My life...just not on the road I expected (but it's still dang good).

Camera Recommendations.

One of the first shots with my new Nikon D700 at the new, old house this weekend.

So the decision to switch from Canon to Nikon was a hard one for me (and apparently, my decision has been hard on a few of you too):

Nancy wrote: WHAAA? my leader switched! I feel like a little kid whose teacher disappeared...and she went to another school, and I'm looking for her...but it's dark...where is she? I am a sheep...must follow...

Ann wrote:  I feel like my dog ran away.

Kelli wrote:  Oh, man, I'm so sad. You were my Canon-go-to-girl. First the last ER and now this...this is the worst Friday ever!

Coley on the other hand has been quite excited about my switch to Nikon.  In fact, when I rented it, he said "I just knew you were going to switch to Nikon because I heard you talking on the phone about that boy you love (I should clarify that I don't actually love Nate, I just love his pictures) who used to have a Nikon and then changed his mind and bought a Canon and you were so happy because you had a Canon too but then he changed his mind again and went back to Nikon and you were so sad - I just knew it!"

An ongoing joke in all of my online photography classes is that 'You can't have your cake and eat it too.' 

You always have to be willing to give up something in order to gain something in the world of photography and cameras are no exception.

There's a lot to consider when purchasing a camera.  My hope is to help everyone out here by listing some pros/cons/my thoughts on various cameras in different price ranges.  My biggest considerations personally in purchasing a camera (given the way I shoot) are related to the focusing system (the more autofocus points, particularly cross-sensor autofocus points, the better/quicker your camera is going to focus for you) and the ISO range (a high maximum will allow you to shoot successfully in lower light situations without a flash) so these will be the two features I will emphasize.  Please note though that ultimately, these are just my opinions (based on research/specs I've read) since I haven't shot with all of these cameras.  So if I don't list your particular camera as my favorite, please don't send me hate mail (because it's not nice and it kind of ruins my day).

Also, please understand that I simply can't answer all of the personal emails I get in regards to equipment recommendations and photography advice as it just it takes too much time away from my online students (and my family) and really, it isn't fair for me to be charging my online students for information if I'm offering that same information for free via email).

Also note that I'll just be giving recommendations for the newest Canon and Nikon releases as there are just way too many camera models out there for me to review them all.  If you want to read an in-depth side-by-side review of cameras though, check this out.

Oh, one more note...my recommendation is to ALWAYS purchase your camera body separately and to avoid purchasing it in a kit (which comes with a lens).  In general, kit lenses are made for affordability, not quality.  So you're much better off getting the camera body only and purchasing your lenses separately.  And please note that while I linked to B&H photo for these cameras, it doesn't matter where you get them (I just usually shop B&H or Adorama).

Will talk more about lens choices in the next week or two.

So without further ado (in order by price range)...

Nikon D60 ($500 body only) vs. Canon Rebel Xsi ($600 body only)
The Nikon D60 has three autofocus points with only the center autofocus point being a cross-sensor.  It's maximum ISO is 3200.  My biggest complaint with the Nikon D60 (and also the older D40 and D40x) is that they can only be used with 'AF-S' lenses which limits your lens selection significantly, particularly if you're lens budget isn't big to begin with.  

The Canon Rebel XSi has nine autofocus points with only the center point being a cross-sensor.  It's maximum ISO is 1600. 

This is kind of a draw.  For the price, they're both great cameras.  Both of the autofocus systems are good but not amazing.  I like the higher ISO of the Nikon D60 but I don't like the fact that it is limited to AF-S lenses (AF-S lenses are spendy so if you have the kind of money to drop on them, you'd be better off getting a higher end camera body anyhow).

That said, Canon is introducing the new Rebel T1i in May 2009 ($800 body only).  This camera will also have nine autofocus points with only the center point being a cross-sensor but this camera has an amazing maximum ISO (12,800).  It also has video.  So the introduction of this camera makes it (in my opinion) the best camera in the market in this price-range (though it makes it more comparably priced to the Nikon D90 discussed below).

Nikon D90 ($900 body only) vs. Canon 50D ($1100 body only)
The Nikon D90 has 11 autofocus points with the center point being a cross-sensor.  The maximum ISO is 6400.  The D90 also offers the option of video which is a huge draw to a lot of photographers.

The 50D has 9 autofocus points but they are ALL cross-sensors and it's maximum ISO is 12,800.  This camera does not offer video.

Since video is not really a consideration to me, I think the Canon 50D is the way to go in this category (though it's more expensive) due to the focusing system and the high ISO.

Nikon D300 ($1800 body only)
The Nikon D300 is an amazing camera with 51 autofocus points (yes, 51!!!!), 15 of which are cross sensors.  It's maximum ISO is 6400.

Canon doesn't make a camera in this price-range which makes the D300 the winner by default.

Nikon D700 ($2700 with rebate body only) vs. Canon 5D Mark II ($2700 body only)
These are the only two Full Frame cameras I'm reviewing - will explain what Full Frame means here in a minute.

The Nikon D700 has 51 autofocus points and 15 of those are cross-sensors.  It's maximum ISO is 25,600.

The Canon 5D Mark II has 9 autofocus points but only one of those is a cross-sensor (it also has 6 assist autofocus points).  It's maximum ISO is also 25,600.  The Canon 5D Mark II offers video, though again, this is not much of a consideration for me personally.

And obviously, I feel like the Nikon won in this category (since this is the camera I bought) due to it's advanced focusing system.

Note that there are more expensive digital cameras on the market but they just aren't affordable/practical for most of us who aren't shooting professionally so I'm not even going to review those.

