topic Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick in General Discussion

Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 15:50:10 GMT

Well, I took my equipment out to the race track and what a learning experiment. Now I know why I drink, haha, just kidding.

Being early evening (some natural light) in to late evening (stadium lights), cloudy, raining, bugs, flickering, under exposure, photo noise haha... One can learn a lot in a few hours.

This was my first time at night racing.

Not the best, but t least I can strive to do lots better.........

https://flic.kr/s/aHskzHs2MU

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

TTMartin — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 23:23:22 GMT

Really nice. You can see the improvement in the image quality from your upgraded gear. Also, you can see that you are getting better too. Good story of the track, from the horses going to the paddock, to the post parade, to the outrider, to loading the starting gate, to the race itself. Also, a great sense of motion in many of the photos, nice combination of panning blur, and motion blur in the horses legs, yet the jockey and most of the horse are nice and sharp. Your practice is paying off. Keep it up.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 23:32:45 GMT

Ahh thanks. This gear rocks....... I love it.

I went this afternoon for a few races, images much better, still have a lot of throw away images on the motion blur. I tried using one af point and about 60-80 ss, not too successful in that regard with 6lb gear, haha. I'm building muscles in my arms and shoulders. The one af point is fine, but it does not allow too much room to miss the subject. I like the group of 5 middle points..... anyway

I did get some nice motion freeze images.

I am shooting in Raw, editing in Iphoto.

I need to learn and figure out how to adjust for the shadowing on a subject.

Yes I can move to a better location, but as the horse is walking to their stall in the paddock towards me, I take a pic and one side of their face is light and the other side is dark (2pm sunshine). Again, I can find a better location, but I am not sure if the metering mode matters or if I should change it. These horses just don't stay still, haha.....

I'll post images from this afternoon later.

Thanks again!

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ebiggs1 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 02:39:22 GMT

"Not the best, but t least I can strive to do lots better........."

Normally, and before I looked at your stuff, I would say to get yourself a good post editor. Great photos are made in post not in the camera. However, you seem to be doing quite well with iphoto.

Seriously, though, you just really do need to get down and dirty with a serious post editor. Of course by far and away the Photoshop family of products is king.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 22:19:43 GMT

You're right I need a photo editor and I have gotten a few recommendations on here.

I don't have enough justification to purchase the full version of photoshop, but I will get PS Elements as the research I have done, seems to be pretty good for my needs at the moment.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ebiggs1 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 22:43:37 GMT

That is fine since you can not buy PS anymore. You must rent it. PSE should do all you will ever want.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

Waddizzle — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 23:43:08 GMT

Unless you're performing surgery on your photos, or some other special visual effect, I would recommend Lightroom over Photoshop.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 23:50:54 GMT

No surgey can help help my photos.....

I like lightroom from what I'm reading. I'll have to look at the difference between the 2.

Thanks

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ebiggs1 — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:39:21 GMT

"I'll have to look at the difference between the 2"

Night and day. They are not the same and their purpose is not the same. LR is aimed toward the pro that shoots thousands of photos at a time. LR compliments PS, it is in no way a replacement. It has way less ability as it is designed to batch or mass produce images and store them in a data base. PS does one photo at a time. It keeps track of nothing.

Now PSE on the other hand has the same capability that LR has plus most of what full blown PS has. So which is the better deal PSE or LR, it should be obvious

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:49:57 GMT

Thanks for the info.

I have never used LR, PS or PSE.

I am not a pro either, but I do shoot a lot.

When I use Iphoto to PP a RAW image, I'm limited. Some of the limitations is Iphoto and some of it is myself. I have trouble PP an image and what looks ok to me, may not look to others.

I guess it's a learning curve.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

TTMartin — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 01:05:32 GMT

@ilzho wrote:
Thanks for the info.
I have never used LR, PS or PSE.
I am not a pro either, but I do shoot a lot.
When I use Iphoto to PP a RAW image, I'm limited. Some of the limitations is Iphoto and some of it is myself. I have trouble PP an image and what looks ok to me, may not look to others.
I guess it's a learning curve.

