Do you have a Best Buy in your area? Some of those stores are surprisingly good for photo gear. And they price match many others and offer a 30 day return policy. You could do worse...
Personally I am a believer that photographers should always strive for the sharpest image they can get. The reality is that the best fast lens of yesteryear at full aperture simply are not close to today's standards.
The legacy lenses can be quite good at f/8, but then where is the allure?
I do see them for soft focus portraiture. But little else. What good is bokeh when even the in focus portion of a shot is not terribly sharp?
Beautiful set of shots. And the collection of them strengthens the whole.
Lovely work.
Improving system sharpness is usually hard to do and expensive. Better optics and higher pixel count in the sensor are the most important components. For example, doubling the number of pixels in the sensor will MAYBE get you a 25% improvement is system resolution. Using the lowest possible ISO for the situation is usually a positive. And then there is Topaz AI Sharpen - a very cheap way to gain significant improvement much of the time.
Part of the Topaz output is illusion. Topaz often will not recover fuzzy numbers on a mail box or license plate for example. But the mailbox or license plate frame will appear tack sharp. Topaz reconstructs the image as it thinks it is - and is very nearly always right. But if there is simply not enough detail available it can't work miracles - but often you will swear it did.
I consider it one of my best photography investments.
Cheers
I must respectfully disagree. $120 will buy you elegant and fully capable software that you will own and not be required to be continue paying rent for the rest of your days. Yes, other programs will have a learning curve - as do the Adobe programs.
Adobe users very much tend to be smug and consider that you are not a photographer if you aren't using LR and PS. I see that as accepting a slave collar.
There are a million pictures out there of Crater Lake. Yours is definitely one of the best.
Affinity is an incredible bargain at $50 and is often on sales for less. Luminar is in its own way very powerful, and offers a fairly good library organization.
Suggest you go to YouTube and look for JCristina, then look for his series "Cutting the Cord" in which he evaluates all the various software packages that replace Photoshop and Lightroom, either for free or for a fraction of the cost, and without monthly payments.
Thanks for your comments!
A friend asked me my opinion of DigiKam, which apparently has a major new release out.
I had to confess I never had heard of it until his query. But looking into it a bit, it looks like it might be a pretty good photo organizer and library program. And it is freeware.
I could use a good organizer, but I am wondering how intuitive and easy it is to use? I've had enough of steep learning curves.
I would very much appreciate honest comments on the program, whether favorable or negative.
Thanks!
My sister who lives near Chicago told me she had to go to the store.
I asked her if she was taking a mask or a brick?
I wasn't really criticizing at all - I'm just jealous! It is a fabulous shot and technically outstanding.
Cheers
Bob
I use the new Chromium based Edge and I really like it.
I am sympathetic to resisting software forced upon me, but you don't have to actually use it. And it is nowhere as bad as people like Adobe who "give" you a "protection" program that is guaranteed to slow your computer down when you update their crappy programs unless you are VERY vigilant.
I agree that the sepia treatment might be just the ticket here.
Your S.O. should definitely pick up the A6500. The image stabilization of the 6500 will make a huge improvement, especially with a 350 mm lens. If the lens is the Sony 70-350 the improvement is startling. I went through the same sequence - I own the 70-350 mm lens and the A6500, and an A6000.
I suggest buying through KEH - you pay little more than most eBay prices AND you get a 30 day money back and 6 month warranty. Also, I recommend Gary Friedman's book on the A6500 - it is exhaustive and covers everything. (I have no connection with either firm except as a happy customer.)
Cheers
Your S.O. should definitely pick up the A6500. The image stabilization of the 6500 will make a huge improvement, especially with a 350 mm lens. If the lens is the Sony 70-350 the improvement is startling. I went through the same sequence - I own the 70-350 mm lens and the A6500, and an A6000.
I suggest buying through KEH - you pay little more than most eBay prices AND you get a 30 day money back and 6 month warranty. Also, I recommend Gary Friedman's book on the A6500 - it is exhaustive and covers everything. (I have no connection with either firm except as a happy customer.)
Cheers