John Bennett
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Shooting raw or jpeg has no impact on focus. Its just a file format.
RAW files though, vs a jpeg of the same image do look softer.
The jpeg has had sharpening and contrast applied to it in camera. The amount determined by your presets. Whereas the raw has had nothing done it. Its a “digital negative”.Also, images on your LCD will always appear sharper than they actually are. One its a tiny LCD vs a monitor and two they are bascially jpegs ( sharpening applied).
Ive looked at it.
Jarrod are you Canon or nikon?
The reason I ask is if Canon, you have 4 70-200s to choose from.
70-200 F4 L ($700.00)ish
70-200 F4 L IS ($1,300)ish
70-200 F2.8 ($1,300)ish
70-200 F2.8 IS (2,000)ishUp here the Sig sells for $1,000.00
The two 70-200 F4s are rated as among Canons sharpest and best lenses. The two F2.8s are no sluoches either. The Sigma may be very good ( I dont know) but I dont tihnk it will be on par with any of the Ls.
If you dont have to have f2.8 you can save some money and get the F4, or spend a bit more and get either the F4 IS, or f2.8 non IS.
As per warranty and macros – they are without a doubt the sharpest lenses out there regardless of brand.
Bingo.
Daryl. Macro lenses are the one type of lens you can buy and not worry about whether the lens is sharp. Regardless of maker. So really as a buyer what your left with is trying to decide how much focal length you want (or need).
The greater the focal length, the more working distance you get. By that I mean the greater the greater your minimum focus distance is going to be. For studio shots, thats unimportant. For bug shots it can be important.
Thus, you can really buy any 1:1 macro lens and not worry about IQ, all you need to decide is how much focal length and how much your budget is. The more length, the more its going to cost.
If you dont want to “break the bank” have a good long look at the Sigma 105 f2.8. Which up here retails for around 500. By compariosn the Canon 100mm L retails for about 800
Most bug shooters start at 100, many eventually upgrade to 150 for the extra working distance but its not absolutely neccessary. The extra working distance just means there less chance of spooking the bug and or casting a shadow over the subject depening on the directionality of light.
Shannon.
The Tamron 180 f3.5 is widely regardest as the sharpest macro. The Canon 180 f3.5 is one of lowest rated. Kinda of silly though as all are wicked sharp.By far the most poular macro lens for bug shooter is the Sigma 150mm f2.8. Its great balance between length and price. In fact it retails for pretty much the same as the Canon 100 f2.8.
No volume here so I cant pass judgment on the so called “expert” and dont have any trouble accepting that the gist of the show is
“get off the couch and try something” rather than any kid of intructional format
However so many of the problems already detailed just blow it.
Trouble threading rods
Walking right upstream through runs, in a group spread out no less.
Casting and grips
One hand on the rod, half way up while fighting a fish.One can only wonder how mcuh damage they did to the fish. I feel sorry for the one that was caught. They problably left it on the hook for 45 minutes to get their 20 seconds of vid for retake after retake.
I had perfect sunrise light in a clear sky with egrets maybe 20 feet away in the water. I snapped lots of pics of them using autofocus on auto function as again it was windy and i was having trouble seeing what i was doing. All pics came back overexposed.
Not being a Nikon shooter I didnt read this thread till now, figuring I couldnt help.
Auto focus and exposure/metering problems are two very different things. Posting a pic or two and the meta data might give us an idea of whats occured, then again it might not.
On the surface what your describing is a common problem, especially if your in any auto modes. Its likely not a problem with the lens and quite likely has more todo with the metering mode used and auto exposures.
If you allow any camera to set your exposure values it wants to compute the exposure based on nuetral Gray.
Thus a white bird on a bright sunny day without any overrides from you will always be overexposed. The brighter the day, the hotter the whites are going to be. If you expose for the “scene” you blow the bird. If you expose for the bird, you underexpose the surroundings.
White/black birds for the reason are nightmares to shoot. Expose fo the whites and you clip the blacks, expose for the blacks and you blow the whites.If you want detail in pure white birds, the best time to shoot them are overcast days. Its the difference between underexposing on a bright day to preserve your highlights and going with a closer to “proper” exposure that results on overcast days. If your shooting white birds on sunny days you have underexpose by quite a bit to prevent over exposing the bird, from 1 to 2 stops. It keeps detail in the whites, but renders the rest of the scene failry underexposed.
Details preserved in the highlights but overall its underexpsed
Exposed for the scene and blacks but the white breast is blown to hell and back
Poperly exposed
Whites blown to hell and back
Expose for the whites though and everything else will be underexposed.
White birds are best shot on overcast days.
Hes a great ambassador that gets very little recognition outside Ontario. Also almost lost him last year (heart attack).
Im going to say walk and wade medium rivers. By medium I mean the average cast need not be more than 20 to 30 ft.
By far my dream would be to float ( Quebec) or wade one of East Coast Rivers in Nova Scotia or New Foundland like the Mirimichi for Atlantics. Its a dream for me and I dont think my Fly fishing journal will be complete until Ive done it.
David this might sound like blasphemy but in many ways its more fun and more rewarding than enticing that big brown you’ve been watching to rise to a dry.
Sometimes you get lucky and they let you get resonably close but thats the exception. Youve really got to work at it if you want to increase your odds.
locate Does, mark their game trails, pattern them ( which routes to they take to and from the bedding areas to food sources). Then you have beat them when they have btter eyesight, better hearing and their man survival aid…their nose.
It can also be very frustrating 🙂
John.
