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Photography and Planetcrap both start with P!
February 20th 2008, 21:15 CET by jjohnsen C'mon, we haven't given up on Planetcrap Photography, have we? Support jjohnsen filling the site with links to his cute kids, as well as the occasional photography tip. It's more important to talk about photography than sports or games. |
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Topic: Photography and Planetcrap both start with P!
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Hey, look, a rescue helicopter! Phew, that was lucky. Could you imagine having been stuck on this island for months? MP3 Of The Week: as not sung by Camptown ladies.
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You will marry me? Finally, all my goals are complete and I can live the rest of my life in perfect happiness! OH NOES TEH RESCUE WAS ALL A DREAM AND WE'RE STILL ON TEH ISLAND "The best experiences are generative experiences. The best stories are player stories." - Will Wright
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<insert vaguely veiled Lost reference here> "You can produce nuclear reactions directly through ultra high electric field initiated photodisintegration."
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Now let's all wait six seasons before anyone asks what the damn monster is. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 190 lbs. 10 to go. |
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The monster... is all of us. |
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lwf is a fucking douchebag. |
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Yesterday I met up with a photowalking group in Utah that ranges from people with cheap point and shoots to people with Mark III's. It's about 40 people that just converge one one location and walk around taking pictures. Then a couple of guys gave some lighting demonstrations, and we sat around talking about cameras and lenses. It was a blast just being around people that are as geeky about photography as I am. |
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Video enhancement with static photos. Wow. "I buy Captain Crunch because I like a man in uniform." - BobJustBob
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Woah. |
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Yeah, it's a wacky future, imagine this in five years when this has become a polished product and it's a completely transparent task to automatically add detail to crummy videos and remove objects at the press of a button. It'll surely alter the way we accept things at face value. Interesting times. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Didn't they already do this in LotR? Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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TV and movies are rife with digital mattes and match moving and have been for over a decade. The most boring pasta sauce commercial uses digital effects up the ass. So from a professional perspective the linked tech doesn't really change all that much (although it might eventually give Vegas/Wax a run for its money for rotoscoping/wire-removal), but from a consumer perspective it revolutionizes erasing your alcoholic step-dad from your home movies. |
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Yeah it's the bringing-it-to-the-masses aspect that makes it wacky. Combine it with all the facial-recognition research being done and we end up in a future where every image of me is automatically altered so I was never even there. Or we can invent a big conspiracy where The Government erases evidence as soon as you download your image to your computer. Good times for sure. "Please transfer fifty credit units to be removed from yesterday's Christmas party". "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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So, what's new in everyone's photography world? I'm currently in a bit of a lull. It's wet and cold down here and I have little motivation to get outside and takes photos. I've been slowly learning off camera manual flash with a few second hand bits I've purchased. I find it quite hard, lots of chimping and re-adjusting. jjohnsen: If I'm reading your flickr things right, you have picked up an additional flash. How are you triggering the two flashes? I currently use a very simple radio trigger. I think it's commonly called an "ebay trigger" or something. I'm under the impression that I can just get a second receiver and things will just work, so I've been scowering the second hand stores for cheap flashes. What's your setup? |
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Ebay triggers. I think the official name is Cactus v2s? You can get a set with a trigger and a receiver, and then I bought another receiver. They all work together as long as you have the V2s. I haven't used it for much yet, mostly just shooting stock stuff in a lightbox. |
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And both my flashes were less than $100. I bought a Vivitar 285 for about $80 and a used 540EZ for about $70. It's been fun so far. Last night my daughter had a bunch of friends over for an impromptu princess ball. I pointed both of the flashes at the ceiling at opposite ends of the room and the place lit up like it was noon outside. |
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I'd argue it does more for the pro world then you think. If you've ever tried rotoscoping, or doing a match move on footage that hasn't been specifically prepped for it (which unfortunately is most of it), you'll know it can be the biggest pain in the ass and often requires tons of manual intervention. If this technique is as easy and artifact free as the video makes it looks*, it'll take jobs that cost thousands of dollars in labor and make it cost relatively nothing. It would introduce a new flexibility in what you could "fix in post" versus having to go re-shoot, and even more of the process would move into post. *Of course that's the big question, how long does it take, how does it handle imperfect input, and how glitchy are the results in The Real World. |
