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12:35 AM
@Jay Lance - CPS doesnt require an annual fee unless I'm reading it incorrectly. I have the bodies/lenses required, and the base account reads $0/annually
 
12:59 AM
CPS has 3 levels (if I'm remembering correctly) - Silver: $0 fee, almost no benefit, Gold: $100/yr fee, some benefits, Platinum: $500/yr, roll out the Canon red carpet and say 'yee haw!'
The free level doesn't offer much more than 'your name on a list of CPS members' and access to tech support that's one level above 'regular joe' tech support. The real benefits (like borrowing equipment, expedited repairs and shipping cost waivers) don't start until you're shelling out some $$$...
Unless things have changed since I became a member... It's been a while since I've looked at the benefits list.
 
@JayLancePhotography After my 6th repair on the same lens, I'm ready for non "regular joe" support :-)
 
Couldn't hurt to try, anyway...
 
2:10 AM
@dpollitt what lens?
ugg, further proof that having a good camera means nothing
we drove out to this state park tonight to watch a sunset and somebody who looked pretty professional and was carrying around a 5D II took that
 
2:39 AM
@rfusca Devoted... or dumb.
@rfusca Too bad. It does indeed go to show that skill is an essential component to the equation. :-)
 
@rfusca EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS
 
2:54 AM
@dpollitt well I mean, its a Canon, so just take the lens out and you're got yourself a mighty fine coffee mug ;) j/k
 
uh huh uh huh
I could've sworn I just read an article about how Canon still is dominating its market share... but who knows :-)
 
@dpollitt yup, they are. i think Sony is 2nd this last year
 
Sony? No way, Nikon is.
 
thats what i thought, but the stats I saw showed sony
i gotta find it
<----- is a Nikon shooter but doesn't really care too much about brand
hmm, the stats might have included p&s's
 
yea im sure they include all cameras
 
3:02 AM
there's one
sony in second for all camera, and third for interchangable lens
 
@rfusca Just showing yourself to be an instigator as usual. ;-)
 
That is weird, both cite the same source, but this article notes Nikon as being ahead of Sony - twice.com/article/…
 
@JayLancePhotography ya, i'm trouble
 
I dunno, I dont feel like reading that entire thing haha
 
@dpollitt they must be referencing interchangable lens cameras inadvertantly
 
3:04 AM
As long as no one misunderstands and figures that you actually want to start a Canon/Nikon war... ;-)
 
@JayLancePhotography ya, i could care less lol
 
'Cause that'll just get tedious.
 
'bout brand
ya, i don't think that's gonna happen around here, pretty nearly every regular is anti-brand-war
 
oh no, the war is fun, but my money is invested, so I could care less who likes what or what is better at this point
 
@rfusca Especially since we don't shoot sucky Pentax cameras like others. ;-)
:-D
 
3:06 AM
night all
 
cough @mattdm cough
 
@dpollitt nIGHT...
 
@dpollitt night
 
@rfusca Not namin' names, but...
Uh oh. shhh He just showed up.
whisper
mumble
;-)
 
@JayLancePhotography ya, there's nothing worse than a Pent....ium....ya, computers
they're terrible
oh, hi matt
:D
 
3:08 AM
Ain't that the tru... oh... Hey @mattdm... ahem
bigcheesygrin
 
*sniff* *sniff* I smell trolls around here somewhere. :)
3
 
Lol.
rawr
:-)
@mattdm is the king of starred phrases in chat today!
 
earlier, every starred phrase on the side I could see was mine lol
 
I think it's kind of funny how many Pentax users there are here.
 
we seem to have a decent number
 
3:11 AM
If I ever see one in person, I have to resist the urge to stop and strike up a conversation.
 
There do seem to be more here that there should be, statistically speaking.
 
i got to play with a K-5 the other day
 
You could start a Pentax motorcycle gang...
 
pretty nice camera
 
Terrorize the countryside.
 
3:12 AM
An excellent plan. But I'm going to have to do it tomorrow, since now I need to go to bed. Kid has to be at school at 7 in the mornings these days. Oh, the humanity.
 
@mattdm lol, night
 
well, back to the soldering iron
 
Good time, good times...
 
All you canikon users don't have cool cameras like this!
 
3:16 AM
Guess your definition of 'cool' is a bit different than mine. ;-)
 
Joking aside, I'm just glad that most people never have to see that side of Pentax.
The Pentax brand has a good reputation among the non-camera-obsessed-population-at-large.
Probably left over from film days. (Doesn't Pentax claim to have invented the SLR, by the way?)
 
