My first day with the 5d

[panic]

Here are some of my first shots from last week with my new 5d. My hard drive crashed the day I got it and I have been computerless until today. I just installed a new hard drive last night along with Lightroom, CS4, and Bridge, and FINALLY get to play around with some pics. So... new photographer, 1st camera, new programs. I realized after seeing these first shots enlarged that I did things like leave the ISO at 1000, set myself up with a poor composition, etc.

Yellow Aculeus

Aussie Scoly

ATL Purple Kryptonite

 

[panic]

My Angel

 

[kb27973]

Very nice. The pic of the face is a wonderful shot.

Ken

 

[panic]

Thanks Ken, I actually had to do a bit of Photoshopping to clean off some leftovers, and blur some of the graininess out of the high ISO. 4 is an awesome age

 

[kb27973]

Anything under about 12 is an awesome age LOL. Enjoy this time they will be grown in the blink of an eye.

Ken

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

You mean used ISO 1000 and poorly composed, then re-shot everything learning form your mistakes? These images were are wonderfully composed, badly would show all four front and center. The portrait of your 4 year old really shows your talent and promise.

Maybe you should think about backing these images up to a separate external hard drive?

 

[IPT]

Like the face one too. Soft like an angel .

 

[panic]

Thanks for the comments!

I should back them up with the DAYS of music and years of files I just threw away by never using a backup drive (like an idiot)! I learned a lesson when I lost my HD. Even a Mac has a bad day. I'm going to try the same shots again and see if I can make them better... if I ever get to leave work

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14917398#post14917398 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TitusvileSurfer
You mean used ISO 1000 and poorly composed, then re-shot everything learning form your mistakes? These images were are wonderfully composed, badly would show all four front and center. The portrait of your 4 year old really shows your talent and promise.

Maybe you should think about backing these images up to a separate external hard drive?

 

[Reef Bass]

The face shot is lovely. I like the texture and colors of the scoly too.

Reshooting shots (when possible) with different settings is a great way to learn, imho.

Awesome camera.

That's a painful HD meltdown you had!

I picked up a WD 1TB My Book at Costco for $130 I think it was and back up all my digital photo files there. That reminds me I don't think I've backed up my last couple shoots. Please excuse me while I tend to that...

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

A terabyte hard drive for $130?! I remember when a 5 gig tumbdrive went for more!

 

[Reef Bass]

Yeah, at that price I couldn't say no. Those 15meg RAW pics add up fast, particularly if one gets happy with the shutter release.

It's pretty cool, turning on and off with the system if you keep it plugged in and hooked up. I keep it detached until I'm ready to back up.

I remember working with a "gigantic" (at the time) 5 megabyte Corvus server 24 years ago.

And I remember paying $150 for 16K (not gig, not meg, K) of ram for my Apple II+ in 1978. That was a lot of lawn mowing.

Ah, technology...

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

I feel your pain.
I have a functional Commodore 64, Apple 2, and Vic 20

 

[swjim]

As others have said, congrats, you're off to a great start. I'll look forward to seeing more of your images in the future.

Re: computer resources, I just got my 5D Mark II a couple of weeks ago and am pretty sure that I can now actually hear my 4 year old PC whimper when I hit the import button in Lightroom. The RAW files are coming in at 23-33MB and I haven't dared try any video processing yet.

 

[davidr]

Nice pics!

 

[Reef Bass]

Wow, TS, a Vic 20! Even older than the Apple II. I coded a number of software titles in 6502 assembly for the Apple II and Commodore 64 many years ago.

swjim, you got me chuckling with the pc whimper. Those are some beefy file sizes.

panic, any more tasty images for us? You're on a roll.

 

[panic]

Thanks! I also remember when my parents paid $700 to upgrade our original Mac from 128k to 512K in the early 80s. I was so bummed when they came out with the one in color.

I'll get some more shots tonight and play around tomorrow while I'm at work not working. I found some sweet subject matter at the firehouse, but didn't turn out well that I will shoot again tomorrow too. I just traded a Reefstar pendant and hqi ballast for a flash, so now I need a tripod and a 100mm lens of my own and I'm set for awhile.

 

[panic]

I have Lightroom set up now and have tried using it for some of these next photos. I have found that it takes me 10x longer to get the photo where I want it as opposed to using Bridge. Maybe my pc is too slow. Maybe I am using it wrong, but exporting each individual file to a folder and opening it in Photoshop seems tedius as compared to how Bridge drops it right in Photoshop to save as JPEG from RAW format. Is there a faster way in LR?

Here's a few...


Green Slimer

Flower Anemone

Favia

Chalice

 

[Reef Bass]

Nice job on the green slimer pic! From a composition standpoint it would be stronger if the focused branch weren't so centered.

The favia is sweet too. Colors and textures!

They all look a bit soft. I suggest more sharpening.

 

[panic]

Cool, thanks. I'll work with the sharpening too. I make the subject grainy when I use it, so I'll spend some extra time with it on the next ones. I took hundreds last night and I have all day to plow through them. I'm having fun with it though. I also find it difficult to find the genuine color without having that "Photoshopped" look. Many of the photos are right on the money without any correction of color temperature.

 

[Reef Bass]

Interesting that they look grainy to you. They look soft to me here on my monitor. Make use of the preview when sharpening and if it becomes too grainy, back off the % some.

I'm not a sharpening expert, but I usually use radius values of less than 1.0 and sharpen 50-70% depending on how it looks. It is very image dependent and preference dependent imho. And not to suggest that other values might not work great for your images or your preferences. "Your mileage may vary". Use of unsharp mask can also be helpful.