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#1 Brian Luenser

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Posted 24 July 2008 - 04:57 PM

I was out taking pictures last night and ran into two prevailing problems. How bout it smart guys? (360?)

Problem one: Flying Saucers... taking pics in very low light, with a tripod, I noticed on my LCD screen that I had flying saucers or bad reflections in the picture. I think it is my UV filter. (Canon 60mm EFS with a cheap filter on it.) Is this a common problem? Would a better filter fix this? Should I take the filter off? Should I be using a different kind of filter? Pic attached for your review please. (Rebel XSi with a cheapish tripod)



Second problem, if you feel generous...
Some times my skies are prettier than they really were. Some times they are not nearly as pretty as they really are. Last night the skies were beautiful (Thanks again hurricane Dolly) but my sky's were all washed out and white looking when in reality they were a dark pretty blue. What gives? Thanks for any insight on this, also.
BTW I bought my lens after reading the advice of 360. (Went by the graphs) and am thrilled with my lenses. (Thanks a ton... lenses are too expensive to get trial and error which is what I was heading for.) I owe ya.


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#2 longhornz32

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Posted 24 July 2008 - 06:06 PM

Short answer is, yes I think it's the filter on the first picture. Do you have a circular polarizer on now? What are your goals with the filter. I get great night shots without any kind of filter and long exposures on a tripod.

Second if your skies are being blown out try a faster shutter speed. I was having this problem until I started using the manual modes on the camera and really experimenting. Just keep increasing the speed until you get the sky that you want. You'll have to play with the aperture back and forth but it will get easier to know what will work.

Here are some shots.

If you look at the exif data you can see I was using some really fast speeds to get the dramatic sky.

If you use Mozilla Thunderbird which I highly recommend for a browser they have an add on that allows you to right click on pictures and see the exif data. I have learned a lot looking at websites like http://www.trekearth.com/ and using this tool to see what people did to get the result I liked.

http://brandonandkel...p.blogspot.com/

#3 Brian Luenser

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Posted 25 July 2008 - 01:37 PM

QUOTE (longhornz32 @ Jul 24 2008, 07:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Short answer is, yes I think it's the filter on the first picture. Do you have a circular polarizer on now? What are your goals with the filter. I get great night shots without any kind of filter and long exposures on a tripod.

Second if your skies are being blown out try a faster shutter speed. I was having this problem until I started using the manual modes on the camera and really experimenting. Just keep increasing the speed until you get the sky that you want. You'll have to play with the aperture back and forth but it will get easier to know what will work.

Here are some shots.

If you look at the exif data you can see I was using some really fast speeds to get the dramatic sky.

If you use Mozilla Thunderbird which I highly recommend for a browser they have an add on that allows you to right click on pictures and see the exif data. I have learned a lot looking at websites like http://www.trekearth.com/ and using this tool to see what people did to get the result I liked.

http://brandonandkel...p.blogspot.com/


That you stated that "My sky's are blown out" was actually my best help. Somehow I did not recognize my problem as overexposure. The buildings look great so I guess my exposure was based on them. In the future I will try a pic of the sky by itself to get an idea of good sky exposure. I guess I have to make a choice in some cases... nice sky or landscape but not both. Enjoyed looking at the web site as well as your pictures. Spectacular. On the trekearth site I noticed some of my favorite pics were taken with center spot exposure settings. I have always used evaluative. Think I will play with that a bit as well as other exposure settings. Thanks for the tips.

I took this pic yesterday morning. Sun rising over DFW airport. (Canon 400 5.6 with 2x on tripod) The people at work are taking wagers as to whether I will need a new camera or new retinas first for taking shots like this. P.S. the colors on this picture were not tweeked! Just the sweet spot of a sunrise.


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#4 longhornz32

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Posted 25 July 2008 - 08:50 PM

QUOTE (monee9696 @ Jul 25 2008, 02:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I took this pic yesterday morning. Sun rising over DFW airport. (Canon 400 5.6 with 2x on tripod) The people at work are taking wagers as to whether I will need a new camera or retinas first taking shots like this. P.S. the colors on this picture were not tweeked! Just the sweet spot of a sunrise.


I had that same kind of light bulb go off in my head moment. I wasted a lot of good photo ops on blown out skies until I realized what was happening.

The sunrise picture is just phenomenal. I think I would be fired because of missed days at work if I had that view and that telescope.

#5 longhornz32

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Posted 10 September 2008 - 09:55 AM



QUOTE
That you stated that "My sky's are blown out" was actually my best help. Somehow I did not recognize my problem as overexposure. The buildings look great so I guess my exposure was based on them. In the future I will try a pic of the sky by itself to get an idea of good sky exposure. I guess I have to make a choice in some cases... nice sky or landscape but not both.


Hey Monee I read this blog today and thought it might help you out. It's a great site that I have been reading just about every day.



http://digital-photo...sure/#more-2165

#6 Brian Luenser

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Posted 10 September 2008 - 02:10 PM

QUOTE (longhornz32 @ Sep 10 2008, 10:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE
That you stated that "My sky's are blown out" was actually my best help. Somehow I did not recognize my problem as overexposure. The buildings look great so I guess my exposure was based on them. In the future I will try a pic of the sky by itself to get an idea of good sky exposure. I guess I have to make a choice in some cases... nice sky or landscape but not both.


Hey Monee I read this blog today and thought it might help you out. It's a great site that I have been reading just about every day.



http://digital-photo...sure/#more-2165


Thanks Longhornz: I will try that Sunny 16 method on my next shoot. Interesting relationships in exposure, but still does not really answer my main question, "How about when your shot has huge variations in brightness. Do you have to pick your sweet spot and except doo doo on the rest of the picture?"