3:35 AM
@Sean - I love that Pentax finally loosened the tie on their neck and did stuff like this. This is a company that decided that the 35mm format wasn't pro and invested deep into medium format as a result. A little too stuck in the mud there... Anyways, Pentax didn't claim to invent the SLR, but they were the first Japanese SLR maker and were the ones to make the M42 mount effectively universal for a long stretch.
 
Oh, I like that they are tying to be a creative and innovative company, but something is definitely getting lost in the cultural translation.
 
Maybe, but Asia is a bit special in this regards... I haven't been to Japan, but I have been to Korea (twice), and this is what Pentax needs to increase their share based on my experience. Bear in mind, a massive chunk of the world is in Asia, that helps. For me, I'm quite happy with my simple, black, K-5s. :)
@rfusca - Devoted. Those pictures are stunning and I agree with him, worth it. You'll never get such a shot, once in a lifetime, unless you do what he did. Wow, for a big cat nut like me, a shot like the first one is worth about any sort of discomfort. Can't help it, I'm a Leo to the core. :)
 
4:00 AM
@JohnCavan ya, i think i would tried to seal myself up pretty well...giant ziplock bag or something lol
 
Looks like it's time for my 'Jeopardy Question of the Day'...
 
@JayLancePhotography lol
 
I'm gonna make this site lean more to the art and skill of photography instead of the tech if I have to ask 1000 questions to get it there! :-)
3
 
lol awesome
 
Trebuchet launch this morning.
 
4:16 AM
Sweet!
 
you say that like its a totally normal thing
lol
 
It was a competition at my son's HS. They've been working on these things for something like six weeks now.
There were somewhere around a dozen teams, I think. Quite a few of them were pretty dismal. No castles were ever in any real jeopardy....
But it was fun. Sure was nice to have it stop raining for, like, 12 hours straight so they could get this in!
 
Seems like a cool picture taking opportunity...
 
Yeah, I came home with a little better than 200...
Decided to download a Lightroom trial, because I was dreading processing these in PSE. I think I'm sold.
I got an email to pick it up for $99, and I think I'm going to jump on that. I'd have been here for a week trying to get through them all.
 
Yeah, Lightroom is pretty slick in that regard...
 
4:22 AM
definitely worth it for 99
jump on that
 
I had something a little odd happen when I was shooting -- I started w/ my 50mm 1.8, because I figured that would help me keep my shutter speed up for continuous shots, but with the camera set to AI focus, it seemed like my continuous shooting speed was junk.
 
what camera?
 
Canon 40D. I switched to my 17-85 USM, and even with a slightly slower shutter, the continuous shooting speed seemed lots better. I'm wondering if this was all due to the focus speed of the lens?
I know the focus motor in the 50mm is pretty slow compared to USM -- would that account for the difference?
I didn't really have time to do a ton of experimentation...
As it turns out, I ended up using quite a bit of the zoom range anyway, so it was all good, I guess.
 
4:38 AM
my search-foo is failing me. didn't we have a question about getting a visual comparison of two files?
 
4:49 AM
@JayLancePhotography: I'd settle for a 20,000 ISO camera...
 
@Pearsonartphoto Welll, OK... If you wanna settle. ;-)
 
LOL.
Good point...
 
5:19 AM
an ISO 20,000,000,000 camera would make it really hard to not over-expose pictures
 
5:32 AM
@EvanKrall it would also make it really difficult to tell wtf you just took a picture of through all that noise
 
haha
 
time to give up on search and play jeopardy
"it works for Jay"
 
I wish the custom buttons on my camera were even more programmable
 
@EvanKrall i wish i had custom buttons, so shut it ;P
 
My motto is "Jeopardy: the best way to get lots of good questions on topics you're interested in onto photo-SE quickly"
 
5:43 AM
I would love it if I could assign the buttons to arbitrary settings, so that I could just hold the button and immediately adjust settings with the wheel
 
i'm pretty sure its actually.. "Jeopardy - America's Favorite Quiz Show"
 
Lol. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it...
 
@JayLancePhotography eh, and far less applicable to photo-se, Alex
I'm just going to start messaging you as @AlexTrebek
the system will eventually figure it out ;)
 
Lol. Is that how computers work?
Or are you implying that if we feed enough good questions to photo-SE it will eventually become SkyNet?
 
pretty much, mr. i'm-not-a-programmer
:D
@JayLancePhotography SkyNet, but with good photographic intentions
it will happily snap away awesome, mind blowingly good pictures of mankind's impending doom
 
5:48 AM
Maybe our new site motto should be "Just like SkyNet, except it knows that the Rule of Thirds is really just a guideline..."
 
lol
 
Or "Just like SkyNet, but it makes sure to get your good side for your final picture."
 
