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Topic: Digital Camera & Photoshop tips (Read 336373 times)
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Yoshimaru
Terracotta Army
Posts: 110
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I've tried astrophotography a few time with varying degrees of success. The biggest things you can do are: Pre-focus on infinity before it gets dark, trying to get stars in focus at night is a bitch. Make sure your tripod is secure, and use a remote or time-delay release, the movement caused by pressing the shutter button is enough to cause noticeable blurriness. Bump up your ISO as far as it will go before too much noise starts showing up. Try and get as far away from light sources as you can, the amount of time that you can expose for relies on this.
On a more artistic note, silhouetting things against the sky easy and pretty cool.
Here are a few decent shots that I've gotten in the past.
All were taken with a Nikon D60 with the stock 18-55mm lens.
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K9
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7441
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Those aren't half bad, nice.
On an unrelated note, I'm having an issue with Lightroom where the final image I see inside the program does not tally with what gets exported. Generally the contrast seems to get exaggerated in the export process. Is this an artifact of tweaking the image too much, or is it a fundamental issue with the exporting process or .jpeg file format? I'm opting to export to the highest quality jpeg I can, but this is bugging me still.
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I love the smell of facepalm in the morning
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
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On an unrelated note, I'm having an issue with Lightroom where the final image I see inside the program does not tally with what gets exported. Generally the contrast seems to get exaggerated in the export process. Is this an artifact of tweaking the image too much, or is it a fundamental issue with the exporting process or .jpeg file format? I'm opting to export to the highest quality jpeg I can, but this is bugging me still.
I hadn't exported more than a few images so I wasn't comparing but just did so. Yeah, in LR3 the exported .jpg is definitely darker than what I'm seeing on screen in the program. Even on shots I haven't played with at all. Tweaking the color format of the .jpg and quality on export does nothing but make them darker.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Mosesandstick
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Posts: 2476
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The only thing I can guess of from the top of my head is that you're using uncalibrated monitors, and the jpeg compression causes the tonal range to go wonky.
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K9
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7441
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hmm, I have no idea how to calibrate my monitor, I'll give it a go though
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I love the smell of facepalm in the morning
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
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The only thing I can guess of from the top of my head is that you're using uncalibrated monitors, and the jpeg compression causes the tonal range to go wonky.
I thought I'd calibrated it properly, but I didn't use a piece of hardware, only a manual calibration program. However, since both are being viewed on the same monitor, it doesn't make sense to me why it would look different. Even if it was the .jpg compression doing it, I exported to a TIFF as well and had the same result.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Mosesandstick
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Posts: 2476
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What programs are you using the view the jpgs and tiffs?
Edit: What colour space are you using as well?
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K9
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Posts: 7441
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The only thing I can guess of from the top of my head is that you're using uncalibrated monitors, and the jpeg compression causes the tonal range to go wonky.
I thought I'd calibrated it properly, but I didn't use a piece of hardware, only a manual calibration program. However, since both are being viewed on the same monitor, it doesn't make sense to me why it would look different. Even if it was the .jpg compression doing it, I exported to a TIFF as well and had the same result. This was my experience too. I tried viewing the images in both windows photo viewer and windows photo gallery
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I love the smell of facepalm in the morning
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Mosesandstick
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Posts: 2476
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Some programs don't correct images for the colour space used, which is what could be causing the problem.
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Bunk
Contributor
Posts: 5828
Operating Thetan One
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Same thing i was going to say - different colorspace makes images in my CS3 look distinctly different from the default windows viewer.
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"Welcome to the internet, pussy." - VDL "I have retard strength." - Schild
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Merusk
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Some programs don't correct images for the colour space used, which is what could be causing the problem.
This is the case. My default .jpg viewer is an old, old, ooooold version of PaintShopPro I actually own. (ver 6.0 when it was still Jasc.. from sometime around 1999) I opened the file in a new trial version of Pro Ultimate and, hey, it looks like it should. Thanks for the heads up, I had no idea about this stuff. Good to know.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Mosesandstick
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Posts: 2476
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 I just hope we don't move on to printer calibration anytime soon 
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K9
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7441
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So, with respect to getting photos printed, I should probably just trust LR3? Even if the picture looks a tad screwy in other viewers?
