I thought we needed a thread to dump all our photography-related thoughts in. ie how to get the best colours when u post online, what camera/video gear you use on the mountain and tips & tricks.
Unfortunately since the season is nearly over I think this thread will be soon lost to page 2 & beyond.

as for your calibrating thoughts....

calibrating your monitor is a highly recommend idea if your aspirations are to make some money off images...I dont know much about it but nearly every pro does it .... and is very likely reason for your issues.

as for this thread when it comes to print and web PS work I got some answers if ya need them.(not all but a few)

cool

I was given some tips for snow action ie spotmetering and bumping exposure compensation up 1 but I don't think I'll be able to try it til next year

update: regarding the image problems I was having...after extensive editing, the pictures developped badly. The reason was that the photo shop (kitamura) lets their machine 'auto-correct' the photos. Contrast, brightness and sharpness are all done automatically. That sometimes cancels out or changes what you have done. You have to ask them to turn off the auto-correct.
I also got a monitor calibrator, the spyder2 pro. It didn't change much, just that my monitor was way too bright apparently.

I am going to get a d80!! but I'm still not sure as to what lens to get. I still have a 70-300ed...
I'm thinking of just getting a 50mm 1.8 off ebay and then maybe the vr 18-200. Not sure though. It doesn't seem that the 18-200 is good enough for pro photos...but I don't want to spend too much either!

they were autocorrecting? Shit, that sucks for people who go for deliberate effects eh! Good to know kuma The d80 looks sweet! Let us know how you like it.

in japanese it's hosei suru, in case people wanted to check at their local spots.

not going to get the d80 for a couple of months though. Need the price to drop a man or 2 first.

What kind of photos are you taking? I've got a sigma 1.4 30mm that I bought to take pictures of my baby daughter indoors. Its great in low light, of course, but boke is overpowering if open it up with a close subject outdoors. Under f2, the depth of focus for close subjects is also extreme, so you can get portraits where only one eye on a tilted face is in tight focus. There is very little margin for error.

The vr supposedly gives you an extra few stops handheld. While that is impressive, for action snowpics, a longer exposure isn't going to freeze the action. You want a fast shutter.

With the d80, you get ISO100, higher rez, and better AF. The only downside is that they'll release an even better one in two years time.

Too bloody true Mr W!

2 years is a long time though. How many pictures can u take in that time?

for snow shots I use the 300mm lens, that way i can shoot face shots without getting one too
other lens for everything else

Mate, in the two years I've had my d70, I've taken around 8000 pics! I'm sure a lot of photographers would take many more than that!


Here are some pics I took back in Aus this summer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bushpig77/sets/72157594277201228/

i like the perth and the first sunset alot
nice!

cheers kuma

wow bushy amazing pics, love the bird ones very much.

i'm looking for a good camera for the snow this winter, really want to take some time to get some amazing shots. what's the d70? what brand is that?

thanks EBC Yeah, I like the bird ones more than the others actually.

The d70 is a nikon. It's a digital slr. Pretty good camera. The Canon Eos kiss is pretty good too for the price.

i was looking at the Kiss for a friend but the body is such a piece of shit!
EBC if you want a dslr get a Nikon d50. You'll get much better pictures than from a d70 and for cheaper. The only problem is that Nikon has stopped production on them but there's tons on yahoo auctions for 4 to 5man

Kuma, you really think you get better pics from a D50 than D70?

kuma, I don't really know much about the d50 other than that it was aimed at the lower end of the slr market, and I don't think it was available when I bought mine (??). Is there a such a marked difference between the two? Anyway, yeah the eos body isn't quite as sturdy. But, it is a lot more compact than the d70 (what about the d50??).

As for second hand gear, you can get some great bargains but you can also get problems that aren't evident when buying. Slight glitches in the programming, processing, functionality. I personally am a bit hesitant to get second hand gear when it comes to camera gear. I think there was less risk with real old school cameras, but these days a lot can go wrong with them if you are unlucky.

you can better jpegs. just read any of the photography site reviews out there. The key is the updated sensor. It was also aimed at dslr beginners upgrading from point and shoots so it makes sense to have beautiful jpegs coming out with no effort.
That's not to say that you can't get beautiful pics out of a d70 if you know what you're doing.d70 has been out a long time and the d70s really didn't change much. d50 is much smaller and lighter which is a good thing imo.

true bp about the 2nd hand. You're a bit safer buying 2nd hand from a place like kitamura which will give you a guarantee.