Posts for: nikonnate
Mar 30, 2020 12:55:29 #
I'm annoyed.
My monitor visibly changes color on me from time to time (it's trippy watching the WB fade from obviously blue to obviously yellow and then waver in between a bit) and my printer is printing my not-very-pink kid in shades of deep pink. Note, he's not pink as a rose in real life. I haven't printed a good photo in nearly 2 months as a result of this.
So, beyond obviously needing a stable monitor, what's the good calibration software these days? I'm a hobbyist, I'm not going to dump a grand in to it, but I can easily come up with a good sum in a jiffy.
My monitor visibly changes color on me from time to time (it's trippy watching the WB fade from obviously blue to obviously yellow and then waver in between a bit) and my printer is printing my not-very-pink kid in shades of deep pink. Note, he's not pink as a rose in real life. I haven't printed a good photo in nearly 2 months as a result of this.
So, beyond obviously needing a stable monitor, what's the good calibration software these days? I'm a hobbyist, I'm not going to dump a grand in to it, but I can easily come up with a good sum in a jiffy.
Jan 7, 2020 09:10:06 #
It gets to be quite annoying, regardless of whether it's a response to you or to another. I've been disappointed by a few people with gorgeous portfolios but seemingly little ability to respond without some really condescending comment about needing to go mirrorless or needing to accept that they will always suck until they buy a better camera. Sarcastic or not, it's the opposite of helpful, and the consequence unfortunately is that I now have zero regard for any of their opinions or thoughts.
Conversely, there are a number who I admire and listen to. Thankfully there are many more admired than ignored.
Conversely, there are a number who I admire and listen to. Thankfully there are many more admired than ignored.
Dec 24, 2019 00:21:32 #
rstipe wrote:
I upgraded the shipping so hopefully you'll get your lens tomorrow.
Yep, it appears to be on time, so thank you!
Dec 24, 2019 00:12:59 #
Silverrails wrote:
I myself am a Advanced Beginner of approximately 2... (show quote)
You were the first responder, so thank you, but your offer/story does nothing to help as your sensor style is not at all compatible with mine.
Dec 19, 2019 09:22:55 #
Hey folks -
This is a bit of an unusual request but I am looking for a good condition but dirt cheap wide/ ultra-wide lens to get me through a spell. My target is 35mm or shorter (my shortest currently is a 50). If anyone has an unused kit lens that fits the bill or a third party lens (e.g. 14mm Rokinon or an old Tamron 24mm), I'm interested.
Thanks in advance all
NG
This is a bit of an unusual request but I am looking for a good condition but dirt cheap wide/ ultra-wide lens to get me through a spell. My target is 35mm or shorter (my shortest currently is a 50). If anyone has an unused kit lens that fits the bill or a third party lens (e.g. 14mm Rokinon or an old Tamron 24mm), I'm interested.
Thanks in advance all
NG
Dec 11, 2019 08:45:32 #
Seems pretty obvious that few, if any, under 40 responded to this thread.
I set up FB accounts for my parents when they retired so they could keep up with the doings of the kids. It gave them passive access to our lives, which was a blessing because prior when one would get bored they'd call - for the most part that was fine, except being in college and working what felt like 24/7 was not really convenient. My mom tired of it quickly but my dad enjoys the groups immensely for the discussion they offer.
Like I told them at the time - social media is what you make of it. If you dump all your time in to it, hopefully you are getting something out of it. If you don't want to participate, don't. Your happiness is up to you, and if that involves social outreach, great, but if it doesn't, no one cares.
I set up FB accounts for my parents when they retired so they could keep up with the doings of the kids. It gave them passive access to our lives, which was a blessing because prior when one would get bored they'd call - for the most part that was fine, except being in college and working what felt like 24/7 was not really convenient. My mom tired of it quickly but my dad enjoys the groups immensely for the discussion they offer.
Like I told them at the time - social media is what you make of it. If you dump all your time in to it, hopefully you are getting something out of it. If you don't want to participate, don't. Your happiness is up to you, and if that involves social outreach, great, but if it doesn't, no one cares.
Dec 10, 2019 10:11:10 #
This one's been a favorite for a while. My brother's pup River.
Dec 3, 2019 09:16:38 #
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Nate!
Agh! What?! Is this good or bad or exasperated!
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
For starters, you are not doing too badly with available light, so firstly, try to watch your composition, that is, how you frame your images in the viewfinder and what for details like clothing and distracting objects.
Thanks. The shots I posted were largely meant to be illustrative of the candids I usually capture, not exactly a portrait by the typical definition. I realize they are more of a full scene vs the close-up nature of a portrait.
