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Having a play with my new light box.

Nanook65

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Let's see? I'd probably get banned. .........................It makes me realize I can't tell any of these stories.
Shoot, just as I was thinking this was about to get interesting...


Back to photography. Should I be shooting in jpg only or raw and jpg?

At this point in your photography career I would say that it is most convenient to just shoot in jpg, so there is that....

Most of the time jpg is just fine. If you are into editing photos then if you shoot in raw you will be able to manipulate the photos more. In jpg you are limited more.
This is probably a loose rule of thumb, amateurs will mostly shoot in jpg and Professionals will mostly shoot in raw.
 

CaptainSplash

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Oops wrong thread, not a great pic but hey next time :p
ec5cbc55550c2b076b8d04d8ba5bf8e0.jpg


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Hazing

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Oops wrong thread, not a great pic but hey next time :p
ec5cbc55550c2b076b8d04d8ba5bf8e0.jpg


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What’s on the top right? Or in this pic, on the bottom right!? The markers at 4 and 8 look blue. Is that just the lighting or the camera as I know sometimes pics can look different than the naked eye.
 

Hazing

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Hey everyone. Okay so I am back to using the camera more again. Continuing to try to develop my abilities shooting manually.

I have a few questions.

For the most part, there is this MM number on the bottom that ranges from - 2.0 to +2.0 and I know when it is flashing in way out of range. And in this case it is flashing -2. 0 as it's very dark because I was taking pics in the bright sun yesterday.

Earlier, nanook, you mentioned that I should aim for zero which makes sense and generally I try to do that.

Also, I think it is worth mentioning that sometimes, especially outside, because my lcd is so shitty, I take a Pic with it adjusted to 0.0 and then when I look at it on my phone or computer it came out terribly.

My first question is - what is that number and what does it mean/represent.

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Yesterday, as I mentioned, I was taking some pics outside (bright sunny day) and I'd have that number at 0.0 and I was having some issues.

In the moment, mainly I looked at the dial and noticed the dial was too light or too white and changed my iso to a higher number of like 200 or 400 which is seemed to help in regard to the dial.

I have questions because it seems counter intuitive compared to what I know about iso so far and that is to use it in darker Conditions.

Also, while it does show or catch the color of the dial and bezel better (it is not as washed out with light), but I see that my blacks (strap) a d green (grass) isn't as crisp.

When I see something that is too light or bright (correct term here? Is it 'when I see part of the image too "overexposed"?') is increasing my iso the best way to get the color I'm looking for?

Or should I look to see that MM # at maybe like -0.3 or seething?

This is what happened when I moved a little to her that MM # to change just a little (like from zero to -0.3)
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Versus changing my iso
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Thanks again and I hope everyone had a safe 4th (if you're in the USA).

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Nanook65

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Hey everyone. Okay so I am back to using the camera more again. Continuing to try to develop my abilities shooting manually.

I have a few questions..........there is this MM number on the bottom that ranges from - 2.0 to +2.0.........

My first question is - what is that number and what does mean/represent?

A camera does not work the same as your eye. A camera has a light meter in it. In its simplest form the light meter measures the total amount of light that is available and then determines tells you if the picture will be properly exposed.

Let's go through an example which should clear things this bit. Let's say your settings are f-8, 1/500s & iso 400 & with these settings your mm# is 0. There are all sorts of combos that would also result in a mm# of 0 so the one we chose may or may not have been the best for what we are trying to accomplish.

Let's say, for example you changed any one of those settings 1 stop ther result would be your mm# would also change 1 stop. So, if you changed your ISO settong to 200 which is 1/2 of 400 so that is 1 stop of iso less light. Now your mm# should read -1.0. There camera is telling you it thinks, based on the light meter, that the exposture will be under posed by 1 stop. The same thing would happen if you adjusted the shutter speed or the aperture by 1 stop as well.

Part of the reason this starts getting even more complicated is that the light meter doesn't always work very well. Most of the time it is good, but especially if there an especially large amount of either black or white in the photo you might have to adjust by a stool or even 2 or 3 stops to get a picture that looks good. There are other ways to help with this, but for now this should help
 

Hazing

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A camera does not work the same as your eye. A camera has a light meter in it. In its simplest form the light meter measures the total amount of light that is available and then determines tells you if the picture will be properly exposed.

Let's go through an example which should clear things this bit. Let's say your settings are f-8, 1/500s & iso 400 & with these settings your mm# is 0. There are all sorts of combos that would also result in a mm# of 0 so the one we chose may or may not have been the best for what we are trying to accomplish.

Let's say, for example you changed any one of those settings 1 stop ther result would be your mm# would also change 1 stop. So, if you changed your ISO settong to 200 which is 1/2 of 400 so that is 1 stop of iso less light. Now your mm# should read -1.0. There camera is telling you it thinks, based on the light meter, that the exposture will be under posed by 1 stop. The same thing would happen if you adjusted the shutter speed or the aperture by 1 stop as well.

Part of the reason this starts getting even more complicated is that the light meter doesn't always work very well. Most of the time it is good, but especially if there an especially large amount of either black or white in the photo you might have to adjust by a stool or even 2 or 3 stops to get a picture that looks good. There are other ways to help with this, but for now this should help

Interesting but cool how that works. I am going to try that and check that out this week and see how it works. I Think it would be cool to start to know how the camera works and now it is starting to make sense of what a full stop really means and does.
 

Nanook65

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Interesting but cool how that works. I am going to try that and check that out this week and see how it works. I Think it would be cool to start to know how the camera works and now it is starting to make sense of what a full stop really means and does.

