr450]

first few pic from my new canon 30d with a 28-135mm lens.. Just learning what do you think!!!

my neice see just loves to take pictures...LOL

[dunefreak]

wow! Not bad at all, Pete. Great job man. You seem to already have the hang of it.

Nice cropping on those too.

[ltr450]

thanks -Pete, do you adjust any of the white balance or shutter speeds to take every day walk around pictures or is that for more telephoto shooting!!!!!!

[dunefreak]

thanks -Pete, do you adjust any of the white balance or shutter speeds to take every day walk around pictures or is that for more telephoto shooting!!!!!!

Stop yelling at me!!!!!!!

I make adjustments to just about everything every time I shoot. It seems complicated at first, but eventually it comes natural. Most of the time I shoot in TV mode (shutter priority). That mode fits best 75% or more of the time for me.

As for white balance: Auto works well if it's well lit or sunny, otherwise if it's overcast or super bright out I adjust it accordingly using the settings like cloudy, sunny, etc. You can even experiment with the color temperature and create even better sunsets by setting it to 5-8K for more orange saturated skies.

I don't ever shoot in auto mode anymore. When I do (which is when I don't feel like thinking), it's still in P mode instead of FULL auto. Auto mode hardly ever works for the pics I want. P mode (program) is a better auto mode to use. It picks your shutter speed and aperature size automatically, but allows you to still make minor changes such as ISO, white balance, exposure, no flash, etc.

Until you learn how each setting affects the photo you are taking, start out use P mode and keep everything on auto, see what shutter speeds the camera selects for each condition. Eventually you will understand what speed shutter will work. Then you can start messing with the settings to take better pics.

Feel free to ask any questions or pick my brain about this stuff. I like sharing what I have learned so far. I don't know it all, but I have slowly grasped the concept and know most the answers for those starting out. Besides, maybe it will help other members take better pics. I'm just saying.

[80grit]

I kinda liked this sunrise shot with all the reflections.

Shot it from my hotel room window.

[dunefreak]

Nice shot Rob.

[RUn2it]

OK, need to do something on this thread

Pete, 80grit, 330(?) or anyone that's game

Want some feedback as different monitors display colors, brightness etc different, besides keeping the thread alive, and have 3 versions of the same cropped and resized pic. The 1st is cropped/resized only, the 2nd one has been adjusted and sharpened, the last one is the 2nd pic tweaked more except the same amount of sharpening as the 2nd. The ? is, in your opinion, is the last 1 look better than the 2nd and tell me what and/or how I did it. Click em to get the resolution synched

Edited May 8, 2009 by RUn2it

[Jakster884]

well I am not one of the 3 mentioned but my opinion is the second picture looks better. Color looks more defined. The last pic looks like you brightened it up. The rims are cleaner and pic as a whole is brighter. From my eyes Pic 2 is just about perfect.

[RUn2it]

well I am not one of the 3 mentioned but my opinion is the second picture looks better. Color looks more defined. The last pic looks like you brightened it up. The rims are cleaner and pic as a whole is brighter. From my eyes Pic 2 is just about perfect.

Are you viewing a laptop/notebook computer?

The reason I ask is if you duplicate a pic and stack them the 1 on top will look dark compared to the bottom pic on a notebook usually

Edited May 8, 2009 by RUn2it

[Jakster884]

I am viewing from my PC. Samsung Liquid crytal Monitor. Great color. I get what you are saying. But the second still has a deeper color.

[dunefreak]

2nd one looks best to me. The 3rd one seems a bit too bright in the darker areas...like too much shadow highlighting. I find that when I go too much it makes things like tires look too gray instead of black (how they really look). I think it's ok to have some areas kinda dark as long as the main subject is bright and clear. There's really no reason we need to be able to see inside Jerry's wheel wells that good.

Besides, the darker areas look a bit grainy when lightened up that much.

[RUn2it]

2nd one looks best to me. The 3rd one seems a bit too bright in the darker areas...like too much shadow highlighting. I find that when I go too much it makes things like tires look too gray instead of black (how they really look). I think it's ok to have some areas kinda dark as long as the main subject is bright and clear. There's really no reason we need to be able to see inside Jerry's wheel wells that good.

Besides, the darker areas look a bit grainy when lightened up that much.

Good answers guys, but the tires in the last pic aren't gray, same as #2, and I over did the shadow lightning to get the other end of the spectrum compared to the out of camera #1. So clicking the pics and sidexside, what about Jerry's door? What do you see, what difference? What about Jerry's helmet and that area, too light also?

I have 11 different color profiles for my display adapter, most displays have too much blue (above 6500). 8 months experimenting and tweaking ICC profiles for printing, even bought color profile writing software, would only affect a wide range of hue/saturations (junk imo) finally found a program that lets you change everything but complicated. I could have used Epson ink and paper but would have spent more than $15,000 for all the printing I've done. Printers are like razors, cheap but then you are stuck buying proprietary blades. ANYWAY .... You guys do any photo printing yourself?

[RUn2it]

DUH! lol, I clicked and put them side by side, I goofed, I usually make a copy, make it light then clone the light wheels, helmet etc onto the orig pic, this time I cloned the dark tires onto the light pic.......

Pretty bad when you don't understand yourself.....

[dunefreak]

I think you U R 2in2it. I think once you have stared at a pic long enough you start to over-analyze it and start messing with how something is supposed to look like. I do the same thing. I get something super sharp and get the shadows light enough to see every detail, but then when I come back to it later and quickly glance at it I go "ewww, wtf did I do that that pic?" lol

If you are concentrating on Jerry's door, yes 3 looks the clearest, but we aren't looking at just the door. That door is in a shadow and when you look at the pic as a whole it is too bright, IMO. It almost looks too saturated too. For some reason when I look at #3 that door jumps out at me and doesn't look right. Those tires almost look blue to me.