David Frazer

OK, so the original photo is sharper, though it might have benefited from shooting at f/8 and shooting in RAW. (JPG format will actually grab information from neighbouring pixels, so it does make it a bit less sharp.) Shooting in RAW will help recover dark places with less noise also.

Personally, I prefer the noise over the lack of sharpness,…[Read more]

As far as quality goes, those photos are better quality than many of the photos that I take – the composition and framing is top notch! The lighting is also quite good considering the situation, and I think you made the right choice in under-exposing to avoid blown-out highlights.

The quality issue that I am noticing is a sharpness issue. It…[Read more]

I agree with Ezra – better to stick with the D7000. You will be at a loss trying to find functions that don’t exist on the D3500.

The difference in megapixels is probably a non-issue. Think of it this way – how many do you actually use? What is the largest size you export for actual use? A large print is 11 x 14 – and you would need no more…[Read more]

Another comment… adding in stars is not an issue if you’re just shooting for yourself, but if you ever want to use the photos anywhere there is sure to be someone who will notice that the constellations are from some other (imaginary) solar system… 😉

Image stabilization is basically a gyroscope powered by a motor in an attempt to reduce small sudden movements of the camera/lens. When the camera is perfectly still (like on a tripod) the motor can actually cause some vibration.

You’ve got it – practise makes perfect! Keep going, and you will get some really neat results. And don’t forget to share a few of them here on the forums!

A couple of comments:

DPI does not affect the photo until you print it. DPI stands for “dots per inch” and computers ignore that when displaying on the screen. The resolution of the attached picture is 1500 × 1052. If you are printing a 4″ x 6″ photo (standard around here) that would be about 250 dpi. The fuzziness is not due to dpi in this…[Read more]

Pipe organs being largely custom-made and unique, as well as a major part of most buildings where they are found, I would consider it wise to get a property release form signed, but perhaps there are others here that have additional insights.

I am far from being a wedding photographer, but I would be inclined to say that you don’t expose for the dress – you expose for the faces, and if you shoot in RAW you should still have enough detail in the dress. Of course, if the bride has very dark skin, and is wearing a white dress you could have issues…

@austinvinar I like your idea of using the furnace heat to warm the camera up – it means that the heat is very dry heat! When doing real estate photography, I have to take pictures outside and then come inside and take pictures inside, so waiting around for an hour while the camera warms up is out of the question. I just make sure I put the lens…[Read more]

I guess it depends what you mean by cold… I knew a guy here in Quebec who would go out on the lake in winter with his dad to take pictures of wildlife. He said that when it gets much below -30 the lenses’ autofocus starts to squeek after a while. (I don’t remember how long, but knowing him it was probably at least an hour.) He thought that was…[Read more]

I can hardly say I have a lot of experience with gels, although I do use them occasionally. Here is the setup I use – its main advantage being that it’s very inexpensive…

Required Equipment:
– Rosco sample gels from B&H: 1.84 USD
– clear plastic from just about any plastic packaging: normally 0$, unless you specifically buy something for the…[Read more]

Here is a quick overview of how I use dropbox:

1) Create a folder (I always start the name with YYYY-MM-DD ex.: “2018-11-15 123 Main street – Client Name” That way they stay in order and are easier to find. (I also often put a folder or two inside the main folder)

2) Click “Share”

3) Do NOT use the built-in email share feature. Instead,…[Read more]

As with anything, it’s important to know what you are buying. You can get cheap equipment and you can get inexpensive equipment… I recommend doing your research before settling on one or two possibilities. (B&H and Adorama are great places for that!)

If on the other hand you are asking the difference between buying a particular lens from one…[Read more]

I normally deliver by Dropbox, but sometimes I use box.com. I make a folder for each project and share the folder. The advantage of box.com is that if you send as a link they are less pushy about trying to get people to sign up with an account, and therefore it is less confusing to the average user. Of course sharing as a link also means that…[Read more]

For starters, I would recommend installing Darktable or RawTherapee (both are free). If you want more power over individual pixels and want layers (very useful for major cloning work), Affinity Photo would be a good one to try out. (for about 50$ USD). It takes a while to learn how to use them, but once you have learned these programmes they…[Read more]

Here is a post that talks a bit about the science behind catchlights… In this case it was a sheep, but eyes are all basically the same – small reflective balls, from a camera’s point of view. 🙂

Lambs

Basically, you need a large bright area that will be reflected in the subject’s eye.

You mentioned that your intended use is for studio work, and you haven’t really talked about what gear you already have, so I thought I would simply mention that what will make a much bigger difference in the final results than the camera body is the lighting system. What you you already have in terms of flashes, strobes, continuous lighting,…[Read more]

“lens corrections” is to correct vignetting and lens distortion (pincushion/barrel distortions)

There is another module called “chromatic aberrations”, if I remember rightly.

You’re right, @hayhand02 that is a Nikon lens, but it is for the Nikon 1 series, and will not work on their DSLRs. Currently, the closest there is that I am aware of is the Tokina 12-28mm f/4.0 (currently 430 USD at B&H).