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I love the smell of facepalm in the morning
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apocrypha
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Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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If you're going to be using a lab, or online service of any kind for printing then I highly recommend a batch of test prints before doing a large run. Getting 2-4 10x8" prints done for this is money well spent in the long run.
You can get a colour checker chart (used to be called a Gretag-Macbeth) to do this, but that's kinda expensive. You'll probably be fine with few photos with a range of colours and some skin tones, and compare the prints to how they look on your monitor.
Ideally you'd view the prints under a daylight lamp and have photos shot under sunlight, indoors with tungsten and flash-only lit, but again it depends on how anal you want to be about it.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Merusk
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 I just hope we don't move on to printer calibration anytime soon  Nah, printer color calibration is something I'm aware of and have had to deal with before due to rendering outputs. The past few months have been my first serious foray into image processing and manipulation so wasn't aware of the whole color space issue thing with my old viewer. Again, many thanks for that. I suppose I should read a book instead of just playing "fiddle with the programs" like I do with everything else. 
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Soln
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Posts: 4737
the opportunity for evil is just delicious
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can someone please recommend a good and reliable scanner for photo slides and old film? It seems after reading Amazon reviews a lot of them are dodgy on quality and adaptability. Asking for a parental gift. Thanks.
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Ookii
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 2676
is actually Trippy
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Hello I am somewhat happy with this picture, I didn't really know how to punch it up. I think this works, though I wish I took a better picture in the first goddamn place. 
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Nice. You know I'm no photoshop expert, but a couple of things I'd say would be don't be afraid to get a bit crazy with levels/curves adjustments and blow some of the highlights out to get the wall to go white, and similarly crank the shadows down deeper, but I do like my high contrast! One tiny thing that I notice is the flash shadow on the wall from her dress on the right hand side. I'd try softening that myself. Have you ever tried any "manual HDR" type stuff too? I.e. layering different exposures (from a single RAW) and painting them in through a mask with a very low opacity brush? Joey Lawrence is very, very good at it, and it's a great way to a) selectively increase local contrast and b) waste hours of your life! 
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Samwise
Moderator
Posts: 19324
sentient yeast infection
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One tiny thing that I notice is the flash shadow on the wall from her dress on the right hand side. I'd try softening that myself.
THAT's the thing you notice in that picture? I am obviously not cut out to be a photographer.
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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It's an affliction. I need help, clearly. 
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Ookii
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 2676
is actually Trippy
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Nice. You know I'm no photoshop expert, but a couple of things I'd say would be don't be afraid to get a bit crazy with levels/curves adjustments and blow some of the highlights out to get the wall to go white, and similarly crank the shadows down deeper, but I do like my high contrast! One tiny thing that I notice is the flash shadow on the wall from her dress on the right hand side. I'd try softening that myself. Have you ever tried any "manual HDR" type stuff too? I.e. layering different exposures (from a single RAW) and painting them in through a mask with a very low opacity brush? Joey Lawrence is very, very good at it, and it's a great way to a) selectively increase local contrast and b) waste hours of your life!  Yeah, I actually screwed around with the levels quite a bit until I settled on that. I was trying to avoid harsh shadows, though what I do really just depends on my mood. I hate HDR pictures, including JoeyL's which is suprising. That guy's personal work is fantastic, who brings a blad and a 8 foot octobox into the most remote places on earth?
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
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It's an affliction. I need help, clearly.  Crap, I saw it too. To my credit AFTER the boobs, but I still saw it.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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I hate HDR pictures, including JoeyL's which is suprising. That guy's personal work is fantastic, who brings a blad and a 8 foot octobox into the most remote places on earth?