I am enjoying the rest of that web site also. Fun comparisons of cheap and expensive lenses. (without too much physics to get in the way.) I am planning my own unscientific test of lenses soon. Not between lenses but with my 2x adapter and cropping. (ie,. am I better off just cropping a pic, or using my 2x focal length extender.) I will post my results. Thanks for the link!
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#7 pallen

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Posted 21 October 2008 - 01:06 PM

You can do similar things in photoshop, but I have had good luck with a gradient filter in this situation. Its basically a filter thats grey on top and goes down to clear. It doesnt work so well if you have tall buildings jutting up into the sky, but if you have basically a flat horizon and you want to expose the foreground well, but not blow out the sky, you position it so the gray area is on top and darkening your sky, while the clear area is over the darker foreground.

I went ahead and got the Cokin adapter because it allows you a lot of flexibility in how you position the gradient. You can even layer up to 3 filters at a time if you want to really get crazy.

This isnt my camera, but gives you an idea of how the Cokin system works


Here's an exaggerated example of what you get


And a really dramatic example I found on the internet


#8 Brian Luenser

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Posted 11 March 2009 - 08:30 PM

Question for you smart folk, be it photographers or techies...

I am thinking about getting that new Canon 5D Mark 2. It has its pros and cons in different ways. But my question is this, why would they use the Compact flash card instead of the SD card like my Rebel XS i uses. The heck? I think of it as an 8 track tape. Big and slow. What's up there?

I bought one at COSTCO by mistake on Sunday. Thought I was buying and SD but got a Compact Flash. I'm not quite as senile as it may seem as it was in a big cardboard security sleeve and so I was only looking at a picture of it. I told the wife (that would be mrs. monee9696) that it must be fate as it fits the camera I am looking for.

Got on the SanDisk web site assuming it was much faster than an SD chip. If I am reading it correctly it is 15MB/ second vs. the SD chips 30MB/ Second.
Sure can't figure.

Any clues?

BTW... as long as you're still with me (You're still with me aren't you?) does anybody have a new 5D mark II ? And if so, what are your thoughts.

Biggest down side I can think of is that 2 of my 3 lenses will not work with it. (EF-S) lenses. Yes 360 warned me but when I bought my camera and lenses in May, they was going to last me a lifetime. (you can stop laughing now.)
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#9 360texas

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Posted 12 March 2009 - 01:55 PM

From a tiny Internet Cafe in downtwn Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.... he writes slowly....

OK Ill take a crack at it. The 5dm2 is a 21megapixel sensor camera.
So your recording material should have a write speed of at least 21mb/sec.
The CF or SD should be able to write 1 image in 1 second. 21megapixel = at least write speed in 1 second 20mb.
15 mb/sec CF will take about 1.5 seconds to write 1 image.
30mb/sec SD will write 1 image in 1/2 +/- sec.

Talk more when I get back on the 19th.

Ah Senor~ Dos cerveca por fa for....

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#10 Brian Luenser

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Posted 22 May 2009 - 07:06 AM

Strong warning here.

I have a Canon 5D MK II camera with a CF memory chip in it. Last night I took a hundred pictures and wanted to get them to my computer. I have a card reader that reads the big CF chip.

I put the chip in the reader but would not connect correctly with my computer. All kinds of errors even after re-booting. I then figured the card reader was bad and I needed the pictures. So... I took the card out of the reader, put it back in the camera to connect to the computer directly. No good. Still not working. Disconnected from my computer, and turned the camera on and it had no images and told me that I needed to format the card. I took the card out and looked at closely. I then realized that a pin broke off from the card reader and was lodged in my card. I tried to get this tiny pin out of the card but could not. (Would need an electron microscope with tiny surgical instruments.)

As I have a huge business need for some pictures this morning I ran to Walgreen's when they opened for a new chip.

You smart guys already know the punch line. I put the new chip in my new camera and it still did not work. You guessed it. When I put the chip with the broken pin in earlier, it it bent the pin deep in my camera.

So now I have the following. A broken 24 way card reader. A broken 8gb high speed CF Chip. A broken 3 thousand dollar camera that is 2 months old.

Please heed this lesson... If you are having problems with your card with your card reader, do not then put that card back in your camera without examining it with a magnifying glass.

I now have nothing left but a few lenses. (Of course I just sold my Rebel XSi last week)
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#11 360texas

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Posted 22 May 2009 - 07:34 AM

20d available - email me texas360 at swbell.net or call me at phone number on bottom of page at http://360texas.com

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#12 Brian Luenser

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Posted 22 May 2009 - 10:54 AM

QUOTE (360texas @ May 22 2009, 08:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
20d available - email me texas360 at swbell.net or call me at phone number on bottom of page at http://360texas.com


I wound up using my wife's camera (toy) to cover my emergency. Too kind of you 360 to offer your camera.

Here is the rest of the story.
Brought my new camera to camera store. "I have a 2 month old camera here with a damaged Card pin.".
Shoot. Not covered by warranty. $300 - $400 for fix. And 6-8 weeks without a camera.

6 to 8 weeks? OH MY GOSH I would rather not eat for 6-8 weeks. "Don't worry Sir. We can rent you a camera."

Camera guys with a camera that uses a CF card. (Still can't imagine why the use a CF card in their new designs over an SD card.) If you use a card reader, and you are having a problem. DO NOT then shove that card in your camera without a close inspection. I now have my brand new $3400. camera sitting on a camera store shelf waiting for Tuesday's UPS truck to take it away. Far away.
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#13 360texas

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Posted 22 May 2009 - 12:38 PM

glad you had it covered.

Wolfes Camera used to carry a 1 year if it got broke.. no matter how, they would replace the camera. Not sure they do today.

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