yeah almost never able to bounce - I am still using the basic Stofen.

 

Srika, something you need to get off your chest?

 

wha.. can't a man ramble.

 

Do you dial your FEC way down? *brain-picking* - you so rarely have distracting hot spots and ickiness - they look great. Am I a girl, so I'm not even distracted by the cleavage!!

 

no I don't touch FEC (I have been meaning to play with it but usually forget). If you're talking about skin, I do general post-processing to, well, make people look better. But not much usually - only for shots that I feel need it. (If it's someone that was bugging me that night or someone I kinda don't like because they bug me all the damn time I'll leave the blemishes in... haha j/k... or am I...) It also depends on the FL - if you have a body or torso shot you don't have to do as much because there isn't as much detail on the websize. If you have a face shot, you do have to account for the detail on these cameras, more often than not they show too much. If I see very apparent blemishes and spots I'll quickly go over them with the clone or spot-healing tools, as localized as possible.

If you're talking about the whole shot in general, as part of the finishing process I do a quick glance-over and if I see any distracting elements I usually remove them. I'm pretty anal about it and will even remove like garbage from the floor, if there's a garbage can noticeably in the near background I'll clone it out, things like that. lol. A shot of a hot girl standing next to the garbage just doesn't look good. Also applies to other things, like shooting cars next to dumpsters - which people do ALL the time! Maybe its just a pet-peeve of mine, but damn. At least in that situation you have control over it since its a "shoot". In the club you don't always have control over what's in the background - you might have a smokin' bartender ready for a hot shot and it's just not feasible to ask her to move somewhere where there's a better background - usually. Although I have in the past - and successfully - depending on my mental state lol.

 

I need to get a good flash. My father in law sent me a couple old vivitar flashes to play with and either I'm not using it right or there is just not that much user control on them. Bounced off the ceiling they work great but if I aim it at the subject, it's way too harsh.

 

You have to compensate for the flash. I would get a Nikon flash it would be easier to use, because of CLS, Creative Lighting System.

 

hmm. I'll have to play with it sometime.

 

at the bolded parts.

Great info from a working photog.

 

to elaborate on this, you know some people have characteristic moles or other features and I won't remove those. I mean if its very obviously a permanent physical trait, I won't touch it. That ain't right, imo. If it's a big ass pimple yeah, it's outta there.

 

I know what you mean about modern cameras resolving detail. It's not always flattering to your female subjects to have every flaw revealed. Old timers used to use gel filters and stuff to soften the subject (they might still, I don't know), but digital SLR's really show everything.

 

right now I'm doing something I pretty much never do (only done it once in the past).. working on this photo of two bartenders, one of them looks seriously pissed I mean she has this "not another photo" why-so-serious look going on..... yeah I'm gonna make her look happier.. LOL will be up on my flickr momentarily.....

 

Can you post the original here? I'd like to see a before and after

 

sure...

before:
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7363/img93811024.jpg

after:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3622/...9d5f8412_b.jpg

fun to compare with 2 tabs in Firefox and mouse scroll wheel to switch between em

I would ideally have liked to not cut off the girl's hand but this was one of those quick-shot circumstances with not much time to properly frame and compose..

 

I have to look when I get home.

 

Ohh hey, what's a good program or website to make an animated gif?

 

theres tons out there. i use my old school animation shop in paint shop pro 7, lol.

 

some nice info man !
haha man i always got that about the dumpsters thing i don't really think about it in the past shoots but now I even pick up and move garbage when possible.

if not patch or clone out haha... really sucks when its a dirty place.

 

Liquefy FTW.

 

i have to ask, why did you clone out those dots above the "cash only" sign and the red spec i guess above the pouty lipped bartender?

 

they were bugging me, lol. I also cloned out the CASH ONLY from the piece of paper on the right side.. total distraction.

 

ohh.. guess its not quite the original original.




ohh yea must not forget the obligatory

 

lol ok just for you here is the ORIGINAL original, original.

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/894/img938121024.jpg

 

ooh, thanks

 

I'm having a hell of a morning with Ebay. I had my 50D body on there and the winning bidder is from Ukraine where as my listing clearly states multiple times that the item ships to the US only! Ebay says it's my fault because I didn't block bidders from areas that I don't ship to and I need to contact the buyer to work it out. Here I thought people these days actually read something before spending their money! So frustrating!!!

This is in C&P because it's a camera on ebay

 

I'd tell ebay that they're not pinning this on me. If if clearly states US address only, then it's not a sell.

 

That's what I told them. They said I had to get the bidder to agree to cancel the sale in order to get my listing and final value fees back. If the buyer does not agree then I have to open a dispute.

