[tisme]

EOS400D 24-205mm L EF Zoom, taken at night with in-built flash

[NFS]

Originally Posted by GarryF

Now that you have SLR addiction expect to spend a fortune on Lenses

I can see a better zoom lens being on the list at some point

I've already started thinking about getting an extension tube as well to use the 50mm lens for macro shots.

Originally Posted by tisme

EOS400D 24-205mm L EF Zoom, taken at night with in-built flash

I bet that hedgehog was scared when the flash went off

Went to Silverstone today for the freebie Renaultsport event. I took this from the stand on the infield side just after Copse using the 50mm lens:

[Porscha!]

I've just gone and bought myself a DSLR too, pictures to come!!

[Carrera RSR]

Messing about with my D40 at the weekend with the various settings. This one came out a little underexposed and got some relections on the door from another car.

[NFS]

Nice shot. If that was in RAW you could tweak the exposure very easily in Photoshop and save it.

With a JPEG it's harder, but this is a little brighter and the reflections are smudged away.

[- Paul -]

All these photos are making me want to get back into photography again - just STOP IT will you!!!!!

[Carrera RSR]

NFS - Thanks for that. Instant improvement.

I have been reading D40 for Dummies and various other articles on best mode of shooting and capturing the image. I don't have a Photoshop program yet and I am in the market for one. RAW v's Jpeg normal and Fine is an argument I'm toying with at the moment. Currently I am shooting in full 6.1 megapixal (maximum for D40) but in Jpeg normal due to file size and ease of storage and emailing/posting. Should I change to RAW? I will definately need a program to view and convert to Jpeg for other applications?

[NFS]

Originally Posted by carrerarsr

NFS - Thanks for that. Instant improvement.

I have been reading D40 for Dummies and various other articles on best mode of shooting and capturing the image. I don't have a Photoshop program yet and I am in the market for one. RAW v's Jpeg normal and Fine is an argument I'm toying with at the moment. Currently I am shooting in full 6.1 megapixal (maximum for D40) but in Jpeg normal due to file size and ease of storage and emailing/posting. Should I change to RAW? I will definately need a program to view and convert to Jpeg for other applications?

The Canon EOS 400d will only shoot in RAW when you are in the creative modes. Fully Auto and you are stuck with jpegs. So I'm always going to be working with both formats.

If you use photoshop (I use CS2) the 'camera raw' plug in is an absolute revelation.

With your photo I used the 'levels' adjustment which lets you 'correct' the exposure histogram on CS2. This is a bit of a blunt instrument with jpegs though because you often end up needing to make further adjustments to saturation, colour balance etc as well. It's a real trial and error exercise.

In RAW you get a slider for 'exposure' and it's a much more delicate and simple exercise. It also gives you access to some other really easy functions for colour balance, vignetting effects and some amazing sharpening effects which can save quite defocused images.

On that basis I would always try to shoot in Raw whenever possible then convert to jpeg afterward if space is an issue. You can always create resized versions of images using CS2 at any stage for email etc, so the base file size shouldn't be an issue.

Obviously, if you haven't got a photoshop type program shooting in RAW could be more of an issue. There are some free converter programmes out there, but I am not sure of their effectiveness. The software that comes with the Canon also allows RAW workflow, but I haven't tried it.

[GarryF]

I've found lightroom to be really good, still need photoshop now and again but most things can be done in lightroom, great for indexing etc too

[gIzzE]

Shotting in RAW I would guess over 80% of my pics are keepers, shooting in JPEG and I would guess that only 20% of my pics are keepers.
You can recover RAW pics that are not quite in focus, the incorrect colour temp., under or over exposed etc.

I am happy with 120 pics on a card with RAW, I know JPEG would give you maybe 500, but I would rather work on 120 than try and work through 500 that mat or may not work out.

[gIzzE]

I use Lightroom most of the time, Capture One 4 is also brilliant, definitely more detail recovered in the conversion. I think I will buy it, you can also use it on two PCs for $130, so I can have it on my Macbook too.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Shotting in RAW I would guess over 80% of my pics are keepers, shooting in JPEG and I would guess that only 20% of my pics are keepers.
You can recover RAW pics that are not quite in focus, the incorrect colour temp., under or over exposed etc.

I am happy with 120 pics on a card with RAW, I know JPEG would give you maybe 500, but I would rather work on 120 than try and work through 500 that mat or may not work out.

I totally agree. I've only just begun to work with it, but I've been amazed at the level from which you can 'save' an image in CS2 Camera Raw.

I had one image of my son which was quite out of focus and the 'sharpening' and 'luminance smoothing' in Camera Raw just totally rescued it.

[Carrera RSR]

gIzze, you mentioned using on a macbook. I have had a mac on the shopping list for some while... too many toys on the list, too little money!!! It was no use buying a mac to replace or live alongside my laptop with no photos or videos to work on. I bought a Sony HC3 HDV video camera in June last year and also bought a Nikon D40 a couple of weeks ago. I am now stock piling video and adding photos all the time. I now need to invest on a tool(s) to be able to use all this media and put to good use.
Any pointers from anyone to go with PC or Mac? Any programs that are good for a beginner who is willing to read up a little to get to grips with video/photos editing?
My choice at the moment would be a Macbook with Aperture and Final Cut Express to be able to combine the two for video highlighted with photos. I'd then only use the laptop for occaisional use and additional storage/backup.

