Photography Thread

[Bama Gambler]

Mojo, good call on the battery grip. It has been on my list.

[E]

Originally Posted by Bama Gambler

Downloaded a program called Portrait Professional last night. It ROCKS! On sale right now for $39.99 ($59.99 for the version that can be used as a plug-in).

It's worth visiting that link just to watch the before and after photos on the landing page. Whether they're legit or not, it's weirdly entertaining to watch the transitions.

[E]

Originally Posted by Bama Gambler

I don't know anything about the distance index thing you are talking about.

I have been doing a lot of reading this morning on it, but I still only have a week understanding of it from a practical standpoint. Nobody seems to be able to answer the simple question I have: "how do I use it to take better pictures?"

I know that it's tangential to aperture, which I totally get. I just don't get how to use it optimally or if there's a good all purpose setting. I may just leave it on infinity for now. Or I could just experiment.

Some links:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...l-distance.htm

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/p...ront-lens.html

http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/...e-photography/

[DeepPurple]

Originally Posted by E

To me, there is also kind of a purity with a prime lens. The idea of not having AF as a crutch seems fun. My main subject will also be pretty stationary for a while (a newborn).

Any zoom lens I have ever used has had a manual focus feature. You are not REQUIRED to use auto focus (AF).

[Bama Gambler]

Originally Posted by E

It's worth visiting that link just to watch the before and after photos on the landing page. Whether they're legit or not, it's weirdly entertaining to watch the transitions.

I'd say they are 100% legit. I grabbed a screen shot of one of the before shots and did this in literally 2 minutes.

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

[E]

Originally Posted by DeepPurple

Any zoom lens I have ever used has had a manual focus feature. You are not REQUIRED to use auto focus (AF).

Agree, and I also totally botched what I was trying to say. I meant to say zoom, not AF.

[E]

Originally Posted by Bama Gambler

I'd say they are 100% legit. I grabbed a screen shot of one of the before shots and did this in literally 2 minutes.

You're using it as Aperture 3 plugin, yes?

[Bama Gambler]

Last night I bought the standard version. I didn't realize that you need the studio version to use it as a plugin. Today I paid the $20 to upgrade to studio version. That will save me from exporting, opening in standard version, saving and then reimporting.

[E]

Originally Posted by Bama Gambler

Last night I bought the standard version. I didn't realize that you need the studio version to use it as a plugin. Today I paid the $20 to upgrade to studio version. That will save me from exporting, opening in standard version, saving and then reimporting.

Yeah, I don't have much interest in editing outside of Aperture 3 right now. I've gotten all my stuff in there, and I want to keep it there for a little while at least.

I'm adding Portrait Professional to my list.

[Mojo]

for the distance guide index

lets use 20 feet indicator as an example.

if you line the 20 feet mark to the bottom bottom golden pointer, regardless what your aperature is, any object exactly 20 feet away from the camera is in focus. (or the part of object that is 20 feet way). so that is the basic use of the distance index

now lets add the aperture numbers into the mix
see the lower bracket with number 11 and 16 on both left and right side of the golden point. 11 and 16 are aperture numbers. Aperture, as you may recall, affects not only the amount of light allow inside the camera thru the lens but also the depth of field. So the bracket of 11 and 16 indicates the depth of field of that aperture setting when you set your focus at a specific distance. let's say you set (I don't have your lens so I will just make it up) you focus distance at 5 feet and the 11 bracket includes both 4 feet and 8 feet. That means at F11, focusing on 5 feet, everything between 4 to 8 will be in focus due to depth of field of aperture at F11.

the purpose of this? you can still shoot an object with a good chance of that being in focus even if you don't use AF and don't even bring camera up to your eyes. where do you need that? Some street photographers use this to pre-set focus so they can shoot much quicker without focusing (focusing time is the shooting speed bottleneck) and even shoot from the hip so that their subjects will not notice. There are probably other use for it.