KenElevenShadows
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Posts posted by KenElevenShadows
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That, I did not know. Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to replace my Digital Rebel XT, so I'm stuck doing it the old way for now.By the way, does this "writer" even know that most modern DSLRs can be easily networked and many have wifi?Actually, you may be able to connect your Canon anyway. This is just off the top of my head. There's probably other options as well:
The Eye-Fi is an SD card that wirelessly transmits your photos to a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or other device. http://www.eye.fi/
I know Nikon has a WU-1b Wireless Mobile Adapter, which is a USB dongle that lets you establish a wireless connection between specific Nikon digital cameras and a smart mobile device, both iOS and Android, so perhaps there's something similar for Canon? With this dongle, you can send your images directly to your smartphone wirelessly.
There are also numerous wired options via USB, and you can simply mount the iPhone to the hot shoe of your DSLR if you wish. And while you can obviously easily transmit your photos to your smartphone for connectivity, that's just the beginning. You can use your smartphone as a controller for your camera as well, which is particularly effective when running apps for facial recognition, triggering your camera via sound, doing time-lapse of varying sorts, or various other things.
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So what photo editing software are you guys using? I switched to Lightroom about 6 months after getting my camera and can't imagine using anything else. This combined with shooting in RAW format you're able to pull so much more out of a photo.
Absolutely.
I use Photoshop CS4. Lightroom is excellent, and I'd use that if I weren't already so used to using Photoshop. If I were just starting, I would probably gravitate toward Lightroom because I think it's more intuitive than Photoshop. Either way, you're all good.
I shoot in RAW too and won't shoot any other way. But RAW files need massaging just as any good film negative needs massaging (in processing). I've never seen a RAW file that could not be improved by simple processing.
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Another I-cannot-think-of-anything-useful-to-say-so-I'll-write-a-sensationalistic-headline/article-using-only-my-limited-experience-as-an-example-because-I'll-get-lots-of-hits-and-my-boss-will-be-happy-regardless-of-whether-I-look-like-a-nitwit article.
Guys like this actually get paid to write crap like that?
In a world that this idiot imagines, let's play out a few scenarios, shall we?
You're a photographer. A couple pays you $5000 to photograph their wedding. You pull out your iPhone and exclaim loudly, "Not to worry, even though in ideal light it's virtually indistinguishable from a modest Panasonic GX1 point and shoot, doesn't handle low light well, is unable to control depth of field because there's no way to control aperture, and it cannot withstand intense editing, it's networked! The world no longer needs cameras!"
You're a photographer. Sports Illustrated wants you to take some photos of an important playoff game. Showing up at the game, you pull out your iPhone and exclaim loudly, "Not to worry, even though in ideal light it's virtually indistinguishable from a modest Panasonic GX1 point and shoot, can't control depth of field because there's no aperture control, doesn't handle low light well, or withstand intense editing, blurs like anything, doesn't focus quickly, has serious lag time so I'll miss all the action shots, can't use a flash or fire speedlights, it's networked! The world no longer needs cameras!"
You're a photographer. The newspaper wants you to cover a riot. Showing up at the scene, you pull out your iPhone and exclaim loudly, "Not to worry, even though in ideal light it's virtually indistinguishable from a modest Panasonic GX1 point and shoot, doesn't handle low light well, or withstand intense editing, blurs like anything, doesn't focus quickly, has serious lag time so I'll miss all the action shots, can't use a flash or fire speedlights, it's networked! The world no longer needs cameras!"
You're a photographer. Your fashion editor wants you to shoot some photos of some hot new fashions with supermodels. Showing up for the fashion shoot, you pull out your iPhone and exclaim loudly, "Not to worry, even though in ideal light it's virtually indistinguishable from a modest Panasonic GX1 point and shoot, doesn't handle low light well, or withstand intense editing, blurs like anything, doesn't focus quickly, has serious lag time, can't use a flash or fire speedlights, has no detail, is too dark, and has such low resolution that it cannot be blown up into the magazine spread, poster, or billboard ad that you want, it's networked! The world no longer needs cameras!"
