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March 28, 2024 at 9:00 am #86122Logan LamarParticipant
@jerrell I’ve definitely heard of them, as I’ve spent many moments looking at camera gear… I think I was looking into that same lens for a while believe it or not! I’ve never used them though. Bryan over at the-digital-picture.com has reviewed a couple of the older iterations of them (https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tokina-11-16mm-f-2.8-AT-X-Pro-DX-II-Lens.aspx). I usually read his reviews extensively when I’m looking at putting down some money on some new gear.
One thing you could try would be to rent or borrow the gear you’re thinking of purchasing (just make sure to block out a time to shoot with it!). @jamesstaddon once let me borrow his 70-200 f/2.8 at a conference eight years ago. I was blown away by the quality boost and I didn’t hesitate to spend the money to rent it when I was asked to shoot a friend’s wedding several years later. I’ve borrowed other friend’s lenses before and made markedly different decisions (I have one friend with a Tamron 17-50… I tried it… and the autofocus is way too slow for what I need it for). I’ve had excellent experiences with lensrentals.com. Might be worth looking into.
https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/tokina-atx-i-11-16mm-f2.8-cf-lens-for-nikon-f
March 8, 2024 at 10:29 pm #85693Logan LamarParticipantWow this is super cool! I’ve always wanted to dabble more in night photography! I know Samyang and Rokinon both make good astrophotography lenses. They’re wide with a manual aperture and focus, but they’re cheap and sharp and I think some are designed specifically around astrophotgraphy (so they handle stars pretty well). Look into them. I’ve got one on my Amazon wishlist that’s been parked there for a few years now haha.
Getting your hands on different gear is always fun… but sometimes shooting with the “wrong” gear will give you better results and stretch you more as a photographer. So, while you not might be able to get “more sky” right now, maybe you can put the aurora next to something else as part of a different composition? Just thoughts 🙂
January 20, 2024 at 7:40 pm #84688Logan LamarParticipantI’m still here (and still faithfully using ON1, though I’m still on the 2023 version)!
Start with one of ON1’s presets (the 1200px JPG to Desktop one will work well). I’ll walk you through how each of these work, though your problems are likely in File type, Resize, and Sharpening.
Naming
By default, ON1 has it set to keep the file name. If you want to rename the images as they are exporting (so that way instead of saying something like IMG_0002, they’ll be something like sweet-wedding_01, you can do that here). There should be a dropdown that says “presets” right next to it, and I’d recommend using one of those (like Custom Name-Sequence) to get you started. After you pick one you can tweak it however you’d like.Destination.
This is where ON1 will save your images. If you’re following along from the 1200px preset, it should say “Desktop.” Set this to wherever you’d like. I have mine set up to “Save to Current Folder” and then I have the “subfolder” turned on and named “Edits”. This is good if you have a system of organizing all your RAW files. If you’re a little more creatively disorganized, you can select it to say “Ask When Exporting” and then you’ll just have to pick every time where the images go.After Export:
I have mine set up to open the folder where it dropped the images after it’s done exporting. Leave the other options unchecked if you don’t know what they are.File Type
This needs to be JPEG, 99% of the time. If you’re uploading to social media, or sending to a printer, JPEG is your friend as it can be viewed on just about anything without weird apps and things. Set the file type to JPEG, and set the Quality slider to 95%, and your color space to sRGB. After you do that, you can forget about this box for a long time.
Ideally, you’re not running these files again through Photoshop or something, but if you need to, they can handle going through another editing software once without super noticeable drops in quality. If you’re planning on running a file through Photoshop later (like you need to put a Dinosaur in the background or something), and it absolutely NEEDS to have as much quality as possible (the bride wants to make a museum piece out of it), you’ll want to export as a TIFF, run it through Photoshop, and then export it as a JPEG out of Photoshop.Resize: I uncheck this box, and ON1 exports the image at the original size. This is best for most printing and sharing. An image can always be downsized later for social media or the web.
Sharpening: I use this when I plan to print. If I’m not printing, I would recommend leaving this off. Almost no one prints images these days, and most people will be looking at your images digitally… so if it looks good on your screen, it will be fine for most people.
