Paddle Tennis - Thanksgiving Day 2014

Just a short blog post today to share some Thanksgiving Day paddle tennis photos.  All were shot with a Canon 40D which has a 1.6x crop factor (multiply your lens focal length by 1.6 to get the equivalent focal length that you would get from a full frame sensor, so for example, if you have a lens that is 50mm on a full frame camera, on a Canon 40D, it will be a 80mm lens).  The photos below were shot with a 24mm - 105mm f4 lens - on the 40D it became a 38mm - 168mm zoom.  All the photos below were shot at what would be the 38mm setting or very close to it.

There have been several newer models (aka upgraded) to this camera which would have given better results, but this is my other "beach camera" now.  And it gives good quality, just not the best (mainly noisy shadows, and also what would now be considered small file size or less megapixels).  The results are below:

These were the best and showed the most action.  As always, click on the photos to see a larger size.  If you are in a photo, and would like the full size image, let me know as they are reduced in size here for purposed of posting.

Beauty and the Beasty

Here are the beauties (photos taken by me)

and the Beasty (real photo of a fish - not taken by me!)

On a scale of ugly to beautiful, the above pictures are of pretty extreme ends of the scale.  I prefer to capture images more like the top two, not so much like the bottom one.  I will leave that for others - the war photos, the riots, and these fish.  There are always two sides to everything - if you come here, you will see the beautiful side, the fun and enjoyment, the positive.  Mostly.

Occasionally, to try to eliminate the negative, it has to be talked about.  Things like GMO's and chemicals in our food, toxins in our environment, etc.  Or we may all end up looking like that fish.  and then I'd have to capture images like that....Ugh.  What's that, you don't feel like smiling....Oh, you are smiling.

Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving again.  Hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving, and a healthy one.

Photography, Lighting, and Post Processing

As with most things, different people have different opinions.  In photography, what is the most important thing to understand?  In my opinion, assuming you've learned how to use your camera, lighting is most important.  If you're shooting people, then would come posing and composition.  I was going to say next is post processing, but you can hire someone for that.  The first three things you have to do yourself.

Lighting is too large a topic for here - there are many books only about lighting, as well as some good webinars from time to time on CreativeLive.com, as well as lots of other online resources.  The main thing is to be able to see the light and understand how it will come out in the final photo.  For example, I wanted to test my new 50mm f1.8 Nikon lens, so brought my Nikon to the beach instead of my beach camera, saw someone I knew who had just finished playing paddle tennis, and asked her if I could take a few photos.  The sun was out, it was around 2-2:30pm or so, so direct sunlight was no good (I had to diffusers or reflectors with me).  But there was a wall by the courts that was in the shade and the lighting looked good, so asked her to go there.  The results are below.

I shot only 10 photos, used the camera's RAW setting, at ISO 250 and at f4.  Then used LightRoom to even out the light on her face due to the bit of a shadow from her visor, and finished up with Portrait Professional.

Besides using LightRoom and Portrait Professional, I experimented with two other programs - Nikon software for their RAW images (free from Nikon, but only works with images shot with a Nikon), and the DxO Pro Optics Elite 8.5 (free from DxO - see my previous post if interesting in getting that program).  The Nikon program was almost identical in converting the RAW to JPG.  The DxO was interesting - it automatically adjusts a number of variables, sometimes making the image better, and sometimes worse, although there are sliders to adjust pretty much everything, so it will do a pretty good job.

Hope you found this helpful and informative.  And that you've had a great weekend, too.

Oh - and please comment if you would like.  Would love to get feedback.

Bad Photos, Shooting RAW (No, Not in the Raw), and Other Settings

Most digital cameras give you a choice of shooting in RAW or JPG.  And with the post-processing software, depending on what you choose will most likely affect the quality of your photos.

There are millions (billions?) of photos online (social sites, dating sites, personal sites, etc.) and many look less than optimal, to say it nicely.  Sometimes we can't see what the person or the scene really looks like due to high noise levels, poor lighting, poor focus, or any number of other problems.

So what can you do to get better results?  Well, first you need to learn how your camera works, so read (and study) the manual that came with it.  And then learn and understand the following.  What is the best ISO setting for the conditions?  What setting should you use for your camera's light meter (spot, average, center weighted)?  Same for focal points.  Then practice, practice, practice.

Why should you shoot RAW?  When you have your camera set to JPG, your camera edits your photos and whatever pixels it doesn't need, it discards.  Unfortunately, if any settings are not correct (white balance, highlights, shadows), you've lost information that may be needed to fix your photo in post processing.  If you shoot in RAW, everything is still there that you might need (unless the highlights are really blown out or the shadows totally gone).  You can adjust the white balance, and have much more leeway for shadows and highlights, contrast, color correction, etc.

RAW files are quite a bit larger because you're not throwing away information, but with storage getting larger and pretty inexpensive, that's no longer much of a problem.  Once I've processed the files, and saved them as full size JPG's, and double check them, I delete the RAW files unless I want to experiment with them.

In a recent post I gave a link to free post processing software - here it is again in case you missed it:  Free DxO Software.  I personally like LightRoom better (more controls over the final results), but some prefer the DxO, and it's free - at least version 8.

For every day beach photography (which is not planned), I use a Panasonic FZ30 in JPG mode - it does a pretty good job, but can get confused when lighting gets to be too high contrast.  And at ISO's above 100, quality drops off sharply (gets very noisy/grainy).  The following photos were shot on Sunday (Nov 9, 2014) and post processed in LightRoom - two very nice young women playing paddle tennis at Venice Beach, California.

For planned photos, I shoot in RAW and convert to JPG - the following were shot in RAW with a Canon EOS 40D (Halloween, West Hollywood, 2014):

Hope you've enjoyed this, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Halloween 2014 - West Hollywood (aka WeHo) - Plus a Bonus Link to FREE Photo Software

More photos, and a mini-review of the Carnaval.  If you can imagine it, it will probably be at the Carnaval, plus many sights you probably never could imagine.  There is the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Also the beautiful, sexy, weird, colorful, scary, and creatures of all kinds.  Real dogs and cats in costumes, as well as dog and cat costumes.  And if something has grabbed news headlines, you will see it out there - from politics to Ebola health scares.  Should you bring your children?  Keep in mind there are some very scary and some very revealing costumes.  Perhaps bring them early and leave early before things get too crazy and too crowded to move.

The costumes are great, but the people wearing them is what has made the Carnaval special - everyone having a great time, and it shows in their smiles and in their eyes (when they are not hidden by the costumes).  And that makes getting great expressions in these photos easy.

In a future post I will post my all time favorites from this and past West Hollywood Halloween Carnavals - this was the eighth one I've gone to - and the shortest for me due to the weather.

 One of several stages along the Carnaval routem on Santa Monica Blvd.  

One of my many favorites this year. 

A favorite - not because of the costumes, but because....Well, I think the photo will tell you why.

Another favorite!

The free photo software link is supposed to be good until Jan 31, 2015, but I would grab it now, because you never know if they will discontinue it.  You will get the best results with it if you shoot in RAW mode on your camera.  I will explain why in my next post, as well as why you may not want to use RAW.  The above photos were all shot in RAW mode.  Here is the link for the free DxO Optics Elite program download:  DxO.  Enjoy, and hope you have fun playing with the program.