Any thoughts from anyone?

[gIzzE]

I use just macs at home, and I use Windows at work. The Mac wins hands down for everything, gone are the days when you may struggle to find an app on teh mac, and even with some bizarre software like the BMW Parts catalogue you can have a small 10gig partition for Windows.

iVideo will do your video editing and pretty well too, you can use more professional apps like Final Cut, but you don't need it.
Aperture 2.0 is good, but Capture One 4 is better quality wise if not quite so slick as Apertures user interface.

My macbook pro is now 2 years old, it is a 15" core duo 2.2g with 2gig of ram, it is still fast enough for what I need, and in all that time I have never had to do anything like defrag, I think I have reinstalled Windows 4 or 5 times in the same time.
It just works!!
The problem Windows users have with Macs is getting their heads round how easy it is, Windows is a very old system and a very clumsy system, it should have been dumped years ago and they should have started again, complete new shell. However it is only the backwards compatabiliy that keep users coming back really, so they keep this dinosaur of a system going to keep the customers.

For email, web, photos, music, video etc. the Mac is years ahead imho.

If you want a machine to run point of sale, stock systems, inventory systems etc etc., then Windows is always going to win, but for the home user it really is a no brainer, got to be a Mac.

[Carrera RSR]

Thanks for that gIzzE. I thought as much. Just been on the Apple site to look at refurbished models. A good 25 - 33% off macbooks and macbook pros. Need to dig deep and get one soon.

[vivekk]

Originally Posted by carrerarsr

Messing about with my D40 at the weekend with the various settings. This one came out a little underexposed and got some relections on the door from another car.

Photoshop lets you be as creative as you like, especially when you're running it on a Mac!

Original shot:



Using a combination of image curve adjustment ('brightens' the shot), filtering & masking (sharpening of the car- which I didn't spend enough time on- you can tell by the gentle 'mistiness' just around the edge of the car), selective background blurring (makes the foreground car stand out over the backdrop), using dodge & burn (to lighten & darken different parts of the car's paintwork & tyres), using the healing brush (to remove the reflections in the car door), gradient filling (makes the foreground grass less blurry as you get closer to the car) & surface blurring (helps to smooth out the car's paintwork- used unscrupulously in the fashion magazine & cosmetic industry to cover up models' facial blemishes ), it isn't too difficult to make improvements to an image:

Photoshop-enhanced:




There have been numerous occasions when Paul (booforty) has asked me to touch up some of his own photos, before he was going to post them on some dating agency's website. Unfortunately, even I don't have sufficient processing power available to carry out a job like that.

Just a quick word of warning, however- knowing when to stop 'playing' is a skill in itself; if you go completely 'overboard', you'll produce shots which will attain the quality required for entry into the American 'SoCal' subforum.

All the best.

Viv

[Porscha!]

I have a D40 too New to it but I'm really enjoying it! Will post some pics up soon!

As for Windows V Mac - Mac EVERY TIME They look better and are just so much better for creative applications, thats if you are a creative person of course!

Viv do you work with photoshop? I'm doing a course on it in September, looking forward to it as I'm not great with it at the moment!!

[vivekk]

Originally Posted by Porscha!

I have a D40 too New to it but I'm really enjoying it! Will post some pics up soon!

As for Windows V Mac - Mac EVERY TIME They look better and are just so much better for creative applications, thats if you are a creative person of course!

Viv do you work with photoshop? I'm doing a course on it in September, looking forward to it as I'm not great with it at the moment!!

Porscha, I only use Photoshop as a hobby. I've used it for a few years & am pretty much self-taught.

Some of my friends use it professionally in their work & they help me out, if I ever need them to.

I think it's far more impressive to be sufficiently skilled to take a 'good' photo in the first place, than to be able to 'tweak' it to extremes in Photoshop afterwards.

All the best.

Viv

[Carrera RSR]

Viv, I have spotted your work elsewhere on the forum. Thanks for the tweaks here. A Mac is on the shopping list in the near future so just capturing a hell of a lot of media in the mean time. In the meantime I'm debating still with myself to switch from Jpeg fine to RAW. All shots prior to today were in normal. Switched to fine today and know the benefits of RAW but currently no program installed on a PC to deal with this.

Anyway I like what you have done with my shot. Thanks

[vivekk]

Originally Posted by carrerarsr

Viv, I have spotted your work elsewhere on the forum. Thanks for the tweaks here. A Mac is on the shopping list in the near future so just capturing a hell of a lot of media in the mean time. In the meantime I'm debating still with myself to switch from Jpeg fine to RAW. All shots prior to today were in normal. Switched to fine today and know the benefits of RAW but currently no program installed on a PC to deal with this.

Anyway I like what you have done with my shot. Thanks

No problem.

RAW is great for when you want to, or need to have the ability to modify the way in which your shots were taken originally.
Did you not receive the Canon Digital Photo Professional software with your camera?
Also, can you not shoot in JPEG & RAW simultaneously- I use both on my 450d just to compare shots?

As for getting a Mac- have a look here.

All the best.

Viv

[Porscha!]

My contribution .....

Yes I can See You!

Lake

The Secret Gate!

Road Signs!

Time to go home...

[NathanJT]

Faffing around in the garden last night.

A Hoverfly taking a rest:



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