topic Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ? in General Discussion

Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 19:47:41 GMT

From an article I read "Stop Taking Pictures And Start Taking Photos".

https://medium.com/the-mission/stop-taking-pictures-start-taking-photos-9039ca99e1d6

"Photography Is no longer fun for me", too many equipment settings, too much time required for processing (I realize some is required), too many unusable photos to sort through.

Some questions along this very same line as that article.

1. Purchasing the right equipment, for the best results without the fuss, high percentage of usable photos. I do not want to take hundreds of photos, take several really good ones and have them all come out clean and usable! Maybe a camera outfit that has 7-12 custom memory settings for "Flowers", "Landscapes", Birds" and "Wildlife" so i am not spending time with the camera settings in the field.) Maybe just 1 lens, 2 at the most.

2. What software to use for post processing, something that has many basic, predetermined adjustments. Like for instance, have 10 common predetermined different landscape settings. I do not want to deal with individual settings, cant do it.

I am not asking for advice on presenting a feeling into my photos, I need to do that myself.

Photoshop is just to complicated, DPP is too small to use from my tv (no way to enlarge the print and such)

I take landscape, flowers and wildlife photos, that's all. It may require hiking in for long distances and i want to simplify the use of the equipment and the process to

"make it fun again".

thanks

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Escalante101 — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 06:38:39 GMT

Perhaps the answer to this may be as complex as the question itself. Honestly, sometimes I feel simply overwhelmed and intimidated by all the camera gear, tripod gear, lighting equipment, post processing software programs and gear related to that. Yes, sometimes I feel like I have become so involved in trying to learn "how everything works" that I do not have much time for taking pictures. I like to hike and shoot landscapes, wildlife and flowers, also. Some camera gear is heavy, as is tripod gear, etc. I guess the trap that snared me into this situation was taking well composed pictures with a basic camera and ultimately not having much control over complicated exposure and focus issues. I have owned pocket-sized point and shoot cameras, and the latest iteration of them, the G7X. I have taken great pictures with that little camera, but what is the sensor size, what is the resolution? Sensor size / pixel count pretty much preclude ever having any meaningfull prints made. So, what is the alternative? I think you have a choice. Settle for a pocket-sized camera or a smartphone and just shoot "snapshots" and hike light - or - spend lots of money, acquire the gear that will allow you to improve on exposure, resolution and creativity. "Hiking light and carrying pocket-sized cameras" means "letting go" of all the desire to expose a better image. If you can settle for that, then you can "have fun again". But, if you want more out of your pictures, if you want to come home with a truly memorable photography of a stunning landscape, a bird in flight, flowers, etc. you have to face the reality of technological challenges at all levels of the experience.

I would love to see lightweight DSLRs or mirrorless cameras and light weight lenses to go with. Is that even remotely possible right now? Lightweight and simultaneously sturdy tripods, heads and other related accessories? Post-processing software without a steep learning curve that makes it seem just too much to even want to attempt?

I think I am dreaming here. Something tells me that if I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn and understand the equipment I am working with while simultaneously having the patience and perseverance to conquer the best photo post processing software programs out there that my efforts will be rewarded at some point.

Maybe the response to your concern is that at the present time in the history of the technological development of the human race, there are no easy answers. . . .

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

kvbarkley — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 14:41:07 GMT

For #2 get Perfectly Clear.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:53:56 GMT

Good suggestion, tried a similar camera (lumix) it was impossible to hold, I do like the feel of a bridge camera (slr like design).

Went through the whole wide printer thing, prints on the wall etc, too costly. Hanging my photos on the wall has not pleased me, there is not enough feeling being conveyed. I have decided to just use my tv's (they all have the capability to show my photos) and websites like flickr, at least until I get the right combination of equipment and software that produce fine photographs.

The mid priced ($2000) canon dslr and lenses have never worked well. Heavy, complicated, poor results and big. looked at my Lumix bridge camera more closely, it does have 3 custom selections and it does offer predetermined scenes like, landscape, landscape with bright sky, flowers etc. That might be as close as I can get to a camera.

Have not found a good software, have PS (layers and all that frustrates me).

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:55:20 GMT

Oh I see, Perfectly Clear is a software, thanks

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 18:47:02 GMT

Excellent, thank you

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 19:47:30 GMT

I guess what I need are called "presets" or "preset libraries" ? is that available in elements 11 which I have ? Can I add those libraries from somewhere to elements?

thanks again, that really opened up my eyes to some good possibilities. I have this philosophy about technology, It never does exactly what you want. For instance, I have my camera PDF manual on my phone (tablet) and all I wanted it to do is search by voice. google removed the microphone from their Gboard keyboard. worked on it for about an hour and gave up, ugh.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

kvbarkley — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:54:04 GMT

You don't really get presets in Photoshop elements. 11 is getting long in the tooth, there have been many improvements.