You can use ISO just the same way as you can use Shutter Speed or Aperture to get more or less light to the sensor, however unless you have low (bad light) you should most of the time just set ISO to a reasonable number like 100, 200 or maybe 400 and just leave it alone. The vast majority of the time you should be adjusting this light that gets to the sensor with either Shutter Speed or Aperture. Just as a reminder when you are using Shutter Speed every doubling is 1 full stop. 1/100s is open 2x as long 1/200 and therefore 1 full stop more light. ISO works the same, ISO 200 is 2x ISO 100 and giving the sensor 1 full stop more light than ISO 100 does. We talked a lot more about aperture before and once again full stops go like this 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45. I know that scale is difficult to remember, but there is a trick to remembering how it goes. If you double the previous # will give you the next full stop. Look back carefully at what I said.... Lets say you are @4. If you double the previous # (2* 2.8) = 5.6, the next one you once again double the previous number 2*4 = 8 etc, etc. With Aperture remember that the lower the number the more light is getting to the sensor so f-4 is 2x the light getting to the sensor as f-5.6
 

Hazing

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i just wrote a huge reply amid it vanished when I was on my last sentence. Blah.
@nonook6t and popperoni

anyway... hi. I missed this thread and missed you guys. I don’t want you to think I ghosted. I haven’t. I have just been a little busy and also I have been taking pics and I’m becoming I little more adept with the camera and getting more familiar with elements we’ve talked about and while I am getting better with the camera, my photography hasn’t improved all that much. Like they’re still basic as fvck.

my biggest problem is... I don’t know. I don’t know what I don’t know even and that... I ended up eith iso, shutter speed and Aperture and went On practicing with that for a bit and o guess part of me thought “that was it”. But I’m starting to realize there is more to photography than Aperture and shutter speed.

especially when I look through pics in this thread and I was looking at p0pperini thread on 5 digit subs and I realize I’m not inching toward pics of that quality anymore. I should have questions but short of “what’s he best way to start taking pics like that” I’m not really sure what to ask because at the very least, being able to take really good pictures is at a min where I’d love to get with help. But what is it that I have to do. Is it staging, lighting, editing, hardware, software? Or just technique?

What next?
 

Hazing

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And I should say I have been dlediting a little just with the Pic editor on my phone.

Just cropping and messing with the various settings and also just using a basic filter.

And that is one question. I asked before how I try to get all the settings right but it still comes out bright in some places. And you told me how the camera tries to guess what I want. I have been achieving thay color with editing. Is that okay or should I be looking to try to get the camera to take the Pic? Or does it not matter?

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p0pperini

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Hey buddy, good to see that you’re still thinking about the photography, and practicing it. As with anything, practice is the most important thing. As you said - you don’t know what it is you don’t know. That’s where practice comes in - just keep at it, and it’ll gradually become easier and you’ll gradually develop a better eye for pictures.

Regarding your question about how much work the camera should do, and how much can be achieved in post... IMO it’s worth taking the time to do as much as possible in the photo. However, I always shoot RAW + jpg and almost never use the jpg. The amount of additional exposure information in the RAW file gives me a huge amount of latitude for adjusting the image after it’s taken. I’ll tweak the colour temperature, black and shadow, white and highlight levels, de-haze, etc.

All of the pics in the 5-digit piece required retouching in Photoshop, from dust removal to multiple exposure overlays on a couple of the full watch shots, in order to balance the lighting on the dial, hands and case. It represents a few days of work.

So you needn’t feel that a photo should just be a one-shot deal. It’s not cheating to improve the photos after shooting them - unless they’re for a sale post..! :)
 

Nanook65

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.................But what is it that I have to do. Is it staging, lighting, editing, hardware, software? Or just technique?
What next?

There is a lot more to it than meets the eye...
But at the same time, look back at some of the pics you posted earlier in this thread. You have made a lot of progress. You were posting pics that were not even in focus (at all...) I don't know what your % of in focus pics is, but at least you are getting some. These pics that you posted are not bad at all, they are just not all that interesting. You are getting mostly correct focus and amt of light to the sensor so that is all good. You just need to learn to be a bit more creative. I would suggest looking through some of the threads like "my best pictures of watches" or that type of thread and find some pics that are really appealing and then try to recreate 1 or 2 of those. It will take time to figure out what to do, but if you spend some time at it you can do it and once you have done it once, it will be much quicker the next time.

If you do what I am suggesting and then post your efforts I can make suggestions to try and help & I am sure Popperini will as well. Who knows, maybe someone else will chime in too with something enlightening...
 

YellowFin

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my biggest problem is... I don’t know. I don’t know what I don’t know even and that... I ended up eith iso, shutter speed and Aperture and went On practicing with that for a bit and o guess part of me thought “that was it”. But I’m starting to realize there is more to photography than Aperture and shutter speed.

But what is it that I have to do. Is it staging, lighting, editing, hardware, software? Or just technique?
From my point of view shutter speed and aperture are literally what it all boils down to at the end of the day. I'd recommend (if you haven't done so already) switching your camera to spot measurement instead of multi/matrix/whatever, because that's going to be all over the place. Your camera doesn't know what part of the image needs to be exposed at what level - only you do. Get comfortable with the histogram function, it's a great tool that I wish I'd had 30 years ago when I shot slide rolls.

Once the concepts of properly lighting your senros to get usable data out of it, you'll need to get control over the light in your piture. But that's a long way to go. Just as a comment: all my pictures in the review/macro threads are JPGs edited with what IrfanView offers - usually no more than gamma and contrast adjustments. If the pictures are properly shot in the first place, editing work is greatly reduced. Off course, that's a lot easier for studio/indoor/still life shots. My outdoor photos all make their way through Lightroom, there's usually no way around a RAW workflow with high dynamic range scenes where you can't control the lighting.
 
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