GregW Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 So happy I finally got my 2 lenses ( 30mm 1.4 and 17-50 2.8) 30mm was picked up last friday so here are a couple of shots from down at the dog park on the weekend. ( first time shooting raw as well as trying to use lightroom with a raw file ) Please rub my tummy by Off Leash, on Flickr German Shepherd by Off Leash, on Flickr Birthday at the dog park by Off Leash, on Flickr Jesse down the dog park by Off Leash, on Flickr and this was taken inside at home Zoe on her mat by Off Leash, on Flickr 17-50 lens arrived later in to the shop only yesterday, so yet to play around with it, also very glad I did not by online as the first one they gave me was a dud ( autofocus could not fix on anything) seems Sigma still have a prob with quality control. Overall pretty happy with lenses and can see already the worth in upgrading from the kit lens, Now just gotta get my head around Raw and lightroom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kritta Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 great 1st shots, I just bought my 1st sigma lens and I must say I'm impressed. I never use my kit lens anymore. My 1st prime was a 35mm 1.8 and it barely leaves my camera unless I'm using my 70-200 2.8 siggie. Once you get used to RAW you won't think twice when using it and if you nail it in camera there isn't really much to do in RAW anyways. Keep the pics coming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregW Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 great 1st shots, I just bought my 1st sigma lens and I must say I'm impressed. I never use my kit lens anymore. My 1st prime was a 35mm 1.8 and it barely leaves my camera unless I'm using my 70-200 2.8 siggie. Once you get used to RAW you won't think twice when using it and if you nail it in camera there isn't really much to do in RAW anyways. Keep the pics coming Thank you, yes I am hoping that with practice I wont have to do to much in lightroom later on. question? with raw, do you always have to make adjustments, like when you say nail it, are the slight adjustments generally the same such as exposure or white balance or does it depend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kritta Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 On photos that have been, well shot not real well!!! I usually have a play around with the sliders. But it does depend on the image and what look your after. I find if I'm going to play with WB I custom my own to how I remember it looking. Really depends on how you want your photo to finish up looking. I run most photos through PS and do my usual tweaks- humans, remove red from faces etc.... dogs, clone out eye gunk, rego tags (for example) etc... The more you take photos and process them through RAW the more you will learn what works in camera which eventually will cut down processing time. Hope that makes sense. Thats how I see it anyways :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huga Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 RAW will always need adjustments - that's the point. Nail the exposure and the focus, but they will always be slightly softer and the colour more dull than jpegs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Looking good! Don't worry about RAW. It's no different shooting RAW than it is jpeg. The difference can be in the processing because you are not letting the camera apply anything. Once you're in Lightroom - I assume the new version? - just follow the basic sliders in order at first. Most of them you might not even touch, just a bit of white balance, a bit of contrast and viola, you'll be all set in under 10 seconds. Biggest tip: the shadow & black sliders are extremely useful so have a play with them when you can :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregW Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Looking good! Don't worry about RAW. It's no different shooting RAW than it is jpeg. The difference can be in the processing because you are not letting the camera apply anything. Once you're in Lightroom - I assume the new version? - just follow the basic sliders in order at first. Most of them you might not even touch, just a bit of white balance, a bit of contrast and viola, you'll be all set in under 10 seconds. Biggest tip: the shadow & black sliders are extremely useful so have a play with them when you can :) Thanks, currently Lightroom 3 and reading scott kelby book to get my head around. lol, I think I went a bull at gate for the above photos by playing around with sliders in each of the sections. Next lot will just concentrate on what huga and you have mentioned with basic controls. Just one question though, do you always change the camera calibration from Adobe standard before you even start post processing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 I set that in my preferences so I don't ever have to think about it again :) OK, LR3 is awesome - but the sliders are kinda outta whack. It won't make a HUGE difference usually, and you'll soon figure out what works for you. In LR4 the order is: white balance exposure contrast highlights shadows whites blacks clarity vibrance saturation the four in italics used to be fill etc in LR3 - LR4 gives a lot more control, but to be honest, I did equally as fine with LR3 so if you're happy, save your bickies and upgrade later :) Never stop playing! That's how you learn, imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregW Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) I set that in my preferences so I don't ever have to think about it again :) OK, LR3 is awesome - but the sliders are kinda outta whack. It won't make a HUGE difference usually, and you'll soon figure out what works for you. In LR4 the order is: white balance exposure contrast highlights shadows whites blacks clarity vibrance saturation the four in italics used to be fill etc in LR3 - LR4 gives a lot more control, but to be honest, I did equally as fine with LR3 so if you're happy, save your bickies and upgrade later :) Never stop playing! That's how you learn, imho. When I got LR3 it was quite a while back and got the book same time as well, I then found with jpg I was not really having to do much so read a few chapters and left it there. However since now with Raw I am determined to learn all the ins and outs as the book has all pracs and stuff applicable to shooting raw So yeh , will be making the move up to LR4 once I am comfortable with LR3 and get my monies worth out the LR3 book So you can pre set the camera caliberation to automatically use on import? is that what you mean? I will have to look this up. I find that I am always manually selecting "Camera Standard" ( i have canon ) and sometime the "portrait" one. Do you just have preset to "Camera Standard" and use this all the time? Edited May 24, 2012 by GregW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kja Posted May 24, 2012 Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) I set it and forget it. I got into trouble last year when for some reason it reset itself to a different default - so all the stuff I had already edited reset to the new default and looked wonky. Took me ages to figure out what had happened! Just choose whichever one you like best and leave it alone, imho. Do all your editing from a standard start point. LR4 has a few differences, so don't get too intimate with LR3 ;) The reason you "didn't have to do much" with jpeg images is that your camera did some of the stuff for you already. RAW doesn't let it make decisions, you have to do that :) Explore presets - they are wonderful tools (that are fully adjustable so you can tweak each image as needed, but can batch a whole heap at once, too) Edited May 24, 2012 by kja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregW Posted May 24, 2012 Author Share Posted May 24, 2012 Excellent, thanks for your advice, waiting for weekend to give the 17-50 a workout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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