Bunkershot, I cannot answer your question because I use only the one setting for the office where I do my Lightroom work. What I can say is that calibration of my camera and computer has made a world of difference when I take the pictures to another media. I am sure that there is most likely answers to your specific question on the net through blogs and specific online conversations. Which I could have been more help with this specific question. Also check to see if Datacolor maintains any type of question and answer blog. Hope you find a satisfying answer to your question. Keep on shooting.
WJH

Calibration is only a starting point. Passing too much time or spending $$$ on this does not take into account that all the modification syou do later will influence the final viewing result knowing that:

- You taste will make you modify the Color balance
- Your health influences the way you perceive thing
The you have to deal with the reverse side of this coin...
- Is the viewer has a calibrated monitor? Probably not.
- Is the viewer sharing your taste?
- Is the viewer in good health?

This is a quick summary as to why 'extreme' calibrating does not work UNLESS you print. Even there there are issues to deal with that make accurate rendition nearly impossible.

Note:
A dew years ago I had eye surgery (cataract) and realized how bad my interpretation of color was. Most of my work reflected my eyes deficiencies.

The Darwin Award for Photography (Survivors Edition)
An "award" given to people who contribute the most to the evolution of humanity by removing their genes from the gene pool. Most of the recipients have ended up dead because of their stupidity.”


All of us have heard stories of people who have injured or killed themselves while being preoccupied taking a picture. I suspect that many of the serious UHH photographers have occasionally failed to exercise appropriate caution in their quest for getting one more shot from a new or unique perspective. Here is my true story.

Several years ago, I was working on a project in my office that involved traveling the country to photograph high rise office buildings where our company had completed transactions. In Los Angeles, one of the properties I selected had been featured in the opening credit sequence of the “LA Law” tv show. The challenge was to find a location that would allow me to capture the entire 44 story building as well as the beautiful plaza in front of the building.

I decided that a rooftop shot from a nearby building could suit my needs. I contacted the landlord and made arrangements for my brief visit to the top of the building. Upon arriving, I was told a security guard would accompany me to the roof. However, as we got off the elevator two levels before the roof, the guard told me to go up alone as he had a call to make. I proceeded to the rooftop helipad and had the most magnificent view of downtown.

It was then that I discovered there was a problem. The helipad was the highest point of the building but it was located in the center of the building, away from the edge of the roof. As such, I was not able to access the angle I needed for my photo of the plaza and building. What to do?

I looked everywhere but could not see access to the roofs edge. I told myself there must be a creative solution to my little problem. Then I noticed that just a couple of feet below the edge of the helipad was the ventalatintg system for the building. This consisted of an area or approx. 20 ft. x40 ft. Think of a 30 ft. deep concrete shoebox that contained 3 whirling fans with 18ft. blades. An impassible object, right. Except, suspended over the blades was a 18 in. wide beam running to the edge of the roof. In a moment of pure inspiration I said to myself “If I just walk the beam, over the whirring blades, I will be at the edge of the roof.

I did not immediately embrace this idea. For a full 5 minutes I thought about the potential consequence of falling to my death. As I was 67 years old, I didn’t want to make a rash decision that I might soon regret. I could think of many reasons not to be a “dead man walking”. These included not having said goodby to my wife and kids and the probable pain of having my body sliced like a piece of sushi. I wasn’t worried about hitting the concrete floor as I would already be dead by the time gravity was finished with my little adventure.

Five minutes was up. Either I would man up and walk the beam or I would retreat and for the rest of my life I would tell the story about the one that got away. Finally, I decided that I could never be a real photographer if I couldn’t face some risk. I stood tall and “bullied” myself to believing that I would be capturing one of the great photo opportunities of all time.

Ah, but I would be cautious. Instead of holding my camera, I would put the strap around my neck so that I could use both arms for balance. (Well, the Wallendas do it.) With my new found confidence, I proceed to the beam. I was now committed and took my first step. I was thinking of how I would tell my friends of what I had done and how, with each telling, the beam would become longer and narrower.

Carefully, I took a second step, then a third and just as I was about to take the fourth step it happened. The beam deflected. For “Ch…t Sakes” it bent. It wasn’t a beam at all it was an air duct that had been painted the same color as the metal flashing around my metal crypt. At this point I was a shoo in for the 2009 Darwin Award.

To say that my life flashed before my eyes would be an understatement. My heart stopped but I knew what I had to do. I would turn around and tip toe back to safety. I am probably the first human to achieve total and complete weightlessness at sea level. I pirouetted like Nureyev and scampered onto the roof at which time my heart restarted and tried to leap from my chest. At that point I collapsed in gratitude that my family would not have to answer questions about my whereabouts for the rest of their lives.

After composing myself, I was surprised how quickly the profound shaking and sweating stopped, I walked back down the stairs to the security guard and he asked how it had gone. I responded I did not get the photo I came for because I couldn’t get to the edge of the building. With that he opened the door we were standing next to and took me on to a wider portion of a lower roof where my dreamed of vantage point awaited. Following is my picture, now titled “Death Trap”. It was shot with a Canon 5D II and a 24-107 L lens. I think I had my stabilizer off as the shaking had stopped.


Please feel free to comment or share one of your tales of near disaster. Personal attacks or disparaging remarks on myself, while justified, will be ignored.

I've been shooting flowers for a long time. Practically all of my work has been with on-camera flash. Several months ago I ventured into off-camera flash, purchasing a Godox XPro transmitter, and initially doing all of the flash work hand-held. With hand-holding the flash I had to use a remote shutter, which posed no problem; just a real pain running back and forth between camera and flash positions. Then a couple of weeks ago I finally decided that I absolutely had to have a light stand to get the results that I was looking for without having to walk around with a flash in my hand. This morning I took my first shots of a White Mandevilla that my wife recently picked up. I used my Nikon 105mm Full-Frame Macro at a focal length of about 3 feet with my Godox TT685 mounted on a light stand that was positioned off to the left at about ten o'clock. IMO you can't beat off-camera flash for controlling the effect of light on any subject. I'm hooked!

Hi all,

After getting advice here about color calibrating my laptop, I went with the Color Munki Display, about $130. It was easy to install and use and took about 5 minutes, reads the room light then hang it on the monitor and run through a bunch of colors to adjust the monitor, save a profile, so far so good. So here is a before and after of a recent shot of a hibiscus flower. I messed with the exposure, contrast, and color balance before and after running the color munki, judging by eye. So do you see a difference, pro or con?

I came across this flower while walking dogo and came back to try and capture it. Setting up for one shot, the background was a building that wasn't helping the shot so dropping the tripod down low and aiming it upwards gave a different view. Luckily my flower was pointing somewhat downwards. I took the shot but as you can see in the first picture, the sky was bright and I'm blowing out my highlights. It's okay but can the flash make it better? So test shooting the flower until I lost the background, I setup my flash and took test shots to just bring up the background sky as the sun was setting. Note it was still bright outside but the flash is controlling the light so I can make the background as dark as ... I feel like. Having the flash off camera and on a stand, I just wasn't getting the look I wanted mainly because of the shadows using one light source. Time to hand hold ... the flash and move it about taking many test shots, until the light was reflecting strong on my main flower and softer on everything else, my shutter allowing a night look to the background. And as you can see in the second shot, using the flash wins once again. Cheers