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Jim, Jeff, & Majeed help you take on boredom by answering interesting listener questions we were not able to get to last week! Majeed is joining us from a new Nature & Landscape Photography Podcast coming to the Improve Photography Network soon!
What's in this episode:
- Brett Lubcke aims to put a realistic full-size print to cover a door inviting someone to step into it. – What focal length does the crew recommend?
- Tony Perea wants to know how crop sensors impact aperture and depth of field when compared to a full frame camera.
- Gordon Jackson is looking for the best ways to organize landscape photos in Lightroom.
- Thijs van Gennip seeks out the best tips to photograph mushrooms.
- Katie Shipley is looking for the use case of small softboxes & light stands for enhancing her natural light portraits.
- Joshua Fahning wants tips for shooting ultra wide angle lenses on both crop sensor and full frame cameras.
- Jim helps Ketill Antonius Agustsson with online storage options & touches upon 3, 2, 1 backups. – Check out Jeff's Article on Storage Workflow!
- Jeff answers Dennis Halmar's question about whether it is safe to update to Windows 10 as of yet.
- The three weigh in on Katie Shipley's question about shooting 1/focal length for telephoto/zoom lenses.
- David S. Davis wants us to know who our biggest influences are in photography.
- Alan Paone wants to know if Photomechanic is the only solution for a RAW processor for his Fuji camera.
- Majeed helps Robin Hoff Kaspar with Soft Proofing in Lightroom.
- Justin Zaffarese wants to know if Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM II with an adapter is a good choice for his Nikon.
- Lizzy Mitchell is seeing color noise. – Jeff to the rescue!
- Michelle Nolan wants gear recommendations on kneepads, a hat that does not get in the way of her viewfinder & shoes that are versatile for many types of shoots.
- Vince Yamashiroya has a smorgasbord of questions & Jeff assists with the one regarding working on multiple Lightroom Catalogs on a laptop & a desktop.
- Margaret-Margo Winter Smith wants to know if it is safe to move over to Lightroom 6/CC.
Resources Mentioned:
- Squarespace – (Use Offer Code ‘IMPROVE' to get 10% off your first purchase!)
- Harry's – (Use Coupon Code ‘IMPROVE' to get $5 off your first purchase!)
- Improve Photography Start – (Get $40 off an already amazing deal by using Promo Code ‘PODCAST'!)
- Improve Photography Portfolio Reviews – (Get MEANINGFUL feedback on your best photos!)
- Improve Photography's 2016 China Workshop – (The best workshop in the world is selling out fast! Book now!)
- Improve Photography's Lens Finder – (Finally it is here! Go check it out!)
- Jim's Article on creating a DIY light stick for under $50!
- Jim's Article on Focal Length – (Mentioned when answering Tony Perea's question.)
- Photo Taco Dedicated to Explaining Focal Length!
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In the question from Lizzie about noise in images from a Canon T5, Jeff claimed that the image sensor on the T5 was inferior to the T5i. This is simply not true, in fact the T5 has if anything a slightly newer and better sensor. The image quality on the two cameras is as near identical as can be, and you can check the specs and comparisons on many review sites to verify this.
@David – Thanks for the comment. Tisk, tisk, Jeff. Need to work on memorizing your camera sensor specs 🙂 But seriously, thanks for the reply David. If I can remember to do it, we’ll mention the retraction on the next episode.
I guess the overall point is T2-T5 are all pretty close to exactly he same 18 megapixel sensors, and they aren’t great in low-light. Although I think he listener was saying it was bad at 400, and my experience has been much better than that with T3i
Thanks very much for your replies, Jim and Jeff, and for the great work you put into the podcast. Jeff, I think the interesting question is why this person was getting noise in their portraits at 400 ISO at all – the T5 gives very similar if not identical results to the T3i at ISO 400, and I get excellent results at 400 ISO with a T5, so it seems likely something else must be going on there.
The most likely answer I can think of is that the listener is somehow underexposing the images and pushing the shadows in post, which would produce noise at any ISO, with any sensor. But I’m sure you guys have some better ideas than me.
I have a tip for the question concerning how to separate bracketed images. I got this from a Scott Kelby podcast. It’s not my idea; nevertheless, it works. When you are ready to start your next bracket hold a finger up in front of your lens. It doesn’t matter if it is out of focus. Then take one shot. Start your bracket shots. Hold your finger up again and start the next bracket. When you get into Lightroom the finger shots will clearly separate your bracket shots,
Hi, so New listener here and just tuned in this week. Great show, just a quick question about the dof topic covered in the beginning of the show. Isn’t it true that a 50mm 1.4 on a crop and the same exact lens on a full frame will have the EXACT same dof? After all all that is going on essentially is cropping off the extra area of the sensor in the same way you would if you cropped the imAge after the fact. Or, put another way, the d810 doesnt suddenly gain more dof when you put the same lens and same settings on a shoot in cropped mode. However if I put a 50mm equivalent lens on a crop body (lets say a 35 1.4) and a 50 lens on a full body they would have comparable field of views but the 35mm lens would indeed have more dof. Technically in a fully theoretical world if someone built a 3mm 1.8 lens like the one on many smartphones that covered a full frame sensor (obviously impossible) it would have the same dof as it does on a smart phone just cover an impossibly wide field of view. Anyway, again, great show and would love to hear your thoughts on this
Regarding Thijs van Gennip question on how to shoot mushrooms, Jim’s comment on the articulated screen is certainly a great one, I shoot a lot of Mushroom shots and use the Canon 60D on the ground as Jim suggested, I use a bean bag to steady the Camera and line up the shot, then the fun starts. Like any good photography its all about light and mushroom shots are certainly that, I use to off camera speedlites one at 90 Deg to the lens axis and one behind the 90 deg one gives a lot of detail to all the textures of the mushrooms and these little fellas certainly have loads of texture to them. the one behind adds some rim light and gives some separations to the background. Depending on the background if its interesting you’ll want to expose to show off some of the colour but most times you’ll under expose the shot to give a dark or black background and then light the mushroom wiht the speedlites. Another trick is to carry a small spray bottle I use one thats for cleaning optical classes filled with water and give the mushrooms a spray or to to add in some water droplets at times but also to add in the colours to the mushrooms and at times to bring them back to life as they are often dried out. The last trick is to carry a small piece of cooking foil and this I use as a small reflector to add in a bit of fill light to the front of the mushroom. But most of all be willing to experiment and move the lights around and adjust the powers of the lights to give the various effects. I also use a wireless shutter release so as not to move the camera and introduce any camera shake pressing the shutter button. Lastly as with any Macro work your working with a shallow depth of field so focus stacking in post processing also helps out. All my shots are also ran over in light room with a good work out, usually boosting clarity and contrast and adding a post crop vignette to also darken the corners and bring the viewers attention to the main focus of the shot. Hope this helps out a little. Good luck.
Glenn.