On the evening of Thursday May 9th 2013, I had a catastrophic failure with my 3TB external hard drive that I carry everywhere with me and have all my files on. You can already guess where this is going can't you. Now, normally I'm quite obsessive about backing up my files. Photos, home movies, TV shows, documents, etc. I make 2 copies of them besides the one I carry around with me.
Well, since the end of the year I've been "too busy to back up right now, I'll do it later". So I have paid the price. My drive failed and I have lost pretty much everything. I spent 4 days recovering what I could but most of that has turned out to be unusable due to fragmentation. The information is just not all there. I was pretty mad but I can only be mad at myself.
I explain this to friends and family all the time. It's not a matter of "if" your hard drive fails, it's a matter of "when". They all fail eventually and if you don't back up your important files, you will lose them. But do I take my own advice? No, I'm too smart for that. And now I have paid the price. All I managed to recover was the raw home movie videos and some smaller JPGs. What saves me a bit is that our trip to Arizona was on a different drive and I still have photos from when we returned to now on my camera cards. But I have lost 3 months worth of photos including my daughter's 6th birthday.
Am I disappointed? You bet. I could beat myself up about this all day long but it won't bring back these photos and videos. So, have I learned from this? Yes. I have plans for an external raid enclosure with 2 drives at 3TB each. I'll use this simply for backup and storage.
Now I can just try to keep recovering photos as best I can but it's not looking good at all.
Chris.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thoughts On High ISO Outside When There Is Plenty Of Light
I've been thinking lately about how to best achieve a good exposure and the sharpest image possible while hand holding the camera. On a tripod when everything is locked down I'll use ISO 100 or 200 and take it from there. That's all fine and dandy if everything is static but it things are moving around or you are hand held and you want tack sharp, well you need to increase your shutter speed. A lot. The rule is 1 over the focal length you are using for example if you are using 100 mm then you would keep your shutter speed at 1/100th second or faster. Sometimes though that is just hard to do if you don't have enough light so you either sacrifice your shutter speed and risk motion blur or you open up your aperture and lose the depth of field you wanted. But, you could increase your ISO setting and maintain that shutter speed and aperture setting.
I did some tests outside during lunch today just to see how the ISO effected the image when there is plenty of light and all you are trying to do is keep your shutter speed up there.
ISO 100 f/8 @ 1/200 sec.
ISO 200 f/8 @ 1/400 sec.
ISO 400 f/8 @ 1/800 sec.
ISO 800 f/8 @ 1/1600 sec.
ISO 1600 f/8 @ 1/3200 sec.
ISO 3200 f/8 @ 1/6400 sec.
Now, you may notice that there is not really much of a difference in these photos. That's the point really. The higher ISO values didn't significantly increase the noise in the images. Not even at ISO 3200! That's because there was plenty of light and no really dark shadows in the scene. Believe me ISO 3200 in my house is a much different look.
So what then is the point of this post? Well, Look at the shutter speeds. For ISO 100 I was at 1/200 sec which for my zoom of 270mm is a bit low. I should be at 1/400 sec at least given that 270mm is like 432mm on a crop sensor camera like my 50D. I didn't get that shutter speed until ISO 200. That's going to give me a pretty good sharp image if everything is still. But it wasn't it was a bit breezy out and this weed was swaying a little in the breeze. Still the ISO 200 image looks pretty good.
What's got me excited is the fact that even at ISO3200 the image is still fairly clean and sharp. With this new information in my head I will be more inclined to up the ISO when shooting the kids playing around jumping off things, water skiing, etc. Sporting events will be sharper and cleaner for me now too. I've heard that you should keep the ISO as low as you can to get the cleanest possible image and I agree but if you need to increase your shutter speed to stop that action or stop that coffee you had from introducing unwanted camera shake don't be afraid to push up the ISO. Most of today's DSLR's are more than capable of producing a clean image at ISO 1600 and up.
One thing I noticed with my 50D is that ISO 400 to ISO 1600 look the best but would not be afraid of ISO 3200 outside if I needed it. Next I'm going to test the expanded ISO settings of 6400 and 12800. I'm not holding my breath on those.
Chris.
I did some tests outside during lunch today just to see how the ISO effected the image when there is plenty of light and all you are trying to do is keep your shutter speed up there.
ISO 100 f/8 @ 1/200 sec.
ISO 200 f/8 @ 1/400 sec.