You're a photographer. Reuters wants you to capture a civil war in Somalia. Showing up in the war zone, you pull out your iPhone and exclaim loudly, "Not to worry, even though in ideal light it's virtually indistinguishable from a modest Panasonic GX1 point and shoot, I won't be able to capture anything because there's camera lag and doesn't zoom and doesn't have much detail, it's networked! The world no longer needs cameras! Wait, what? There's no coverage here in Somalia?"
You're a nature photographer. You pull out your iPhone because you're going to take a beautiful long exposure photo of a waterfall. Oh, whooopsie, this looks like complete shit and looks awful as a gallery print. No one's going to buy this because it looks like everyone else's snapshot. But hey, it's networked! The world no longer needs cameras!
You're a night sky photographer. You pull out your iPhone because you're going to take a beautiful long exposure star trails photo at night. After trying desperately to figure out how to mount your iPhone to something stable, you give up, No matter, hey, it's networked! That's all that's important in a camera. You focus. Oh, wait...you can't. See, the damned thing won't focus because it's too dark and doesn't have infra-red like those "dinosaur" DSLRs used to have. But hey, no matter, it's networked...and if it were ideal light, it'd be virtually indistinguishable from a modest Panasonic GX1 point and shoot, which wouldn't be able to take a decent night sky shot either. Okay, well, we can't focus, but surely we can open the aperture and let in the miniscule amount of light that the stars in the sky give off...but oh wait...no, what aperture control? You can't see anything. You can't focus. You can't see any stars. But hey, you can take a blurry selfie in which my face looks as white as a ghost out here in the desert. Oh, but there's no cellphone service in the middle of the desert. No connectivity. You're outta luck...
You're a photographer. You and Steve McCurry are working on assignment for National Geographic. As the African sun is dipping below the horizon, you see a number of bushmen walking home with their catch. It looks gorgeous. Hopping off the jeep, you pull an iPhone out of your pocket and start taking snapshots of blown-out skies and very dark bushmen. Steve doubles over in laughter.
Yeah. That'll work.
By the way, does this "writer" even know that most modern DSLRs can be easily networked and many have wifi?
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Thanks, Michael.
16251, it's really fantastic. Because of my interest in night sky photography, I've sought out more and more places like this, which in turn has brought me to fantastic places and greatly increased my love of nature and the night sky. I wish I could go to places like this more often, but at least I get to go.
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http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/ancientbristleconepineforest-2013july/images/2698_kenlee_bristleconepine-20sf28iso3200.jpg
"Touch The Sky"
Reaching for the Milk Way amongst the oldest trees in the world, some existing before the time of Buddha, live high up at 11,000 ft./ 3350 m in the White Mountains of California.
Title: Touch The Sky, Plate 2698
Photographer: Ken Lee
Info: Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens.
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I really like this watch photo, Mike.
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My girlfriend doesn't take that many photos anymore, a shame since she has a good eye for it. But at some point, she kept saying, "Your photos look great...they're enough." So she doesn't photograph so much anymore when we go on trips.
~~~
Just to throw it out there, you can take fantastic photo gallery quality photos with a modest DSLR or four-thirds camera (and sometimes, less than that, although that's less commoon). We're talking several hundred dollars, not several thousand. It's primarily the person taking the photo and the vision, aesthetics, and technique they bring to the table, not terribly unlike music.
At any rate, the lens plays far more of a part than the camera in terms of image quality.
Also not terribly unlike recording music, right?
The lens is the microphone, and the DAW is the camera. Sure, the DAW or the camera matter, but much less than the lens or the microphone in terms of quality of image or sound.
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Yeah, that would be really cool. There may be quite a lot of us who are equally passionate about photography. I spent much of the day working on music, testing out this new Waves Scheps 73 EQ, or talking about photography, which I love doing. And this weekend and next weekend, I'm photographing a bunch of stuff.
Joe Gerardi, that's pretty freakin' amazing.
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Thanks, Mike. The two new ones and the other ones look good, are well-composed, and good and sharp (nicely focused, in other words).
I've been posting here while processing audio, taking out stray noises and such with Izotope, so I've been doing music and discussing photography simultaneously, two huge loves of mine!!!!
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Mike, those are really good photos!!!!!!!!!
