The Photography Thread

[egparadigm]

Anyone in the Bristol area, my end of course show is up at Centrespace Gallery on Leonard Lane (near Corn St – it's an inconspicuous alleyway with three entrances.) I'll be invigilating Tuesday Afternoon 2-6pm if anyone wants to put a face to a pseudonym. It's actually pretty good overall (I've been to far worse student shows over the years), and of course my stuff's brill.

The show goes on until Wednesday and is pretty much office hours. Links:

http://centrespacegallery.com/

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132430713501494

[spagmasterswift]

[Spatial]

Drink anyone? by Jamie-Davies, on Flickr

[chopemon]

Hi guys,

I need to get an SLR camera for Miss Chopemon's birthday. I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CAMERAS. Neither does she so I'm looking to get an entry level camera for her.

I want to spend about ?200 but a brief browse on Amazon didn't fill me with much hope. Can anyone recommend me a camera that might fit my needs?

If this is the wrong thread for this, I apologise!

Thanks!

[MartyG]

You're not going to get a dslr for that unless you go 2nd hand and early generation like a Nikon d70 or Canon 10d. Fujifilm do a couple of bridge cameras around that price that give good zoom range and reasonable quality.

Ddlr tho you're talking twice the cost realistically

[egparadigm]

D70 is a very good camera. The only problems I had with it over the years is the small screen and the auto-focus is often unreliable – needs lots of light/contrast compared to newer cameras.

When learning, a back to basics approach can help. My first proper camera only had manual controls. Olympus OM1 and later OM2.

[chopemon]

Thanks for the info guys!

[MartyG]

A recent one ...


What Wordsworth Saw by MartyPG13, on Flickr

[Taka]

Do we have any screen calibration wizards here in the thread?

I recently took delivery of a new MacBook Pro and absolutely love it. It's so much faster compared to my old MacBook Pro and loads Photoshop CS5 in less than 5 seconds, ready for use. Problem is, I'm finding the glossy screen a bit much compared to my older matte screen, and the additional colour saturation and contrast is a bit too much for me.

Can I calibrate this so that it's a little closer to what a matte screen is usually capable of?

I've never calibrated any of my screens before, and my graphics design PC at work is calibrated by our printers to match their paper stock. This so happened to be a pretty close match to my previous MacBook Pro too, hence no need to calibrate. Any tips or advice for what tool to use? A friend is letting me borrow a Pantone Huey Pro, though they've mentioned that I should recalibrate every 3 months or so. Would it be worth purchasing a tool for myself and if so, which one?

I also rarely print my work, with most of it being displayed online so should I alter the colour profile to match sRGB?

Many thanks in advance!

[Spatial]

After the last comments about Macro, I decided to try some focus stacking with my new lens - this was the result


Welcome to my lair... by Jamie-Davies, on Flickr

[Spatial]

Have another spider photo - a bit closer up this time.


Up Close by Jamie-Davies, on Flickr

Little guy is starting to hate me getting all up in his hairy chops

[MartyG]

That's nice and sharp Jamie, good job.

One of my recent ones:


Layers by MartyPG13, on Flickr

[EvilBoris]

I do love a bit of mountains! Especially when they layer like that

Here are a few from the Jodrell Bank Live gig I went to last night

[MartyG]

Hi guys,

I need to get an SLR camera for Miss Chopemon's birthday. I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CAMERAS. Neither does she so I'm looking to get an entry level camera for her.

I want to spend about ?200 but a brief browse on Amazon didn't fill me with much hope. Can anyone recommend me a camera that might fit my needs?

If you're still looking for a DSLR, I spotted *this* whilst shopping about. The D40X is a 10MP camera and 2 gens older than the current entry level Nikons, but it's a decent enough little camera (I have a D40 I still use with good results). There are also a few D40 (6 MP and a little cheaper) and D60 (the D40X replacement for a few pounds more) models too.

You still need a lens to go with it, but you should be able to pick up the 18-55mm kit lens for around ?60 2nd hand if you look about. You just need to be aware that you need lenses with a built-in motor for autofocus, as like other entry level Nikons of late, it doesn't have an autofocus motor in the camera body. There is a 18-70mm on there which is a fair kit lens (I have one) but that'll cost you a little more at ?109 - SLRs are not a cheap game.

An alternative might be the Olympus E-PL1 - I've just spotted that they have one on the site listed at ?239 including the kit lens - this is a compact system camera rather than an SLR (it doesn't have a reflex mirror), but it does have interchangeable lenses. Quite tempted with that one myself. Just seen you can get these new for ?279 at Jessops

[egparadigm]

Do we have any screen calibration wizards here in the thread?

I recently took delivery of a new MacBook Pro and absolutely love it. It's so much faster compared to my old MacBook Pro and loads Photoshop CS5 in less than 5 seconds, ready for use. Problem is, I'm finding the glossy screen a bit much compared to my older matte screen, and the additional colour saturation and contrast is a bit too much for me.

Can I calibrate this so that it's a little closer to what a matte screen is usually capable of?

I've never calibrated any of my screens before, and my graphics design PC at work is calibrated by our printers to match their paper stock. This so happened to be a pretty close match to my previous MacBook Pro too, hence no need to calibrate. Any tips or advice for what tool to use? A friend is letting me borrow a Pantone Huey Pro, though they've mentioned that I should recalibrate every 3 months or so. Would it be worth purchasing a tool for myself and if so, which one?

I also rarely print my work, with most of it being displayed online so should I alter the colour profile to match sRGB?

Many thanks in advance!

The more often you calibrate, the more accurate your results will be. I use an Xrite i1 Display 2 once a month. Cost about ?150 IIRC a couple of years ago. I usually work with photographs or scans profiled with Adobe 1998 and then convert to sRGB for web via Lightroom – those two profiles are pretty close gamut wise.

Remember you'll need to select the right colour temperature. As a photographer I use 6500k (at the yellower end), but I think I'm right in saying graphic designers use 9500k (bluer).

I can't think of any reason why the glossy screen won't calibrate.