Photography Chat

John Cavan

00:56

@mattdm - Sure, that works for me too. I see Jon has already made the changes, I was stuck in meetings pretty much the whole day... Life in manglement now.

dpollitt

02:25

@mattdm are you sure that this was a duplicate? the question you closed it under seems to be an issue with the user using a wireless transmitter..

1

Q: Why is there a black bar at the bottom of my photos when using an external flash?

I have been having this problem for years. Why is it that when my shutter speed gets above around 1/125, a dark bar appears in the bottom like in the photos when I use my external flash? The quicker the shutter speed that larger the dark bar. How do I stop this from happening?

@Rish I know many professional wedding photographers that swear by the Sigma 85mm f/1.4. I know people who have had the Canon 1.2 L and sold it and like the Sigma better, the sigma is waaay faster for autofocus. If you absolutely love even more shallow depth of field, get the canon 135L anyways, it will beat the 85 1.2.

Even the Canon 85mm f/1.8 is used quite often by people for professional work. I've used both of the canon 85mm lenses and like both a lot, they are different beasts though. Ive never used the sigma but if I were to buy one now I would probably buy that. I like having 50mm primes and 135mm primes more right now.

Johan Larsson

06:09

Dishwasher^

Esa Paulasto

lol, from the small preview photo I saw a mobile phone crawling onto beach, relieved to find some ground after almost drowning in the sea, but what is that, what is the phone draggin up with (him?) it?

tired from working in nightshift, then not gone to sleep in the morning and soon the mind starts playing tricks on ya :D

Rish

08:25

@dpollitt Makes sense. Guess I'd just pick a sigma then. After all, photography is all about trying new things out :)

mattdm

10:43

@dpollitt I don't know. That wasn't me -- it was @JohnCavan.

John Cavan

11:41

@dpollitt and @mattdm - The OP flagged it as duplicate after I pointed him to that other question, so I closed it as such. If that original question answered it for him, then I guess it's a dupe by definition... :)

AJ Henderson

13:05

Mwahahaha, I have made it to 3000 rep, you may all run in fear now...

err...

John Cavan

@AJHenderson - Welcome to increased responsibility club. :D

AJ Henderson

Now I can smack new users around

err, I mean lovingly guide them on a path to better photographic enlightenment

John Cavan

13:25

Why do I sense an increase in the number of moderator flags coming...

AJ Henderson

15:27

@JohnCavan How can there be more flags when all the new questions are closed?

clearly the answer is just to give ban hammer permissions to everyone with 5 or more rep

then flags can be practically eliminated

in other news, I'm spending way too much time being bored waiting for builds today

just in case that wasn't obvious

hey there Daenyth

Esa Paulasto

@AJHenderson - something new for me too.. first time I've deleted my own answer, earlier today :)

my temperament is usually in control, but I could not hold my tongue with the question about on-sensor PDAF vs dedicated PDAF

AJ Henderson

@EsaPaulasto saying things like that makes me wish I had 10k rep

Esa Paulasto

got one downvote for it and re-read what I wrote, and deleted it :)

what's with 10k rep then?

AJ Henderson

can see deleted posts

Esa Paulasto

ah, lol :)

AJ Henderson

15:37

yeah, I do like how if you self-delete it gives back lost rep

so it gives you the option of deciding if what you are saying is worth the rep hit or not

Esa Paulasto

I don't mind a downvote here or there, but this answer I wrote was just bad

AJ Henderson

the thing that bugs me is when you get that random downvote on a post from months ago with no explanation at all.

Granted I don't down vote often, but if I do, I put a comment explaining why and what needs to be fixed unless it is just a garbage question that can't be saved

John Cavan

@AJHenderson - That happens, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I used to get annoyed when there wasn't any comment. I don't mind being wrong, but it's more useful to know why! However, commenting for a down vote isn't really required and, in some cases, not desired. Avoids flame wars, I think.

AJ Henderson

@JohnCavan I suppose that is true, I guess since I'm so open to constructive correction, I forget that some people are not

Esa Paulasto

I prefer not to comment. But I don't downvote much anyway :)

AJ Henderson

15:43

I guess I see a downvote as something that should generally be able to be corrected for and if I don't let them know what needs to be corrected, it doesn't help much.

but if nothing can help, then no comment is neccessary

I want to get my -1 point back by turning the down vote in to an up vote :)

Esa Paulasto

there just is those days when I'm in a nasty mood, and before I realise it myself, I may have hit a downvote or two, and then I see what I'm doing and close the browser to find something else to do (usually watch tv)

@AJHenderson I have got some of my downvote rep-points back later, when the thing has been deleted ;)

I try to tell myself that even if the question is silly, it might just as well been my own question, when it is something I simply got my mind in a twist and could not see right. After all it is the answers that matter here, not really the questions.