ISO 400 f/8 @ 1/800 sec.
ISO 800 f/8 @ 1/1600 sec.
ISO 1600 f/8 @ 1/3200 sec.
ISO 3200 f/8 @ 1/6400 sec.
Now, you may notice that there is not really much of a difference in these photos. That's the point really. The higher ISO values didn't significantly increase the noise in the images. Not even at ISO 3200! That's because there was plenty of light and no really dark shadows in the scene. Believe me ISO 3200 in my house is a much different look.
So what then is the point of this post? Well, Look at the shutter speeds. For ISO 100 I was at 1/200 sec which for my zoom of 270mm is a bit low. I should be at 1/400 sec at least given that 270mm is like 432mm on a crop sensor camera like my 50D. I didn't get that shutter speed until ISO 200. That's going to give me a pretty good sharp image if everything is still. But it wasn't it was a bit breezy out and this weed was swaying a little in the breeze. Still the ISO 200 image looks pretty good.
What's got me excited is the fact that even at ISO3200 the image is still fairly clean and sharp. With this new information in my head I will be more inclined to up the ISO when shooting the kids playing around jumping off things, water skiing, etc. Sporting events will be sharper and cleaner for me now too. I've heard that you should keep the ISO as low as you can to get the cleanest possible image and I agree but if you need to increase your shutter speed to stop that action or stop that coffee you had from introducing unwanted camera shake don't be afraid to push up the ISO. Most of today's DSLR's are more than capable of producing a clean image at ISO 1600 and up.
One thing I noticed with my 50D is that ISO 400 to ISO 1600 look the best but would not be afraid of ISO 3200 outside if I needed it. Next I'm going to test the expanded ISO settings of 6400 and 12800. I'm not holding my breath on those.
Chris.
More Great Results From the Kit Lens
I spent the better part of the weekend and early this week with my 18-55 kit lens on my 50D. I just wanted to make sure that my new found excitement over this old cheap lens was not due to my having GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). :)
I've been thinking about getting the Canon 24-70mm f/4 L series lens for a while now and I plan to in the not too distant future. I just wanted to make sure that I'm not disappointed in my Tamron 18-270mm because of it.
So, I took many, many photos with my cheap kit lens to make sure. What I did notice is that the white balance is off a bit on the Tamron, which I was already aware of. Not a big deal as I shoot raw and usually tweak things a bit anyway. The 18-55mm has a better bokeh for sure but I think that is due to the closer minimum focusing distance. It allows you to get much closer to the subject which makes the background seem that much farther from the subject than the camera. But that's about it for the obvious difference in the two lenses. The 18-55 is much shorter and lighter than my Tamron 18-270 so that may account for some sharper images if I'm holding more still.
Anyway, I took some great photos over the weekend with it.
I'm quite happy with the lens and will continue to use it on a regular basis. However, that being said my Tamron 18-270mm will still be my go to lens. The zoom range make it a perfect walk around lens though it is a bit slow being a f/3.5-6.3. The ISO capabilities of the 50D and the fantastic noise reduction in lightroom will help me to get great shots most of the time. Shots such as this one.
Nothing wrong with that one at all!
Chris.
I've been thinking about getting the Canon 24-70mm f/4 L series lens for a while now and I plan to in the not too distant future. I just wanted to make sure that I'm not disappointed in my Tamron 18-270mm because of it.
So, I took many, many photos with my cheap kit lens to make sure. What I did notice is that the white balance is off a bit on the Tamron, which I was already aware of. Not a big deal as I shoot raw and usually tweak things a bit anyway. The 18-55mm has a better bokeh for sure but I think that is due to the closer minimum focusing distance. It allows you to get much closer to the subject which makes the background seem that much farther from the subject than the camera. But that's about it for the obvious difference in the two lenses. The 18-55 is much shorter and lighter than my Tamron 18-270 so that may account for some sharper images if I'm holding more still.
Anyway, I took some great photos over the weekend with it.
I'm quite happy with the lens and will continue to use it on a regular basis. However, that being said my Tamron 18-270mm will still be my go to lens. The zoom range make it a perfect walk around lens though it is a bit slow being a f/3.5-6.3. The ISO capabilities of the 50D and the fantastic noise reduction in lightroom will help me to get great shots most of the time. Shots such as this one.
Nothing wrong with that one at all!
Chris.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)