Photography

Post by **Troy** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:17 pm

Vince wrote: Hate that Photoshop is subscription now. I just can't bring myself to do that. I like buying software that I can choose to or not to upgrade when a newer version comes out. I hate the idea of being held captive to the software company because they more or less have locked me out of my project files. It's more or less an accepted version of the virus that locks all your files on your drive.

I understand this train of thought. On the other hand the full price on these programs is at least a few hundred bucks. I think a full sub to Premier (Adobe still does this for enterprise) is like $350.

I always justify that I can pay for a sub while doing the heavy lifting after a month of regular shooting. Then after I wrap things up, cancel and use something free.

For Photoshop - GIMP can open all the files - it's just horrible to use coming from Adobe products. But it's free - so that's OK. There are a bunch of other free tools for processing RAWs and picture formats as well. Less choice on the video front. GoPro put out two different free editing programs. They are both FUCKING AWFUL.

Adobe Premier is the best GIF making tool I've ever used. Trim the selection, export it as a GIF, set the quality and boom - done.

Post by **Troy** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:22 pm

Also since they give a free month of Adobe Creative Cloud, If you were properly motivated you could probably use it for free forever. It'd just be a PITA.

Post by **Vince** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:28 pm

Troy wrote: Good shot - the limited depth of field really makes things look interesting. That's a rad chessboard too.

I've played with, but never owned, the big zoom lenses. They are pretty expensive too right? I know a sports photog who says his zoom lens is the most expensive thing in his bag.

All the Adobe products are subscription based now. The new ones anyway. At work I still use the Adobe CS5 suite. But you can get a monthly subscription to any newer Adobe program for 20 bucks a month (or free for a week). I think 50 bucks a month gets you the entire creative suite. A huge blessing for independent creative types.

My favorite wildlife photographer on Instagram is Paul Nicklen. His work is amazing, dude loves bears, the cold, and underwater life too.
http://www.paulnicklen.com/

Oh, on the telephoto lenses... the ones suitable for lower light (sports and dusk and dawn nature photographers) would probably need the high end ones with the big glass on the end. But you can sacrifice some aperture for $. My 70300 was a refurb for about $250. But it tops out at f/4.5 - 5.6. Not really sure why it lists two f stops, but I'm sure it's in there somewhere as to why

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:33 pm

GORDON wrote: People mock me for my copy of Office 2000.

As they should.

Hate that Photoshop is subscription now. I just can't bring myself to do that. I like buying software that I can choose to or not to upgrade when a newer version comes out. I hate the idea of being held captive to the software company because they more or less have locked me out of my project files. It's more or less an accepted version of the virus that locks all your files on your drive.

You need to check the GIMP.

Post by **Troy** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:34 pm

Late to the game Malcom, I already said that

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:36 pm

Post by **Vince** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:36 pm

Troy wrote: Also since they give a free month of Adobe Creative Cloud, If you were properly motivated you could probably use it for free forever. It'd just be a PITA.

Don't get me wrong. I think the subscription idea has some merit in places. Like for businesses. I just think offering the software as subscription only isn't something I'd want to get into.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:41 pm

Vince wrote:
Troy wrote: Also since they give a free month of Adobe Creative Cloud, If you were properly motivated you could probably use it for free forever. It'd just be a PITA.
Don't get me wrong. I think the subscription idea has some merit in places. Like for businesses. I just think offering the software as subscription only isn't something I'd want to get into.

In almost every niche you can imagine, I've found free versions of software that have the potential to do just as well as the expensive versions -- the freebies just have somewhat of a learning curve and crappy instruction books.

Post by **Troy** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:46 pm

Malcolm wrote:
Vince wrote:
Troy wrote: Also since they give a free month of Adobe Creative Cloud, If you were properly motivated you could probably use it for free forever. It'd just be a PITA.
Don't get me wrong. I think the subscription idea has some merit in places. Like for businesses. I just think offering the software as subscription only isn't something I'd want to get into.
In almost every niche you can imagine, I've found free versions of software that have the potential to do just as well as the expensive versions -- the freebies just have somewhat of a learning curve and crappy instruction books.

It's their horrible UI's that get me. Like - really? I can do better in Tk and I'm not anywhere close to a UX guy.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:51 pm

Troy wrote: It's their horrible UI's that get me. Like - really? I can do better in Tk and I'm not anywhere close to a UX guy.