I find that the camera in P mode does pretty well in multiple situations as far as exposure goes. I occasionally use the nighttime handheld scene mode for long-exposure night shots of lights.

The main difference between flowers, landscape and wildlife is the lens. I like my 60mm macro for flowers and closeups and my 70-300mm or 150-600mm for wildlife telephoto.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 01:34:19 GMT

gee, what can i say, i think that app "Perfectly Clear" might be what i want but i tried the free download trial and could not get it to work. the download gui looked nothing like the you tube video. if something like this does not work in the first 10 min, i am done with it.

what I am asking for is out there, now that my eyes are more open, but as usual its a real pain to find. Now if Adobe had professional preset libraries I could download for free to add to my adobe raw app in elements, that would be perfect.

I see a lot of people offering to sell presets, give away presets filters but i have no idea who they are or if they are compatible.

man why cant life in photography be simpler. like everything else in our technology driven world, you have to work hard at it to get it to work for you, i just dont have the time or patience for that.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

John_SD — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 01:55:04 GMT

@Moire wrote:
Photoshop is just to complicated, DPP is too small to use from my tv (no way to enlarge the print and such)

I take landscape, flowers and wildlife photos, that's all.

You need to get yourself a little PowerShot ELPH.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 16:34:40 GMT

That recomendation is not what I was looking for, more like a sony a7 with a 18-200 lens or a lumix.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 19:56:58 GMT

OK, the software part of my request is completed. after trying a few free trials of "perfectly clear" and "on1" i found the the interface was not usable on my 50" tv which is where I have to work from.

I was able to increase the user interface in "elements 11" and now finally "adobe camera raw" so I can see the text and sliders on my 50" monitor.

last part, which camera will give me the least amount of grief and the best results for all my needs.

do not need preset scenes in the camera camera, i will apply those later from raw.

1. a really good auto focus system both in live view and viewfinder for flying birds

2. fast high burst rate (10+)

3. easy to hold like an slr

4. 18-300 lens "one lens for all my needs" landscape, wildlife, flowers, birds.

5. most advanced image stabilization (5 axis?) for super sharp on the fly action shots like flying birds.

thanks for you help and suggestions

and i want my cake and eat it too

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

kvbarkley — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 20:55:50 GMT

300mm is not long enough for birds.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 04:11:39 GMT

yes i agree, but all my best photos of birds, wildlife and flowers are taken while hiking. come around corner all quiet like and there in the tree a harrier, bamm. so i need a system that is already locked and loaded ready to go.

I want to be able to save the settings in the camera to 5 memory selections and be able to eaiseily select them on the fly. with settings like sutter speed, af type, shutter type, iso and all the other things i would normally take time to set.

ya know it really sucks when you have the af set to one shot, focus point set to the center, the shutter set to 500 and a pheasant flys up with no time to go to the right settings, thats what i am trying to solve.

I dont sit for hours in one place, i move around to find what i want.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 17:35:57 GMT

Thats a fact, there are no easy answers and if the expectations are lowered then its ok. People are getting into a technolgy overload and know they are missing out on the real fun of living, hence the drop in camera sales and the rise in cell phone camera sales (based on how good the camera is).

The day of the SLR Camera is numbered. Mirrorless cameras will replace SLR cameras in the next 5 years. Cell phone type cameras will replace the SLR and mirrorless cameras in the next ten years.

I think that is why I like the "Bridge" cameras by Lumix

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Waddizzle — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 13:50:06 GMT

@Moire wrote:
OK, the software part of my request is completed. after trying a few free trials of "perfectly clear" and "on1" i found the the interface was not usable on my 50" tv which is where I have to work from.

I was able to increase the user interface in "elements 11" and now finally "adobe camera raw" so I can see the text and sliders on my 50" monitor.

last part, which camera will give me the least amount of grief and the best results for all my needs.

do not need preset scenes in the camera camera, i will apply those later from raw.

1. a really good auto focus system both in live view and viewfinder for flying birds
2. fast high burst rate (10+)
3. easy to hold like an slr
4. 18-300 lens "one lens for all my needs" landscape, wildlife, flowers, birds.
5. most advanced image stabilization (5 axis?) for super sharp on the fly action shots like flying birds.

thanks for you help and suggestions
and i want my cake and eat it too

Yeah, you do want to have your cake and eat it, too.

