Ben Cochran
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Great job Cameron! You did very good with the layouts snd I really like the old reels composition a lot. .
I love that portrait shot seafood!
I was going to trash this but I thought that you might like to see how it does with a total of 57 photographs: This sucker is HUGE LOL… This one does have some very serious flaws and a big mess in it but I thought that this might help you in spending that extra money, Zach LOL.
Everytime I shoot this thing, I seem to miss detail and learn something new for shooting and setting up all of the shots for the stitching process. This one did require some aligning and adjustments but it is so easy as the automated process fills up the layers pallete and makes it simple for moving and adjusting one file at a time. I really wanted to get the clouds and clear sky in it but I did 3 sweeps of the horizon and things moved faster than I wanted. (that and a bird flew into one of the frames LOL). Cleaning and blending the clouds and sky was easy but I overlooked some other details in the lower section and my hardrive is so full that a crash fear has overcome me again so, I rushed this one LOL. Seems that I am going to have to reshoot this yet again but it is one of the funniest frustrating shots that I have done in a good while. You are going to love CS3 Zach 🙂
Thanks again for all of the help. I don’t always have reliable access to the internet and when I do, it is for very short periods, The other suggestions will be great for when I get back stateside but for traveling, I think I will just have to add a couple more 2.5’s to my bag . I am due back to the states next week and I am very excited about that, been here for 3 months straight now. Running straight to my favorite river for some serious fly fishing.. :)…
Thanks Wayne and Scott! Wayne, that system will be perfect for setting up as the master backup, when I get back to the states. I may have some questions on setting it up though and hope you don’t mind if I ask your advice on it. I think that I will probably go with the 1TB, as Scott mentioned, and mirror that. . It would be to bulky for carrying around in my backpack and I really do not have room in there for it but it will be perfect for what I described, back in the states.
Scott, the GigOne is just like the storage/card reader device that you mentioned. With a 40GB harddrive, it is the exact same price and does have the card reader built in as well. The method that I have been using was: Dump the cards into the GigaOne, during a shoot, while loading and using another one in the camera. Once the GigaOne got close to full, I would then migrate all of the data onto another storage device (In this case it was most often a 100 GB battery operated 2.5 Thecus). Once that was full, I would then dump that into my other hardrives and then migrate everything into my master drives back in the states, this allowed me to reformat these harddrives and reuse them again. The GigaOne worked perfect but I accidentally reformatted it incorrectly as I tried to suck more space from it. It has to be formatted in fat32 and I of course did not do that, an oversight lol. I tried to reformat it correctly and it failed so, now I have to get it serviced. The reason that I stay at 40GB and then 100GB, is so that the batteries will last longer and not expire due to a larger amount of memory. (If I am wrong on this logic, please let me know as it would be better to have larger memory, if I can). Once I get back to electric power I then migrate all of the data onto the other 2.5 hardrives.
Once I lost the GigaOne, I did go to the Thecus hardrive and plugged my card reader into that, it should of then worked just like the GigaOne but with no confirmation window and just a flashing light. I have used the Thecus as a support to the GigaOne and it worked perfectly. However, when I tried a direct card data transfer, the Thecus indicated that all files were transferred, I did feel good about this solution but past experience told me to not get to confident. I decided to save the card and just use more cards and save all of data on them as well, I did not want to reformat until I had solid confirmation. After the shoot, I looked at the contents of the Thecus on my laptop and discovered that over 700 shots did not transfer. Needless to say, I will never count on that as a viable method again.
I appreciate the advice and suggestions and was really hoping that there was a better solution than having to add more weight to my back. Nonetheless, the suggestions and help was GREAT and very much appreciated. I really like the mirrored backup system a lot! Those prices are extremely low to what it is here in Europe Scott and thanks for that update. I have a friend that just went to a 3.3TB system but he has the luxury of living in Austria and is never to far away or gone 3 months at a time as I am. I think that my best solution may be to get a couple more 2.5’s and 2 GigaOne’s. incase of another failure or idiot mistake from me.
Scott, the needs may be high end but the photographs are not, there are many on this forum (including yourself) that are better photographers than I.
Thanks again!!!