Metadata: I have this unchecked… though I’ve never really thought about why. Metadata is data that computers can read about your image. Data like shutter speed, what type of camera you have, where you were when you took the picture (if you have a fancy camera with a GPS that is) is stored inside the image file and can be read by some computer software.
Watermark: You can play with this later, but for your purposes (giving these photos to the bride, I assume?), leave this unchecked.
TLDR: Check over your naming, check over your destination; set your file type to JPEG, quality 95%, profile sRGB; uncheck Resize, uncheck sharpening, uncheck metadata, uncheck watermark.
Let me know if that works for you!
June 18, 2023 at 7:24 pm #80041Logan LamarParticipantI would second James’ recommendation of On1. I have Affinity as well and I find that On1 is good for organizing, color correcting, and doing light edits across a lot of images, while Affinity is good for diving into a deep edit of a single image (I use it to do face swaps in group portraits). Another way to look at it is that On1 is a good Lightroom alternative, and Affinity is a good Photoshop alternative.
June 13, 2023 at 12:00 am #79962Logan LamarParticipantHello @warrior-princess!
If I were in your shoes, and had nothing in my telephoto slot… (I have an 18-200 kit lens sitting there right now)… I think I would go for the telephoto. My reasoning is that for anything that involves people at all (events, video, portraits) you’ll be reaching for that telephoto far, far more than you will an ultra-wide. Which one you pick depends a lot on your budget, but if you’re relatively new, experiment with something cheaper. You can always decide to upgrade later, and it may turn out that you find yourself not using it very much.
Here’s some recommendations as to which one you could get:
https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Canon-Telephoto-Lens.aspxDon’t feel like you need to go for the one with the widest aperture or all the bells and whistles, just stick to your budget. If I’m needing a pro-grade telephoto for a wedding or something, I’m usually renting anyway. For stuff in my backyard, I’m using my budget-grade 18-200, even though it’s technically “not as good.” (go back and read what Lydia said…) You can always upgrade if you find yourself reaching for that telephoto a lot but you won’t even know what features you want until you’ve been playing around with it for a while.
To fill in your low-light capabilities and if you’ve got some money left over, I’d then recommend looking into a prime lens. You can get a feel for what focal length you really like. The 50mm is a good choice (very versatile lens! You can use it for headshots, full body, landscape, etc… and it’s also very inexpensive at around $80 on the used market at KEH.com). Other popular options include the 35mm or the 85mm. If you have a zoom lens, you can “practice” being stuck in a particular length by taping the zoom ring to get an idea of what you’d like to pick up.
If you play your cards right and shop used (I’d recommend sites like KEH.com or bhphotovideo.com), you could pick up a budget telephoto and a 50mm 1.8 for less than $300. These will keep you busy for a good long time.
And then after a couple of months, if you’re still wanting something on the wide end, you could pick up a 10-18mm used for around $150.
Hope this helps (and let us know if/when you land on something!).
—Logan
June 12, 2023 at 5:40 pm #79918Logan LamarParticipantJune 12, 2023 at 5:30 pm #79913Logan LamarParticipant@warrior-princess
Example photos with the 10-18mm…June 12, 2023 at 5:03 pm #79912Logan LamarParticipantI have the EXACT bundle you are looking at (the 10-18 and the 50mm). I bought it to supplement my kit 18-200 lens about five years ago.
After 5 years and having expanded my collection by a couple more lenses, the 50mm 1.8 is one of my favorite lenses ever. In my opinion, you can’t get a better lens for the money. It’s super sharp (I’d say rivaling pro-grade zoom lenses), it’s great for portraits, it makes some of the creamiest bokeh you’ll ever see at low apertures and some of the nicest sun stars as well. It’s an easy focal length to walk around with too. I like to play with extension tubes on this as well… which effectively turns this into a macro lens.
You likely won’t use the 10-18mm as much, but it’s also really nice! It’s definitely a landscape-oriented lens and is great for including a foreground or lots of sky. It has some of the quietest autofocus I’ve ever used. With a little practice you can even use it to take star trail photos. It’s probably one of the least-used lenses I own right now but I enjoy having it in my kit.As far as telephotos are concerned, yeah… you’re likely not going to get a really nice one for $200. When I’ve been in situations when I know I’ll need a telephoto for an upcoming event or something, I usually rent a 70-200 2.8 (with image stabilization and the other bells and whistles). For a walk around, go for the 55-250 that people are recommending. It’ll get your foot in the door for telephoto photos, and you can see if you even like that style of shooting. It won’t be the sharpest or the best for low light but it will get you closer to the action! Buy used off of B&H or KEH to save a few bucks.