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I've been in a big lull, myself. I'm barely taking pics of my kids, much less anything else. Not sure why, I just haven't been motivated. And I guess I've been really busy. My wife's mom has been in the hospital for the last few months, so every bit of my free time is spent watching the kids so she can go visit her. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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#2267 by jjohnsen Ebay triggers. I think the official name is Cactus v2s? You can get a set with a trigger and a receiver, and then I bought another receiver. They all work together as long as you have the V2s. I haven't used it for much yet, mostly just shooting stock stuff in a lightbox. Aaah yes. I have a set (trigger and receiver) of those. The store I purchased them from didn't sell them separately so I might have to plunge into ebay. In the meantime I've been trying to find a second hand SB-25 (which apparently has a slave triggering mechanism built in). Hardest damn flash to find. There are lots of SB-24's and even more SB-26's. Noodling around in the second hand camera stores is pretty fun. |
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#2270 by Jamie I've been in a big lull, myself. I'm barely taking pics of my kids, much less anything else. Not sure why, I just haven't been motivated. And I guess I've been really busy. My wife's mom has been in the hospital for the last few months, so every bit of my free time is spent watching the kids so she can go visit her. Sorry to hear about your Mother in law. Bummer. |
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#2271 by OwenButler #2267 by jjohnsen Ebay triggers. I think the official name is Cactus v2s? You can get a set with a trigger and a receiver, and then I bought another receiver. They all work together as long as you have the V2s. I haven't used it for much yet, mostly just shooting stock stuff in a lightbox. Aaah yes. I have a set (trigger and receiver) of those. The store I purchased them from didn't sell them separately so I might have to plunge into ebay. In the meantime I've been trying to find a second hand SB-25 (which apparently has a slave triggering mechanism built in). Hardest damn flash to find. There are lots of SB-24's and even more SB-26's. Noodling around in the second hand camera stores is pretty fun. I bought a used SB-28, but it was dead on delivery so I traded it for a Canon 540. I've been shooting some catalog stuff for a couple of years now. Mostly for a couple of vitamin people. Well one of the people there asked me to take a few portraits of their family a few months ago. Now in the past two weeks I've had four people ask me to take either family pictures or just pictures of babies. I may actually hit a point that I can support this habit. |
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Nice work! |
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So, start your rumour engines: http://www.canon.com/moon/en/index.html I'm praying for a really really good 5D replacement, so I can pick up a 5D for super cheap! |
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OwenButler (#2275): Needs moar 2001 theme. "I buy Captain Crunch because I like a man in uniform." - BobJustBob
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I'd love a 5d, but I'm considering a 40 or 50d right now. A quick question on sensors in DSLRs. From what I've read, some noise comes from fitting so many megapixels on a sensor. So as manufacturers put more megapixels on the same size sensor, it increases noise. Is the opposite as well? If I have a ten megapixel camera, and lower it so it's taking 6 megapixel pictures, will it decrease noise? I'm asking because I find the noise level of the Digital Rebel unacceptable above 400 ISO. More and more I'm finidng myself taking stuff under low light and I don't want to use a flash. MY brother can take pictures up to 1200 ISO on his Nikon that are less noisy than my 400 ISO stuff (after much study, I'm finding Nikons seem to deal with the noise issue much better than entry level Canons). The main reason I'm looking at the 50d is it has a new sensor that supposedly handles low light better, higher ISO doesn't contribute as much noise. |
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Not a direct answer, but do you know about Noise Ninja? "I buy Captain Crunch because I like a man in uniform." - BobJustBob
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Out of my price range, especially when I'm considering a camera purchase that would help fix the problem. |
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#2277 by jjohnsen I'd love a 5d, but I'm considering a 40 or 50d right now. A quick question on sensors in DSLRs. From what I've read, some noise comes from fitting so many megapixels on a sensor. So as manufacturers put more megapixels on the same size sensor, it increases noise. Is the opposite as well? If I have a ten megapixel camera, and lower it so it's taking 6 megapixel pictures, will it decrease noise? My guess is that the difference would not be worth it: The camera would take the picture using the full sensor then scale it down as it saves the shot in the smaller size. There may be a difference in the noise, but only as a result of the scaling, something you could do yourself if you wanted. Probably get better noise reduction by applying the noise reduction algorithms (like noise ninja unfortunately) to the higher res image. At the very least, if it does make a difference, you'd want to do the scaling yourself so you have the high res original in any case. My understanding about noise from your sensor is as follows: The more megapixels you cram into the same spot, the smaller each of those megapixels are. As each pixel is essentially an independent light measuring device, the smaller the pixel, the less surface area there is for light to hit. Less surface area means less photons can possibly hit the pixel as the shutter is open. So say for examples sake, for a given shutter speed, a 400D pixel can measure between 0 and 100, and a larger 5D pixel can measure between 0 and 300. As the values are multiplied out to the scale needed to construct an image, the 400d measurement is stepped with fewer possible values in between. Add in the fact that there is a certain amount of variance/error in the measuring of each pixel and that stepping becomes apparent for nearby pixels that are measuring the same value, and you get noise. So, what do Nikon do differently to get around this problem? I'm positive there is some noise reduction done in software on the camera on both Canon and Nikon, maybe Nikons software is so much better? Maybe Nikon sensors are more accurate individually? |