Just like SkyNet - only it knows how to balance that nuclear flash with ambient
 
Lol. Awesome!
 
SkyNet says "Hold on mankind, you'll die soon enough...*diggs through camera bag*...where DID i put those gels..."
do you suppose SkyNet reads the Strobist?
ok, i'm done
 
5:52 AM
Only for now, I'm sure. ;-)
 
well ya
kiddo been sleeping well?
this is a wierd question
0
Q: What should be considered to get photo of employee to put on company's website

Muhammad Kashif NadeemWhat should be considered to get photo of an employee, like sales manager, customer support etc., to put on company's website? I have canvas of 203x227 (widthxheight) and image on canvas would be 116x208. We are working in Entertainment industry so we need friendly looking images rather than pr...

i think the language barrier is hurting me there
@JayLancePhotography night!
 
@rfusca for some reason, the AE-L/AF-L button only does exposure/focus lock type things, but is the only button that can do AF-ON
 
6:20 AM
@rfusca It's a terrible question over and above the language thing. Super broad and clearly the OP is looking for a lot of 'general tips.' I tried to clean up the question some and left a comment encouraging him to refine his questions more 'or it's likely that the community will vote to close the question as unanswerable.' We'll see if that goes anywhere...
 
seems to me the answer to his question is "Don't take boring posed photos"
 
6:31 AM
Yeah, well... You're right, but I don't know how helpful that answer is. :-)
 
I mean, if you're playing the "one of these things is not like the other" game, I think it's pretty obvious what's different about that third photo
 
7:11 AM
heh, I really should write up the entire answer before posting the question
though i suppose it's a good sign for the health of the community that 3 people posted the same answer in the 45 minutes it took me to write and take screen caps of mine.
 
7:26 AM
@cabbey Yeah, generally if I'm setting out to answer my own question I usually write them and dump them both at once. :-)
 
good idea alex
:)
 
I know there are others who disagree with me on this but I actually think that's the... polite... thing to do, really. I mean it's one thing if we're tossing questions and intending others to answer them, that's great. But if we have an answer in mind then putting it out there at the same time we ask the question allows others to concentrate on aspects of the question that we may have missed in our answers, rather than duplicating effort by trying to answer what we're already tackling...
But I'm not trying to preach... That's just my opinion on it. :-)
 
yeah, if I knew there would be three copies of the same answer that fast this late, or it was going to take me that long to get the screen shots to co-operate, I woulda done that.
 
Or, just let them go for it and save you the work ;-)
 
@Sean Yeah, I've done that more and more over the last couple months...
I used to answer every one of my questions up-front... But now I only answer if the question doesn't gather any half-decent answers within a couple weeks of posting.
There are a couple questions I currently have out that I think I'm going to have to leap in and write the 'definitive' answer on, 'cause no one else has really taken the bait... But that doesn't happen as often as I thought it would when I started 'playing Jeopardy' with my questions. :-)
 
7:39 AM
Wow, 1k views in under 24 hours
28
Q: Why don't most cameras support PNG format?

BenjaminI prefer PNG format to JPG, because JPG uses lossy compression. When I capture a screen in my PC or scan a picture or document in my scanner, I always save them as PNG format. If a camera could save its data as PNG format, I'd use the feature even if I needed to buy more memory cards. But I...

Either this site is growing very big or that was a burning question for a lot of people
 
hmm... no /tools/ access for me on photos
 
 
2 hours later…
9:38 AM
@Sean a-hah! it got advertised
 
 
3 hours later…
12:35 PM
@Sean I wish we could see the server logs to figure out what search was driving people in.
@Sean The important thing to realize about this little robot is that it's a spoof. It's name is, roughly, "The wrong toy robot", and the idea is it's like a kid was begging for some cool robot for a present, and got this instead. It's a pop-culture joke, basically, and it seems pretty cool of pentax to participate in that. (Even if it doesn't translate to american audiences very well.)
Oooh. 3 gold badges for me. :)
 
 
4 hours later…
Jin
4:56 PM
@cabbey lol yeah I was like, wait if I knew this guy was going to answer his own question with details and screenshots, I'd waited on mine
 
5:34 PM
0
Q: How do I link selections on two different layer masks in Photoshop?

KezzfromOzI've created my own action in Photoshop CS5 and in my example I am recolouring grass. The action stops for the user to paint a selection on a layer mask and continues with a colour balance adjustment. The action then continues to use the selection mask from the first layer and another mask ...

FTR I'm not the one who voted to close. :)
 
5:50 PM
@mattdm i was
 
aha! :)
So, it seems pretty clearly about photo-correction....
 