So as you can see, my decision to switch to Nikon was NOT because I think Nikon makes better cameras straight across the board (because in my opinion, they don't).  My decision to switch to Nikon was based primarily on the fact that for the type of camera I shoot with (a full frame camera) and my style of shooting (candid with lots of fast-moving, uncooperative subjects), I felt the Nikon D700 I rented outperformed my Canon 5D Mark II.

Full Frame Cameras
Most digital cameras on the market have something called a 'crop factor' (most digital cameras have a 1.6 crop factor.  What difference will you notice when shooting with a Full Frame camera vs. a camera with a crop factor?...the biggest thing you'll notice is how 'close' or 'far away' your subject appears when looking through the viewfinder of your camera.  If you are shooting with a camera that has a 1.6 crop factor, it changes the focal length of the lens they're using, making your subject appear closer.  For example, if you put a 50mm lens on a camera with a 1.6 crop factor, the focal length of that lens becomes 80mm (because a 50mm lens with a 1.6 crop factor looks like this mathematically; 50 x 1.6 = 80).  Full Frame cameras however, do not have a crop factor.  So if you put a 50mm lens on a Full Frame camera, the focal length of that lens is truly 50mm.  Kind of confusing, but all you really have to know is that when you put a lens on a camera with 1.6 crop factor, your subject will appear closer than if you put that same lens on a Full Frame camera.

So a camera with a crop factor can be a huge benefit when you're shooting things like sports with a subject is far away (because it will make your subject appear closer).  But it's a huge detriment when your shooting in tight quarters or want to photograph a large scene (again, because everything appears much closer to you).  And while you can try to compensate with that by using different lenses, it's not in everyone's budget to own 5 different lenses.

It's a perfect example of 'not being able to have your cake and eat it too.'

Note that there are other technical reasons behind shooting with a Full Frame camera (I just wanted to give you the most simplified explanation).  For me, I prefer the benefits of shooting with a Full Frame camera.

More thoughts (and some repeat thoughts on the Nikon D700 vs. the Canon 5D Mark II since these are the two cameras I was deciding between)...

The upside of the Nikon D700
The Nikon D700 just has a MUCH MORE sophisticated focusing system than the Canon 5D Mark II.  The D700 has 51 autofocus points and 15 of those are cross-sensors.  The 5D Mark II has 9 autofocus points and only 1 of those is a cross-sensor.  So I can focus on all my uncooperative, fast-moving subjects with a much higher degree of accuracy on the D700.  I took both cameras to the park and tried to shoot Annie while she was playing on a swing and the D700 pummeled my Canon (with comparable lenses) in regards to focusing.  In addition, Nikons just have a lot more options than Canon offers on their cameras that allow you to customize your camera to the way you shoot (simple things like being able to reverse the direction you scroll a particular dial based on your preference).  And while that may not seem like a big deal, I like being able to customize my camera to fit my needs.  With Canons, you just adjust your style of shooting to fit your camera.

The upside of the Canon 5D Mark II
The 5D Mark II is a 21.1 megapixel camera (the Nikon D700 has 12.1 MP).  That honestly wasn't much of a consideration for me though because quite honestly, the race for camera manufacturers to develop the digital camera with the most megapixels is kind of silly to me.  Once digital cameras passed the 10 MP mark, it really didn't matter to me anymore (unless I was enlarging something to make a mural - which I'm not).  In general, I like the color my Canon produced slightly better.  That said, I shoot RAW images so I have a lot of versatility in editing and can compensate for the differences in color there (though there's a learning curve I'll be going through for awhile after switching to Nikon).  In addition, Canon has a much better selection of high quality prime/fixed lenses (prime lenses are lenses that don't 'zoom').  So in switching to Nikon, I had to give up two of my favorite prime lenses; the Canon 50mm f1.2 and the Canon 24mm f1.4.  Losing those two lenses was actually my biggest issue in switching to Nikon.

So I pretty much based my decision off of research/specs I had read on both cameras and by renting the Nikon D700 for a week.  Ultimately though, my final decision came down to the superior focusing system of the D700.  (I rented from Pro Photo Supply).

Nikon has typically been known for having superior focusing systems but Canon has really stepped up to the plate with some of their newer cameras mentioned above.  For example, the new Canon 50D has 9 autofocus points with all of those being cross-sensors.  Why in the world Canon didn't put that same autofocus system into it's new 5D Mark II (which only has one cross-sensor) just boggles my mind (actually, I know why they didn't...it would have wiped out the market for their $4,500 1D Mark III camera).  So basically, you can get a better focusing system (in the Canon 50D) than you can in the Canon 5D Mark II for half the money.  I considered going with the 50D for this precise reason, but ultimately decided that I wasn't willing to give up the Full Frame.

So there it is (hope it's helpful). 

I typed all of this up while sitting at the DMV waiting for Ross to take his driving test (will post about that tomorrow).

Registration.

Again, registration for the online Photographers' Workshop is this coming Monday, Sept. 8th at 9:00am PST at snapshotsofagoodlife.com for the following courses:

The Photographers' Workshop running Nov. 17th - Jan. 25th.

The Photographers' Workshop running Jan. 19th - Mar. 29th.

The class is $275.00 and runs for 10 weeks, which includes a 1 week intermission halfway through the course.  I am only taking a limited number of students per class and registration is on a first come, first served basis.

