The Cleveland Metro Park System is very extensive and accessible, and just beautiful. You can drive it with many pull offs and some easy walk ways. Get a map of it.
My church has a active drama group that presents live stage shows a few times a year. This developed method should work most places.
Challenge: Multiple cast members playing the same part in different performances. Hence I shot two separate shows. The only lighting was via spotlights, which is very selective and poor in a lot of cases.
Camera choice, is Canon 70d in live view mode using touch screen. Camera was set up in tripod with ball making aiming very sure, quick and easy. Due to lighting I set the ISO to 6400 in the manual mode. It became easy to make F stop and speed changes to any scenes. Get the live shot you want, touch the focus point, wait for green and shoot. I tend to make multiple shots of the same scene and do a lot of cuts. First night was 600, with 500 the second. Not many out of focus shots, camera focus system really works well.
Processing keepers. First I ran the files through Noise Ninja to help high ISO. Then I made a speed for processing choice. Since these are not appearing in any glossy magazine my choice was to reduce the file size a lot, all the files are reduced to less than 1mb. This really speeds up processing adjustments.
Software used is Faststone. I started at the beginning of the folder and selected scenes that looked similar and marked them. Sometimes I picked only a few and others as many as 25 shots. Hit the highlight box and only your selections appear. Under the tools menu, select batch processing. After making a separate output folder and a finished folder, select Advance Options, then Adjustments which brings you to Design and Preview. This screen has a lot of different options on the same page and gave me enough to improve just about everything. After processing a batch, I check the output folder and if OK, move them to finish. Go back to the main folder and reselect the files you just processed and delete them. And start to select another batch.
This method saved me hours of processing and the show producer was very happy. Here is a link. http://www.pbase.com/zerobeat/secret_gardrden
I purchased the 70d when it first came out. Had a pixel issue with the first one and it was quickly replaced.
I don't do a lot of high level shooting, but I do do a lot of snap shot shooting at my church.
The 70d is such a great improvement over what it replaced (please don't make a lot of noise here, the 7d). The movable screen, touch focus, full time auto focus using the movie mode.
To be very honest, my Canon 5D II hardly ever gets used.
The 70d suits me just fine.
Dale
I take a lot of "snap shot" pics around my church. I still pass them through my quick process which amounts to basically checking the photo (doing deletes), and maybe fixing exposure, tilt, color and anything that stands out. Have been using Faststone software for over ten years and it has served well.
Last week I upgraded to Windows 10 (still upgrading) and now the people appear to be slightly fatter.
Any ideas.
Dale
I am having trouble with understanding the Win 10 tech advisors. Their native language is not English, and the version they speak, I don't understand very well.
Anyone know how to reach a English primary speaker?
Thanks,
Z
I meant to give several options. Dale
I downloaded Win 10, it wouldn't work, I called MS and was told that my computer wouldn't work with it. Machine is a four year old Acer Aspire. The guy I was talking with didn't have a good grasp of English.
I have done a little of real estate photography, using a Canon 70D with a Canon 10-22 or my 24-105. I get plenty of coverage with these two. As to lighting, room light seems to be OK as I'm not afraid to boost the ISO up to the 5000 range and then apply the file to Noise Ninja or some other noise fighter. As you say, these won't be in a art show. Using a tripod works for low light.
I purchased mine just after they came out. Had to return it to the dealer next day due to dead pixels. That one lasted a few months before I had to send it in for what Canon said was to replace the photo/picture box. What that is I never figured out. Now it just is having focus issues (sometimes). I have had seven Canons before this one and never had any issues with them. The features of the camera are great (ie: touch screen and video focus), when it works.
Four or five years ago the group I belong to had traveled to Hickory, NC to be in a model railroad narrow gauge convention. Our display layout is pretty large, in fact it fills up a 53' trailer. The most frequently asked question we get, is "how long does it take to set this up". I set up my Canon 7d on a scaffold with a shutter release set to 50 seconds. It took about 18 hours to shoot some 1400 photos. I crunched them down to a 90 video (cut some boring stuff) which we played at our table during the show. The entire week, someone was in front of our TV watching the setup video. It was a hit.
Here is a link to the original version that doesn't have any background audio, which is a must with something like this. And it didn't upload very well just now with some parts missing or out of order. But the idea is still there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU1G1-8kpCU&feature=youtu.be
Two of my friends just returned from Oklahoma yesterday and they felt several that were above 4.2. Greed must be at work again.
Just wanted to reply (or reinforce) your comment on the Canon 10-22. I have a lot of overlapping glass, but you can't beat the 10-22 if it fits your shot. Very sharp.
Dale - Brooksville, Fl
Mine are all wreck tangles.