DSLR 101

[ebiggs1]

Here is a sample of RAW and how it can help make your photos better. 

Normal RAW exposure.

Normal exposure jpg.  They look pretty close because you are looking at a computer monitor.  The RAW has been converted to jpg in post.  The original jpg was done by the camera, a 1Ds Mk III in this case.

However, suspose you got something wrong. In this case I under exposed it by 3 stops.  But it could be any condition.  WB, color balance, saturation, and on and on, etc.

Corrected RAW.

Corrected jpg.  But below lets look a little closer.

Especially check the shadows. Can you see the difference?  Need a better look?  OK, here is a 100% crop of that enlargment.

It should be blantly obivious that RAW is the way to go.  All else was equal. Same camera. Same lens. Same time of day. Same, same!

Get Lightroom................

[jazzman1]

sorry, missed this screenshot

[ebiggs1]

"And what does "mpre" mean??"

It means "fat fingers".  Should have read 'more'.

While on DPP, I already told you I don't use it very often.  I really only use it now when Canon upgrades it.  Because I want to know if it is any better.  Which I find it is not.  Bob from Boston likes it.

In Lightroom, you plug your camera in or put your SD in the computer slot and sit back.  Everything is done for you.  LR has any number of presets so you can tell it what you want done.  It does it.  Now I suspose on a slow computer it may take some extra time but it does not on mine.

When you have 1500 pictures from a single event, you don't have time to waste.  DPP was never desgined to do that.  Lightroom was.  When you are in business, time is money.

Comments on the DVD subject you said.  The last four years or so, on the few weddings, (20 or so) I have done, everyone wanted a DVD.  Afterwards we, the bride and groom, would go through the photos and pick out several they wanted prints.  Those few photos go to Photoshop for final edit and printing.

Before that, 5 or 10 years ago, it was pretty mixed.  CD or DVD and prints.  Back in film it was all prints and took forever!

A typical wedding for me is 1500 shots taken and 250 delivered.  Usually two shooters.  Me and a 2nd shooter.

[jazzman1]

I hear  you.  LR is the program to get, i think it one of the best from all that i heard.  I can imagine it makes things easy for you.  And then you do have a top notch desktop.   I sure understand time is money.

I can see most people today would go the way of the DVD.  As you say, you only have to do a few photo

s.  Tech is really moving fast these days.  I wonder what It'll be like in a year or two.. I can imagine back in the 35mm days, it must have been ruff.  I'll kick back and get a little practice in with DPP.   I feel like a cold is coming on.  I'm achcing all over, my muscles too.  I sure hope I'm not getting the flu.

[ebiggs1]

Hope you're not getting sick.  We have had a bad allergy season up here so far.

You don't need a new computer.  You need a good monitor.  I think it should be the next purchase.  It will hook right up to one of the laptops.  And it will still work on a better desktop some day.  Your laptops will run Lightroom.  No problem.

Did you keep the EF 28-135mm ?  Did you return it?  If you still have I would keep it from what you have said lately.  It is nice to have that extra reach sometimes.  Plus it is a 'best buy' vs cost.

Quite frankly, however, you will struggle until you get a better, bigger monitor.  Look for the biggest and best you can afford.  It will not be hard to best a laptop's monitor.  Unless you paid several grand for it, that is.

[jazzman1]

I'm feeling better today.  I was not feeling well yesterday.  I think I dodged a bullet though, thought I might be coming down with the flu.  I did take nitequil last night.

I will look at some monitors and see.  A 22" 1080p should do nicely.  Why would I need the biggest screen monitor????   I thought resolution is most important factor.  I will probably upgrade my oldest desktop in the future, get a i7 Proc and make it my main work Pc.  I'll do most of my pics/video's on that.  Is there any particular graphics card you think best for pics/video's???

I have the EF 50mm, EF 24-105mm, and EF 75-300.   I still have the EF-S 18-200mm also, I've promised it to my nephew, if he gets good grades.  The rest along with my Rebel are gone.  I kinda miss the Rebel, I hate changing lens out in the open.  What's the safest way to change lens when out and about???

