Sony A7x lounge

mickeyb105 wrote in post #18036483
I agree completely. Great work Vinz!

thank you.

We've most definitely had a long spell of June gloom this year (started in early May, as has been the case these past few years).
But even that aside, I would NEVER describe LA as being "greener" than anywhere (spare for the desert).
It's a concrete jungle with very little green. And where we do have open spaces, they are a drab brown on a good day (made even worse lately with the drought). Green, it is not.

The saving grace here is the beach. I mean, our beaches are certainly not the most beautiful out there (no Hawaii or Caribbean), but I do really love the ocean and love having it nearby.

I can say with some certainty that we've been affected by climate change. I moved to LA in the early 90s, and it has gotten a lot dryer and browner and hotter over the years.
It almost never rains anymore (and I do remember some years of pretty good rain in the 90s).
People may disagree or say what they will, but I personally think the change has been quite noticeable in the past 10 or so years and it's made southern California much less appealing to me than it used to be, weatherwise.

Anyway. I'm rambling on a Saturday night, with nothing better to do, hehe. I"ll shut up and leave you all back to your regular programming.

I still want to learn some new editing techniques. Short of bumping up saturation, even when I go back to my pics from months ago, I just always feel short on that "vibrancy" you described there, David. I feel like my stuff needs more pop.
Maybe I just don't know how to work with raw files. I should shoot JPG for a bit and see what the camera spits out for me.

It's the optech loops I use (QR loops) not a strap so much thinner and more prone to wear. With regards to the peak designs one that snapped who knows what sort of stuff the guy was doing prior to that . The attachment was in a poor condition

rcarlton wrote in post #18036450
The discussion on Peak Loops has been interesting, especially the report of one wearing out after 4 years. I have been using the same Optech strap since 1984...very little wear. Started using it with a Canon AE-1 Program>A-1> Rolleiflex 2.8C>Canon 50D>5D Mark II>Sony A7RII. I have no problem with the triangle attachments, have used them for 32 years. I always figured camera designers know more about attachment points than I do. I like the way Sony has engineered the ones on the A7RII with the nylon/plastic protector.

Hosted photo: posted by rcarlton in
./showthread.php?p=180​36450&i=i91456748
forum: Sony Digital Cameras

Hosted photo: posted by rcarlton in
./showthread.php?p=180​36450&i=i233898343
forum: Sony Digital Cameras

In Lightroom I keep the default sharpening settings but lower the bottom slider so that it only sharpens outlines and not everything. The final thing I do in my edit in Photoshop is apply an unsharp mask to my Jpegs before posting on Flickr . Settings 100%, 0.3-0.7, 0 . I never sharpen my master tiff file as down the line my sharpening tastes may change and I don't want to have loads of over sharpened masters

Puckman wrote in post #18036468
Spent some time out in Long Beach this morning, trying out the Batis 25 and Batis 18.

Nothing that great to share here, unfortunately. The weather was crap and the location was crap. Seeing what some of you post really brings home the fact that SoCal is so drab and colorless. And dumpy. I can't recall seeing a "waterfront park" anywhere else on my travels that's as shabby as what we have here. Same goes for Downtown.

That aside, I have a technical question for you PP pros. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to sharpening. What approach do you guys follow (and I'm sure there are as many different answers as there are people here)?

I see a lot of pics on here and on FM that look very nice and sharp. And I feel like my pics, while not necessarily bad generally seem to lack that little extra oomph and contrast.
I don't know if it's just sharpening, or contrast, saturation, etc...There's just a certain look that I see very often on here and on FM that I seem to fall short of in terms of PP.

Thoughts?

my home town.sony a7 with minolta 35-70 macro.

Much greener than mine.

Puckman wrote in post #18036624
We've most definitely had a long spell of June gloom this year (started in early May, as has been the case these past few years).
But even that aside, I would NEVER describe LA as being "greener" than anywhere (spare for the desert).
It's a concrete jungle with very little green. And where we do have open spaces, they are a drab brown on a good day (made even worse lately with the drought). Green, it is not.

The saving grace here is the beach. I mean, our beaches are certainly not the most beautiful out there (no Hawaii or Caribbean), but I do really love the ocean and love having it nearby.

I can say with some certainty that we've been affected by climate change. I moved to LA in the early 90s, and it has gotten a lot dryer and browner and hotter over the years.
It almost never rains anymore (and I do remember some years of pretty good rain in the 90s).
People may disagree or say what they will, but I personally think the change has been quite noticeable in the past 10 or so years and it's made southern California much less appealing to me than it used to be, weatherwise.

Anyway. I'm rambling on a Saturday night, with nothing better to do, hehe. I"ll shut up and leave you all back to your regular programming.

I still want to learn some new editing techniques. Short of bumping up saturation, even when I go back to my pics from months ago, I just always feel short on that "vibrancy" you described there, David. I feel like my stuff needs more pop.
Maybe I just don't know how to work with raw files. I should shoot JPG for a bit and see what the camera spits out for me.

I think David meant the grass is greener as in the saying rather than actual grass. Around cali has got to be one of the most awesome shooting places ever IMO. The fact we live on the west coast means spectacular sunsets by the beach. Mid country doesnt have this luxury.