The Snapshots of a Good Life website has a forum devoted specifically to the online Photography Workshops.  There is a new lesson posted daily, Mon.-Fri. and assignments posted at the end of each week.  There is a Q&A board, a Photo of the Day board and a Photo Critiques board where I evaluate composition, camera settings, focus, lighting, white balance, exposure, etc. on photos posted by students. 

If you want to check out some of the comments from past students, you can read them here.  And if you want to check out the class syllabus and other class info. you can find it here.

Here's how the process will work...

At 9:00 am PST on the snapshotsofagoodlife website, registration will begin.

 

From the Home Page, click on the icon in the top bar that says 'photography classes' as shown above which will take you to the Photography Classes page shown below.

   

From the Photography Classes page, select 'register for a class' from the top toolbar as shown above which will take you directly to the Registration page as shown below.

From the Registration Page, I recommend ONLY filling in the required fields to save yourself time during the registration process (if you take the time to fill in the unrequired fields, you may lose your spot in the class - once you are successfully registered for the class you can come back to complete the unrequired fields).  The following are required fields:

1. your full name  2. your full address  3.  your country    4. your country    5. your email address    6. which class you would like to register for    7. your username (preferably your first and last name to help students get to know each other better in class)    8. your password   

Once you have filled in the required fields, click on the 'click here to complete your registration' icon which will immediately take you to your shopping cart where you can provide your payment information.

If you are successfully registered, you payment will be processed and you will receive a confirmation email.

If the class you are trying to register sells out while you are trying to register, you will be redirected to the registration page and asked to select a different class.

If both classes sell out while you are trying to register,you will be asked if you would like to be placed on a wait list for a particular class.  

If any spots become available in a particular class, I will contact people on the waiting list in the order they signed up.

And to answer a few more questions:

1. It is recommended that you have a film or digital SLR to take this class (if you have a point and shoot or advanced point and shoot style camera and would like to take the class, please email me at karencrussell@charter.net so we can discuss it in advance).

2. You do not need any sort of photo editing program to take this course as photo editing is not a part of the course curriculum (the class is focused on getting the best pictures straight out of your camera without photo editing).

3. If you are unsure what time registration is in your neck of the woods, there is a time conversion chart here (you can use Salem, OR as my time zone).  Please remember that this is 9:00 in the MORNING, PST.

4. If you are having a tough time viewing the site, be sure to refresh your browser at registration time and/or switch internet browsers to Internet Explorer or Mozilla Foxfire.

5. The site takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Paypal (but not Discover).

6. A few past students have mentioned using 'autofill' to fill in the required field during the registration process.  I honestly don't have a clue how autofill works (If you do know how it works, please leave a comment in the comments section as I'm sure there are a lot of inquiring minds)!

7.  If you are unavailable on the registration date, you can have someone else register for you.  All they will need is the following information:

1. your full name  2. your full address  3.  your country    4. your country    5. your email address    6. which class you would like to register for    7. your username (preferably your first and last name to help students get to know each other better in class)    8. your password    9. your payment information

8. Again, I don't know how quickly registration will fill up or how many people are planning to sign up.  At the last registration, three classes were made available.  The first class sold out in under 5 minutes and the remaining classes filled up shortly after. 

Registration day and the day following are a bit of a madhouse for me.  If you email me with a registration question on one of these days, I will get back to you in as timely of a manner as I am able to.

I hope the registration process goes smoothly for all of you who are hoping to sign up (be sure to stretch out your fingers and type quickly)!

And I owe it all to one man...

Jason Radley (my best friend Jill's husband); who single-handedly brow-beat me for years until I finally agreed to start shooting RAW.

I had been shooting JPEGs since I got my first digital camera and I was quite happy  with the results I was getting.

Most cameras come from the camera shop, set to take JPEGs.  They also come from the camera shop set to automatically sharpen your photos and increase their contrast & saturation.  All intended to give you great looking photos straight out of the camera.

So, when you take a JPEG, your camera first increases the sharpness, contrast and saturation of your photo, deletes any file information it deems insignificant and then compresses/flattens the file in order to fit more photos on a card.  And viola, you've got a JPEG.

Unfortunately, when your camera deletes this "insignificant" information, it is deleting information that is vital to anyone who does much photo editing.

Shooting RAW prevents your camera from deleting any file information, which results in huge files, but allows the most control in photo editing.  When you set your camera to capture RAW images, there is NO in camera sharpening, contrast or saturation boosts, which means that straight out of the camera RAW photos look worse than JPEGs (this was really hard for me to get used to after shooting JPEGs for so many years).

You have to have a special program to read RAW files (I have Adobe Camera Raw which is part of Adobe Photoshop CS3).  So, I download my RAW files and open them in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) where I do some general adjustments to all of my photos (you can select multiple photos to edit simultaneously).  Once I have done those adjustments, I save all of the edited RAW files as JPEGs.  Then, in Photoshop, I select my favorite photos and do some further editing.  Usually using actions (my favorite combination is from Totally Rad Actions; 10% Derelicte, 25+% Oh Snap, 20% Boutwell's Magic Glasses and 20+% vignette and blur).

And then I save an edited version of my photo.

So here's what that process looks like:

The first photo is what my unedited RAW file looked like straight out of the camera (remember, RAW files usually look worse than JPEGs because they have not undergone any in-camera sharpening, contrast or saturation boosts).

The second photo is what my RAW file looked like after I edited it in Adobe Camera RAW.

The last photo is what my RAW file looked like after I converted it to a JPEG and applied a few actions to it.

All that said, shooting RAW is definitely not for everyone.  JPEGs are ready to print as soon as you download them, no photo editing required (unless you want to).  RAW files require conversion and need editing.  Therefore, shooting RAW is really for people who consider photo editing a part of their regular workflow.