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http://kenleephotography.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/startrails-templetreezion3-kenleeblend2-700px.jpg
This was featured on the cover of National Geographic's website for the Daily Dozen, and is another star trails photo that "stacks" numerous images together to form the star trails. In total, this is 50 minutes (when adding all the images together). I also "light painted" the tree slightly to give it a more "mystical" sort of look, back-lighting it slightly to give it that warmer hue near the bottom. The rest of it is natural illumination from the moon.
http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/joshuatree2012aprilstartrails/images/208_joshuatree_jumborocksBW.jpg
Black and white photo with the sun peaking out of the corner. I shot this using a small aperture to create the "starburst" effect with the sun.
http://elevenshadows.com/travels/india2013-himalayas/images/partone-begtodahhanu/8876kenlee_india-hemisfest.jpg
Himalayas, India. This one used a Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens.
http://elevenshadows.com/travels/india2013-himalayas/images/partone-begtodahhanu/8969kenlee_india-hemisfest-boymonks.jpg
Himalayas, India.
All photos are taken with a Nikon D7000 semi-pro DSLR (cropped sensor) and a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens except for where noted.
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Javanese gamelan, my own stuff since I'm working on it (The Mercury Seven), and Howlin' Wolf.
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This is my process for star trails:
If you like the tutorial or have any questions, please ask in the comments section below, thanks.
I love doing star trails photos!!!!!!!!! I love being able to show the movement of the stars through a single image, something we don't always think about or are not aware of.
10 degrees F is pretty cold, so you would definitely need to dress very warmly for that!!
Excellent tutorial, Ken! I was not aware of the stacking technique.
Yes, it was very cold, even though I had thermal underwear on! Next time I'll visit in the summer
Cool, glad you like it, thanks!
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So how much time is taken to capture all the shots for the complete circle? Isn't that most of the night?
It can be, but I don't really like doing that all night for several reasons.
I like the way shorter star trails look. I don't want to tie up my camera for one shot all night. I don't want to stay out all night, particularly when it's freezing cold. And full circles sometimes dominate the image a little too much for my liking.
I really like other people's full star trails photos, but for me, showing a good movement for 50 minutes or less is enough.
My star trails photos are rarely over 50 minutes, and the image with the colored clouds is just 21 minutes (stars that are farther away from the North Star trail longer because they are moving more relative to our camera).
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I've read descriptions of the single exposure technique but I had no idea that you stacked them. That sounds like you get more control than from the trial and error of a single exposure. Very impressive! This stuff is beyond my pay grade
It takes a little doing, but it's not that complicated. Especially if you read my tutorial, which is extremely detailed and assumes that someone barely knows how to operate Photoshop, or one uses StarStax. You basically set your camera to shoot at set intervals so the amount of the exposure amount is consistent from image to image, then import them all in Photoshop, change the Blend Amount from "Normal" to "Lighten", and bang, you've just stacked photos.
There are some advantages, including reducing noise and being able to edit or clone out "mistakes" in light painting, errant headlights or flashlights, or airplanes, making it easier, and in most cases, more effective, than through a single exposure. But I don't want to denigrate single exposures, which I also love doing. They're just different ways with different feels. Just like sometimes you want a beautiful analog synth sound, and other times, you want a gorgeous Rhodes electric.
And while I do like camping, a lot of times, I don't camp. I just cruise around at night and take photos, sometimes not even straying very far from the car.
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Excellent pics!
KenElevenShadows -- those amazing pics require so much patience (and love of camping)! I don't have that. LOL.
I guess it depends on how you look at it, but the star trails in particular do require a lot of work because I "stack" them "by hand", although there are some very capable stacking programs out there, which I use from time to time. I use StarStax occasionally, and will stack them in there, and if it doesn't look like how I want, then I'll do it "by hand".
Stacking is something that was developed by astrophotographers to minimize noise, but it works for night sky photographers as well, and is a great technique to use. They do look a bit different from star trails that are taken through a single exposure, with either one looking pretty great potentially. Just a question of how you want to go creating an image.
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A long exposure star trails photo of Joshua Tree National Park, California
All amazing photos. I haven't done any star trail photos since I moved to digital. I've just added it to my list of things to do.
