Facebook Turns To The Darkside.

What? Well if you haven't heard, Facebook has basically alienated all the photographers using it. I'm not going to go into details here. It's too much to write and I have several links for you that have written it all. If you are posting photos or videos you are handing them over to them for free.

Have a look at these articles and you decide. I've pulled all my media from Facebook. That does not mean I won't be using the service, I like being in touch with everyone, but I won't be posting anymore media there.

Korn On the Blog - Would You Grant Me a Worldwide License to Use Your Photos For Free?

The Online Photographer - Photogs Flee FACEBOOK.

Jim Goldstien - Facebook Terms Of Use Update.

Users beware.

Chris.

Cool Website Found!

I was turned on to Photofunia today by a flickr friend of mine. On this site you can take a portrait and have it transformed into various different styles. So many cool things you can have done to your photo. The only downside is that they are small and not printable in any usefull size.

Here are the ones I did today.

Chris.

ISO 12,800 in near darkness.

I got stuck behind a train this morning on the way to work. It was so dark the only part of this train car I could see was the yellow reflective stripes. The sky was a deep purple. Almost black. I decided to test my high iso trick of setting an exposure compensation of +2ev then bringing it back down in post to try to eliminate most of the noise.

This is the after post image. It's noisy but it's much better than before I processed it. The light and shadows are cast by street lights only. I managed this shot hand held at f/8 for 1/4 second. Love that image stabilization!

For sure I would not be taking shots in this manner normally and this is a pretty extreme example. I would much rather get my tripod and use ISO 100. This train was not moving so shutter speed was not an issue.

Chris.

Photo Of The Day Page

Hello everyone,

Just a note to remind you to check out my photo of the day page every day. The link is on the right side of this page.

Thanks.

Chris.

A Breakthrough For High ISO Noise!!

I know that many people are having trouble with noise levels at higher ISO's. I don't like to use flash if I don't have to. What do we do???

Like many 50D owners, I've been less than impressed with the high ISO performance of my new camera. I was beginning to think either I was expecting too much or Canon was full of it.

Slowly I've been getting better at working this camera to it's abilities, which by the way are more than my abilities as a photographer LOL. I've gotten better and better results as the months have passed. But today, well today I had a major breakthrough. I was reading some of the threads on groups I'm in here on Flickr and there was a fantastic suggestion on how to handle noise on any make or model camera. I wish I could find that thread to give props to the person who pointed it out. I'll keep looking for it. Here's what the breakthrough is.

Shift your exposure to the right and bring it back down in post. That's it. I tried at ISO 3200, 6400 and 12800. I overexposed 1 and 2 stops then brought them down that amount in post. The noise disappeared. Well enough of it to make even my ISO 12,800 usuable. Look at these shots at full size and see what I mean.

I love my 50D again!!

ISO 6400, normal exposure. Noise not too bad here.

Now the same shot but over exposed 2 stops then pulled back down in post.

Here is ISO 12,800 normal exposure. Pretty much useless. My cell phone looks better.

Now ISO 12,800 over exposed 2 stops then brought down in post. This I could use. Still has some noise but ISO 12,800!! Wow.

I'm pretty sure this will work for any make and model. Let me know if it works for you.

Chris.

Photo Of The Week - Jan 25 to Jan 31 2009

Here is the photo of the week for Jan 25 to Jan 31 2009. It was easy. LOL.

47mm, ISO 400, f/5.6 for 1/100 sec.

Chris.

Interesting Office Decorations

I walked around work at lunch yesterday and took some photos of the different things people have in thier offices. Here are some thumbnails of those items. Click on them to see the flickr post.





Chris.

Photo Of The Week - Jan 18 - Jan 24 2009

Here is the photo of the week for Jan 18 - 24 2009. Dragon Pig. It's a lighter. I purchased it at 7-11 of all places. The best part, it's refillable.

50mm, ISO 400, f/1.8 for 1/500 sec.

Chris.

Canadian Olympic Couchsledding Team 2009.

What? Olympic what? Haha. I have a group of friends who are a little on the insane side I believe. They have decided that this is the only way to go down a snow covered hill.

Ok, here is the hill.

17mm, ISO 100, f/4 for 1/2500 sec.

Here are the crazies.

85mm, ISO 100, f/8 for 1/640 sec.

Here they come.

17mm, ISO 100, f/8 for 1/500 sec.

And there they go.

64mm, ISO 100 f/8 for 1/320 sec.

Victory!!

35mm, ISO 100, f/8 for 1/200 sec.

Does it get any crazier than that?

Chris.

Theme - Rule Of Thirds

In my 2009 In Photos group we are doing a Rule Of Thirds theme. I believe this is the single most important technique in photography. It has absolutely transformed my photography.

The idea is to divide your view screen up into a tic-tac-toe grid and put your subject one one of the lines or intersecting points. Keep your subject from being dead center in the frame. There are times of course to break this rule but it is very effective.

Here are some of my images using this technique.


60mm, ISO 100, f/5.6 for 1/50 sec.


47mm, ISO 1600, f/8 for 1/250 sec.


50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/50 sec.

Chris.