Within one hour drive, we have so many opportunities, hard to find another place with that many shooting ops other than exotic islands.

xpfloyd wrote in post #18036682
It's the optech loops I use (QR loops) not a strap so much thinner and more prone to wear. With regards to the peak designs one that snapped who knows what sort of stuff the guy was doing prior to that . The attachment was in a poor condition

peak actually had a bad batch that they recalled a few years back, the clip would release. Some folks had gear damaged, which lead to the recall.

anyhow, the dyneema or whatever it's called, that peak uses, is ridiculously strong. I have a strand for my hammock, rated for 1K lbs, probably only 3-4mm thick .

Charlie wrote in post #18036710
peak actually had a bad batch that they recalled a few years back, the clip would release. Some folks had gear damaged, which lead to the recall.

anyhow, the dyneema or whatever it's called, that peak uses, is ridiculously strong. I have a strand for my hammock, rated for 1K lbs, probably only 3-4mm thick .

its got a 10x higher tensile strength than steel or something like that so very strong. The coloured warning layer has put my mind completely at ease. Just waiting on delivery of my strap now

A7rii + 135L

Those of you in the LA area looking for ideas to photograph try this link: http://forum.skyscrape​rpage.com/showthread.p​hp?t=170279

That should get the creative juices flowing.

Puckman wrote in post #18036534
Another example of how other places seem to be greener (pun intended). Very colorful, David. And it's nice to see a downtown with public transport, clean sidewalks and actual people.
(I'm starting to think I really need to move).

In contrast I give you the little drabness I was able to capture today.

Batis 2/25 wide open.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HDzB​Xf DSC00031.jpg by Puckman2012, on Flickr

Batis 2.8/18 wide open:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HVfw​FN DSC00047.jpg by Puckman2012, on Flickr

EF 70-200/4 IS

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/H9dt​Tt DSC00056.jpg by Puckman2012, on Flickr

Batis 2/25 again:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HVfx​yQ DSC00058.jpg by Puckman2012, on Flickr

Nadim, I like composition on theses. If the sky or weather conditions aren't ideal, try something creative like long exposure black and white or maybe get detailed closeup shots. Example is that first image with the chain.

I'll share my sharpening workflow a bit later. For other PP techniques that have learned, I recommend checking out Jimmy McIntyre Raya Pro class as well as Seam Bagshaw digital blending training. Both are fantastic. I still need to get Fstoppers training that David shared. Also, look up training videos for the Nik collection from Google. They have helped me get the most out of Color FX.

In the matter of sharpness, don't forget that sharpness is just a degree of contrast. The greater the difference between brightness and darkness on adjacent pixels determine the apparent sharpness. I only use the Unsharp mask filter to increase micro contrast by having the settings at a low amount, around 11, a high radius of about 195 and a threshold of 0. To adjust the effect, I only change the amount slightly up or down. Use the Preview check mark to compare results before you commit.

Two other filters I use to enhance contrast are found in Nik's Color Efex Pro 4, the darken/lighten center filter and tonal contrast. I always apply the darken/lighten filter in the stack first and then the tonal contrast as a 2nd filter below. I adjust both filters to suit the image being edited before clicking the "OK" button. Below is an example of one of my recent images with the effects off and then on for comparison. Note: I did not use the unsharp mask on this image as I didn't think it needed it.

I haven't applied any sharpness at this point yet (remember, I consider the unsharp mask as applying contrast) and don't until I've resized the image for uploading, usually 2048 pixels on the long side, regardless of aspect ratio. Then I apply a very small amount of sharpening by using the smart sharpen filter. There are a lot of ways to adjust sharpness so I'll post a screenshot of my typical settings. The only thing I change now is the amount at the top slider.

Here is the comparison of the Nik filters off and on:

rcarlton wrote in post #18036833
Those of you in the LA area looking for ideas to photograph try this link: http://forum.skyscrape​rpage.com/showthread.p​hp?t=170279

That should get the creative juices flowing.

Very nice stuff. LA is definitely the perfect city for noir styles.

navydoc wrote in post #18036878
In the matter of sharpness, don't forget that sharpness is just a degree of contrast. The greater the difference between brightness and darkness on adjacent pixels determine the apparent sharpness. I only use the Unsharp mask filter to increase micro contrast by having the settings at a low amount, around 11, a high radius of about 195 and a threshold of 0. To adjust the effect, I only change the amount slightly up or down. Use the Preview check mark to compare results before you commit.

Two other filters I use to enhance contrast are found in Nik's Color Efex Pro 4, the darken/lighten center filter and tonal contrast. I always apply the darken/lighten filter in the stack first and then the tonal contrast as a 2nd filter below. I adjust both filters to suit the image being edited before clicking the "OK" button. Below is an example of one of my recent images with the effects off and then on for comparison. Note: I did not use the unsharp mask on this image as I didn't think it needed it.

I haven't applied any sharpness at this point yet (remember, I consider the unsharp mask as applying contrast) and don't until I've resized the image for uploading, usually 2048 pixels on the long side, regardless of aspect ratio. Then I apply a very small amount of sharpening by using the smart sharpen filter. There are a lot of ways to adjust sharpness so I'll post a screenshot of my typical settings. The only thing I change now is the amount at the top slider.

Here is the comparison of the Nik filters off and on:

[GIFS ARE NOT RENDERED IN QUOTES]

and my smart sharpen settings:

That animation shows exactly what I meant yesterday when I said my images lacked that "pop".