Gavin Seim

April 23, 2010

Photography Podcast, photoshop, Pro Photo Show Podcast, ProPhotoShow, RoundTable, Weddings

Pro Photo Podcast #68RT – Raising The Prices

Click To Listen>> Photography Podcast. PPS #68
Review in iTunes – Vote on Podcast Alley – Direct Podcast Feed

The Panel... Gavin Seim – Scott & Adina Hayne – Dennis Zerwas – Barry Howell
This week the panel discusses the latest news, CS5, LR3, ways to deal with business, Facebook, marketing and more. It’s a nice long episode so some of you may want to break it up into two listens.

Podcast #68 forum discussion:

Notable Time Indexes:

00:00 Intro and tidbits.
02:45 Talking CS5 LR3 and more
21:50 70-200 MK2 and 1D MK4 (see images below).
30:30 Taking about Flash and websites.
38:55 Facebook, pages and business sense.
1:02:38 Barry Senior Portrait market research.
1:19:20 Surviving business, marketing, price talk.

Today’s Show brought to you by Seim Effects photo tools.

CS5 is coming next month.

Free Aperture Presets.

Deals page for promo codes mentioned in the show.

Check out the No Rules Workshop with Scott and Adina.

Gavins HDR workshop is going on the road.

CCS Edit for Mac is how Gavin alter WordPress.

Most if Gavs sites are built with a modded K2 theme.

TTG iPhone gallery is what Gavin used for mobile.

Set your Facebook page user name.

LR 2.7 and cam RAW 5.7 is on the Adobe updates page.

Canon 70-200 MK2 lens comparison and review.

Canon 5D MK2 vs 1D MK4 Noise Test.

Photographer jailed for not fulfilling his obligations.

PICKS:

Due to the length of the show we skipped picks this week. Back next time.

April 23, 2010

Gavin Seim, lightroom

5D MK2 vs 1D MK4 High ISO & LR3 new noise Process compare.

Just a quickie I though some of you might find interesting. I talked about getting you all some high ISO samples from these cameras on the last podcast, so here they are. After the show, I got together with Nickles and we did a very informal ISO test. Nothing fancy, just some quick, poorly lit handheld images with Cyrus and Harrson. Still, you’ll get the idea. The 5D MK2 was still a solid contender with a great fine grain feel.

The 1D has a trump card because it can go to much higher ISO and while it might be noisy, I would not hesitate to use ISO 50K if I was in an ultra low like situation like a wedding reception. On the show I said it looks as good at 50K as the MK2 does at 12k. Looking here I see that was a an overstatement, but for how high the ISO is I’m still impressed. A little grain does not kill us, in fact the grain on these newer cameras is looking better all the time.

I used basic noise reduction in LR3 (no plugins) but I did use new process version which made a lot of difference in the final quality. To illustrate that I’m posting a side by side on the new and old process as well. Click for larger versions.

April 22, 2010

video

Photography In Court. Funnny video, Good reminder.

by Jarrod Michael: We’ve all had these conversations and or arguments in the past. Just because someone can walk into Best Buy or Local Camera shop and buy a professional camera setup doesn’t mean they should. I really feel that if someone wants to be a professional anything, said person needs to seek out the right education and training. Education is different for everyone. Some people will intern under a photographer with years of experience. Some may want to go back to college or a trade school for the education.

But the point is clear, to become a professional one really needs to obtain a solid education on the subject and practice, practice, practice. All of this takes time and effort. Sure you could go down the easy path and buy the pro camera setup and declare yourself a professional, but the chances are REAL that you could end up in similar situation as the people in this video. Now whether this is for real or not may be open for debate, but the point is. Even TV knows that photographers often get in over their head and mess things up. It’s a good reminder. At the very least the video is a good laugh. Enjoy!

Photography In Court Video

April 12, 2010

PPS Photography Tips, ProPhotoShow, Review

Focus on Better Focus. Lens Align Pro Review & Tips:

The Crew. Missing in photo, Larry, Steve and Jon

Focus on Focus. A look at micro focus adjustments and the Lens Align Pro calibration system.

by Barry Howell: Have you ever found a menu option on your camera that made you wonder, “What’s this”? I found such an option on my Nikon D300 called “AF Fine Tune.” My old-school curiosity sent me on a quest to discover its purpose, and how it could improve image quality. With a few quick Google searches, I found multiple forums and discussions about the importance of calibrating lenses to your DSLR camera bodies.

A recurring theme on the ProPhotoShow.com podcasts, and in other various articles, is how to make your images have more impact. There is no bigger buzz kill for photographers than capturing an image we think will be great, only to find that it’s a little soft. There are many variables we can control to ensure optimal sharpness: shutter speed, depth of field, steadying the camera, etc., and I always assumed that if I focused on the right spot, my images would be tack sharp. Guess what? That isn’t always the case, and I was determined to overcome the problem.

Before contacting Michael Tapes at RawWorkflow, I performed a very un-scientific, but effective test of my AF Fine tune option. I was photographing the MN State Boys Hockey Tournament at the Excel Energy Center, a venue that is well lit for television broadcasts. I very carefully focused my Tamron 300 2.8 lens on some helmets lined up on the boards. The scene had great contrast, I was using a monopod, and I figured could get this image dead on. I zoomed in at 100x on the LCD and it looked pretty good. I then went into the menu and made a +5 adjustment, took another shot, and upon inspection realized I had made it worse. Then, I made a -5 adjustment and the image improved noticeably. I knew then and there that I had to calibrate my optics.

Within a week I’d found such a tool; I obtained a Lens Align Pro Focus Calibration System. I invited several photographer friends for a focus calibration party at my studio and we embarked on a journey to make our gear perform better. In our group were five Nikon shooters and one Canon shooter. Between us, we probably had over $50,000 worth of bodies and glass waiting for a checkup. The results were at times sobering, but every lens, once calibrated, focused better than ever before. The calibration method involves the following steps; it took a little trial and error, but they were pretty easy to do reliably.