As Richard stated, it is faster. It really is worth every penny Zach, the improvements are truly amazing. If you do any graphic design with any of your photographs, you will find that it can cut the time in half, compared to CS2. The tools are far better and they added more to the adjustment layers as well. The black and white conversion is great as well. Just from what you discovered with the photomerge, it is so easy to use and the lines are so easy to fix in the adjustment layers. Must say that I was not sure about CS3 and the cost at first but I after spending some time with it; I really love this upgrade… Sorry about the orange walls
I really enjoyed those shots as well, love the underwater shots and I may need to get one of those cameras for my vest now as well, thanks lol
I lived in a small town in Michigan for a couple of years myself, a place called Oscoda. Loved every minute of it and now I miss it even more. Thanks for sharing 🙂
i know that you said you weeren’t interested in CS3 but I thought that I would post this as a test example, that I wanted to perform, of the embedded photomerge in CS3. This was just a test shot to see what the final image would look like and how well the photomerge would work so, I know that it is a terrible shot with a lot of problems in it. I did no inhancements on this posted final image at all and it was all automated. The only thing that I did manual was apply the lower, 2nd, row of merged photo’s and allign them with the top row. I really wanted to give this a good test so, I shot some portrait and others landcaped and then merged a total of 36 photographs in this final panoramic image. I also adjusted the in camera focus in each new frame and continued shooting during the shade of cloud coverage, which explains why part of buidings are in focus and parts are not (wanted to see how photomerge would handle that little problem and I think it did well. You can find a couple of very fine lines, in the sky, where some of the photo’s were merged but they are very easy fixes. I also did not take extra care in lining up each shot but just made sure that there was some, or a lot, of overlap.
I am going to reshoot this the proper way and in better lighting as the test shot was in harsh Lithuanian sun light. I will probably have a total of 4 rows and 26 columns in the final shot… I must admit that I am very amazed at how well the photomerge tool works in CS3.. Amazing alignment for an automated arrangement in my book!! I know that it is costly but I think that it may very well be worth it, but that is up to the individual…
Oh yes, the posted image is only 2% the size of the original. Having said that, the file is very huge and does take a lot of processing time with all of the tools in photoshop..
Oh yes, the infamous “one that got away” lol.. Great thing that an awesome catch was also captured by camera as the photographic chronicle of that lost hookup could really hurt more with out it
Great fly fishing report! I thoroughly enjoyed it and thanks for the adventure!!! Great photography as well.
That is so cool Tim!! I have a rather large selection of antique fly’s and one of them is a mouse pattern that is around 80 years old, it is nice to see that people are still using these patterns with good results.
I really do like this shot!! The horizon is tilted and causes one to come back and try to focus on the blurred hands. The tangled fly line is also a bad distraction. Also, with all due respect; the palm of the left hand is very distracting. By recropping the image so that only ½ of the left palm is in the image may help to keep from being distracted to it. You can also smooth out the palm in Photoshop. For myself only, I would have set the shot up so that more of the rod and rod hand was in the shot, with less of the left hand. Just by switching the proportions that each takes up in the shot can add a lot more emotion to it or simply by reducing more of the left hand out of frame, just my opinion though… I know it may not sound like it but I really do like this shot a lot!!!
Agreed, to much magenta, this is an example of the downfall of using the automated enhancement tools in Photoshop. Also, a better crop really makes this image pop much better and creates a great photograph! If you look at the black section of your sleeve, you may notice the stronger tones of magenta there as well…
By know means am I great landscape photographer so please, take this more as an offer of opinion with a token grain of salt: opposed to any standard set of rules for landscape photography.
The greatest thing about landscape photography is the fact that the composition for the shot is already there. All the photographer has to do is find the best angle, lenses, lighting and camera settings to capture it. Much more difficult than just the simple words may imply. I can tell by looking at all of your photographs that you do have a very good eye for this but as I stated above, capturing it onboard the camera is and can be very difficult. As Richard stated and you noted, the landscape horizon is tilted and due to this, it does create a distraction from your subject.
With the mention of subject, you must really look at your photography and define the elements of it properly as there are many different types of disciplines. Not only are you doing landscape photography, you have also incorporated people photography and action photography into your compositions of landscape photography: 3 different disciplines and one is not necessarily the best for all three, it is a blend of rules here and you are doing well. It is easy to see what you were going for and simply need some tweaks and additional rules with tips and techniques to reproduce what you saw and wanted when you first snapped the shutter and/or to better reproduce a better subject focal point in your compositions. Remember that some of the best photographs are taken from broken rules but I feel it is important to know the basic rules so that they can be broken and controlled purposely. Tips and techniques are priceless as they do help tremendously, like the one David mentioned of using fill flash, in your other photograph of the person sitting on the bow of the boat, in broad daylight.
Apply the rule of thirds to setting up your photography, not so that you get caught up into a cookie cutter style of photography but so that it helps you to study and analyze all components of your compositions. Again; you have landscape, people and action in this one shot. The landscape is amazing but the image, as noted by Richard and yourself, is tilted and distracts from that element. People: I think that you did a great job and placed your arm and the fly rod in a captivating placement for this photograph. Action: The fish is lost as it is to close to the arm and end of the fly rod. As Richard stated, it would have been much better to see more of it and perhaps closer to the cross bars of the lower 1/3 to the right of the photograph. Â Also, I must mention that I really like the composition and placement of the ice in this photograph: That is so cool!!!!
