[EyeDocPhotog]

Ok, here’s my take…

Nice jpegs of who appears to be a sweet young girl juxtaposed by one scroll of the mouse wheel with garrish, frightening shots of punk rockers with a decidedly sinister look. Forward to ducks, churches, rescued squirrels, and war heroes contrasted immediately by – wait for it – the scary punk rockers.

Then the Telly Savalis ‘Talking Tina’ doll from the Twilight Zone? Now I’m gonna have nightmares that a war hero dressed as your niece is going to a wedding of ducks and squirrels in a church where the punk rock band is performing.

Save your BEST work for a portfolio. Not every shot on the memory card.

[EyeDocPhotog]

When discussing art, take caution in the use of superlatives. Subjectively, one person’s “always” is another’s “never.”

[EyeDocPhotog]

You have any medicine allergies? If not, maybe 0.5 mg of clonazepam will help… or even a mild SSRI, although they have a longer half-life and require some time to reach therapeutic levels.

You need to ‘chillax’ as my 8-yr-old daughter would say. You’re young, and you have a wealth of opportunities to look forward to with other skills you must have learned in school. Plus, no great photographer sprung into being overnight.

Have faith. It’s gonna be ok.  🙂

[EyeDocPhotog]

I think you’ve created a new category of poorly-skilled post-processing work… the don’t-toucher, perhaps? I think you should pay a visit to the site “You are not a graphic designer.”

[EyeDocPhotog]

why an iMac? If you’ve got cash to burn, go for the Mac Pro. Not that much difference in price, plus it can grow with you, while the iMac is not easy to upgrade.

[EyeDocPhotog]

Nice work!!

But I wouldn’t charge for my own work as it is now.

Why not?! Lots of folks with a oodles less talent than you are charging… I say, run them out of your town! 🙂

[EyeDocPhotog]

I like them. You’ve got a good eye.

The only only I think that’s not the greatest is the selective color (child holding the ball). That’s just my personal preference, though. You (or the client) may like it and that’s just fine.

[EyeDocPhotog]

Here is a link to a rather bizarre video by Tony Northrup who has done a lot of videos and seems to be offering training:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtDotqLx6nA

Am I glad you used the word bizarre to describe that video…. I watched it once, twice,  then three times and kept going “Huh?!?” I finally went back to your post and saw

The thing is, it’s not how much light the whole sensor gathers, it’s the amount of light a single photosite collects that determines the signal to noise ratio for that photosite, and for a scene reflecting x lumens toward the lens, the same lens, same focal length, same aperture, etc., the amount of light received at some photosite near the middle of the sensor will be the same as for the photosite in the corresponding position on the other sensor.

and I was saying “yes, yes, yes!!”

I think to get exact DoF measurements, you’d need a calibrated optical bench with micrometer calipers, although your experiment seems accurate enough for me. At the end of the day, the numbers mean very little if the photographer doesn’t understand the concept needed to produce consistent results.

[EyeDocPhotog]

I’ve signed up for the blog, and am planning to buy more of his books once I’m done with this one.

Quick question on DoF, CC:

Willems and most other things I’ve read state that DoF is dependent on (1) aperture, (2) distance from subject, and (3) focal length. BUT… this article http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm (which appears to be well written by competent photography experts) disputes that focal length is part of the equation. (Scroll down about halfway to the section CLARIFICATION: FOCAL LENGTH AND DEPTH OF FIELD)

With my science background, the optics of aperture and distance from subject make absolute sense to me and I rely upon these two items. But focal length….?

Am I right in assuming that, with a longer focal length, the subject appears CLOSER secondary to magnification and therefore the apparent distance from the subject is varied which changes the DoF, which just defaults right back to Distance to Subject?

[EyeDocPhotog]

Yes! What a writer. He breaks it all down to very simple terms and examples.

I was blown away by what I DIDN’T know!

Willems delves right into the WHAT, WHY, WHERE, WHEN, and HOW of lighting.

[EyeDocPhotog]

One may have better exposure & focus, but neither of these images do anything for me.

