Polarizers are good for landscape type shots where you're going to be at one vantage point but for wildlife if you're going to be taking a shot at a moments notice and constantly recomposing then you're going to have to reset the polarizer and you're simply not going to have that time.

Once upon a time there was a thread that talked about formatting the SD card. Whether to do it in the computer or in the camera. I can't remember. What is best?

dubi said:

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Once upon a time there was a thread that talked about formatting the SD card. Whether to do it in the computer or in the camera. I can't remember. What is best?

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I read an article recently that claimed in camera was best.

dubi said:

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Once upon a time there was a thread that talked about formatting the SD card. Whether to do it in the computer or in the camera. I can't remember. What is best?

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In camera IMO. Also, don't delete individual pictures in camera. It can corrupt the card. Just leave the bad pics on there. They'll get erased when you format it.

dubi said:

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Once upon a time there was a thread that talked about formatting the SD card. Whether to do it in the computer or in the camera. I can't remember. What is best?

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1. Always and only format in camera. Do not format in computer.
2. Never delete photos off your camera.
3. Don't fill up your memory cards all the way.

Guitarsoup said:

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dubi said:

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Once upon a time there was a thread that talked about formatting the SD card. Whether to do it in the computer or in the camera. I can't remember. What is best?

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1. Always and only format in camera. Do not format in computer.
2. Never delete photos off your camera.
3. Don't fill up your memory cards all the way.

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1. I'm good
2. I've failed
3. I've failed
33% isn't too bad huh????

Guitarsoup said:

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dubi said:

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Once upon a time there was a thread that talked about formatting the SD card. Whether to do it in the computer or in the camera. I can't remember. What is best?

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1. Always and only format in camera. Do not format in computer.
2. Never delete photos off your camera.
3. Don't fill up your memory cards all the way.

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Ummmm...

Wow, I definitely delete photos sometimes. Why is this bad?

My set up for the trip. 6 batteries and 3 SD cards.

1 body 1 lens.

That first one is perfect.

Really nice stuff.

Agreed, that Manarola one is one of the best I've ever seen.

MBAR said:

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Really like most of them but I'm personally not a fan of the over saturated skies. I think your nighttime shots are amazing though.

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Over saturated skies and over-the-top HDR (less is more!!!) are two of my biggest pet peeves. Though I don't think these are anywhere near overdone. A good polarizing filter would make those blue skies pop. I am curious if the starburst from the streetlights are from the lens or if you had a filter.

I think the processing on these is pretty much spot on. Most photographs, at least in my opinion, need some contrast and saturation boost compared to straight out of camera.

I do have a question about the first shot. I notice a fair amount of what I would call "banding" of the light on some of the buildings, where the lighting/shading appears unevenly enhanced horizontally. Is that actually the way the buildings are painted or lighted, or could that be an artifact of processing? Not a knock or nit pick, serious question. Fantastic shots.

The saturated sky... I'm not crazy about dull white sky in landscape photos.

It's shopped in using color 88b8ff in color panel with clouds rendered in Filter in PS CS6. I will most likely reprocess and tone it down. They're not HDR. Also, I had to reduce the size of these pictures to post. On the average, these are between 12 to 16 mb.

labmansid said:

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I think the processing on these is pretty much spot on. Most photographs, at least in my opinion, need some contrast and saturation boost compared to straight out of camera.

I do have a question about the first shot. I notice a fair amount of what I would call "banding" of the light on some of the buildings, where the lighting/shading appears unevenly enhanced horizontally. Is that actually the way the buildings are painted or lighted, or could that be an artifact of processing? Not a knock or nit pick, serious question. Fantastic shots.

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Great observation.

The banding... was not done on purpose. The building paints are not banded...they're solid.

As I was adding the clouds into one of the layers, I failed to choose the "sky area" instead chose the entire picture. Inadvertently, cloud bands were added to the buildings. Then I realized...it really didn't look that bad, rather made the picture a bit unique. So I kept it.

wee_ag said:

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MBAR said:

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Really like most of them but I'm personally not a fan of the over saturated skies. I think your nighttime shots are amazing though.

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Over saturated skies and over-the-top HDR (less is more!!!) are two of my biggest pet peeves. Though I don't think these are anywhere near overdone. A good polarizing filter would make those blue skies pop. I am curious if the starburst from the streetlights are from the lens or if you had a filter.

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The starburst effect is straight from the lens. No additional effects were added.

the starburst is from using a small aperture. the aperture blades causes it

TexasAggie_02 said:

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the starburst is from using a small aperture. the aperture blades causes it

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Thanks, I know what causes the effect but they make physical lens filters to enhance the effect. Was curious if he used one. Plus some lenses naturally create better (more points) starbursts. My canon f4 18-35 doesn't do nearly as well with starbursts as I would like.

Is anyone shooting serious video on their smart phone? By serious, I mean something you are taking the time to go into an editor (Premiere, iMovie, FCP, etc.) and do stuff with -- as well as getting a pro movie app to shoot it in? I've been doing this for a while but would like to hear tips and techniques from others.

91AggieLawyer said:

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Is anyone shooting serious video on their smart phone? By serious, I mean something you are taking the time to go into an editor (Premiere, iMovie, FCP, etc.) and do stuff with -- as well as getting a pro movie app to shoot it in? I've been doing this for a while but would like to hear tips and techniques from others.

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I've been using my phone (Pixel) to shoot b-roll stuff recently, been using ProShot primarily. Still getting the hang of it but I'm certainly getting usable footage for alternate angles and b-roll shots, the fact that it's 4K helps as I've got some room to play with my framing for 1080p export.

I'm trying out Resolve for editing at home (have Premiere CC at work), it's pretty great and it's tough to beat free
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

I do a lot of videos. Mainly use u43 for sports, healthcare education videos etc. With a sturdy tripod and fluidhead.

I also use my cellphone to make silly videos.

But I use Sony Vegas Pro 13 to edit. Lay in some good sound track..

Video to me requires more as it needs to tell a story. It definitely requires additional creativity. I would like to produce short story videos.

Following up on my question, looks like I'm going to rent the Nikon 200-500. This creates a new problem: transport. My current camera bag is a Lowepro slingshot 200. The lens is supposedly 10.5" long, which is about .5" longer than what my bag can supposedly handle. I've been thinking about changing bags anyway because I don't really use the slingshot much as most of the time I'm outdoors I'm on a bike (or a dayhike at most), and I need to carry water, food, etc. So for those of you who are outdoors quite a bit, how do you carry your gear?

I use a Think Tank Street Wallet HD backpack. There are several in that line of backpacks.

I have something like this. Could you put the long lens on the side?

amazon link

Maybe. I'm going to play around with mine some more tonight to make sure I'm not overlooking something. Have you tried dayhiking with that bag? I've heard the larger camera bags aren't so good for that. I'm kinda kicking around getting an Osprey backpack and putting a padded divider insert in.

The Think Tank Hard Drive HD is great for day hiking. Great padding and you can attach it to their waist belts. I think it has a small waist belt that you can use as well, but that is significantly less useful than their big heavy-duty waist belts that are sold separately.

Maximus, are you going to use a monopod to steady the lens and also carry? A decent Manfrotto is reasonably priced.

i use a think tank shape shifter. works for me, but i know a lot of people don't like the layout of it.

I have both a monopod and tripod, and plan on bringing both on the trip, though I'm thinking probably just the monopod for the whale cruise.

New moon in 2 weeks! Any milkyway attempts?