Started the morning using grunts and Estrus Bleats. Last weekend there was some fresh snow on the ground and I found quite a few pools of urine mixed with blood. Figure the rut was just starting.Saw the Bucks in the distance (about 300 to 500 feet away) around 7:30am. They didnt seem to respond at all to a bleat so I put it away and started working towards them. Once I decided to move to them I didnt want to use a grunt or bleat lest it bust me.
by next weekend Im guessin the rut will be over so will start using rattles instead.
J
Nice Buck Eric.
I use the scent killer sprays and detergents, although I havent gone so far as to use the toothpaste/breath mints. After washing in a non uv detergent I store in a plastic bag.
Clothes wise Im using Mathews latest brand.. Its called “Game hide” in what they call a “lost” pattern. Long story short its as silent as an owl in flight. You can rub it vigoursly between your hands and it wont make a peep. Its the stuff Im wearing in the other thread.
Base layers
Under armor and Polartec.
Thought about Scent Lok but I need cold protection, theres days Im out when its -30 with the wind chill. I have been looking at an all in one layering manufactorer called ‘Sitka” gear.Boots
I tend to spray down with scent killer.Baiting.
Yep, legal.
I dont have private property though and would be very problematic where I go. They are large conservation areas.
Pro no hunting = lots of Deer and me not getting shot 🙂
Cons: Other people..dog walkers, joggers etcCovers.
Thats a reality these days, don’t really have a philosophical problem with it. The “odds” of getting the perfect shots of tough to appoach wild game like big bucks, in sweet light, with great backgrounds are slim at best. Its takes sooo many hours of work with little to no certaintity just to see them, let alone align all the various factors.In order to get these shots this weekend *and* stay downwind of them, the few times the sun did poke its head out it was always strong sidelight or backlit, as the few above attest. Let alone WTs being more active around dawn and duskl. Rare is the day I get them in good light, let alone sweet front light with great BGs
🙂Thank you for sharing those, John. They are awesome.
You must have remembered your hat! 🙂
lmao 🙂
yeah fleece Toque and neck scarf, wrap thing that doubles as a face mask so only my eyes are visible.Thats one of the hardest things I’m finding. I have to dress for freezing temps and wind chill.
If I sit pretty and use calls. I need layers and warmth
If I move around as I did Sat/Sun I work up a sweat and my base layers get soaked. As soon as I stop moving I start losing body heat and chills set in.Thanks guys.
Mark you don’t know how much I wish I had property so I could lay a food plot or Mineral soak.
Not much of a tier so I can’t help there.
Q1. How far away from the fly should I be? If I go too close I can’t focus and too far away, I loose depth of field, DOF.
Q2. How do I increase the DOF if I shoot in macros mode? The camera wants to set it to f8, I know I can over ride it, but will that screw up other settings.
Q3. Do I tie a fly a few sizes up to show the fly nicely? I like the pattern in a 16, but I am finding that it is a little difficult to get the fly to show properly in the pics, hopefully the comments you guys will give, will help.
Q4.Mums the word Phil.
Honestlyly, this is one those things that seems so obvious now that its “out there” I’d be surprised if it doesn’t grow into something better over time that other ADs mimic in some shape or form.
It streams lines some ineffeciences with emails, ftps, cds. And thats from my PoV as someone trying to do Freelance for a handful of magazines. Some want just a few jps at a time, some want no less than 50 at a time ….Then I always wonder if the CDs been received or mis routed on those occasions I don’t hear back.
I can only imagine how it might help ADs
From server space to photogs doing the tagging under a set format etc, etc.2. Since I made this a very public offering, who knows who’s going to get involved, so I reserve the right to ban anyone who abuses the archive in any way. To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure what someone could do–upload porn or offensive material, I guess–but I want it to be clear up front that I hold that power.
As you should, inlcuding the right to nix any that dont hold up. It could grow into a rather large database. Your times money and we all understand that or should.
J
My 2 copper.
I think its brilliant and if other ADs get wind don’t be surprised if they borrow the idea.
Just one thought right off the top.
Due to the typical rights being NAFSRs. Can we have a way of flagging our photos for you if they happen to get sold somewhere down the road whether its due to someone perusing out site o another photo call etc??J
Im by no means an expert or professional but I’ve learned a few things (with lots more to learn) about what works and what doesn’t. So take this with the appropriate grain of salt.
Earler in the thread I mentioned “shooting for a cover” and in another thread I’ve mentioned theres shooting for yourself and shooting for the AD.
Two very different things.First and foremost. Read what the AD says he or she is hoping to see. Read it again and be fairly clear.
If they have a seasonal requirement and they often do, make sure you don’t break it. If its a summer requirement, leaves changing colour in the background or new growth of late spring might be deal breakers. At worst select images that are ambigious that could anywhere, anytime but realise they are missing a quality thats sought.
Lots of great photos might get passed on for a cover shots for the smallest of things that have nothing to do with how “good” an image is or isnt.
The fist obviously is “framing”. Most people and this includes myself have a natural tendency to want to fill the frame with the subject.
Doing so doesnt leave an AD room for logos, block text and whatever else. Knowing before hand which magazine your going to send the image to helps as they are all slightly different but there are usually
For all thats wrong with the story,- ill prepared kids venturing through hostile eniroments – who can’t admire the stones it took to undertake such a thing?
You could offer me millions up front and I still might not do it.
Dog sled and ski through Greenland?
Bike from NY to patagonia.
Surive a rolled boat on route to AntarticaSay what you want about the folley of two teens attempting such a thing. Its something, or its the essence of something most may day dream about. And its something few in the world would be be willing to try, let alone actually do rather than just dream about some grand adventure from the safety of a couch.
If they make millions off it. Good on em.