Light painting has become soooo ubiquitous you’d have to show REAL creativity to stand out.

Steel wool, 9v battery, off a bridge? NOT ART.

[EyeDocPhotog]

@cc:

Totally off-topic, but your ‘improve-approve’ post reminded me of a joke told by the late Mitch Hedberg.

“Working an Improv in some town in Canada last month, it was a really bad set that first night, and I was scheduled there all week. The next night I came back, they had added an ‘E’ to the sign. I thought to myself, Man, those Canadians know just how to help out struggling a comic.”

[EyeDocPhotog]

Your questions seem a tad disjointed and smack of an apparent lack of basic photo concepts (ie., asking about the utility / functionality of a 50D when you’re already in possession of 6D implies your fundamental photographic skills may need quite a bit of remediation). The analogy which jumped immediately to mind is the ‘experienced plumber’ in a supply store asking a clerk “I’ve used Snap-On tools for years, but I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about this Craftsman set here…?” I think a seasoned clerk in the shop would have a bewildered look on his face at this point.

All the above notwithstanding, I refer you to the following 228-page PDF link of the 50D user manual:

http://www.canon.ca/support_images/RightNow_Images/Digital_Camera/eos50d-h-en.pdf

Read it in its entirety, then go back and read it again. Then perhaps read it a 3rd time, this time with the camera in your hands testing out the various buttons, settings, and menus.

I have a 50D, and I love it. I also have a 1Dx, which I’ve said time and again if I knew before what I know now, I NEVER would have bought the 1Dx because I don’t shoot weddings or nighttime NFL games and have no need for the super high ISO performance. The 6.3 fps of the 50D is usually just fine for me for action and I LOVE that the crop sensor gives me 1.6x longer reach. I have all L Canon glass: 50mm f1.2, 85mm f1.2, 24-105 f4, 70-200 f2.8, and one Sigma lens, 18-250 f3.5-6.3.

I love the durable magnesium alloy body, weather sealing, the nice feel of the jog-wheel on the back, everything. It’s a great camera. BUT, the lenses I have are the investment, not the bodies – bodies lose value quite rapidly. ALREADY, the 7D Mark II gives the 1Dx s run for it’s money at 1/4 the price – and several pro sports photogs are raving that the crop sensor, 10fps and almost ‘mind-reading’ focusing system borrowed from the 1Dx makes it the camera to consider for pro sports.

Read. Shoot. Learn. Then invest.

[EyeDocPhotog]

You have some nice shots in your portfolio, An-Mari, which shows you’ve got potential! 🙂

I don’t usually leave image-by-image critique as CC does, but straight away I’d say 3 things:

1. Good glass will go miles further than an expensive body. I shoot with my 50D pretty often even though I also have a 1Dx – but I wish I knew back then that LENSES are really an investment whereas BODIES lose value 2ndary to booming technology. Every year the industry pumps out newer sensors with more MP and higher ISO, etc. But my L24-105 is still there, 6 years later, waiting for the shot.

2. Shoot in RAW. In jpeg mode, you’re effectively letting your camera tell you what to keep and what to throw away. A RAW image, on the other hand, gives YOU full control over what you keep. For example, one shot in your portfolio screams for increasing exposure, vibrancy, contrast, and a subtle adjustment of the tone curve – but alas, forget it if all you’ve got is a jpeg.

3. Know your camera inside and out. Take shots with deliberate changes to every setting you can. Look at the pictures blind (without the EXIF data) and really try to see where the photo went wrong. Some will be obvious, some may surprise you.

 

[EyeDocPhotog]

I use YN622C ETTL flash triggers. They are ~$85 a pair on Amazon the last I looked, about 6 months ago. They are really versatile, both receivers AND transceivers, so each can be used interchangeably on either the flash or the hot shoe of the camera – and can be used as a passthru for flash on camera while providing all other flash functions.

A really good user guide (the one provided with the unit is a tad brief, to say the least, and reads as though it was written in another language and passed thru Google translate)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B77OmmGIg0gMVFpqNkpBYXBHajA/edit?pli=1

 

[Author]

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