Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Welcome back buddy!
What Did You Do Today???
- Thread starter Tony
- Start date
Tony
Staff member
Hm, that moment when you are winding down for the night (happened at 0400) and your smoke alarm goes off, but just one beep. So you get up and look around and nothing. Then it goes off and this time, two beeps. Again, nothing. I'm feeling all power bricks, checking all connections roaming around like a field mouse, nothing. Then the smoke alarm goes off for another beep....
At this point, I'm checking from one end of the house to the other. I'm even checking the smoke alarms themselves since they are wired into house power. Nothing.
Then you catch a whiff of something. Something let the smoke out. but like a fart in the wind, it's gone... It's been almost 20 minutes since the last alarm and I'm more wired now than I was yesterday after two pots of coffee....
No idea whatsoever on what let the smoke out. Gotta love living in the digital age when everything, including the toaster has a logic chip in it.... Having a little liquid sleeping aid to help calm the nerves this morning since I'm supposed to be asleep right now...
At this point, I'm checking from one end of the house to the other. I'm even checking the smoke alarms themselves since they are wired into house power. Nothing.
Then you catch a whiff of something. Something let the smoke out. but like a fart in the wind, it's gone... It's been almost 20 minutes since the last alarm and I'm more wired now than I was yesterday after two pots of coffee....
No idea whatsoever on what let the smoke out. Gotta love living in the digital age when everything, including the toaster has a logic chip in it.... Having a little liquid sleeping aid to help calm the nerves this morning since I'm supposed to be asleep right now...
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Oh yes, smoke alarms and the like can trip you out. We had one in the front storage closet. It's not hooked to our monitored fire/ burglar alarm. system. It started to beep at ill-regular intervals. It was new. All I know is after I pulled the battery and reset it, she's working fine now.
I think, but don't know for sure, but maybe some of the chemicals in there may have caused it to beep out of turn. Who knows...
Good to talk to you again Tony,
I just bought a new camera so now I should be able to sent some decent snaps now. Canon EOS Rebel T7 Kit
I don't have many scrips so I went this this Canon. Hey what ever happened to "from the minds of Minolta" ?? HA! Now I got to learn all this,,shi,,,, I mean stuff on how to operate this thing, he he heee......
D.O.G.
Goblin 380 Supporter
Nice camera!
.
RandyDSok
Well-Known Member
Nice camera!
Except he could have had a V8... er... Nikon ... LMAO
The ole Canon vs Nikon arguement... much like the Chevy vs Ford ( or which ever ) and equally stupid. Hope you have fun shooting some pics Rob.
Tip 1 ... to start off with, just set it to auto until you get more familiar. When in auto, don't just push the button all the way to take a shot... you have what I call a half step on it, this is where it does all of the focusing etc... so pause at the half step point and then once it's focused in etc ... finish pushing the button in.
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Ha! I new it, I knew I'd hear that comparison. You see I have a sister that was a pro-photographer. She uses Nikon........ Oh and Chevy or Ford? Hummm, I'll take the Honda, LOL!!
RandyDSok
Well-Known Member
The camera brand battle has been going on longer than I've been around. Most of the professionals will say that if you go Canon, you have access to the largest amount of quality lenses anywhere. Others in the field mention how Canon is so big and entrenched, that they are slow to innovate... and these tend to go with Nikon since they probably produce the second largest amount of quality lenses. So it seems it's what lenses each have available to them that is a big part of why they pick the brand they do and what features come in right after that. Sony would probably still come in third ( I've been out of keeping up with this market for a while so, may be old info ) and the reason most often praised is their sensors are second to none. Of course, Sony doesn't have near the amount of lens to choose from as the other two, so their audience is more niche. I suspect that Panasonic Lumix still falls about forth in the list having excellent quality and a lot of features... their only complaint I've often seen is the limited number of available lenses.
Unless you are a pro, the number of lenses or some other feature set is probably not going to matter as much. The only thing that matters is the potential quality of the shot you can get with a good enough camera. While I have gotten lucky with some of my shots certainly, my best shots are usually the ones I've planned out well by searching the locations I have around me, looking for the time of day so I get the lighting I'd like to achieve and then the composition of the shot itself. On that last one, the composition, I will always try to take a wider angle shot than I'm after and then I can crop into the actual shot I want. I tend to go for something about 1/4 of the frame more than I'm after so I can level the pic if I missed that or get the subject into just the right place in frame. There have been numerous times I had one composition in mind as I was taking the shot and when processing it, found another composition that I liked more. Having more in frame during a shoot gives you a lot more options when processing.
