Category: Photo Techniques

Alpha 900 – finder and frames

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It’s not going to be long before we see the Alpha 900, and some cameras are known to be out there on trial in the hands of Sony staff and pre-release testers. I am not one, so rest assured, this is not a leak! What can you expect from the Alpha 900’s full-frame prism finder?

(Note: this post was written in early August – it is now 100% certain that the finder is 100%, and at 0.74X magnification will be – as had been hinted – the largest of all current DSLR finders in apparent visual terms except the EOS 1Ds Mk III which is 0.76X. Comparisons: EOS 5D 0.68X, Nikon D3 0.70X).

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, Photo Techniques, Uncategorized

Repairing an image by cloning from another

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MANY photographers habitually use layers from everything. I don’t! In fact, I try to minimise my time spent on post-processing shots for stock library sale, and work very quickly. If it needs complex setup or demands working using layers to be able to go back and change things, I’ve probably already wasted too much time. Here’s an example of an Alpha 700 shot created from two slightly different versions, and how it was done.

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DK's ramblings, Photo Techniques

Alpha Live View in the studio – solved!

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One of the problems with the Alpha 350/300 is that the Live View is linked to the settings when you use Manual exposure. It provides a form of metering, a relatively accurate preview of under or over exposure. This makes it impossible to use Manual with studio flash (AC mains strobe) setups. Currently, there is no menu setting to turn off ‘exposure preview with manual’ and enable ‘auto LV gain with manual’. But there is a solution.
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Cameras (DSLR), Flash units, Photo Techniques, Studio, Troubleshooting

Faking a polarizer using RAW

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Here’s a question which came in to my email just now:

“Could I process a RAW file in Photoshop to achieve a similar effect as if I had used a Polaroid lens filter?
Or would I be better just using the Polaroid filter?”

The answer is that you can never imitate the effect of polarizing light (which changes the way reflective surfaces look, and deepens or lightens the sky blue according to the zone of the sky relative to the sun’s position. But you can use Adobe Camera Raw (CS3 versions) to deepen skies you never thought could be rescued.

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, Photo Techniques

An amazing 360 degree panorama

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Daniel Oi is a dedicated and experienced Alpha system user currently staying in Glasgow. He’s created a particularly impressive 360 degree panorama of a tiny area of the city centre which has unexpected magic in its Christmas lighting garb. Go down Buchanan Street, turn towards George Square, and you will walk through this Georgian enclave with street cafés, galleries, bookstore, museum and an atmosphere quite unlike the busy main drag or the vast square it links.

http://cnqo.phys.strath.ac.uk/~daniel/Panos/MerchantCity.mov 

This is well worth a visit!

– David

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Photo Techniques

Alpha 700 shoots the Cirque du Soleil

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On January 5th, Photoworld was lucky enough to be able to attend the dress rehearsal and official photo-call for the new Cirque du Soleil production at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and to put the Alpha 700 through its paces for high ISO fast action stage show capture. This article with large reproductions of the images appears in our Photoworld issue due out later in January. Continue reading »

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, Photo Techniques

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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SEASON’S BEST wishes from David and Shirley here at photoclubalpha! You know how the pursuit of photography can take over your plans? Well, we were offered a short break in Portugal (inspection visit terms, 2 hours wasted time and iron constitution to resist sales pitch) and took it up for the week before the holiday. A chance of some sunshine and different subjects for the Alpha 100 and 700! Of course, it rained so hard the entire Algarve coast was flooded, and the only sun we saw was the sunset as we landed. However, back at home, the world was in wonderland mode even as we drove back through the Lake District with the moon rising over frosty hills lit by the last pink light of the sun. The next day, Kelso was in full sunshine but -7°C and freezing fog had coated everything for three nights in pure white. So here are our Christmas cards from Kelso, courtesy of the A700, 16-80mm, and Minolta polarizer. Continue reading »

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DK's ramblings, Landscape, Photo Techniques, Sony Digital Cameras

True detail vs. fake sharpness

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It’s the same on every web forum – if you post a digital picture which would be acceptable to a photo library or professional buyer, half a dozen grumpy one-liners will come out saying ‘That don’t look sharp to me’ or ‘there must be something wrong with your XXX’ (fill in D300, A700, E-3, D3, 40D as required). Then someone posts a hugely messed up image and people say ‘Wow! What sharpness!’… Continue reading »

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, Photo Techniques, Troubleshooting
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