Now that I shoot RAW, I wouldn't go back to shooting JPEGs (but again, I was quite happy with my photos prior to shooting RAW).  I take a ton of photos, so sometimes, the photo editing side of things can start to feel a little daunting.  But overall, the time I invest feels well worth it as shooting RAW has really helped me to grow as a photographer (so thanks for pestering me into doing it Jason Radley).

Photo editing is not currently a part of the Photographers' Workshop.  It's a big subject that really deserves its own seperate class (not sure if I'll ever be up for the challenge of teaching a class like that, although for now, I'm not ruling it out).

Have a great day.

Photography course information (and a few shots of Ross).

Ok, I have to admit that it scares the daylights out of me to actually put a date down in writing, but here it goes...

My first online photography course will start on:

Monday, June 2nd

And if everything continues to go smoothly with the website, registration for the course will open up on:

Thursday, May 1st at 6:00pm PST

Sign-ups will be on a first-come, first-served basis on the Snapshots of a Good Life website.  I will be limiting the number of students per class in order to offer each student individual attention, answers, critiques and feedback (the first class will be limited to 50 students - if I find that I can comfortably add to that number to accommodate more students in future classes, I will).

There are currently about 400 people who have expressed an interest in signing up for this class, which means that registration day might get a little crazy.  Please do not be discouraged if you do not get into the first class.  My plan is to start a new class every 8 weeks so there will be more opportunities.

The course will run for 8 weeks and the fee is $250.00.

This is not going to be an easy course, it is going to be a pull up your sleeves, study hard and practice even harder type of a course, geared for beginners to intermediates (it's funny though, I've even been learning some new stuff as I've been putting together the lessons).

It is strongly recommended that you have a film or digital SLR for this course, or be interested in shooting with one in the future (if you have a point-and-shoot style camera and are interested in taking the class, please email me at karencrussell@charter.net so that we can discuss whether or not this course would be a benefit to you).

There will be a forum available for registered students.  The forum will have the following sections:  Daily Lessons, Assignments, Q&A board, Picture of the Day board and a Photo Critiques board.

There will be a new lesson posted in the forum each weekday, Monday-Friday.  Lessons will be available in both written and audio formats (both formats contain tons of visuals).

Assignments will be posted each Friday and reviewed/commented on by the instructor (that's me).

Course outline (the outline I have is four pages long, so this is a drastically simplified version):

Week 1 - Composition

Week 2 - Aperture (my favorite subject in the world)

Week 3 - Shutter Speed, ISO and the Exposure Triangle

Week 4- Exposure

Week 5 - Focus

Week 6 - Additional camera settings

Week 7 - Lighting

Week 8 - How I shoot and why I shoot that way

You do not have to be in the forum at specific times, you can access the lessons and assignments at your convenience.  In addition, all students will have access to the forum for 1 year following the class.

I will keep you all posted of any changes (please keep in mind that there are some things that are out of my control...like website development).

Ok, I hope that covered everything.

If you have additional questions or feedback, please post it in the comments section.

And a few pictures of Ross (more post processing than I normally do on a few of these, but I liked the results).

You can see my reflection on his guitar.

And my favorite.

Answering a few questions.

Coley and Annie picking some flowers today.

1. I got both of the desks for the girl's room from the 6th st. Antique Mall (it's my favorite antique shop in town).

2. I do have a camera bag and though I think it is would be the perfect bag for shooting weddings, portraits, etc. (it is actually meant to hold extra lenses, not camera's) and I love all the covers (I have the Baroque), it just doesn't work well for "every day" shooting (for me).  It doesn't have any zippers and my camera doesn't fit in it.  To tell you the truth, I haven't found a camera bag that I like enough to spend the money on it.

Funny story about my camera bag...when I ordered it, I thought, wow, $49.00, that's a great price.  When it arrived, I tore open the box, excited to see my new camera bag only to find that $49.00 just paid for the cute, decorative Baroque flap.  The actual camera bag is an additional $179.0o.

3. Honestly though, I'm not really a camera bag kind of girl anyhow.  I like to wear my camera around my neck because I want it quickly accessible (I can't imagine how many shots I would miss if I always had to get my camera out of the camera bag first).  And I think that looking like a dork with my camera slung around my neck at all times is a small price to pay for not missing the shot.

4. I don't keep a lens cap on any of my lenses either (I don't want to deal with taking them on and off).  The first thing I do when I get a new lens is put a UV filter on it (which serves as a UV filter and protects the lens). 

5. Yes, I still recommend the Canon Digital Rebel Xti (although the new Rebel Xsi is due out next month).  I think it's a great camera at a great price.  Although you can invest in a higher end camera (if finances are not a huge concern for you, a higher end camera like the  Canon 40D or the Canon 5D is a great way to go), but honestly, once you get into a good DSLR (like the Canon Rebel), your money is better spent on good lenses.  You will see more improvement in your photos by investing in a better lens, than investing in a better camera (I shoot with a Canon and am familiar with them, that's why I am making Canon recommendations).

6. I recommend purchasing your camera body separate from you lenses.  The lenses that come in a kit with a camera are designed to be cost effective lenses, not high quality lenses.  Lot's of camera store employees will try to talk you into purchasing the kit, but just say no.