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Watch your exposure so that your images are not too ligh or too dark. ALSO- consider getting and editing program such as Lightroom or PhotoShop to crop and correct your images. You will have to learn to do these things even when you have a studio-like setup.
I'm pretty good with Lightroom but haven't really needed to get in to Photoshop yet. It's on my to-do list.
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Do you have any flash equipment at the present time- like a speedlight? If you do, it can be used as part of more complete studio setup.
Nope, that's one big reason I'm here and asking. I might have to just start with a speedlight and bounce it off the ceiling.
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Learning and practicing portrait lighting requires... (show quote)
Okay, now we're getting in to the meat of what I don't but need to know to get things set up.
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
LIGHT MODIFIERS: Direct flash light can be difficu... (show quote)
Noted. Time for some shopping! I had been looking at a bunch of speedlights (Godox Yongnuo etc) and thinking I could get away with a few of those and umbrellas. I wasn't sure I was on quite the right path so I had to ask. Glad I did.
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
I'll attach a few quick edits on your images to illustrate what can be done in post-processing. Color and density is improved. The subjects and emotional content are emphasized and the baby shot made for a nice high key portrait.
Cool. I hadn't thought to crop them in quite so tight (again, capturing the scene) but I like what you did.
Dec 1, 2019 21:28:27 #
Thanks Ed, those are good things all to think about. For now, however, I'm not looking about getting a business going - I'm no portrait photographer ...well, yet - give me a year or so to learn lighting.
For this year and the next couple I'm more interested in saving a bunch of cash every quarter! That 60 or 80 adds up fast - those two alone are ~150 in the last 4 months. Extrapolate that out and it's easy to justify putting 500 or 700 in to a small home/personal studio that I can pack up and store in between sessions. You were certainly on the right track with why my wife likes my work over the school's, I capture my kid's expressions and the image quality itself is better. I don't have any external lights yet (THAT is going to be a learning curve) but I generally like the lighting that I do get more than the flat, featureless lighting we pay for.
So having cleared that up, my figure of 500 was kind of a hopeful target. It will be much more palatable to the Home Minister of Finance to have a lower figure that offers a nicely functional studio but yet allow room for growth in the future if this turns in to something that we both like. I hope that directs your guidance a bit.
While not exactly portraits, here are a few candids of the kids I'm looking to shoot first:
For this year and the next couple I'm more interested in saving a bunch of cash every quarter! That 60 or 80 adds up fast - those two alone are ~150 in the last 4 months. Extrapolate that out and it's easy to justify putting 500 or 700 in to a small home/personal studio that I can pack up and store in between sessions. You were certainly on the right track with why my wife likes my work over the school's, I capture my kid's expressions and the image quality itself is better. I don't have any external lights yet (THAT is going to be a learning curve) but I generally like the lighting that I do get more than the flat, featureless lighting we pay for.
So having cleared that up, my figure of 500 was kind of a hopeful target. It will be much more palatable to the Home Minister of Finance to have a lower figure that offers a nicely functional studio but yet allow room for growth in the future if this turns in to something that we both like. I hope that directs your guidance a bit.
While not exactly portraits, here are a few candids of the kids I'm looking to shoot first:
Nov 29, 2019 13:34:46 #
A reposting from the main forum:
Hey folks. Feel free to link other threads here, I did a search for a few terms and came up dry but likely missed as few so I won't be upset with an "already discussed this, moron" response.
Getting in to this:
I have a 10 month old son (actually today is the exact 10 month mark) and a niece 8 days older. My daycare provider has a photographer come in quarterly and on holidays for "school photos" which is nice, but my wife dropped 80 bucks on the first set, got them back, frowned and told me "your photos are better." Fast forward to this past week, she sent in 60 bucks, then asked if it was too late to have them touch out a few shiny spots. "Yup." "Well dang it!"
So I want to set up my own portrait studio to do holiday and yearly photos of the kids and maybe the families (only 3 people per). I forecast a budget target of about 500 bucks USD. I don't know that I 'need' 3 lights, but I expect 2 for sure, so how would you spend roughly 500 bucks on lights, stands, triggers, modifiers, backdrop/ backdrop supports, etc? I'm completely cool with making my own reflector boards or using slightly unconventional sources for reflectors (ex. sun reflectors for your car) if necessary. [Edit: I expect to need/favor a high-speed sync to keep up with potentially mobile kids.]
Looking forward to your suggestions and I will answer questions as I can.
Hey folks. Feel free to link other threads here, I did a search for a few terms and came up dry but likely missed as few so I won't be upset with an "already discussed this, moron" response.