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#2277 by jjohnsen Just an additional thought, the 400D might be getting confused with the low light conditions and over-exposing the image? This is a sure fire way to get noise. You might get better results by manually exposing, or by using a different metering mode. |
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Does anyone know of a site which lists the sensor sizes and attributes on an ongoing basis for all cameras released by major manufacturers. Shouldn't somebody like PC Magazine or Consumer Reports or whatever be doing this instead of regurgitating meaningless megapixel numbers. Plenty of sites criticize the lack of reporting of sensor sizes and/or the duplicity of camera manufacturers in touting megapixels as the relevant metric over sensor size, but I haven't been able to find any sites that keep an up to date listing comparing sensor sizes in a convenient manner. All I want is something like Tom's Hardware's price vs. performance chart but instead listing sensor size vs. megapixel vs. price, updated biannually. |
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#2280 by OwenButler So, what do Nikon do differently to get around this problem? I'm positive there is some noise reduction done in software on the camera on both Canon and Nikon, maybe Nikons software is so much better? Maybe Nikon sensors are more accurate individually? I'm not sure. All I know is if you look at a full size picture taken at ISO 1200 on a D90 and a Rebel XTi, there's a world of difference. |
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G-Man, DP review does it, though you have to build your own chart by selecting what cameras you want to compare. |
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Gadget lust blog: I'm considering getting a Nikon D90, but oddly enough I want it for the video function. It's for the reasons that G-man sort of touched on, the sensor size. The main issues in prosumer, low-end professional camcorders in getting an appealing image is low dynamic range and too wide a depth of field, both are related to sensor size. A secondary thing is fixed lenses, you're stuck with the one on the camera so you can't switch that out to affect the DOF or anything else. Those characteristics plus the frame rate usually signal "home movie" instead of "narrative film" to the viewer. In theory, the D90's movie mode would take care of all of this. It has a sensor about as big as a 35mm film frame (apparently 35mm stills were fed differently then 35mm movies, so the movie frame has less usable area), which is way bigger then most video cameras till you get to the 5 digit range. When combined with the dynamic range of an SLR, and the interchangeable and plentiful lenses you can buy for it, the closest video camera competitors with all those features cost about 15x as much. So while it feels crazy for me to be thinking of getting a $1300 camera (with lens) when my last still camera was this (which took great pictures by the way, considering it's smaller then a cigarette pack), $1300 for a video camera that has all that and a 24fps frame rate (another factor, 30fps "feels" like TV or soap operas, while people associate 24p footage with the movies) is a steal. The issue is of course, being a still camera first and a movie camera as a afterthought, there's probably going to be some serious usability issues, what you can control manually, etc., and maybe some quirks that wouldn't show up on a normal camera. Which is why I haven't flipped tabs to amazon and bought it already. Still, it's not like I'm filming Lawrence of Arabia with it, I'll probably just do a short or two. Thinking... |
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Can't comment on the video in a D90, but I love my D80. All the shitty pictures I take are my fault, not my camera's. That's about all I can ask for. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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Three people in my family have the D80 and after playing with it I wish I'd bought that instead of the XTi. It has a bit more heft to it, and the noise issue I talked about earlier. So I'm sure the D90 is great, though the movie thing doesn't excite me that much. |
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Awesome zombie pics. More of the same. These are great. I wish I had been there. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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Hawt. "Blizzard could easily appease the color-hostile fans by adding a graphics option that reduces chroma by 90% and brightness by 50%. And maybe changes all spoken text to goth poetry."
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Joker is not a zombie. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 190 lbs. 10 to go. |
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Zombies suck. Worst. Horror. Monster. Ever. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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You can probably mod Left 4 Dead so they're all clowns or something then. "Blizzard could easily appease the color-hostile fans by adding a graphics option that reduces chroma by 90% and brightness by 50%. And maybe changes all spoken text to goth poetry."
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What of the dreaded neuter space bear? |
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In Germany, we mod ALL games so the enemies are all green-blooded zombies, and you people want to go the opposite way. Tsss. "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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