A single focus system for viewfinder shooting or LCD screen shooting does not exist in a DSLR.
If you want a frame rate that high, then you want one of the recent releases of 1D series camera body.
I have no idea what ‘easy to hold like an slr” even means.
I think Tamron has an EF-S mount 18-400mm, which means it would not mount on a 1D series camera body.
IBIS won’t cure that, and would only make it seem worse. Try practicing tracking BIF, and using a faster shutter speed.

Enjoy.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Escalante101 — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 15:45:38 GMT

No easy answers, continued. At this point in the technological history of the human race, if you are "serious" about photography, you will have to contend with complex and sometimes heavy cameras, a variety of lenses, solid tripod gear, and some flash / lighting equipment. Concerning bird photography, there is a somewhat affordable lens on the market, the Tamron 150-600mm. Supertelephoto lenses manufactured by the major players (Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc.) are unaffordable for the vast majority of people.

I have settled for the mid-point DSLR cameras (less than perfect, but okay) affordable lenses and flash / light equipment / studio gear. I have a good photography library. I accept that if I want to expose / post-process an image and save it on my computer and perhaps share it with a few family members and friends, that achieving that goal is not going to be a "walk in the park".

Since I enjoy capturing landscape images, I susbcribed to the Dave Morrow Photography website. Among his offerings is a package for photo editing for landcape and outdoor photography. That series of video tutorials along with Adobe's user manuals for Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop are what I am presently working with to tackle the daunting task of learning post processing. Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Suite is the "gold standard" in post processing. No matter how intimidating it may be, I intend to "stick with it" and learn how to use it to my advantage. I have followed Dave Morrow's organizational and editing procedures. If I want to "keep it simple", I can import my images into Lightroom, move them into Bridge and finally open them in Adobe Camera Raw and do my "global" adjustments there. If the image would require additional refining, I could then opt to open it into Photoshop and create layer masks to edit specific portions of the image, etc. Finally, I can sharpen the image and save it back to a folder where I save my final images. Just to be able to use Adobe Camera Raw and do some basic adjustments is sometimes enough just to give a picture that "extra oomph" that it needs.

So, it would be nice if the human race were more advanced in the engineering / design / production of photography gear, but we are where we are.

Just look back at the history of photography. What kind of complicated, heavy gear did Ansel Adams and Edward Weston have to carry around? How did they "develop" their images from a "huge" large format negative? How about the need for a "dark room", toxic chemicals, ideal temperatures, etc. How many years has it taken to get from there to the present?

Therefore, I accept where we are. I will never live to see truly featherweight cameras, "nano" lenses, etc. I work with what I have. So, we may all be dealing with frustrations and impatience, wishing for something better - faster than it can even be "imagined" let alone designed and engineered.

So, we can be impatient and frustrated or we can work with what we have and look to the past to what our photography predecessors had to endure to produce the images they did. What if they were impatient? Look at some of the early photography masters work - even before color, and think about what they tolerated because they wanted a great photograph. Then think about where we are in the year 2019, and look what we can do now . . .

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

John_SD — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 17:32:18 GMT

@Moire wrote:

The day of the SLR Camera is numbered.

Most of us have long since moved on to DSLRs. You should try to keep up with the news.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Escalante101 — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 06:05:29 GMT

I have owned DSLRs for years. Unless I am mistaken, the author of the original post is experiencing a sense of feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by all the technological intricacies of mirrorless/DSLR cameras, lenses and post processing software. The writer also expressed concerns about the excessive weight of the camera, lenses, tripod, etc. that one needs to carry around while hiking. The technology challenges and gear weight combine to take the "fun" out of photography.

Will smartphone cameras ever be able to replace mirrorless and DSLR cameras with interchangeable lenses, etc.? I do not know. What is the sensor size / resolution of a smartphone camer?. Can it zoom to 600 - 800mm? Until someone invents a photographic device that can incorporate all the features of a present-day camera with its lenses, etc. into something small and compact, those who are serious about their photography will have to continue to work with the latest lineup of mirrorless cameras and what will be left of the DSLR market.

What do you want out of photography? If someone feels overwhelmed by all their gear, post processing software, and their technical knowlege requirements, as I previously stated, they can choose to "let it go" and settle for using their smartphone or a small point and shoot camera and leave it at that. No muss, no fuss.

Re: Why Are We Here And What Are We Doing This For ?

Moire — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 17:05:46 GMT

Great info, i will ck it out