Ebay suggests I call the winning bidder and work out a resolution. That's exactly what I'm going to do, spend my money to call Ukraine! Fucking idiots.

 

Well one good thing happened this morning! My Sigma lens arrived that took them 4 weeks to calibrate. This thing is tack sharp using AF now!!!

 

Send a notice to the seller that since they won the bid on an auction that clearly stated US only, that they will have to get payment to use in US funds within 7 days and that item will not ship until those funds complete clear 3-4 weeks. And that shipping will be... (check how much it would cost to actually ship the package to the Ukraine for overnight and 2 or 3 day) It should be like $75 to $100.

I'll bet they'll back out.

hell I just check, it'll cost $256 to ship to the Ukraine.

Ship To:
KIEV, 01004, UKRAINE
Ship From:
22033, UNITED STATES
Shipment Date:
Friday, November 6, 2009
Total Shipment Weight:
6 lbs.
Customs Value:
1,200.00 USD

 

This probably could have gone in Srika's "location" thread (a.k.a the Tao of Photography thread) but I thought I'd throw it in here.

-Vincent Versace from the afterward of David DuChemin’s book Within the Frame

Just curious if anyone feels this quote applies to them. If so, who/what/when? A single image seems like somewhat of an idealistic example.

I can’t really say there was ever one specific image that lit a fire like this quote, but for me, it was definitely the work of one photographer. I started getting back into the hobby about eight months or so before a family trip to Alaska. That state just blew me away when I was there. When I got home I started searching for pictures of the remote parts of Denali National Park which lead me to the work of Galen Rowell which I basically fell in love with. There's just something about his work that really speaks to me.

 

I was thinking about this some more - can't you compensate for flash using the basic adjustments (shutter, aperture, ISO)? I mean, that's what I do, with every flash shot?

 

You can do it both ways


let me add, with using Nikon, it has been much easier just adjust flash comp. With Canon I adjusted camera exposure to compensate.

 

 

 

 

I think if the flash is popping real bright though, it's a bit too much?
You have to stop the shot down so far that uhhh, I don't know.
I'm trying to figure this out.

Srika, when you shoot, what direction do you point you flash with the stofen? forwards? above their head?

- Frank

 

Well, that's the balance you have to achieve. As unpredictable as my typical shooting environments are, I'll usually do a test shot just as the people are getting ready, and take a quick glance to see what the test looks like - and then adjust the flash accordingly - I'll move it forward, or leave it straight up, or even angled towards the back, if it looks like there's too much. I'll also dial it down on the flash if its like, way too much (or the opposite). Kinda depends on how I'm feeling too - sometimes I just want to get the shot, and I'll go conservative on it and not try to experiment and rather, use some setting I am *pretty sure* will work.

Another thing that has helped me in the past - if you take one picture and it looks great, make a quick mental note of what position your flash was in, look around at your surroundings and see what it bounced off of, and try to keep those cues in mind for the next shots - if you see certain areas where your shots are coming out great, hang around there with your camera visibly out and let people ask for shots there so you can quickly compose them next to similar positions and nail those shots. (Also try to find the most populated area you can, to do this).

Over the weekend at a halloween party this exact thing happened, they had put up a wallpaper with an awesome blue pattern and Jason standing there with his sword and mask on, but I had a couple of drinks and was having a good time and it didn't really occur to me that this would make a great backdrop, until I happened to fire *a shot of a girl standing in front of it*, checked out the preview and was like "this looks good" and then ensued a barrage of more shots with everyone else in varying positions and angles next to the wall. If you wanna see click here, it starts on page 5.

Another tip which most of you probably already know - never shoot perpendicular to mirrors or glass or other reflective objects - this will cause the flash to bounce off the reflection and basically cancel itself out - shoot at an angle in those cases - many times people will like to assemble in front of such places - it's easy to get them to move, just position yourself at the angle and show that you are aiming your camera at an angle and they will almost automatically move, without you even having to say anything. YMMV though. haha. Another potentially bad thing about shooting into a reflection is that you'll get the reflection in the shot - but sometimes you might want this. You can also try shooting people in the reflections, this is a great tactic and can result in some really nice shots.

 

Going to rent a 24-70 2.8 L for next weekend

 

I can't rent one of those. I just know I'll have to have one after i rent it. Same with the 85L

 

interesting....

Will Full-Frame D-SLRs Take Over The World?
DPP talks to several photographers who weigh in on the future of full-frame, APS-C and medium-format technology and the potential for professionals

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/gear/...the-world.html