@mattdm I thought it was pretty clearly about how to apply something across layers
 
... as used in a photo-correction workflow.
Leaving it in the big ambiguous spot.
 
i guess, i don't have strong feelings one way or the other
 
me either. just bringing it up before I got accused. :)
 
5:53 PM
lol
 
6:03 PM
...jeez, I can't believe @mattdm voted to close that question... What a grump...
;-)
 
:)
 
@JayLancePhotography ya, he's like that
 
On an unrelated note, wow, Chögyam Trungpa is quite the character.
 
@mattdm eh?
 
6:12 PM
@Jin heh, sorry about that, I was honestly shocked that many folks had an answer that fast at that hour
 
Miksang is a Tibetan word meaning "good eye" and represents a form of contemplative photography based on the Dharma Art teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, in which the eye is in synchronisation with the contemplative mind. The result of this particular perception of the world, combined with photography, produces a peculiar and open way of seeing the world. Miksang pictures tend to bring the observer back into the original contemplation state of the author of the picture. The pictures can bring one back to a purer perception of reality that is often neglected. Miksang involves nothing fancy, no s...
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (wylie: Chos rgyam Drung pa; February 28, 1939 – April 4, 1987) was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tülku, a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision. Recognized both by Tibetan Buddhists and by other spiritual practitioners and scholars as a preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, he was a major, albeit controversial, figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, founding Vaj...
 
 
2 hours later…
8:01 PM
I'm not trying to nitpick..but is this really a photography q?
0
Q: What is the difference between Canon's black inks?

ysapMy Canon MP560 printer requires one PGI-220BK black cartridge and one CLI-221BK black cartridge (which is a part of a CMYK bunch). What is the difference between the two?

 
printing is nominally part of photography
 
8:27 PM
What he said :)
And the choice and use between pigment and dye based inks, as well as shades of ink are important
 
Jin
which online printing services do you guys recommend?
we have used snapfish before and liked the quality ok
 
What sort of thing you after printing?
And also, what sort of size?
 
Jin
max up to 8x11
just for your standard family photos
 
Where in the world do you want it delivered?
 
Jin
the US
 
8:33 PM
Don't ask me then :)
I use photobox.com for that sort of thing, but they're distinctly European
 
@Jin well, I'm just a LITTLE biased... but I'd go with ezprints myself, through smugmug of course
 
Jin
@cabbey hm i'll try that next time.
 
(and by "little"... I mean a lot... since I work for SmugMug and do the lab integration for us with ezp and bay (and some more to be named soonish)
@Jin you did the apple.SE design, yes?
 
Jin
@cabbey ah ok. btw, re: that photoshop difference question, i'm still not sure i agree with you... but i need to read up more on threshold layer effect to be sure. :)
yes i did all of SE2.0 designs, except for English, UX and Ubtuntu
 
it was a fun discussion last night
@Jin thought so, LOVE the little eve like droid on the human verification page
 
Jin
8:38 PM
i guess my main concern is, threshold/curve, or whatever else adjustment layer you put on top, the values you set is a bit arbitrary. that's why I think it's not a 100% precise measure. if I set my values different from yours, then we'd be seeing different things.
 
much better than HAL's monolitic eye... just wanna poke that darn thing everytime I see it
 
Jin
thanks! designing these sites have been a bit challenging
@cabbey have you seen android's error page?
 
@Jin Are there not trademark issues with that?
 
Jin
luckily no. i read up on the usage of the Android Andy logo usage. it's in public domain
 
If we use the same values, we'll see the same things, but really, the whole point of the visualization is to make the difference visible, once you get past the difference layer with the basic math, it's kinda open to artistic license imo
 
8:40 PM
handy
 
/me goes looking for it
 
Jin
@cabbey right. i totally agree that a mostly black result is not helpful. unless you zoom in, and have sharpe eyes. i guess i was hang up on the "pixel by pixel" difference in the OP. when I was in college I had to write a photoshop filter in .. assembly language. one of the filters was "difference"
so to me, difference means 1 or 0 in that sense.
 
well, it could be 0..255 per channel really
 
8:43 PM
in compression comparisons, I'm only seen as high as 16
 
Jin
@RowlandShaw yes. i was going through all the SE meta posts lastnight. btw, i did brighten up the stackexchange link in the uppoer left corner
 
@Jin rofl, I'd seen that video before... great place to put it to use!
 
@Jin That is nuts
 
Jin
yeah that video went viral that week when we were launching the Android site. I told jeff that we GOTTA put that video somewhere on the site..
the dev team had to modify some code to drop that youtube embed in...
 