AJ Henderson

Well I mean I want to get the points from things I downvote back

which is why I always comment

and why I only downvote if it really needs it

Esa Paulasto

right. But you also get the point back if and when the question or answer you downvoted gets deleted, which eventually will happen if the q/a was bad enough :)

AJ Henderson

@EsaPaulasto it never ceases to amaze me how little some people know about how things work. Sometimes the most silly, obvious questions really do simply come from ignorance

Esa Paulasto

Yeah, just trying to remember we were all beginners once

AJ Henderson

15:51

well, I'm still pretty sure some people are more beginners than I ever was

but I basically came out of the womb with a knowledge of electronics

Esa Paulasto

and myself, I'm still one goddammit beginner when it comes to digital photography

hehe

AJ Henderson

one of my favorite photos is actually me using a suitcase computer at the age of 3. I was teaching the computer instructor at the public library how to do things by the age of 6

for how to make programing code work

and I was using my first still camera by 5 and video by 7

I literally can't even remember being a beginner

atleast not well

John Cavan

The way I prefer to down vote is get something corrected and, if it is corrected, remove the down vote and potentially even up vote from there.

Esa Paulasto

nice :)

AJ Henderson

@JohnCavan yeah, being able to upvote it is normally my goal

Esa Paulasto

15:56

I like to upvote answers from low-rep users, if there is anything good in it. Only checking first that the answer I like most has already got a good head-start with votes

thinking it would encourage them to write more answers

AJ Henderson

yeah, If I see a low rep user with a really good answer, I'll usually check their profile too to see if any of their other questions are worth upvoting

Esa Paulasto

@AJHenderson that's good practice

John Cavan

It's not all that hard, though, to get enough rep here to be effective. Some basic account chores will often give that.

AJ Henderson

nothing says "nice to have you in the community" like a chain of upvotes on your last 6 answers

Esa Paulasto

:)

AJ Henderson

15:59

well aside from perhaps a comment saying "great answer, nice to have you in the community"

that also says it pretty clearly

Esa Paulasto

I'm myself too new here to say that yet :)

people seem to be awake today.. a question was asked 18 minutes ago, already got edited and received two answers :)

waiting for the icehockey match Finland vs Germany to begin..

iihf.com

AJ Henderson

16:14

well, glad you mentioned that one. The first two answer hit well on the intensity of light and dynamic range, but didn't really hit on the directional aspect

Esa Paulasto

got a really harsh light in Finland during spring, that's why I was interested, and hoped to see any insight as of how to deal with it... but maybe I just need to take a walk early in the morning or late evening to get the light I like.

in spring the sun is already shining from high up but there is yet no leaves in the trees, no high grass growing, only bare twigs in trees and even the sky is so pale blue instead of the summer time deep blue.

AJ Henderson

Daytime flash use

for fill flashing

is a great way to work around harsh natural sunlight

if you can get close to the subject

Esa Paulasto

yeah, and most of the time I remember it :)

AJ Henderson

for landscapes, you're stuck using HDR

Esa Paulasto

also, the nature here where I live nowadays is a bit different from the places where I grew up

there I had more of dark forests to roam

AJ Henderson

16:28

it is interesting how your local geography impacts the way you see landscapes

being from upstate new york, but not quite in to the mountains, I see my area as fairly flat with mountains in the distance, but someone from the mid-west comes to the area and they think it's mountains right where I am

Esa Paulasto

my mother said that too, as she came from very flat agricultural area of Finland to live with my father in a hilly & forested area, she sometimes said she felt almost sick with not being able to see far into distance

Chinmay Kanchi

18:22

where do you guys go for lens sharpness tests? i usually use thedigitalpicture, but the results for the 70-200 2.8L look really suspicious

John Cavan

Go to Flickr and look at real-world examples. I don't usually shoot pictures of charts... :)

Chinmay Kanchi

heh, the charts give you a baseline though

i've seen pictures shot with the 70-200 2.8L

also the 200 2.8L prime

which are the two i'm trying to compare

i'm trying to figure out which of these would work better with a tc

John Cavan

Nah, I'm not really convinced because the sensor matters too. Ideally I prefer to look at images taken with a specific lens on the camera body I want to use. Very seldom does a site show me that combination.

Chinmay Kanchi

thedigitalpicture does

for me, at least

both lenses are shown on a 60D

(among other bodies)

the problem is, the 70-200 2.8L looks really bad

like worse than the 18-55

almost worse than just putting a magnifying glass in front of the sensor :P

he says he's retested it and got the same results, so bad copy, maybe

John Cavan

Again, unless you're planning on taking pictures of charts, I'd be looking at real-world examples. Having said that, I'd expect the prime to be better.

Chinmay Kanchi

18:30

yeah, that's my gut feeling as wll

well

because there is no way that a lens that is almost universally acclaimed as that sharp looks that terrible

the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/…

Esa Paulasto

20:27

quick google check confirms this is well quoted text, but it was new to me today when my god-daughter posted it (she is a drawing artist)

2

Doh, that's not quite what my god-daughter posted.. this is: s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr02/2013/5/1/17/…

Esa Paulasto

21:02

@AJHenderson When I was a kid cameras were considered as expensive and too technical equipment for small children. I was 13 or 14 years old before my father trusted me to understand what to do with a camera, and since my very first shutter release presses it was to manually set aperture, shutter speed and focus.

using this:amateurphotographer.co.uk/archive/536415/…

I still have that camera here with me, partly because it was my first, and partly as a memory of my father who died 16 years ago

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