December 21, 2021 at 9:44 pm #67633Logan LamarParticipant@samuelwest @buddingphotographer
Looks like I’m late to the party!I use On1 Photo RAW for my editing program. It’s very similar to Lightroom and has a lot of similar features (just better 🙂 to take my shameless stab at Adobe). No subscription required, but they re-release the software every year with new features. It appears the earliest OS the current version supports is MacOS Mojave (10.14). You might be able to reach out to support to see if they would be willing to sell you an earlier version? It’s a bit of a long shot, but it could work…
Lightroom, On1, Luminar, and Apple Photos are excellent photo “developers” as I like to call them. They’re great for batch processing a lot of images.GIMP is an excellent photo “editor” to learn and get started on! “Editors” are more like Photoshop or Affinity Photo and they typically allow you to really delve and change a lot of things about one image. I tried using GIMP; it was okay. I found it not intuitive to use, but it’s a very powerful editor if you take the time to learn it.
I currently use Affinity Photo. It’s not Lightroom, but it’s very similar to Photoshop (except you only have to pay for it once and it’s yours forever).Looks like you got a pretty good set up going with GIMP; take the time to learn it and you can get some great results!
Let me know if you have any further questions!!
—Logan
@loganlamarJuly 6, 2021 at 9:16 pm #63583Logan LamarParticipantHello @blessingscaptured! I was in your shoes about two years ago. I ended up spending my graduation money on a used Canon 17-55mm 2.8 IS for my Canon 60D (crop sensor).
Wow let me tell you that it has been the one of the best photography investments I have ever made. It has a fixed 2.8 aperture all the way through… and it is AWESOME. I find it especially good for weddings or candid photos where you often have to set your aperture and then forget about it as you constantly change focal lengths!
Also, as you get to the long end of the lens, bokeh (background blur) really starts to play in very nicely.On your alternative choice (the 17-70) I thought I would want a longer focal length too when I was going to purchase this lens and seriously considered the Tamron 24-70mm as an alternative (it’s still on my wish list).
However, on my crop sensor I found I often am wanting the wide angle as opposed to the long angle. In my situations, I can more often take a step forward, or even crop in in a serious pinch, then take a step back—like when my back is against a wall.When I want reach, I want to say I want a bit more than 70mm and I pull out my 18-200mm; this is why I shoot with two bodies during weddings when I don’t have time to swap lenses.
If you get the chance to shoot with two bodies (say, one with the 17-50 and one with the 70-300), the gap between 50mm and 70mm isn’t too much to be noticeable, at least in my experience shooting two bodies with a 17-55 and a 70-200.
Long story short… if I were you, I’d go with the 17-50 2.8.
Hope this helps! Tag @loganlamar if you have more questions 🙂
December 15, 2020 at 8:22 pm #56050Logan LamarParticipant@joshua_ong haha yeah time shortages are where we have to get real creative with how we go about this, and also why we need to get a little creative here with any potential job opportunities. They can’t take up a whole lot of extra time or they need to be really flexible when it comes to what I can put into it.
December 15, 2020 at 8:20 pm #56049Logan LamarParticipant@ernestf-lloyd Actually, I do shoot videos for my father’s small business, and in fact I’ve gotten a lot of valuable experience through that. In fact, shooting for my dad led up to a gig with a small life-coaching conference. I shot the whole thing, edited it in a month, and it paid for a part of my tuition! I guess my challenge is that I don’t have a lot of networking connections (again, I just started school in a brand new city to me—my connections are very very few).
@jamesstaddon Yeah, shooting for the school was something I had actually already considered and looked into a little. Unfortunately, they have a super solid communications and cinema department handling video for them and using equipment and skills that far surpass anything I’d be able to offer. As far as photographers are concerned, my roommate (another avid photographer) inquired and it sounded like it was a pretty competitive opportunity and they didn’t currently have a need.I guess I’m looking into outside connections. I like the idea of doing family photography sessions, I know I could shoot videos for a business, and I’ve heard a bit about real estate photography. I guess my question then lies primarily in marketing. I have skills and equipment, but how do I get the ball rolling?