7. If you are shooting primarily everyday life and portraits, I think that a 50mm lens is the way to go.  If you are shooting Canon, you can get the 50mm f1.8 for $89, the 50mm f1.4 for $309 or the 50mm f1.2 for $1359.  If you need to watch your spending, I think the 50mm f1.8 for $89 bucks is the deal of the century (if you decide to upgrade later, you can always turn around and sell it on Ebay for 50 bucks).  If you are able to spend a bit more, the 50mm f1.4 is an amazing lens.  I don't really think the 50mm f1.4 is all that necessary unless you have plans of shooting professionally.  These lenses do not have any sort of "zoom" and are not ideal for shooting stuff like sports, when your subject may be far away from you.  But it is (in my opinion) an ideal lens for shooting everyday stuff (when you can get relatively close to your subject), portraits and indoors under low light situations when you don't want to use a flash.  I keep a 50mm lens on my camera probably 90% of the time (I actually have to force myself to use my other lenses).

8. I shot with a Tamron 28-75mm lens for more than 3 years and I think it's a great "zoom" lens for the price (about $350).  After shooting with and seeing the clarity, sharpness and color from the 50mm f1.4 and the 50mm f1.2 though, I would have a tough time going back to the Tamron though.  But if you prefer a lens that "zooms" and will allow you to work in reasonably low light situations, this really is a great lens.  The Canon version of this lens is about $1139.

9. If there were 1 perfect lens, we'd all be shooting with it, but there are a lot of variables when it comes to purchasing a lens based on what you primarily shoot and your budget.

10. When am coming back to teach at the Scrapbook Clubhouse in Westbrook, CT?...funny you should ask.  Sharon (the owner) asked me if I would come back if she sent me some chocolate.  I said that chocolate might just do the trick.  She overnighted me some truffles and I'm coming back sometime in June (will keep you posted on a date).

11. All the great labels (in a bazillion colors) that I posted about awhile back are from this Etsy shop (thanks Trish).  They might just be the best thing ever.

12. Ross just pretends to be a University of Oregon Ducks fan to get Cole and Josh (the die-hard Oregon State Beavers fans) riled up.

13. Erin (or anyone else), you can email me at karencrussell@charter.net if you still have questions about my online photography class. 

14. Still planning on launching my online photography classes by June (hopefully sooner), but will keep you all posted.  If you have not already been put on the list of people who want to be emailed when I have a sign-up date, please email me at karencrussell@charter.net and put "please email me when you are taking sign-ups" in the subject title.

14. I get most of the fabric trim and lace that I use on my layouts from a variety of fabric stores.  Unfortunately (and I don't know why), it's getting harder to find a store with a good variety though.

15. I usually save photos to upload to Typepad as a 4x6 at 100dpi.  When I upload a vertical photo to typepad, I upload it at 400 pixels in width and I upload a horizontal photo at 600 pixels in width.

Ok, I hope that answered everything.  I try really hard not to miss any questions, but I know I do (sorry).

Online Photography classes.

A lot of store owners have been contacting me about teaching at their stores and a lot of people have been emailing me about when/if I am going to teach online photography classes.

My response has generally been the same...

I don't really know what my plans are for 2008 yet.

But, with 2008 just a few weeks away, it has been making me really nervous to not know "what my plans are for 2008" yet.

Usually I'm a really quick decision maker (sometimes too quick...which I think is also called hasty, or impulsive).

But this one's been harder for me.

Because there are a lot of variables (and I'm a worrier, so believe me, I've thought of every variable).

And because really, I have to decide somewhat between teaching scrapbooking classes all over the place like I've been doing, or teaching photography classes right here from my computer.

Time-wise, I just can't do both (at least not at my current pace).

So Josh & I sat down last night to come up with a decision since I haven't been able to come up with one on my own.

And I am going to start online photography classes (and I am still going to teach a very limited number of scrapbooking classes).

For now.

I say "for now", so that if in 6 months, I miss teaching scrapbooking classes really badly (because honestly, teaching scrapbooking classes is my favorite part of what I do), I have an "out".

Right now though,  I want to be home with my kids more often.  Right now, I am so in love with photography, that I am having a tough time focusing on anything else.  And right now,  I don't want to give up teaching. 

So teaching online photography classes just makes sense.

And so, here's my thought process so far...I'm going to have a website designed so that there can be a forum specifically for these classes (so that I can post lessons and visuals, so that students can ask questions and so that students can upload photos for fun or for critique).  Each class would run approx. 8 weeks.  I would take a limited number of students so that I could really have time for each person individually.  I haven't settled on a fee yet, but I think it would be around $250 for the 8 week course. 

I do have questions though and am looking for input, because although I know what I would want from a photography course, I don't know what you all would want.

So, if you have any thoughts at all on this, I would love to hear them.

What would you be looking for in a photography class?  What specific topics would you want to cover?  What teaching style helps you to learn better?  If you've taken any sort of photography or online class in the past, what did you like about the class?  What didn't you like about the class?  Would you like two separate classes (one devoted to photography and one devoted to photo editing)?  What are you struggling with most in photography?

I'm looking for any input or question (however big or small).

And if you leave a comment or question, I'll do some sort of drawing tomorrow...not sure what you'll win...but I'll think of something.

And, since a post without a photo, really isn't a post at all...

Adobe RGB vs. sRGB

Finally figured out why all my images are looking "grey-ish" on my blog.

A month or so back, someone recommended to me that I change the color space setting on my camera to Adobe RGB to capture a better range of colors in my photos and so I did.

Well...it turns out that the internet uses (for the most part) an sRGB color space and that when a photo with an Adobe RGB color space is posted on the web (which again, uses an sRGB color space), that the file because desaturated - especially the red tones (which would explain why all the skin tones in my photos have been grey-ish).