Yeah, that's why I put it in ""'s, cos it's not really HDR - I also find the usual HDR look very boring and contrived now. I mean it more as a tool for very selectively changing highlight and shadow tone, often just in tiny areas of a photo.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Mosesandstick
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2476
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On the topic of HDR, I've been trying out different programs to see whether I could get something I liked. The main programs I've played with are CS4, photomatix, SNS-HDR and Oloneo. Imho CS4 doesn't deliver at all, though CS5 supposedly does. Photomatix is (I think) the most popular HDR software around, but I'm still ambivalent towards it. SNS-HDR is the easiest program I've ever seen to creating these. Oloneo is currently free, which makes it my recommendation =) Will try and post some samples of what I've played around with soon.
With photo calibration, some programs (not sure if LR does it) will do a "preview" of what a photo looks like if you can supply an ICC printer profile.
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TripleDES
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1086
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In regards to Lightroom and color calibration, at some point it all just pissed me off and stripped all ICM profiles out of Windows' display settings. Virtually no one has properly calibrated monitors, not even speaking of displays actually capable of showing decent colors (i.e. anything that ain't TN panels). And I'm not going to send them to print.
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EVE (inactive): Deakin Frost -- APB (fukken dead): Kayleigh (on Patriot).
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Ookii
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 2676
is actually Trippy
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Another one!  I'm not having any luck finding models out here, it was much easier in AZ. Bah.
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Bunk
Contributor
Posts: 5828
Operating Thetan One
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Yea, not my favorite of your models. Do like the lighting though.
Where did you end up moving to again?
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"Welcome to the internet, pussy." - VDL "I have retard strength." - Schild
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Ookii
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 2676
is actually Trippy
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Yea, not my favorite of your models. Do like the lighting though.
Where did you end up moving to again?
Back to Maryland.
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
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Not near a college or are all the college girls near you not hungry or big enough drinkers that they'll model for $50?
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Ookii
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 2676
is actually Trippy
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Not near a college or are all the college girls near you not hungry or big enough drinkers that they'll model for $50?
This is where it gets interesting. I actually happen to be really close to GMU, but generally I find my models on ModelMayhem. In this area most models don't do TFP (trade for print, aka free) it seems, so I put out an ad for 25 bucks an hour. I got a ton of responses, but most of the models are not worthy of paying. I'm also not making any money off this, so it seems silly sometimes to pay people. It also looks like there are a ton of creepy photographers in this area, so I can understand why models tend to only look for paid assignments. I guess I'll have to network or something.
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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I've been having similar problems actually.
I've got really fed up with the models that will do TFP being completely unreliable - turning up late, not turning up at all, not replying to emails for weeks, cancelling at the last minute etc. So I started looking for models who did paid assignments and there's this enormous gulf between unattractive models (and I mean REALLY unattractive sometimes) wanting £25/hour to get their kit off and obviously pro models wanting £60/hour minimum 3 hour shoots for normal modelling.
I'm not interested in doing nude shots, I'm trying to build a business portfolio and I don't see that as a major market, I just want people who are going to be reliable, professional and reasonably priced.
Ah well, mostly on hold for a while anyway. Not having studio access means location shoots and the weather here is so foul at the moment that location shoots are just unpleasant. If I ever get paid for some of the freelance jobs I've done over the last couple of months I'll set up a couple of studio shoots with proper models.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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K9
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Posts: 7441
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Out of curiosity, are you only looking to shoot girls?
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I love the smell of facepalm in the morning
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Nope, I've shot a couple of guys, but men are less of a market for portraits than women are, apart from corporate type stuff.
I'm on the lookout for older guys to shoot (30+) but in my area Model Mayhem seems to only have gothy/alternative types, and a druid. For real.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Ookii
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 2676
is actually Trippy
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I find it hard to find guys who have the right "look", the acceptable deviation of attractiveness for girls is greater than that of guys.
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« Last Edit: December 17, 2010, 10:50:52 AM by Ookii »
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apocrypha
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Agreed, although what the guys do is the same as what a lot of models do - they put that ONE pouty, moody look on their faces and that's it. Yeah, this ain't a Vogue shoot. You're chances of getting Vogue shoots are slim to none, you're gonna be modelling washing-up brushes and stuff if you're lucky. SMILE FFS!
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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