December 7, 2020 at 12:46 pm #55777Logan LamarParticipantDecember 7, 2020 at 12:45 pm #55776Logan LamarParticipantI actually had a bridge camera; it was a Nikon L830, and I used it from the time I was about 14 until I was 16 and my mom fully entrusted trusted me with her DSLR (a Canon 60D with an 18-200).
Biggest pros for the bridge camera:
—Cost
My L830 was roughly $300.—Versatility
34x zoom. This meant I could zoom in and read billboards that were roughly three-quarters of a mile away.–Video capabilities
Yes, I still use my L830 for video alongside my DSLR and it gets pretty decent quality.—Whet the appetite without breaking the bank
This camera really was what got me started in photography. It didn’t shoot RAW, it wasn’t full-frame, it didn’t even have manual controls. But that wasn’t really important at the time. As I learned more about photography, I found the limitations… and then it was time to move up. Often, understanding and creatively working with the limitations of the current equipment you currently own is better than—and this is the constant temptation, for me too—just jumping and saying “oh I need a Canon 1DX with a 50mm 1.2 to really get this shot… and then not taking the shot at all because your current camera just “can’t”. Start small, take the picture anyway, work your way up, and then you’ll appreciate better equipment when it falls into your hands.Cons of my bridge camera
—No manual controls! (honestly this was the first thing I noticed). Canon is generally better than Nikon at providing manual controls on entry level cameras, but both competitors do offer them on select models. Just make sure.
—Not super great in low-light.and… uh… that’s about it.
I know this was late but I just thought I would throw in my two cents 🙂
December 3, 2020 at 1:51 am #55662Logan LamarParticipant@kazuki-maeda you look like a new face to the forums to me 🙂 welcome!
You’re going to want two programs for your photography:
1. A photo sorter/developer
2. A photo editorThese are not the same thing, but there is a bit of overlap. I use my photo developer for doing a lot of global adjustments across the whole image (cropping, colors, sharpness, contrast, etc) as well as ranking and sorting through photos after a shoot.
I use my photo editor for doing more Photoshop work like head swaps (when that one kid isn’t smiling), removing blades of grass/powerlines, adding text, etc.
For my developer,
I was in your shoes a couple of years ago. I disliked Adobe’s subscription model, and all the free programs (GIMP, Darktable, RAWTherapee) felt clunky, not organized well, and hard to use. So I went shopping.
Fortunately, a lot of photographers don’t like Adobe either, so there are a number of companies offering subscription free services.I tried Apple Photos, Corel Aftershot, Luminar, and On1 Photo. At that year, Luminar felt like the best option as it just felt simpler and it was easier for me I believe to get a good edit on the image. Unfortunately, as I grew in my photography skills, I needed a way to organize my photos and quickly cull them… and Luminar really fell pathetically short on this area.
I also discovered that On1 had progressed leaps and bounds just in a year and it was way better than Luminar. Additionally, it had a solid cataloguing/image preview feature so I was able to cull through a lot of images quickly.
I’ve been very happy with ON1—you buy it once, it’s yours forever, and you can purchase the upgrades only if you want to. It has a lot of great features.
For my editor,
I was also in your shoes.
GIMP is very feature rich and very capable… but like most free programs, it’s slow and not organized well. Doesn’t mean it’s not usable, it can just be hard to use.I wasn’t going to spend $10 a month on Adobe Photoshop, so I went shopping and stumbled across Affinity Photo. It has just about everything Photoshop does, and it runs a lot smoother than GIMP. And it’s $50 one time.
All that said! Logan’s recommendations for people wanting to get into photography more seriously as a hobby or for work:
Photo sorter/developer:
On1 Photo RAW
https://www.on1.com/
$99, but they do a lot of sales throughout the year. I got mine for I think $60 in September. Right now for Cyber Monday it’s going for $79.Photo Editor:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/
$49, right now there’s also a sale so you might be able to get few bucks off.Hope this helps!
Logan
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