Getting in to this:
I have a 10 month old son (actually today is the exact 10 month mark) and a niece 8 days older. My daycare provider has a photographer come in quarterly and on holidays for "school photos" which is nice, but my wife dropped 80 bucks on the first set, got them back, frowned and told me "your photos are better." Fast forward to this past week, she sent in 60 bucks, then asked if it was too late to have them touch out a few shiny spots. "Yup." "Well dang it!"
So I want to set up my own portrait studio to do holiday and yearly photos of the kids and maybe the families (only 3 people per). I forecast a budget target of about 500 bucks USD. I don't know that I 'need' 3 lights, but I expect 2 for sure, so how would you spend roughly 500 bucks on lights, stands, triggers, modifiers, backdrop/ backdrop supports, etc? I'm completely cool with making my own reflector boards or using slightly unconventional sources for reflectors (ex. sun reflectors for your car) if necessary. [Edit: I expect to need/favor a high-speed sync to keep up with potentially mobile kids.]
Looking forward to your suggestions and I will answer questions as I can.
Nov 29, 2019 13:31:57 #
E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Hi Nate! Re post a note to me in the ADVANCED AND PROFESSIONAL PORTRAITURE SECTION and I will suggest few setups and tips. I'm out of my studio today but I post something for you tonight or early tomorrow.
Over 50 years of portraiture experience so I'll get you going in the right direction!
Over 50 years of portraiture experience so I'll get you going in the right direction!
I was actually going to post this there but was a bit cautious about flooding the Pro/ Advanced forum with such a rookie query :) Will do.
Nov 29, 2019 13:19:40 #
Hey folks. Feel free to link other threads here, I did a search for a few terms and came up dry but likely missed as few so I won't be upset with an "already discussed this, moron" response.
Getting in to this:
I have a 10 month old son (actually today is the exact 10 month mark) and a niece 8 days older. My daycare provider has a photographer come in quarterly and on holidays for "school photos" which is nice, but my wife dropped 80 bucks on the first set, got them back, frowned and told me "your photos are better." Fast forward to this past week, she sent in 60 bucks, then asked if it was too late to have them touch out a few shiny spots. "Yup." "Well dang it!"
So I want to set up my own portrait studio to do holiday and yearly photos of the kids and maybe the families (only 3 people per). I forecast a budget target of about 500 bucks USD. I don't know that I 'need' 3 lights, but I expect 2 for sure, so how would you spend roughly 500 bucks on lights, stands, triggers, modifiers, backdrop/ backdrop supports, etc? I'm completely cool with making my own reflector boards or using slightly unconventional sources for reflectors (ex. sun reflectors for your car) if necessary. [Edit: I expect to need/favor a high-speed sync to keep up with potentially mobile kids.]
Looking forward to your suggestions and I will answer questions as I can.
Getting in to this:
I have a 10 month old son (actually today is the exact 10 month mark) and a niece 8 days older. My daycare provider has a photographer come in quarterly and on holidays for "school photos" which is nice, but my wife dropped 80 bucks on the first set, got them back, frowned and told me "your photos are better." Fast forward to this past week, she sent in 60 bucks, then asked if it was too late to have them touch out a few shiny spots. "Yup." "Well dang it!"
So I want to set up my own portrait studio to do holiday and yearly photos of the kids and maybe the families (only 3 people per). I forecast a budget target of about 500 bucks USD. I don't know that I 'need' 3 lights, but I expect 2 for sure, so how would you spend roughly 500 bucks on lights, stands, triggers, modifiers, backdrop/ backdrop supports, etc? I'm completely cool with making my own reflector boards or using slightly unconventional sources for reflectors (ex. sun reflectors for your car) if necessary. [Edit: I expect to need/favor a high-speed sync to keep up with potentially mobile kids.]
Looking forward to your suggestions and I will answer questions as I can.
Nov 26, 2019 11:28:29 #
Cotondog wrote:
I use a Canon Pixma Pro 100 printer. Has 8 ink tanks, including a black, grey and light grey for incredible b&w photos. You can print photos up to 13 X 19 inches. I use only Canon ink and Canon or Red River photo paper. Overall, it is an amazing printer. You can often find deals on it.
Seconded. I love mine.
Nov 22, 2019 09:22:03 #
This one's one of my first shots. I wish I would have removed the power lines and crunched down the aperture but oh well. I still like magnolias.
https://live.staticflickr.com/574/22318877876_311700a1e8_z.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/574/22318877876_311700a1e8_z.jpg
Nov 22, 2019 09:17:31 #
This one's kinda got buried...