+1. I'll borrow anyone's good ideas.
I really like your images a lot! And yeah, star trails are a LOT of fun to shoot. I stack most of mine, including the ones that I showed on the previous page, but not all.
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Also, please keep maximum picture width at 1024 pixels.
I was just about to suggest this!
A long exposure star trails photo of Joshua Tree National Park, California
All amazing photos. I haven't done any star trail photos since I moved to digital. I've just added it to my list of things to do.
+1. I'll borrow anyone's good ideas.
Ken, care to elaborate on your process for star trails? I tried to do some when I was at the Grand Canyon in November, but I didn't have the proper clothing (it was about 10 degrees F) so I gave up before getting anywhere close to an actual result.
This is my process for star trails:
If you like the tutorial or have any questions, please ask in the comments section below, thanks.
I love doing star trails photos!!!!!!!!! I love being able to show the movement of the stars through a single image, something we don't always think about or are not aware of.
10 degrees F is pretty cold, so you would definitely need to dress very warmly for that!!
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I am using a Nikon D7000 DSLR, which is considered a good quality semi-pro quality camera cropped sensor with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens for the first four night sky photos.
The "G3 Guitar Gods" photo is a Nikon D50 6.1MP DSLR, which was even back in the day a modest beginner semi-pro camera, with a Nikkor 18-200mm VR f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.
I included the lens along with the camera because I believe the lens makes much more of a difference than the camera.
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http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/miscellaneous/jimmypage/images/190jimmypage-kenlee-jackwhite-G3-082411.jpg
The first of my daylight shots.
Taken with a Nikon D50 DSLR, a modest beginner semi-pro DSLR that was 6.1MP, and a Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens.
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http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/ancientbristleconepineforest-2013july/images/2698_kenlee_bristleconepine-20sf28iso3200.jpg
The glorious summer Milky Way as seen up at 11,000 ft./3350m in elevation in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California
http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/joshuatree20213november-nightskylongexposurejumborocksskullrock/images-kenleephotography-longexposurephotos-joshuatree/startrails-magicrock-kenlee-joshuatree-21min-30sf28iso400-700px.jpg
A long exposure star trails photo of Joshua Tree National Park, California
http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/tronapinnacleskillbillchurch-2013july/images/startrails-tronapinnacles3-50min-30sf28iso400.jpg
Long exposure star trails photo at Trona Pinnacles in California. This won the LA Times Travel Photo Contest of the year for 2013, and was featured in the LA Times Travel section. This was particularly special for me because I have been marveling at photos in the Travel Section of the LA Times since I was a little kid, wanting to go to all these exotic places, and thinking about how amazing the photos looked.
http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/india2013-himalayas/images/partone-begtodahhanu/8603kenlee_india-shantistupa30sf28iso200-2-700px.jpg
Shanti Stupa in the Himalayas, India during my summer trip.
As you can tell, I have really gotten into night sky photography, so I do this quite a bit. I've got lots of daylight photos as well. Maybe later. I just figured this would be fun because night sky photos are a little more unusual.
The above four photos were taken with a Nikon D7000 DSLR (a good quality semi-pro camera with a cropped sensor) and a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 wide angle lens.
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I never went there, but I just wanna say that when we auditioned musicians for our bands, almost always anyone who came from Dick Grove School of Music was considerably better than the others. Whatever they had going, it worked.
I called up there once, saying that I was interested in their recording program. The guy said quietly, presumably so he would not be overheard, "it costs $4000. For $4000 dollars, you could buy your own recording equipment, and in just a few weeks, you'd get more recording experience than you would in a year long course. AND you'd have recording equipment."
I thanked him, and ultimately, that's exactly what I ended up doing. Only I started out with more like $400.
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My name is Ken. I play synths and piano. I take photos. I play guitar. I have a recording studio. I like watching basketball. I think Dave Bryce rules.
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Intro #2:
My name is Ken.
I think Dave is cool.
He also makes the best damn Philly cheesesteaks outside of Philly.
The Big Photography Thread
in The Big Picture
Posted
...and I think you should be able to go larger - and probably quite a bit larger - than that with a 20.2 MP full frame sensor.