Unless you are a pro, the number of lenses or some other feature set is probably not going to matter as much. The only thing that matters is the potential quality of the shot you can get with a good enough camera. While I have gotten lucky with some of my shots certainly, my best shots are usually the ones I've planned out well by searching the locations I have around me, looking for the time of day so I get the lighting I'd like to achieve and then the composition of the shot itself. On that last one, the composition, I will always try to take a wider angle shot than I'm after and then I can crop into the actual shot I want. I tend to go for something about 1/4 of the frame more than I'm after so I can level the pic if I missed that or get the subject into just the right place in frame. There have been numerous times I had one composition in mind as I was taking the shot and when processing it, found another composition that I liked more. Having more in frame during a shoot gives you a lot more options when processing.
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Excellent!
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Wow, once again I learned a bunch. It seems every time I come to this here site, I learn some thing. Nice!
The URL for downloading the complete manual and software was a bit hard to find. That is to say, what was printed the quick manual book that comes with it, did not work. I had to find another avenue for the download. Anyway I have now, so it's reading time. I've already shot a few test snaps. Guess what? I finally took a clear steady picture. Thanks Chief...............
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Addendum: The camera kit did not come with an USB cable. But I have a card reader. Yes! It works!..........
I did a little dabbling today.
These two shots were taken right behind the house. I’ve been watching these two buzzy birds since they were in their shells. They are Red Whiskered Bulbuls. From India originally. Farmers and the like don’t like these buzzies and the red vented Bulbul, the close cousin. They are considered pests. I make them do major flight tricks or simply come to me for a bread ball. I’m telling you; these birds handle like UFOs! LOL!!
OOPS! The HD pictures won't attach.
This looks like a job for.............................
Rob…
I did a little dabbling today.
These two shots were taken right behind the house. I’ve been watching these two buzzy birds since they were in their shells. They are Red Whiskered Bulbuls. From India originally. Farmers and the like don’t like these buzzies and the red vented Bulbul, the close cousin. They are considered pests. I make them do major flight tricks or simply come to me for a bread ball. I’m telling you; these birds handle like UFOs! LOL!!
OOPS! The HD pictures won't attach.
This looks like a job for.............................
Rob…
RandyDSok
Well-Known Member
I always use my memory card to transfer my pics. USB connections are prone to fail and your camera is from another era so it still has the USB Mini connection which is the weakest of the various connections. Card readers can also fail as well, but if they do, they are cheap enough to replace but the built in USB connection repair ( if needed ) is a pricey fix if one is needed since the camera would need to be disassembled and a new port would require to be soldered on.
So you transfer your pics to your computer with whatever method ( mem card recommended ). You need to start to consider some type of folder organization for your pics as well as some type of file naming methodology as you post process and/or edit your originals to something you will later use for printing or sharing etc. When you post process or edit your photos ... you NEVER overwrite your original picture, you always rename it or add an additional snippet or word so you know what it is later. This way, you can always go back to the original if you every want to post process or edit it differently... or perhaps have gotten a new software that may work better than what you had or are trying out.
So... first folder organization... I use a simple YYYY-MM-DD_"subject" style of folder naming most of the time. This keeps my folders listed by date order and the subject portion tells me quickly the basics of what that photo shoot was about. The subject portion doesn't have to be complex unless you want it to be and if it's about a lot of different things, can be as simple as something like "misc" or whatever. Here is an example of some of mine just to give some context.
