Austin Vinar

I bought Lightroom 6 for $90 off ebay, One time buy. I certainly recommend it.

@jamesstaddon, I edit my jpeg just as I would RAW.

If you do shoot in jpeg, I also advise turning off all in camera editing. This saves as close to the original as possible. I shoot for publishers, and rarely use RAW. I know of another full time professional wildlife photographer who shoots jpeg all the time.

RAW is great if you want to do a lot of editing to your pictures, as for me, I keep…[Read more]

I don’t always use the rule of thirds. I see it more as a suggestion than a rule. But thanks for the thoughts, It helps me think through my compositions.

Raw is a file format just as JPEG is. The difference is that jpeg is compressed and RAW isn’t.

For example. If you took a picture that had a lot of very dark in one area, jpeg would compress it all and call it black. Same with whites. Raw saves every pixel just as it is taken. This allows much more flexibility in editing.

The disadvantage of…[Read more]

@jamesstaddon,I bought another, (which didn’t have stabilization). I don’t find it real critical for a wide-angle lens. Not a necessity like for my 600mm.

Here is a shot I took yesterday with an extension tube. Used with Canon 7D and Canon 55-250mm STM. It will allow down to nearly the end of the lens (55mm) and within several inches (250mm)

How do people feel about replacing backgrounds? Like this.

Thanks, @jamesstaddon, that clears up a few questions I had.

@jamesstaddon, I have thought about it, but I am unsure of where to start. Do you have any tips or suggestions?

I rarely add something too close into the foreground because it would be ruined when I stack the photos.

What I do is try to point the camera at a bright star. Then I zoom in 10x in Live view and focus till I find it. Obviously, sometimes you have to move the camera around to find the star. It always seems to take a few minutes, but it always works for me.

I think it also depends on who you are. Some people are going to be good with more manipulation than others. Just because I don’t like image manipulation much doesn’t mean you can’t like it. =) If it is a tool you like to use, then use it! Each photographer has to develop there own style, and this is likely part of that style.
Posted is an…[Read more]

I would say that it takes away from the photo a little. I have no problem with healing out a few defects, (or flies on a deer) but when it comes to sewing images together I never really feel comfortable sharing them publicly because it is not real life. I do believe that there is a place for digital composites. For example, to show the difference…[Read more]

Interesting conversation here. I think that if you do serious image manipulation, it should be clearly stated anywhere the picture is shown what was done to it. Dan, your picture is great. But if you were to, for example, post it somewhere, I think it might be good to at least call it a digital composite so people know it is not the way it was…[Read more]

Thank-you. You can see a few pictures here.https://northerntrailsphotography.blogspot.com/ The last two posts are pics from the 7D. Previous to that are with my XS.

Thanks, and thanks so much for helping me with code and processing technique.

OK, now with a year of experience under my belt, I try again at the Milky Way. I was using a 7D this time instead of the XS, but the same lens.
I shot 30 Raw frames at:
ISO 6400
F/3.5
10 sec
18mm
Then, I ran them through a few editing programs, thanks to @buddingphotographer for the code!!! And then finished the editing in Lightroom. Next I…[Read more]

Thank-you. I ended up buying a 7D. Full frame would be impractical for me since most of my lenses are EF-S.