@Jin still seems a touch dark for me, but that might be caching
 
Jin
8:47 PM
@RowlandShaw there hasn't been a production build yet. it will be in, whenever they do it next time
 
Either that or calibrated monitors :)
cool
 
Jin
speaking of monitors.. i just got a 27" Apple cinema display.. and its gamma looks off from my 24" iMac's. even though I set the same profile for both displays
really weird.. my iMacs colors look warmer
 
@Jin meta.photo.stackexchange.com/q/1086/21 that was also tagged on there, but it's been Jeff'd :)
@Jin Not got a colorimeter?
 
Jin
@RowlandShaw sigh.. i know. i'm not for that mobile theme. i'll work on an universal mobile theme for all of our SE sites. Kinda like how Tumblr does it
 
@Jin Makes sense to me (but then again, I'm not an iPhone junkie)
 
Jin
8:52 PM
i'm for a "real" watered down mobile theme with option to switch to the desktop version, like what most sites do
 
Somebody was asking about a native app as well "the other day"
(might've been in here, last night)
 
Jin
there's an iphone native app, as well as an android one too.
but they're read only.
 
hello alll
 
Jin
@JamWheel hi
 
@Jin Why does everybody ignore Windows-Mobile :'(
 
8:56 PM
hey
 
Jin
@RowlandShaw someone needs to make a Win7 one!
 
@RowlandShaw because Windows Mobile should be consigned to the depths of hell from whence it came :)
 
@JamWheel IT was ground breaking really, as the first touch-screen phone OS
 
@RowlandShaw ground breaking != good
 
Admitedly, Windows-Phone (7) is a lot sexier
 
Jin
8:58 PM
i FINALLY played with a win7 phone at the MIX conference. I liked the UI.
although the phone itself felt a bit flimsy
i think it was a samsung one
 
@Jin which one?
@Jin ewww
 
win7 is an improvement
but i still prefer android
 
Jin
@JamWheel which one?
 
@JamWheel At least android doesn't require specific hardware to develop applications for it unlike the iPhone...
 
@Jin I had the first Android phone, the G1 - still have it. Currently have a Desire HD, my GF has a Samsung Galaxy S and a Motorola Xoom
@RowlandShaw don't get me started on the Apple fashion label :)
 
9:00 PM
@JamWheel Isn't the Desire HD essentitally the same hardware as the HD2 (or HD7)
@JamWheel From that, I gather we're in agreement
 
@RowlandShaw haven't looked at the specs of those
 
800x480 capacitive screen with 1GHz processor
(and GPS, compass and all those toys)
I keep meaning to get a proper dedicated GPS receiver for geo-tagging goodness
 
can't find a decent side by side comparison
processor is same
i cba with geo tagging lol
 
I've geoetagged all photos taken over the last 4 years - albeit some manually
The advantage of two spare phones with an OS that I can develop apps for :)
 
i spose for landscape type stuff there is more of a reason to do it
 
9:07 PM
wow, I think I hit the rep cap for the day
 
@cabbey hey mate
 
Anyway, I'm heading off - up early for a shoot , if the weather is favourable
 
i am up early for training
have fun!
 
9:28 PM
My photos/mile ratio is really starting to drop when I go on hikes...
I hiked 17 miles today, and probably didn't even take a dozen pictures...
 
that can be a good thing
being more selective with your shots rather than shooting lots of rubbish
 
there's a theory I wish some of the daily photo people would grok
 
heh
i considered trying the daily photo thing but you would end up shooting such nonsense... weekly photo is considerably more achievable
 
10:27 PM
heh, how many other companies would do something like this: facebook.com/… ? :)
 
10:38 PM
@cabbey you also work at SmugMug?
 
yes
 
Where is the smugmug office?
 
hmm "also"? @shizam is the only one smugger I know to be active on photo-SE
hq is out in the silly-con valley, but we have folks in lots of other places... I'm on the silicon tundra in MN
visual map of our spread... at least many of us: maps.smugmug.com/?feedType=geoAlbum&Data=2504559_f3ta9
 
silicon tundra, eh?
is the office more south bay or closer to SF?
 
south bay, mountain view to be specicif
 
10:45 PM
aha
 
google hasn't driven by in a few years, the door on the left is hq's main entrance
 
@JamWheel: It would be, but I'm not really thinking all that much about the few pictures I do take...
 
@Pearsonartphoto did you get any cactus flower macros?
 
@mattdm: Moderators can actually find what drives search in.
@JamWheel: Not yet...
Maybe I'll do that tomorrow...
 

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