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I have stopped taking pictures daily … I can be so temperamental it drives me nuts.
My pictures weren’t coming out sharp enough for my taste even with the new pricey high quality lens, and I feel deflated. Is it my camera? The next step up is a HUGE investment in a 5D, and the prestigious “L” lenses. As I am not profiting off my hobby, I can’t justify such luxurious equipment. If however, I go into photoshop and work with the smart sharpen feature, suddenly they are acceptable. Sigh.
This tutorial on photo.net opened my eyes and brought me up to speed on newer sharpening features added since my digital photo education at Chico. I am still processing the power of Photoshop to alter images, and if I am at peace with it. There are even more filters now than ever (not to mention what you can purchase as add ons). With all these options, I am wondering where my boundaries are in editing. For example, I have always color corrected, but how bright does fall foliage need to be? Should it be true to what I saw, or leave reality and leap into a dramatic realm for a “wow” factor?
I guess it depends on me, the photographer, but that doesn’t help because I just don’t know…
Also, I’ve been sick the past week.
What settings are you using on your camera in the shots that dissatisfy you? Stills with a nicely limiting dof on your lens should give you fine bokeh and a nice result. Are you shooting in RAW? I appreciate the 12 bits per pixel providing a much broader adjustment palette. I always forget when fullscreen editing that export size reductions from full-screen to web post size will visually sharpen the image.
I wouldn’t worry about a 5D, you can “just” put L glass on the 30D and it will work beautifully. In fact, because of the crop factor, cheaper lenses that get soft around the edges at wide aperture on a full-frame camera will look better for you.
As for your question about wow factor, just oversaturating leaves lame results, but shooting and processing HDR, for example, I think is just using technology to bring digital photos closer to the actuality of our perception.
Thanks Michael. I am shooting in raw, with a color temp of 5200k, color space of sRGB and picture style is Faithful. I usually shoot with the camera on program and adjust the aperture if I’m shooting a landscape or detail shot. I also switch the ISO often depending if I’m in low light or sunlight.
I know what you mean about lame results with over processing, but within the realm of normality, there are many options that still leave me a bit in a daze!
What do you shoot with, and with what settings have you found success?
Kristin,
I shoot raw as well. Color space doesn’t matter when shooting raw, except possibly as defaults to your raw converter when postprocessing. I do my conversions in Aperture. You’ve mentioned Photoshop, so I’m guessing the Camera Raw plugin?
I’ve found nice results from shooting around f/8 and ISO 200 in P mode, set to the center focus point. If my shutter is going to end up too slow I’ll go wider or bump the ISO, depending entirely on what I want for DOF. I correct the white balance as necessary during raw conversion. Unfortunately that’s something I have to do a lot as photos in the woods tend to end up with a greyish-blue cast, especially on cloudy days, and I have to bump some red and green back into them (much like setting “daylight” or “cloudy” when shooting jpg). I also, if I have the card space that day, will shoot with exposure bracketing. I tend to leave it on evaluative metering unless I’m trying to shoot people outdoors where bright spots in the background could foil the shot.
All that said, I’m just a hack. I simply wanted to emphasize that great shots can be had with a 30D, and especially with good glass. No need for a 5D and the gobs of necessary hard drive space for the image files. :)
For example, Darren shoots a 20D:
http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/HI/070908-bigboy/pages/1sunrise-650.htm