david king
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Good Start! Everything the other guys said is excellent advice. What I think you might want to consider doing is really look at you subject and think about how you want to shoot it. Its easy to start blasting away. Get the camera out of your hands where it dosen’t distract you from your subject and close one eye and look at the subject as camera will see it. Turn the subject until you achieve an angle you like. You might want to think about showing multiple surfaces to help achieve a sense of depth and dimension. If you can’t move the subject move around with one eye closed and observe the relationship of objects and surfaces and light and pick a camera position and shoot. Fill the frame and shoot. Cropping in Photoshop just shows that the picture was not well seen. Get a good tripod and use it when you can. Explore natural light and try using reflectors etc. on still life subjects before you slap a flash on you camera. Play what if. What if I moved over here. What if I waited until the sun moved higher or lower in the sky. What if I came back later or earlier etc. Have fun and do as much as you can “in camera”. If your pictures are well seen and executed in the field you won’t have to “fix” them in Photoshop. Study the work of other photographers and try to figure out what they did. Digital technology has turned the path to mediocre photography into a 8 lane freeway and turned bumbs in to photographers and photographers into bumbs, if you want to get good work at it.
Zach if you get a chance to cast the new Sage rods I would be interested in your opinion of them. I have a Sage reel laying around waiting for a rod. I’ve been holding off because I figured they might come out with something this year.
Nice guest list! I just read a selection from Tom Mcguane over at Midcurrent.com about rods etc. The guy has a way of summing things up that is brilliant. I’d love to know what he’s got on got on his mind these days. If he speaks as well as he writes I bet he would be a great interview.
I think my characterization of Winston is dead on. I didn’t say the BIIX was a bad rod although they have had some quality problems and you can check the Winston forum if you want to know more. Some of the changes at the company have been controversial and are well documented in Montana papers. The entire Bamboo crew resigned in mass and is starting up as Sweetgrass Rods. Tom Morgan is making his own line of rods. Winston cut a lot of the options that they used to offer. I think its clear that Winston has changed.
The G2 has a sweet action that is smooth yet fairly reasonably powerful. I cast the 9′ 4 weight and I liked it really well. The BIIX is faster. I don’t know what the deal is with Winston a lot of what made them unique they have turned their back on. Its not the same company it used to be when Tom Morgan and Glenn Brackett were running things.
Yea the render is a little slow even on the machine I use at work which is maxed out (Dual 2.3 Ghz Mac with 8 gigs of RAM). Once the NEF is rendered things perk up. Its a 1.0 release so I am sure it will get better. Do you listen to the Nikonians Podcasts on iTunes lots of good info in general with a Nikon focus.
The image doctors are on top of everything Nikon so I guess we will here something on the new camera soon from them.David King
The Upoint technology is really useful and when you edit a NEF file it is non destructive. There is a quick start PDF and a full PDF manual on the Nikon site. The complete manual is over 200 pages. I am going to buy the software after the trial expires. I would think this would be a must have for anyone using Nikon.
Richard, I am a indoor photographer weekdays. Would you happen to have a business plan on that outdoor photographer gig that I could borrow to get access to some money from the bank. What do you do?
Assignments, print and stock sales? I am seriously interested how you get started and make money as a outdoor photographer. Cash flow was a big problem when I was on my own. How did you get going?I have friends that have switched to Cannon and if they hadn’t told me I would have never noticed except for the white lenses. Their work looks pretty much the same as it always did. The DX sensor works fine and whatever they have next year or next decade will be better. Image content is what matters in the end no one cares about
What makes Cannon so qualified to make sensors? Most of the top of the line sensors come from companies other than Cannon. I saw prints made by Vincent Versace and Moose Peterson that were spectacular at PS World all shot on Nikon. Its not the sensor or the whatever its the shooter using whatever tools they find suitable. If I had the money I would check out the new Hasselbad digtal setup or Leaf. There is always something new to buy.
The major difference in the rods is “lighter feel in you hand” between the 8’8″ and the 9′ rods. Thats what Jim at the Scott factory told me about the 4 weight, and I would believe that would be true for the 5 weight too. He said you loose little in the way of line mending etc but achieved a much lighter feel. There is a big difference between 8’6″ and 9′ rods, with the 8’6″ being lighter and more pleasant to cast in any line weight. Tom Morgan former owner of Winston dosen’t even make a 9′ trout rod. I guess the only down side to a 8’6″ or 8’8″ rod would be on longer casts and when wading really deep. Most competent caster can cast more line than they can effectively fish especially when trying to get a good drift in complex currents. The only G2 rods I have cast is the 8’4″ 4 8’8″ 4 and the 9′ 4. They were very smooth and had plenty of power. I have 2 Scott S3 rods a 4 and a 6 both 9 footers. You might want to try a Winston 8’6″ 5 weight its a sweet classic rod.
David KingIn Photoshop go to adjustment>channel mixer and check monochrome, mix the channels in varying amounts until you achieve the look you want. Make sure the channels add up to 100%. Green usually has the most tone and detail. I have seen some other techniques by Russell Brown @ russellbrown.com and by Vincent Versace @ vincentversace.com. Vesace is really great I saw him at Photoshop World he is a classic BXW shooter like me and has come up with techniques in digtal that come really close to traditional black and white photography. He has a book coming out and several DVDs. Check him out. Russell Brown works for Adobe and is one of the geniuses behind Photoshop.
If you can afford a graphite tripod they are great! I’ve lugged tripods around for a long time and they really get heavy. Ball heads flop around to much for my taste. I would rather have a locking handle for tilt swing and pan. I used a gitzo reporter paired up with a Linhof head or Bogen pan tilt head.
Zone VI what agreat little camera and Fred Picker was a great mentor to me. I won a Zone VI Camera from Fred in a contest he ran 1 year. I miss him and his newsletter. I use a Plaubel Camera and a Eyelike M22 back now. I miss the darkroom and making fine prints maybe when I retire I can practice real photography as a “alternative process”.
David KingCreate an action in Photshop to increase the image size 110%, play(repeat) the action as many time as needed to get the file size you need. It works much better than
Zach your interview with Rick Pope was excellent. Get Yoda Kreh on and let him talk about casting and rod design etc without him promoting the rods I don’t think Temple Fork would be what it is today. I found Lawson interesting and solid for 2 hours. The sound on most podcast is poorly engineered unless your a sound pro. The great thing is people that have a passion for something can share that with anyone online.
Check out the Sage Full Brim Sun Hat.
http://sageflyfish.com/default.asp?p=20