In addition... I'll typically have sub-folders under the main pics folder for my post processed and/or edited photos. I do try to keep those separated from the originals so they are easier to find. I use a similar method with my file naming with a post process and/or edited pic containing the originals filename along with a brief description of what I did. I'll often use what resolution I saved it in as well as other changes so I can tell at a glance what I may have done in the processing/editing. Cameras will almost always use a series of number for the pics. So in this example... well call it 0000.RAW as what the camera called it
So the original is as mentioned 0000.RAW. I may then use a subject description for a bird shot and it's resolution as my post processed pic. I also like to use PNG for my first post processing since they have more detail than typical JPG's... so my first post process one may become save as 0000_Bird_6000x4000.PNG telling me it's a bird pic at 6000x4000 resolution. Next I may edit the photo to have the area I'd want to be cropped down to the exact shot I'd like to see it as... lets also say I made the original 1/4 larger of an area that I was after... so I'll crop it at around 75% of the total area of the original. The filename I'll save this one as would then become 0000_Bird_4500x3000_cropped.PNG . So now the name tells me the original filename, the subject, the resolution I saved it as and what I did in an edit.
For sharing on a public or social media site like this one... I'll probably cut it down in resolution further ... something close to 1920x1080 or whatever scale factor is equivalent to the original pic ( the original example was at 3:2 scale ratio... what I just mentioned was a 16:9 ratio but it's just an example ) and I'd then save it as a JPG file since that is much smaller size and share the resulting pic. The file naming would use some of the same logic I had in my previous examples.
Most good camera's will give you the option to create one or two types of files... a post processed one... typically a .JPG or sometimes a .PNG... and a RAW file type. What the file extension is called will be dependent on the brand of camera. My Nikon uses the .RAW file extension but I believe that Canon calls their .CR1 or similar. The RAW type file is the best one to use but does require you learn how to post process your photos for the best look after you have them copied. RAW photos contain all of the photo data but when viewed in a basic photo program, will look washed out and flat because they haven't been color balanced, contrasted etc that is typically done in the post processing phase. The built in post processing done in camera is ok but it is generalized to be ok for most situations... so it may not be an nice as a customized hand post processed one. You may find the in camera post process pic as fine for you... but it is little different than what you'd get with a point and shoot camera also.
What I call post processing is setting the exposure, color balance, contrast, brightness, saturation and vibrancy of the shot. It may also contain some noise filtering and lens correction and other minor changes. As I mentioned, the in camera post processing is pretty good but it's a generalized setting that may not be the best for every picture. This is where saving and post processing by hand has a big advantage. It may be as simple as being about to "tease out" some details in the darker or lighter areas of a photo that the general post processing may not be programmed to perform... or color balance it if the lighting was just what you really wanted.
What I call editing... are things such as cropping, straightening, removing defects and adding a million other possible combinations of effects and/or filters. The differences in post processing and editing can be subtle so the two are often used in conjunction since the lines between them can often blur.
I don't know what Canon provides as their post processing/editing software... but I do know I didn't care for what Nikon provided, I felt it was too basic and I wanted to do more and have more options. For most of my post processing/editing I use one called "ON 1 Photo Raw" and I get the version with a "Lifetime" license that gets me all of that years updates for free... I avoid any software that requires a subscription although they do offer one. Besides the post processing/editing features it has, it also has some organization features such as keyword searches and a favorites feature that lets me "score" each photo with up to 5 stars. I don't use the later since I rely on my folder and file naming for most of my organization needs but those are nice features to have. Another nice free RAW photo processor/editor is called DarkTable and can be found easily with an internet search. For my basic cropping ( after I've done it in ON 1 ), I use a free viewer called XnView which also allows me to change the scale ratios, save as different file formats and has a nice thumbnail viewer also.
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
Yeah this hobby is going to be very interesting for sure. I'll need time to go through this and the 300 + page manual to see what my new toy can do. So far, wow! I think I can grow into this babee for a while.
Hey, can you send me a good photo reducing app? The last one I had was on the old computer. I think that's what I need so I can send pictures on this site. Thanks Chief..
Signed, rookie Rob...
Hey, can you send me a good photo reducing app? The last one I had was on the old computer. I think that's what I need so I can send pictures on this site. Thanks Chief..
Signed, rookie Rob...