One big difference between Lightroom and Photoshop, is Lightroom, is completely non-destructive. The changes you make are stored in a different file than the photo itself. So, the original unchanged file is always available. Because of this at anytime you can also go back and undo any change you've made along the way, from the first one to the last one.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 01:24:05 GMT

Thanks, Now I need to find LR at a good price haha.....

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

RobertTheFat — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:14:36 GMT

@TTMartin wrote:
@ilzho wrote:
Thanks for the info.
I have never used LR, PS or PSE.
I am not a pro either, but I do shoot a lot.
When I use Iphoto to PP a RAW image, I'm limited. Some of the limitations is Iphoto and some of it is myself. I have trouble PP an image and what looks ok to me, may not look to others.
I guess it's a learning curve.
One big difference between Lightroom and Photoshop, is Lightroom, is completely non-destructive. The changes you make are stored in a different file than the photo itself. So, the original unchanged file is always available. Because of this at anytime you can also go back and undo any change you've made along the way, from the first one to the last one.

Digital Photo Professional is also completely non-destructive, but the changes are saved in the same file as the photo itself. If you don't think that's a huge advantage, try it for a while and you'll see.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:17:37 GMT

For some reason it will not launch on my computer. This is canon software tool that comes with a purchase right? I have the cd but it will not launch to load, frustrating.....

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

Waddizzle — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:19:35 GMT

@ilzho wrote:
For some reason it will not launch on my computer. This is canon software tool that comes with a purchase right? I have the cd but it will not launch to load, frustrating.....

What type of compuer are you using?

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

Waddizzle — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 14:17:24 GMT

"Digital Photo Professional is also completely non-destructive, but the changes are saved in the same file as the photo itself. If you don't think that's a huge advantage, try it for a while and you'll see."

Maybe not so huge as you think. I can make seemingly endless non-destructive edits with either DPP or LR to a RAW file. BUT...

1. If I edit a file in DPP, then I will see those edits in LR and cannot remove or undo them in LR. They are part of the file.

2. If I edit a file in LR, then I will NOT see those edits in DPP. But, any edits I do perform will show up as permanent in LR.

[EDIT] For example, crop a photo in DPP. Now open it in LR. It shows up cropped, and you cannot undo it, except in DPP.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:24:44 GMT

MacBook Pro Laptop (early 2011)

OS X El Capitan

Version 10.11.5

Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

A lot of my programs drag, slow, takes 30 seconds+ to open.....

I clear my cache, little help...

I just need to take it into Apple to see what can be done....

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

Waddizzle — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:27:52 GMT

@ilzho wrote:
MacBook Pro Laptop (early 2011)
OS X El Capitan
Version 10.11.5
Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

A lot of my programs drag, slow, takes 30 seconds+ to open.....
I clear my cache, little help...
I just need to take it into Apple to see what can be done....

I am not the MAC user, but other regulars around here are. Describe what happens when you try to install the Canon software.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ilzho — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 12:40:40 GMT

I put the disk in and it spins and opens up to the setup page/icon.

I dbl click on the setup icon and it tries to open, but nothing.

I then go in to the software folder and dbl click the universal setup icon, it tries to open, but nothing.

Re: Rain, different lights at the track, One can learn a lot pretty quick

ebiggs1 — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 13:25:36 GMT

"Maybe not so huge as you think. I can make seemingly endless non-destructive edits with either DPP or LR to a RAW file. BUT...

1. If I edit a file in DPP, then I will see those edits in LR and cannot remove or undo them in LR. They are part of the file.

2. If I edit a file in LR, then I will NOT see those edits in DPP. But, any edits I do perform will show up as permanent in LR."

That is exactly correct. It also shows how unimportant that non-destructive feature really is. PS is also non-destructive, too. If you use layers most all, if not all, your changes are completely reversible. Plus they can be turned on or off.

You can kid yourself and you can listen to all the hype about editing software that tries to be PS. But in the end the number one software used by, the almost unanimous majority of, professional photographers is PS. The closest option to full blown PS is PSE. It is not DPP or any other post editor. Can you get edits done or make any of the others work, of course, but if you want the best there is, it is PS and its cousin PSE.