Logan Lamar

@martha-lapp, @jamesstaddon
Having used both extensively, Luminar I don’t think is quite fully developed yet if you’re looking for a serious editor. I really hoped the new “libraries” feature would help with image browsing… and I bought the program expecting something solid… unfortunately, it was really, really slow. On my computer, I had to…[Read more]

@martha-lapp
I’ve done a lot of research on this, tried a number of free trial programs, and I think I may have found where I’m going to settle down for a long while.
I’ve been very very pleased with On1. I think it’s quite close to Lightroom in terms of features both in editing and in browsing, but it’s a much better deal in my opinion and you’ll…[Read more]

Ah, sometimes being a 20-year old is great! and other times it isn’t so much…

Hi @martha-lapp!
I too was in the same boat (only I had the Canon 18-200) looking for a second lens. The 18-200mm is a great jack-of-all-trades (and nothing gets from wide to close faster, making it a good choice for when you need to travel light and get the shot at an event), but it can come short with image quality, bokeh (what you’re after in…[Read more]

@jamesstaddon, my grandma gave it to me, actually! I don’t know if there’s any family history behind it (in which case, it’d be an even better antique!).
I shot this in the dark with a single flash off camera to the right (autofocus was super painful to get right—I was using a flashlight and handholding my camera!).

Maybe I’d like to see a lit…

[Read more]

@bennett-family, ooh! Budget photography! One of my favorite subjects…

@ernestf-lloyd has the idea there. What she wants to photograph will make a HUGE influence on what she’ll be wanting to purchase.

If it’s her paintings, I know my mom uses her smartphone instead of my (technically her?) Canon 60D, which used to be about a $1000 DSLR. So she…[Read more]

@jamesstaddon, I don’t want to miss this 🙂 Just registered!

@bennett-family, yeah, those lead-in lines aren’t super great. As far as the crop is concerned, it does feel tight, but that’s about as tight as I took the photo unfortunately so I can’t really “zoom out” in post… one way I’m thinking I can “fix” that without taking this same picture again is taking more close photos of different elements of the…[Read more]

Just FYI on this lens, I’ve owned this lens for about a year and it is so far my absolute favorite, staying on my camera about 75% of the time (my other lenses, in order of “favoritism” are my 50mm 1.8, my 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 and my 18-200mm 3.5-5.6) If you have a crop-sensor (i.e. Canon EOS 80D, Rebel T6, EOS 7D…), this is basically an equivalent…[Read more]

All right! You guys deserve an update 🙂
So, after this lens being largely replaced by a “new” EF-S 17-55 2.8 and I stuck at home during the COVID pandemic, I decided I would have a go with a screwdriver and see what was ailing my 18-200. I figured since I wasn’t using the lens because of the focus problem and I wasn’t super attached to it as the…[Read more]

Hi @ephillips!
Lightroom is maybe the gold standard that everyone uses… but it is expensive, and you’ll pay for it month to month.
I use On1 Photo Raw. In my experience, it’s very good… maybe not as close to Lightroom (especially if you’re wanting to share editable versions with other photographers) but definitely holding its own.
At the risk…[Read more]

@ernestf-lloyd

I would say this is a great upgrade from Gimp.

Uh, yeah. No contest.

Oh! And while I’m here—if you’re looking for a Lightroom alternative, ON1 is also 50% off. You can get one of the greatest alternatives to Lightroom (in my opinion), for $50 one time (you’ll pay for upgrades in 2021, but nothing’s stopping you from keeping t…[Read more]

After that, some rapid fire thoughts:

@kina, your gospel-centric perspective is super refreshing! I love how every subject that catches your eye is an object lesson that somehow, some way, points back to Calvary. You can never have too many reminders.

@jamesstaddon I remember Foundations of Photography lesson 1, with its four principles: they…[Read more]

I have zero idea where my reply went… I clicked “edit” and resubmitted it… and it disappeared… so (fortunately it was still on my profile. At the risk of having a duplicate:

Wow! I definitely got the replies I was hoping for, and I’m thrilled a lot of you seem to have put a lot of thought into this.

Let me share mine from the hip and off t…

[Read more]

Wow! I definitely got the replies I was hoping for, and I’m thrilled a lot of you seem to have put a lot of thought into this.

Let me share mine from the hip and off the top of my head, and then I might circle back to some of yours (because you guys have some really insightful thoughts).

I think there are two vantage points that we can bring God…[Read more]

My quick tip for you, Caitlin.
You may have already been doing this, but for something like this you should be setting your aperture to what I’ve heard described as a “who cares” aperture. This would be about f/8 or f/11 (because you really don’t care about anything not being in focus). Definitely use a tripod (mine allows the head to come of…[Read more]