Shitty UI is one of the major reasons open source gets its ass kicked. UI people in general have their heads up their ass, and the ones that do GNU work are usually twice as worthless.

Post by **TheCatt** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:59 pm

thibodeaux wrote:
TheCatt wrote:My wife doesn't do video. Thib's wife I think uses a Canon 5d-Mark III
I honestly have no idea :/ I'm terrible

I know because it's the camera my wife wanted for a long time.

Post by **Vince** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 7:12 pm

Troy wrote: You left out:
Malcolm wrote:
Vince wrote:
Don't get me wrong. I think the subscription idea has some merit in places. Like for businesses. I just think offering the software as subscription only isn't something I'd want to get into.
In almost every niche you can imagine, I've found free versions of software that have the potential to do just as well as the expensive versions -- the freebies just have somewhat of a learning curve and crappy instruction books.
It's their horrible UI's that get me. Like - really? I can do better in Tk and I'm not anywhere close to a UX guy.

I don't mind paying for software. I just want to be owning the software I pay for. I bought Corel's Paintshop Pro w/ Aftershot. Been reading that it has most of the same functionality of Photoshop, but some of the processes run a bit more sluggish. Looking at the Amazon reviews for the subscription service, might end up with a larger user base. Of Adobe might decide to offer both software and sunscription.

I also bought Cyberlink's PhotoDirector, but it doesn't seem as robust as Paintshop.

Post by **Leisher** » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:51 am

Hate that Photoshop is subscription now.

That's where everything is going.

For businesses it makes all the sense in the world. For consumers it sucks.

But that's a discussion for a different thread.

Post by **Vince** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:55 pm

I liked the bee pictures, but wanted more of them in focus flying in. So I set up from the side and got the entrance in focus.

Post by **Troy** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 4:16 pm

That's a rad shot - nice focus you have on them with the lens.

Now fly a mini drone on in there with a flashlight

Post by **Troy** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 4:27 pm

I try to do one timelapse per vacation, pick the best view I get and go with it. They tend to be a lot of work, and fiddly.

Here's my New Zealand one. I actually missed the first 60% of this sunset because my SD card needed to be reformated because it thought it was full. Sadly I had left for dinner when this happened.

Glad I we got back in time so I could swap the batteries and reformat the card to try and salvage something. Still a PITA.

Post by **Vince** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 4:51 pm

Troy wrote: I try to do one timelapse per vacation, pick the best view I get and go with it. They tend to be a lot of work, and fiddly.

Here's my New Zealand one. I actually missed the first 60% of this sunset because my SD card needed to be reformated because it thought it was full. Sadly I had left for dinner when this happened.

Glad I we got back in time so I could swap the batteries and reformat the card to try and salvage something. Still a PITA.

That looks good! What are you capturing that with? I've been playing with timelapse with the Nikon. A little trickier doing them with a DSLR. I did them before with my Sony actioncam, but you get some weird light adjustments doing it the autoexposure, etc.

Post by **Troy** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 4:59 pm

Vince wrote: That looks good! What are you capturing that with? I've been playing with timelapse with the Nikon. A little trickier doing them with a DSLR. I did them before with my Sony actioncam, but you get some weird light adjustments doing it the autoexposure, etc.

Thanks! I'll take no credit for technical aspect of it - it's 100% easy mode using a GoPro5. 1080p, time lapse, 1 frame per second. I set the auto-exposure on the hill across the bay and hoped for the best.

The camera does its best to compensate for light conditions until night really falls and the condo's porch light starts blinding the shot.
Sped up 900% in Premier and cut to 4:3 for instagram.

The 4-5 seconds I'd have gotten on the front end would have been great. I learned to reformat SD cards before each trip/shoot!

Post by **Vince** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 5:03 pm

I was trying to get a time lapse on a pond nearby with the Nikon. I was using a cheap ND filter to darken things so I could get a longer exposure. Helps cut down on the jittery motion by introducing blur. Screwed up and forgot to do a manual focus. Too dark to auto focus. Grrr...

Live and learn.

Post by **Leisher** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 5:13 pm

True story:

When I coached baseball, one of the kid's parents show up and I gave her a form for the team pictures. It was from TNS Photography.

She read it aloud, dead serious, "Tee. an. es. Pho-toe-graph-eee".