RandyDSok
Well-Known Member
I've already provided some suggested programs that do what you are asking.... What you want to do is reduce the resolution size ( aka scale it down ) and save the file as a JPG type. You also want to keep the same ratio of the original so it doesn't distort the image. Always get the programs you use from the authors/manufacture's website and never from a third party. The ones I listed are easily searched for on Google... and would also be too large to email anyway. I believe D.O.G. has also mentioned the program that he likes several times, but I don't recall the name of it. The one I mentioned ( XnView ) does a lot of things but I only use it for 4 things... the thumbnail viewer so I can look at all of the pics in a folder to make finding the shot I'm after easier, converting between different picture formats, resizing and cropping and it supports almost every picture format that I know of.
Ex... My Nikon's native high resolution is 6000x4000 .... for a public forum or social site you want something closer to a 1/3 of that size to share and to save it as a JPG to help save on size... so I'd scale it down to 1920x1280 to keep the same scale factor of 3:2. The sizes I selected for my example are pretty common but if yours is different, the math remains the same. Most picture programs can do this already... even Paint that comes with your computer.
Oh, one tip... Resize and Resize Canvas are two different things... you want to use the first Resize if the program you choose has both ( also both are common )
Monitors are often referred to in their smaller number ( the height ) of what resolution they support.... Ex. a 1080p monitor will have a resolution of 1920x1080... a 4k monitor is 4x that amount because it's both 2x the height and width at 3840x2160.
Note... Size can refer to two totally different aspects with digital photos. I can refer to the resolution as I've mentioned as well as how much space on the disk that it takes up. Reducing the resolution happens to also reduce the amount of space that photo will take up.
Ex... My Nikon's native high resolution is 6000x4000 .... for a public forum or social site you want something closer to a 1/3 of that size to share and to save it as a JPG to help save on size... so I'd scale it down to 1920x1280 to keep the same scale factor of 3:2. The sizes I selected for my example are pretty common but if yours is different, the math remains the same. Most picture programs can do this already... even Paint that comes with your computer.
Oh, one tip... Resize and Resize Canvas are two different things... you want to use the first Resize if the program you choose has both ( also both are common )
Monitors are often referred to in their smaller number ( the height ) of what resolution they support.... Ex. a 1080p monitor will have a resolution of 1920x1080... a 4k monitor is 4x that amount because it's both 2x the height and width at 3840x2160.
Note... Size can refer to two totally different aspects with digital photos. I can refer to the resolution as I've mentioned as well as how much space on the disk that it takes up. Reducing the resolution happens to also reduce the amount of space that photo will take up.
D.O.G.
Goblin 380 Supporter
Rob Lancaster
Well-Known Member
This is no Pentax ME. My old camera.
These digital cameras are way more complicated but again, it's something I can grow into for a while.
Oh hey I downloaded PhotoScape and it doesn't look like the one I used before. Make that for sure it ain't the same. I'll see if Tom can figure it out. I'm just a cocoanut head when it come to this computer stuff. I need more grease and busted knuckles. that'll learn me.
These digital cameras are way more complicated but again, it's something I can grow into for a while.
Oh hey I downloaded PhotoScape and it doesn't look like the one I used before. Make that for sure it ain't the same. I'll see if Tom can figure it out. I'm just a cocoanut head when it come to this computer stuff. I need more grease and busted knuckles. that'll learn me.
murankar
Staff member
Good mornig yall. I am on my phone so if the typos look odd i missed the correcrion. Anyhow since a number of you are new to me ill introduce myself. For those of you who know me its been a while. Long story short life has been happening. Things like buying a house and girlfriends and kids job cars and bathroom remodel. So for now i am slowly working back into the hobby. I wont be full tilt like i was. I am in the process of training on being a pentester. I just started and thats going to be my main focus for the year.
My fleet is in my sig. Nothing new since then. The only heli that flies right now is my oxy3 TE 2018. Which is just fine for me. I can sorta fly in my front yard with it.
My solar project is back seated for the last 3 years and now that i no longer have a vehicle for it, back burner for now. Just keeping it brief for now. Have a great day.
My fleet is in my sig. Nothing new since then. The only heli that flies right now is my oxy3 TE 2018. Which is just fine for me. I can sorta fly in my front yard with it.
My solar project is back seated for the last 3 years and now that i no longer have a vehicle for it, back burner for now. Just keeping it brief for now. Have a great day.
Tony
Staff member
Welcome back URI! Now go toss a helicopter in the air and forget about all the junk for 5 minutes lol.