You will find that professional photographers will take many pics of the same composition, on purpose and by plan. If there is some sort of action involved and if the opportunity alows, they will click as fast as they can and not move the camera until several have been taken. Think of it as one chance to capture that perfect memory and are you willing to leave it up to a one shot deal. Luck is far too important if one only sets the composition into frame and snaps one shot. By looking at this photograph, I cannot help but feel that if you were going by a multiple shots per planned composition that you would have caught one image that would have had the fish in a much better position and perhaps a better aligned horizon. Important to mention that this practice of multiple shots is not a way of handicapping an amateur photographer as it is much more that a professional knows better than just capturing one or a couple of shots. It is much better and more advantageous to pick the best from multiple images of the same composition. Never leave the memory to chance with limited choices.
Study your finished and final selected photograph for a long period and analyze where your eyes want to wonder in the composition. Question yourself as to rather it distracts your eyes from the intended focal point and takes away from the composition or not. If it does, remove it through cropping or cloning in Photoshop.
Learn to use the manual enhancements in Photoshop; the automated features should never be used for several reasons. 2 of them are the fact that in many cases they can really mess up a section or the entirety of your image and 2nd, you are enhancing a photograph the way that a programmer wanted it and not you. Also learn to use the adjustment filters in layers, this is where all of your enhancements should be made as it is far more forgiving to making mistakes and over correcting. Use the crop tool or selection tool to capture the completed image in the best crop possible, this is another place where you can again apply the rule of thirds.
As I stated, these are all just opinions and not an application of stoned advice. If it was all easy then photography would be a real bore. Much more complicated than what I have written but one of the most rewarding things that a person can do in this life. Photography is much like fly fishing where one really celebrates that perfect catch from a perfect cast and presentation. As they are limited moments, a better average in quality can be achieved through application, planning and remembering what was wrong in the last catch…
I have to say this as well… I really do like your photography as I can see the types of shots that you were going for in them.
“Sorry this was so long”
In the hands of a true artist, makeovers are great and retouches are a value added proposition. I also agree that most of the retouching, in the fashion mags, is way overdone and looks extremely fake.. Seems that a new short cut is the favorite choice: Create a new masking layer and copy the face, then add a tremendous amount of Gaussian blur. After this is done, they simply use the erase tool on the lips and eyes, then move onto the brushes… It was once said; “The camera never lies” I submit that it still doesn’t but the software has a difficult time with keeping the truth ..l 😉 I am all for retouching and photographic art but completly recreating a fashion model to a plastic apperance is a bit of a stretch…
Here is an easy to follow tutorial and fine example of the works. Â :-Xlol… Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knEIM16NuPg
You might love like this one David lol. My client requested no shading to very limited shadows. I talked with the graphic designer, from the publishers house, and told her that it was impossible but I will do my best to limit the shadings as the client also wanted me to shoot the models in white against a white background lol.. I knew that we could adjust everything in PS after the shoot but again I  had to go over the contact sheets every night with the client and one of the models as she is a well known celebrity in Lithuania and was very concerned about her image. I did most of the shoot from the opened second floor and spent a lot of my time running up and down the ladders as I would purposely mold the flow of the dresses so that I could pick up a slight blended shadow of the dress with slight contrast to the background.. They requested no shadows or shading on the backgrounds as well, which were all shinny silk… 🙂
This is the part that made it a real blast for me, only one person on the set spoke a descent amount of English, I had to use her to translate everything, including to the makeup artist and assistants. I found it was best to just keep climbing the ladders and setting the compositions myself.. Try giving the motivation and direction through a translator once though lmao!!!!!!!
Thanks again for your advice, I kind of lost myself with everything going on and gave the camera setting better attention in each shot after my posted problems.. We are in post edit now and the rest of the shoot went very well.. Thanks again !!!
Thanks David! I really admire your work, by the way :)..
It was the shutter sync speed. The client provided all for this shoot. They reneted the studio, lights, models, makeup persons and also had their graphic designers on set so, I could not cheat the photographs as we go over the contact sheets at the end of each day. Between changing lenses, climbing overheads and dealing with far to many people on the set; seems that I changed the shutter speed during a lense change, by bad habit. I slowed the shutter speed back down and managed the sessions at 250, lots of fast action shots required and with the occasional mandatory long lenses I can not afford any bad motion blur.
I am on location in Lithuania and I really have to deal with what I can get over here, everything is far more expensive and another D200 would cost about 1,000.00 more than what I would get it for in the states. I do have other cameras though but I wanted to stay with the D200 for these shots.
I read your reply early this morning and checked my meta data before leaving for the set, sure enough I discovered that the effected shots had a much faster shutter speed. I reset everything before the shoot and it did go without and flash sync flaws. I wanted to thank you earlier but I had to rush out and made sure that this reply, to you, would be my first order of business after the last session.. Thanks again and it was a good wake up call for me to pay better attention…:)