So, I can continue to shoot in Adobe RGB, but before I upload anything to my blog, I have to make sure to change it to sRGB (in Photoshop CS3 you go to Edit-Convert to profile-sRGB).

Took me half the day to figure that one out.

I posted this photo a few weeks back.

The first one is my Adobe RGB file (which looks fine when I edit it in Adobe Photoshop, but looks "grey-ish" and desaturated when I post it on the internet).

 

And this is the same photo after I converted it to sRGB.

Hoping that since I wasted half a day of my life trying to figure this out, that this will save someone half a day of their life by reading it.

Photography questions.

Lots of photography questions in the last few weeks that I've been wanting to address.

1. I work in Photoshop CS3, which is the most current version of Adobe Photoshop.  The program costs $649.00, although I already had Photoshop 7, so I just had to pay to upgrade to CS3, which I think was about $200.00.

2. I don't think that basic photo editing really requires Photoshop CS3.  I use CS3 for my artwork for Creative Imaginations and since I have it, I use it for my photo editing too.  But to be honest, after using it for over 5 years now, I bet I still know less than 5% of it's capabilities.  CS3 would be overkill for most photographers.  That said, it's a staple for most professional photographers.

3. Adobe Elements 5 is probably a great photo editing program for most photographers and you can pick it up for about $150 through Adobe.

4. I often use something called "actions" on my photos in CS3 to enhance their color, change them to black & white or add other cool effects.  An action is just a prerecorded set of photo editing steps that you can purchase online.  There might be 25+ steps in a single action, but all I have to do is decide which action (or combination of actions) that I want to use and then press the "play" button and in a matter of seconds, it it preforms all of the steps.  The benefit for me is that I don't necessarily know how to do all of the individual steps in CS3 to get the results that I want and even if I did know how to do all of it, doing each step individually might take 15+ minutes per photo, rather than the 3 seconds it takes to use the action (I hope that makes sense).  So it's a huge time-saver and the results are really cool.

5. That said, most actions that you can purchase online are not compatible with Adobe Elements (you have to have Adobe Photoshop or CS).  I do think that this will change in the future.  I think that the people who are designing the action sets will realize that they are missing a big target audience by not making it available to Adobe Elements users.  I did find this article about using Photoshop actions in Adobe Elements, so perhaps it is possible (but I don't know a lot about it).  Even without actions though, you can still do a lot to color edit your photos with "hue & saturation", "levels", "contrast" and some sharpening with the "unsharp mask".  If you go to the comments section under this post and go to the 5th comment by Diane (thanks Diane), she talked a bit about actions for Photoshop Elements users.

6. I am currently using actions from ittybittyactions, totallyradactions and kubota.

7. It takes some time to figure out how to use actions correctly, so plan on investing a fair amount of time in the initial learning curve.

8. The vignetting (darkness around the perimeter of the photo) that I had on a lot of the soccer pictures that I took the other day is a vignette action from totallyradactions.  You can create your own vignetting in Photoshop (but again, why would I take the time, when I can just do it with an action?).

9. You can also create your own actions once you have a good understanding of how actions work.

10. Photo editing is really just a preference thing.  Right now, blow-out highlights, heavily popped color and tilted camera angulation is huge (and I'm loving it), but in a year, it could be something entirely different.  I've looked at pictures that I edited 3 months ago and went "What were you thinking?", but that's never a problem because I always keep an unedited original of every photo.

11. You can take a great photo and make it look amazing in Photoshop or you can take a mediocre photo and make it look good.  But if you're starting with a bad photo, no amount of editing will ever make it amazing.  The goal then of course, is to get it as the best image possible straight out of the camera.

12. Here's a link to a bunch of before/after edits from Joe Photo (a really great wedding photographer).  Some of the edits are more dramatic than others - but it's really cool to see the "out of camera" images vs. the edited images.

13. And a recent edit of mine.

14. I recently invested a bunch of money in new camera equipment, with the intentions of starting to shoot weddings professionally (a back-up plan for when my scrapbooking career takes a dive).  I picked up some really great equipment:

- Canon 5D

- Canon 24mm f1.4 lens (great for wide-angle shots)

- Canon 50mm f1.2 lens (great for everyday candids/portraits)

- Canon 85mm f1.8 lens (perfect for still portraits)

- Canon 200mm f2.8 lens (great telephoto)

My old Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens broke while I was in Germany (although I am looking into getting it repaired),  I ended up selling my 50mm f1.4 and decided to keep my Canon 20D body as a back-up camera.

It's all great equipment, but again, I think it's overkill unless you have plans of shooting professionally.

15. My recommendations for someone who is serious about learning photography and wants to make an investment without breaking the bank would be this:  Get a Canon Digital Rebel Xti (body only - don't buy it in a kit with a lens) for a little over 600 bucks.  If you want to spend the extra money, you can pick up a Canon 30D (body only) for $1000.00.  Prices on the 30D are going down since the Canon 40D just released (I shot with the Canon 10D before it was stolen and shot with the 20D until recently).  But quite honestly, I think the difference in cost between the Rebel and the 30D would be better spent on lenses.

16. Once you have a good camera body, the quality of your images is mostly dependant upon the quality of the lenses you put on it (that's why I tell people who have a Rebel and are thinking of upgrading to a 30D, that I think their money is better spent on lenses).

17. I don't recommend kit lenses because they typically don't have low enough aperture settings to allow you to work in low light situations or to get nice blurred backgrounds and it's sometime hard to get really tack sharp focus with kit lenses.

