Official Ask a Photographer thread!

[ethlar]

since you do have a hot shoe on your camera you could go the strobist method (http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html) put a cheap radio transmitter on your camera, and get two inexpensive basic battery powered flashes. Set the camera on a timer on a tripod and you and your buddy can be "voice activated light stands" holding the flashes were you want them when the timer runs down

 

[Monk]

Here's a link for your camera(review).

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz50

 

[nat3d]

@hey_mikey ive got a tripod and ill take a look at the custom settings and @ethlar i dont want to mess up the natural light (as little as there is) because there are two shots we want one south bound and one north bound in our town center. northbound is the square with the library to the left which is always lit well and the church directly behind our statue of micenley both of which are dimly lit. as far as the southbound shot its down the main drag with our beautiful streetlights lining the way throwing off that homely yellow glow

 

[Monk]

Does any one know if this is a good thing to have and if so which one(boxed or not, whatever that means)?
But, is this a good system?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/I..._-130829-_-Body_Retail_Lightroom550Off-BuyNow

 

[ethlar]

Ive been using lightroom since version 2, its a great program, i have 4 now, dont know if ill get 5 since i got 4 this summer. Buts its a very powerful raw processing utility and pretty easy to use

ive been pretty exclusively using the download versions, so it just means i dont have a physical box, or media

 

[webby]

Lightroom is a very popular photo editor. Aperture is also another competing program. Boxed versus unboxed - one will come in the mail with a physical disk. One will give you a login to download directly online - no disk. So, if you want physical media, go with the boxed version. If you don't care, you can do download.

comparison done by pcmag like a week ago -

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2423036,00.asp

 

[Monk]

Thx @ethlar & @webby ...........
I looked at Webby's link.... I'm going to go ethlar's recommendation, he's been happy with his.
Just ordered the boxed(Disc so I can have a hard copy).

 

[webby]

absolutely... pc mag picked lightroom as the winner as well...

The Verdict
By my lights, Lightroom comes out ahead in this head-to-head comparison, in the features that matter most.

 

[hey_mikey]

Thx @ethlar & @webby ...........
I looked at Webby's link.... I'm going to go ethlar's recommendation, he's been happy with his.
Just ordered the boxed(Disc so I can have a hard copy).

i've been using lightroom since version 1. i upgraded to lightroom 5 a few months ago and for me it's definitely an improvement from 4, especially in the responsiveness of the program. if you do a lot of photography and need a way to organize your photos and do quick color correction and simple (as opposed to complex multi-layered) editing, lightroom is hard to beat.

 

[Monk]

I've been working with the S & A (shutter / app) mode but leaving the lens focus on manual, I'm getting what I want, I think, does doing it that way cancel out any of the auto features while I'm manually controlling the focus?

 

[Monk]

i've been using lightroom since version 1. i upgraded to lightroom 5 a few months ago and for me it's definitely an improvement from 4, especially in the responsiveness of the program. if you do a lot of photography and need a way to organize your photos and do quick color correction and simple (as opposed to complex multi-layered) editing, lightroom is hard to beat.

Thx... @ether , I guess you noticed that the 5 is on sale for $99.
With this post from hey_mikey's words on the 5 and 4......

 

[hey_mikey]

I've been working with the S & A (shutter / app) mode but leaving the lens focus on manual, I'm getting what I want, I think, does doing it that way cancel out any of the auto features while I'm manually controlling the focus?

in a word, no. AF only controls focus, and doesn't affect exposure or anything else. some of the newer auto-exposure metering algorithms take focus distance into account to guess which part of the frame the subject is in, but even in manual focus mode, most current production lenses still relay distance information to the camera.

 

[ethlar]

Thx... @ether , I guess you noticed that the 5 is on sale for $99.
With this post from hey_mikey's words on the 5 and 4......

i still have a valid .edu email so i can get it for around 75

 

[Monk]

in a word, no. AF only controls focus, and doesn't affect exposure or anything else. some of the newer auto-exposure metering algorithms take focus distance into account to guess which part of the frame the subject is in, but even in manual focus mode, most current production lenses still relay distance information to the camera.

Good, I'm finding I want to have one area in focus, and I'm not sure what AF will see(I need to also learn more about how to keep all those focus points working the way I want). Fun, Fun, Fun.......

 

[Monk]

i still have a valid .edu email so i can get it for around 75

COOL !

 

[ethlar]

Ive never really noticed any responsiveness issues on 4

i used to use capture one v3, the one thing i loved about it were all the keyboard shortcuts and ability to process out batch files, very helpful after shooting a hockey game

 

[hey_mikey]

Ive never really noticed any responsiveness issues on 4

i used to use capture one v3, the one thing i loved about it were all the keyboard shortcuts and ability to process out batch files, very helpful after shooting a hockey game

played with both capture one and aperture and never really cared for them. there are quite a few keyboard shortcuts in LR as well and batch processing is not hard if you use the "sync settings" command.

and a lot of people seemed to have issues after upgrading from LR3 to LR4. it was well documented on adobe's forums. i think only certain hardware combinations had issues for some reason, but LR5 no longer has those issues for me.

 

[ethlar]

i never encountered any issues with the lr3 to lr4 transition, it all seemed to just work

i lost interest in capture one when they hit v4, the price was insane and they killed off all of the keyboard shortcuts

 

[Dar-Dar]

Any opinions on this lens?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/31080485575...5335869999&campid=5335869999&afepn=5335869999

 

[ethlar]

manual focus, may not talk back to your camera at all im not a fan but ive never used one. Id rather a tamron or tokina fisheye or the canon one if you have the extra $ to blow.

Take a look at the offerings from lensbaby, theyre pretty reasonably priced artistic lenses and i believe they have a fisheye option