Adding a monitor to my laptop is going to be tight for room on my Pc desk.  Would have to come up with a solution on that.  My 17" laptop does have 1080p monitor resolution and I have a blu-ray player/burner in it.  Really don't understand what I would be gaining adding another monitor, other than size.

[ebiggs1]

Of course you can get whatever you feel is best but believe me bigger is better and two are better than one.  Now that is how I roll, what you do has to suit you.  Unless you paid a wheelbarrow full of money for the laptop, almost any real monitor will be better.

I have a Gateway I7 with a 17" display and it is no match for the desktop.  I take it on shoots and events to show my work.  It is fine for that and I even do some editing in the field with it.  But the serious stuff is done on the desktop with two 27" monitlors.

I am real concerned about you not seeing the issues.  I believe it is your computer, I hope so anyway.

This is how Lightroom looks on my setup.  I did this shoot yesterday and I am about to start editing.

It is a little hard to see but there are two 27" monitors here.  If you look you can see where thay are.  The left is showing what  there is in thumbnails.  The right side is the picture I am editing.  Both monitors are calibrated exactly the same.

Now do you need this set-up?  Probably not but you do need a pretty good something to do top rate work.  Make sense?

I have to have a video card that will run two HDMI monitors.  I have a geForce 660.  This is a business set-up, I agree. You need to decide how to progress.  My recommendation is the biggest, best spec monitor you can afford.

You are a little different than the vast majority of people or students I run into.  Most just want to know how to use their camera.  What they need to buy and they are done and happy.  You on the other hand said you want to turn this into a business.  That makes a difference.  I have helped three people get started here.  Two are still going strong and one has failed.  She found out it is a he$$ of a lot of work.  Not to mention the expense!

A person that is doing this as a hobby and a person that is headed for a business has totally different goals.  If you would rather go back to a hobby, that is fine.  Perhaps the laptops will work fine for that.

[jazzman1]

I have'nt changed my mind about going into business.  But that is a future goal, not for the time being.  So as to keep my startup expense low, when I make that move, I plan on getting things I need as I go.  I plan to make purchases with this in mind.  It'll be a couple yrs at least before I even attempt to make it a business.  With what you and Bob have said about the laptop and monitor, I feel the laptop is not the way to go.  I will replace my oldest desktop and get the new monitor for it..  I rather go with a new desktop because it will be much easier to upgrade parts if need to.  Laptops are notoriously difficult to upgrade.  There just is no room to work inside and very difficult to get to certain components to upgrade or replace.  I do all my own upgrading/replacing of my components.  Most of the things I will need for business, I won't need to get till much later.  I just have to make my purchases .....with having a business in mind.  With this in mind, I will get a new monitor for my desktop not my laptop.  I can still use my laptops when more convient, but the desktop will be for my work.

The setup you have with the 2 -27" monitors I won't need till later.  Have no need for that now, though it's nice to have, I understand the usefullness of 2 high resolution monitors. 

Don't worry so much about me not seeing the difference you want me to see.  I'm sure I will in time, as I learn enough to know what I'm looking at.  It's something that's not an issue right now.  It'll be more important when I have a business and are asking for pay for my work.  I have been looking at your screenshots on my 15" 1366x768 resolution laptop.  Maybe the monitor is not good enough for me to see the defects...I dunno.

I'm the kind of guy who wants to know all I'm capable of understanding, in anything I like alot.  I'm not satisfied with just knowing enough to get by.  I am that way about my Pc's, Photography now, chess when I use to play serious, and most things I'm good at and like.  So I don't mind putting in the work I need to, to be good at what I do.. 

[ebiggs1]

Here is a shot from yesterday.  It is a pano from the Liberty Memorial, WWI Museum.

[jazzman1]

Nice pano shot, what did you shoot it with and how far away were you???/

[ebiggs1]

"Nice pano shot, what did you shoot it with and how far away were you???/"

It is five sepertate shots merged together in Photoshop.  24mm at f11, 1/500, ISO 400.  I was on the mall of the WWI Memorial looking toward Kansas City.  That is Union Station in the middle.   I don't understand what how far away I was has to do with the shot?