Just got the Nikon 24-70 f2.8. Is there a point in keeping my 50 f1.4 now?

Depends on what you are shooting and if you can afford to give up the stop of speed.

Got my crumpler easy weasy in the post today.

Great bag. Really liking it the only problem is you've got to take it off to get the gear out.

Looking back at it I should have got the half boy as you can access it without taking the bag of your back but didn't like the design of it or the fact that I can't put a laptop in it.

Here's a couple photos I took on my way to Seattle. Nothing special, looks kind of cool, thought I'd share it.

Quite like the 3rd one

A shot that would make T.J. Cloutier feel funny in his pants.



Large craps

Qwest (formerly Northwestern Bell) building downtown:



Large Qwest

Just to remind you guys, 2 days left to post photo entries. The field looks very easy at this point

http://www.alphamountworld.com/photo...slr-comparison

My dog Connor

very nice freakin

i recently purchased the Canon Eos Rebel XS from the Full Tilt store. I'm a complete camera noob, but I want to become pretty functional at taking photos seeing as I travel a fair amount. Is this camera pretty good for starting out? I'm lucky in that I have friends who are pretty good and my friends father is a semi-professional photographer who I can get some pointers from this summer I'm sure.

Since I love snowboarding and love taking pictures, I'm in kind of a catch 22. One of my jobs is taking pictures of people on mountains for corporate clients, but this doesn't ever leave me any time to get shots of myself, and since I hate taking pictures of other people if I'm not getting paid for it (I'd way, way rather just go snowboard myself) it's usually one or the other for me and I like to keep them separate. So I was thinking the other day that this would be a good (or not so good, depending on how much of a baby you are when it comes to your gear) idea. Remote in my hand + remote on camera, camera in hand, fisheye, snowboarding. Happy to say it worked out.

Though I'm sure my camera had multiple heart attacks while I did this, it's okay, I'm really happy with what I got.

I either held the camera in my hand, set up a tripod, or gave it to a friend to act as a voice-activated tripod. With a remote in my hand I was able to get the shot exactly when I wanted it in most cases with 2 or 3 tries. This of course worked best when I had the camera in my hand.

As a side note, it's really hard to ride with a camera in your hand and your arm extended above your head. Really messed with the balance.

all of this was done with a 5d, 15mm fisheye and pocketwizards.

HOT

Mike-- So awesome. I'd try that, but I'd be worried that I'd wipe out and totally destroy my camera.

Also, how do you get blue skies like this?:

I recently bought a polarizing filter, but that obviously won't do the trick. I'm guessing you got this type of color in post-processing? Teach me please.

I did the same thing for post in all of these.

Desaturation, a mild sharpening pass, prett big contrast boost and some color balance shenanigans. Getting skies like that is much, much easier with snow on the ground beause it makes your shutter speed have to be very fast, which naturally balances the sky with the snow. I shot them all at ISO 200, f8, 1/1250th. Brought out some nice blues in the sky and the snow was properly exposed at the same time.

If i was in the woods taking these pictures where i'd be in the shade, my shutter speed would probably have to be like 1/320th or something and the skies would be very hot, if not blown out. I'd have to use a flash to stop down my aperture and get a nice sky while retaining foreground detail, or use high speed sync, etc.

contrast helps to bring out the sky, but i did desaturate the whole shot by about 50%. It's all in finding a way to balance the lighting so that you get a nice rich sky while getting good foreground detail, and because snow acts as a GIANT reflector, it's a lot simpler when there's snow on the ground.

I'm probably getting the new Canon T2i once it's no longer backordered, partly to shoot video and partly to learn more about still photography.


Can anyone recommend 2-3 of the less expensive prime lenses for shooting video? I'd be shooting both outside and inside with controlled lighting.
I don't know what sizes are considered "standard" (although I think the 50mm is a no-brainer, but not sure if the f1.4 with the USM is worth the extra $250 over the f.18).


Should I get it with the cheapo kit lens or save the $100 and get a better zoom?
If so, which one?
(would use zoom mainly for still photography outside)


Thanks

Shooting inside, 50mm could be little too narrow for a crop-body. I would consider getting the Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM prime. Kit lenses are somewhat decent now days, it could be enough for you if you don't shoot much in low light situations. But if you want something better, I think Tamron 17-50 2.8 is great value for the money. Incredibly sharp and over half the price if you compare it to Canons own 17-55 2.8.

The kit lens is the same 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS that they've bundled with most of their other lower end cameras.

I won't be doing much low light still photography.

that lens is like a toy compared to a real piece of glass.

The 17-55 2.8 was going to be my recommendation but I'll have to check out that Tamron now.

Can anyone share a general photo editing procedure? Say you take 100 photos, upload them, and decide 10 are decent. What do you do with those 10 RAW images?

Also is there any reason NOT to keep my Nikon in Program mode? This way if I'm not ready I can point and shoot and get a decent take and if I have more time I can still make adjustments with P* mode?

the only reason I can think of is if you are shooting a set in one location for a while and P was acting up because of a weird lighting situation (e.g. snow on ground). It would be easier to go to M and deal with it in post

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...q=RAW+workflow Not being a dick, but because it seems like every site says something different/good to keep in mind

Regarding workflow, remember that jpgs do lossy compression so you don't want to edit a jpg file more than you absolutely have to. Create a master in RAW then save as to the correctly re-sized jpg for printing or the internet. You can also at this point convert from 300dpi to the 30 or so (I dont' remember the actual number) that are needed for web viewing.

Hey!

Here are some of my shots from the past month, enjoy!

Those are amazing.

that one of the matches is GREAT.