I'd like to say thanks to the Digi Cam Gurus!

[Green Horn]

I checked prices at all 3 sites (thanks for pointing them out, Rich) and Sigma4Less was still the best price w/ 2 day shipping. I'll keep the other two in mind though for other stuff.

Just got off the phone with S4L and it'll be here in two days. :) Shh, don't tell the wife. ;)

 

[Okiewan]

I use B&H for my studio supplies, great outfit, probably the biggest out there.

Cool on the lens greenie. Enjoy.

 

[Green Horn]

I've got some sweet pics I took from my sons Taekwondo belt graduation last week. Problem is I need to compress them before I can post them. I need to reload Photoshop on my computer...again (Had to do a full reformat last week. I'll spare ya the details.)

 

[Green Horn]

Thanks!

studio

My wife would be envious. Although I have a strange feeling a "studio" is in her future. LOL She's hardcore to the point that some day she wants to do her own developing/ printing and such. She's on her own at that point...I just like taking pics.

 

[Okiewan]

I've got some sweet pics I took from my sons Taekwondo belt graduation last week. Problem is I need to compress them before I can post them. I need to reload Photoshop on my computer...again (Had to do a full reformat last week. I'll spare ya the details.)

Email me one, I'll post it for ya. okie [at] dirtrider.net.

Studio thing... that's where some real dollars start being needed :p

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Welcome to the addiction Greenie. ;)

 

[XRpredator]

Welcome to the addiction Greenie. ;)

Crack is probably cheaper.

 

[Green Horn]

I just sent ya a couple of pics, Okie. Keeping in mind that neither my wife nor I know what we're doing yet. LOL

 

[Okiewan]

One isn't usable, too oof.

 

[Green Horn]

Yeah the above one looks much better lightened up. The OOF shots were due to being rushed. We had a bunch that were real dark which lead to them looking real grainy too. Just curious, what program are you using to edit the pics?

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Bob is likely using Photoshop given he has a great teacher (Thump) near by. ;)

You can get a 30 day trial full version Photoshop CS2 here: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cs2eval.html

Or for something that isn't as intense as Photoshop and is more specific to digital photography check out the free trial of Bibble - http://www.bibblelabs.com/

or

Raw Shooter - http://www.pixmantec.com/

 

[Tony Eeds]

Welcome to the addiction Greenie. ;)

Crack is probably cheaper.

Crack HAS to be cheaper.

Camera gear doesn't mess with my paranoid schizophrenia as much as crack would though.

I need to get PS2 ...

 

[Green Horn]

I'm a little familiar with PS 5.0. That's what I've been using for the past few years and I know it does way more than what I'm capable of doing with it. I knew there was a CS, but not a CS2. I'll have to grab a "trial" version and play around with it. Having a teacher around for the Photoshop stuff is a HUGE plus. :)

 

[Kawidude]

I posted a few pics from Hangtown in the MX/SX forum. I shot these with a Rebel XT and a Sigma 70-300mm lens. There are a few more shots there, but these are my favorites. I've been really happy with the Sigma lens so far.

 

[Okiewan]

Cool shots... hope you don't mind, I ran the first one thru corrections (levels, curves, sharpening, midtone contrast)

 

[Kawidude]

No problem. I had already run it through most of those. The original shot was a little washed out so I pumped up the color a bit, did a light unsharpen, and pumped the contrast a little. I liked the contrast between the darker brown dirt in the background and the bright orange on the bike. That's what's so nice about Photoshop. The tweaks are endless to suit anyone's taste!

 

[Green Horn]

Kawi, those pics are sweet. You're obviously a better "rider" than me on the XT. LOL

 

[Green Horn]

I ran the first one thru corrections (levels, curves, sharpening, midtone contrast)

Okie, is that a magic button you can click on Photoshop CS that automatically makes those corrections, or is something you have to tweak manually? I can definately tell the diference.

 

[Kawidude]

Okie, is that a magic button you can click on Photoshop CS that automatically makes those corrections, or is something you have to tweak manually? I can definately tell the diference.

Photoshop does about a billion different things that most people will never use. But it's fairly easy to learn a few of them just to tweak photos.

With your photo open you can go under Image - Adjustments and use any of the things that say "Auto" before them. Like Auto Color, Auto Levels or Auto Contrast. Those will typically give you some improvement, but don't always give you exactly what you're looking for. For color/contrast adjustments I typically go to Image - Adjustments - Levels. It will take some time playing with the levels to see what each one does. The biggest thing to remember is that it's easy to over-do it. Try making gradual adjustments until you see what you like. Most newbies will use something like the Unsharp Mask and sharpen the image so much that it will start to pixelate. Do everything in baby-steps and the few functions you really need will start to make sense to you. Or just post here whenever you have questions and it looks like any number of people would be willing to help out.

And if you're shooting motocross stuff, buy a few big Compact Flash cards and shoot A LOT. You'll probably go through tons of images just to find a few that you're really happy with it. That's the nice thing about digital, you can just keep shooting away until you get something nice!

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Greenie - JOHN SHAW'S PHOTOSHOP GUIDE e-book is one of the best references that I've found. It's written by an amazing photographer specifically for other photographers.

http://www.johnshawphoto.com/ebook.htm

I also found this book to be very good :

Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers by Martin Evening

 

[biglou]

Also, "Photoshop For the Digital Photographer". Forgot the author's name, too lazy to go look.

And, you can set up "programs", make it open a set number of pics and do the same thing to them if you don't want to do them all manually. Like, open, crop, adjust any parameters you want, etc. If you have a ton of pics, it works well. Otherwise I just do each one manually.

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Also, "Photoshop For the Digital Photographer". Forgot the author's name, too lazy to go look.

This one Lou?

 

[biglou]

That's the author, yes. Same book line, different title for the CS.

btw-What is the diff between CS and just plain Photoshop? I know not the difference...

And, if you have time next week, maybe I'll take you up on some nightime city shots?

 

[Rich Rohrich]

And, if you have time next week, maybe I'll take you up on some nightime city shots?

Let me know when you'll be in the city and we'll figure something out. :cool:

 

[Kawidude]

That's the author, yes. Same book line, different title for the CS.

btw-What is the diff between CS and just plain Photoshop? I know not the difference...

And, if you have time next week, maybe I'll take you up on some nightime city shots?

Lou, if I'm not mistaken, CS is basically version 8.0. I've been running Photoshop 7.0 since it came out and the next version was named CS for some reason. 7.0 does everything I need it to, so I'm not upgrading until it becomes absolutely necessary.

That function you were talking about running a bunch of pictures through is called a batch. You can save a bunch of actions and then tell it to open all pictures from a specific file, run the same actions through each shot and then save them to a separate folder if you want. I don't use it much, but it can be a time saver.