18.  Unfortunately, there is not one lens that meets everyone's needs, so I recommend lenses based on what you most frequently shoot.  Here's my recommendations:

- If you are primarily shooting portrait style stuff and candids of your kids/family, oftentimes indoors under low light situations (but it works great outdoors too), then I think the best lens for the money is either the Canon 50mm f1.8 for about 80 bucks (that's the deal of the century as far as lenses go) or the Canon 50mm f1.4 for about $300.  Big price difference and of course if you can swing the more expensive of the two, it's worth it.  You'll be able to work in lower light situations with the f1.4 and it produces sharper images and creamier skin tones, but if you want to stay within a certain budget, I just don't think you can go wrong with the 50mm f1.8 for $80.  You can get some incredible portraits and candids with this lens and even if you used if for a year and then decided to upgrade, you can still sell it online and recoup some of your money (and it will still be the best $80.00 you ever spent).  Ali Edwards shoots with the 50mm f1.8.   These are both prime/fixed lenses (meaning that they doesn't zoom...so you are the zoom...walk forward to zoom in...walk backwards to zoom out).

- If you are wanting something with a zoom, you'll have to invest a bit more money to get a good quality one.  The only lens I had for 3 years was a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 for $379.00.  It's a great lens.  You can pick up the Canon equivalent for about $1200.00 (but there's a lot of reviews that say that the Tamron is nearly as good in quality and doesn't have as many focusing problems...so I'd say, go for the cheaper Tamron).  It's an investment, but if you can swing it, it's a good one.  It will still let you work in moderately low light situations, but not as well the 50mm that I discussed above.  Zoom lenses in general are never quite as good in quality as prime/fixed lenses and they don't come with apertures that go below f2.8 (which limits how low of light situations you can work in).  My good friend Tanya is selling her Tamron 28-75, you can email her at kentwebee@comcast.net.

- If you can financially swing both of the lenses I mentioned above, you'll have a really good set-up that will allow you to work in a variety of situations.  This combo won't meet every single shooting situation out there, but I'd venture to say it could cover 90% of what I shoot (minus far away sports shots).  There are plenty of pros who shoot with this combination or upgraded versions of this combination.

19.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the perfect lenses for me, given what I shoot on a regular basis (portraits/candids/sports) and what I want to shoot professionally (weddings) and that is how I came up with the group of lenses I am working with now.  I gave up some of the flexibility/convenience of working with zoom lenses in favor of the lower apertures/better focusing that you get with primes/fixed lenses.  But it also means that I have to swap out lenses while I'm shooting which can be inconvenient sometimes (a lot of wedding photographers shoot with two camera bodies so they don't have to switch out lenses as frequently).

20. Don't use your new lens until you've got a UV filter on it though (helps protect the lens from being scratched/damaged/broken and also improves color quality and prevents hazy looking photos).

21. And a bit more info. on Scrapbookpictures.com: They have a lab tech. who does general color correction on all of the photos that are being processed, rather than color correction done by a computer, which typically results in better color correction.  If you edit/color correct your photos yourself, you can leave a note in the comments section to ask that they not preform any color correction on your photos.  But you have to keep in mind, that if your computer monitor at home is not color calibrated, that they color you see on your computer screen may not be accurate in the first place.  On the opposite end of that, if you don't do any color editing at home, it's a nice option to be able to leave a note in the comments section that says something along the lines of "please increase contrast all all photos" or "please increase color saturation on all photos".  Good to have options.  Also, I don't resize my photos before downloading them to Scrapbookpictures.com, which means that yes, it does take hours to download a big group of photos.  I just start the download before I go to bed at night and when I wake up in the morning, it's done.  Also, if you would rather mail a CD of your images to them, they will download it for you (I think it's 5 bucks per CD).

22. I am not currently working on any fine art textures for Scrapbookpictures.com, but it's something I'd like to offer in the future (when I find some time)!

23. Someone had asked why their pictures are looking blow-out when they have their 85mm set at f1.8...and I can't find the comment to respond directly to them.  I'd have to have more info. to help trouble-shoot this, like what mode you're shooting in (aperture priority, shutter speed priority, etc.).  So just leave another comment under this post with some more details.

24. Unrelated to photography...Annie's dress from my 8/6 post was from Gymboree (I buy stuff from them when it's on clearance/out of season, so I always buy it a size or two too big...which unfortunately means that it's not available through Gymboree anymore).  Her dress from 8/7 was from Target.  The Joss Stone concert was great (man, that girl can sing) and Summer Jo's is off of "G" Street (if you follow G Street out of town, you'll see signs for it - but the signs are easy to miss).

Hope this is a help.

Scrapbookpictures.com

That's just a new favorite of Annie (I took yesterday afternoon), with a new scratch on her face, which has absolutely nothing to do with my post today.

I started using Quick Stop Photo about 6+ years ago.

I wasn't a scrapbooker at the time, but I was really into photography (although I wasn't any good at it).

When someone told me about Quick Stop Photo, I remember thinking, I'm not going to use any lab called "Quick Stop Photo"...that would be like "Quick Stop Dentistry" (I was a dental hygienist for 11 years).

I just (wrongly) assumed that if their focus was on being "quick", then their focus couldn't be on "quality".

So it took a few more recommendations before I was willing to try them.

I loved their quality.

I loved that they were a third generation family owned lab.

I loved that they had been in business since 1949.

And I found out that they were called "Quick Stop Photo" because they were the first lab in the country to offer 1 hr. services.

