David Frazer

I love your question, Logan! Being a Christian photographer is not just about taking great pictures – it is about glorifying God. And when we take (and edit) pictures, that should be no exception. Our focus should be on Him Who created us in His image. I Corinthians 10:31 says, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the…[Read more]

Just to be clear, a Photoshop file 24″x72″ at 300dpi would definitely be enormous because Photoshop does not do vector shapes. You need a vector program. In the Adobe suite, that would be Illustrator. A free alternative would be Inkscape.

It might be helpful to know what exactly you want do do with the lens. Is this going to be your only lens for your new d7500? I ask because generally the “super-zoom” lenses have a lower optical quality, so it is better to go with two or three lenses with less zoom, especially if your d7500 comes with a kit lens. The D7500 is often sold with two…[Read more]

Both are good lenses. One difference is that if ever you want to upgrade to full frame the 17-50 is not full frame compatible. Generally I would say the 28-75 would be a better range for portraits.

Oh, and the outside pictures are better taken when you have nice blue sky and puffy white clouds… So, ideally two different days. 🙂

Here are my tips… Sorry, I seem to be incapable of not getting into nitty gritty details. 😐

SETUP
Of course I don’t need to tell you to make sure the rooms are neat and orderly! You would be surprised how often I get to a house where they were warned two days in advance there was a photographer coming and the beds are not made, the floors are…[Read more]

What is your current process for culling and organizing?

I don’t know Luminar, but It is surely one of two kinds of photo editing programs: the Photoshop-type (Photoshop, GIMP, Affinity Photo) or the Lightroom-type (Lightroom, Darktable, RAWTherapee). You definitely want a Lightroom-type for most of your photo editing and your organising. Use the…[Read more]

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]