So that's who I've used for years now (minus a brief stint when I moved 4 hours away from the lab and made the mistake of thinking I could find the same quality elsewhere).

It must have been a few years ago that Quick Stop Photo started a spin-off branch of their lab geared towards scrapbookers, called Scrapbookpictures.com.  The best thing for me was that they started offering almost 30 different print sizes, a lot of which are unique to scrapbookers (like 12x12's and 8.5x11's) and that I could choose to have my photos printed in color, B&W or sepia (which, when I had a film camera, was a huge relief because it meant that I didn't have to sweat over the decision of whether to put color or B&W film in my camera anymore).

And even though I have a really nice 12x12 photo printer at home, I end up with a cheaper and better quality print from Scrapbookpictures (so I only use my home printer when I am in needing something ASAP).

I also use Scrapbookpictures as a back-up form of storage for all of my photos.

I store almost 40,000 photos on their site for free (well technically, I have to order 1 print a year for them, so it costs me more like 16 cents).

I organize my photos on Scrapbookpictures the exact same way I organize my photos on my external hard drive at home (it's easier to find photos when they are organized in the same manner).

I've got a folder for 2004, 2005, 2006, etc.

And then, inside each of those "year" folders, I've got 12 "month" folders (01 for January, 02 for February, etc.)

And then, inside each of those "month" folders, I've got specific folders by event.

So, for example, inside the October folder for 2006, there are additional folders that say "Cole's birthday", "Pumpkin Patch", "Halloween", etc.

So my goal is to take all of my pictures off of my memory card each day (I take pictures almost every day).  I don't leave them on my memory card because it's hard for me to remember later if I've downloaded the pictures from the card or not and also because I've had a few cards go through the washing machine and dryer (and no, they don't work afterward).  Plus a card is just like any other piece of computer equipment, which is prone to failure (although cards are more stable than computers).

So I take my pictures off of my card and save them to my computer.

I have an external hard drive (it's a Maxtor 500G hard drive that I think I paid about $150.00 for) that is hooked up to my computer and is set up to automatically back up all of my photos and all of my artwork for Creative Imaginations at 2am every morning.

I don't delete the photos from my card until I know they were succesfully backed up to my external hard drive.

So then, my photos are on both my computer and my external hard drive (because I always want to have two back-ups).

And then my goal is to daily or weekly back up my photos from my computer to Scrapbookpictures.

Once they're backed up to Scrapbookpictures, I take them off of my computer (but they are still on my external hard drive), so that they aren't taking up too much space and slowing my computer down.

And again, I've got two back-ups.

I feel pretty comfortable with that system.  If my external hard drive crashes (and I've had two of the crash), then I can have Scrapbookpictures copy all of my photos to disk and send them to me so that I can put them onto a new external hard drive.  I don't worry about Scrapbookpictures losing my photos as they themselves have multiple sources of back up.

I don't use the CD's as a form of back-up (but I talked about that awhile back - you can look for it in the "Photography Tips" section of my blog).

I am planning on setting up a second external hard drive as a third source of back-up, just because it would be more convenient than having Scrapbookpictures copy all my photos to disk the next time one of my external hard drives crashes.

The thing with computer equipment is not a question of if it will crash or have problems, it is more a question of when it will crash or have problems (that's just the downfall with computers and computer equipment).

It takes a bit of time to learn how to navigate the Scrapbookpictures website, but once you figure it out, it's really, really easy.

You just set up an account with them (if you don't have an account with them already, you can use the code QAZ937 to get 15 free 4x6 inch prints).

From there, you can start organizing your folders and then you can start uploading your digital photos via a high speed internet connection (it takes a long time to download your files).

Scrapbookpictures does not automatically resize your photos to meet their size limitations (some labs automatically resize your photos), so even if you've got a 12megapixel camera, set at it's highest resolution, you won't have any resizing issues.

Once you've downloaded your photos, you can select which ones you'd like to order and add them to your cart.  From your cart, you can crop, select your photo sizes, choose color, B&W and/or sepia, choose matte, glossy and/or metallic paper, add borders in any color, etc.

And if you have any problems at all, they've got amazing customer service.  Just email doug@scrapbookpictures.com and he'll take care of you.

And, they've got a flat $2 shipping rate within the US (no matter how big your order is).

And good news for me...I'm done going through and deleting all of my digital files for 2006 and 2007 (I've just got 2004 and 2005 left to do).

Hoping to get it all done today so that I can take advantage of the 12cent prints Scrapbookpictures is offering (which ends tomorrow).

Online camera shopping

I think that B&H Photo is a great place to shop online for camera equipment.

Good prices and they're reputable.

Here's the Canon fixed 50mm f1.8 and here's the  f1.4 (which by the way, is at a phenomenal price)and they even make a (completely unaffordable) f1.2.

Of course, the more money you pay, the better lens you're going to get.

That said, I own the f1.4, middle-of-the-road version.

There's also something to be said for making these kind of purchases from your local camera shop.  You'll pay a little more money (they really can't match online prices), but it's often worth it for the customer service you get in exchange.

If I buy a camera or a lens from a local shop (and with the exception of one lens that I own, all of my equipment has come from local shops) and I have a problem or a question, I'll go down to the camera shop and ask questions for 20 minutes or an hour (however long it takes) and I feel ok about taking that much of their time, because I'm supporting that store with my business.  If I'm not supporting their business, then I wouldn't feel right in taking that much of their time.

And online?...you just won't get that kind of service.

Here's my newest lens.  And they, of course, make a ridiculously priced version of this lens (that I can only dream about).