He has a lot of articles about flash.
I’m looking for another tut daling speedlight and ttl. When I found it I’ll send it.
When shooting raw you can adjust the color in PL or any other raw concerter.
George
Between what I recently learned on-line, what I learned from calling B&H Photo, I know a lot more than what I used to. The two gels that I see came with the flash have long since vanished. Since in the 1980’s I was mostly using B&W film, I have no idea where the box, the “base”, the gels, and likely more vanished to. My SB-800 printed manual was probably purchased decades after the flash - it’s a copy, not an original. Life over the past ten years or so has been easy - the flash sat in a storage drawer, un-used, and when I needed a flash, I used the pop-up flash on my cameras, up until the D780, which didn’t have a built-in flash.
(I suspect that the SB-800 came along with my Nikon F4 from the person I bought the whole kit from in the 1980’s, which means I might not have even gotten all the bits and pieces…)
All the things I’ve been reading over the past week are fascinating - I never even attempted to do any of those things. My only need for the flash has been to light up people’s faces, when shooting into the light.
Funny, back then the SB-800 was considered very expensive - but I had a job, and an income, and same as now, I always wanted “the best” (or at least my definition of “the best”).
As of today, I have no idea where I might have those two gels, or the base for the flash. I did find the “dome/diffuser” that goes over the flash - it was in the flash case, along with the SB-800 - which I remember having removed the batteries from decades ago, to prevent corrosion.
Right now, the flash has four standard AA batteries in it, and I found an ancient AA charger for Ni-MH cells, but one of the contacts is corroded. I suspect I should just buy a replacement, for whatever type of cells people use nowadays. The manual says I can use a long list of batteries.
@George - thanks for the link. It looks far more useful than all the pages and websites that I’ve looked over for the past several days. Eventually, there is a lot to learn, but my current goal is to do the best I can with an on-camera flash, lighting up parts of an image that would otherwise be way too dark. I realize a lot more is possible, but I’m still in “kindergarten class” when it comes to flash, and I still need to learn how to use the controls that I can access on the flash itself.
I guess all of this is for the “photojournalist” side of me, using the flash to light the scene together a better documentary-style photo. Flash photography goes way, way beyond that, learning how to use lighting most effectively.
As to PhotoLab, while it can improve my worst photos with poor lighting, 95% of those have been due to the subject being far too dark, because of the lighting. I now understand that using a flash (or several) can do so much more, but I’m still dealing with the basics (which I never had to do with my D750, as I just raised the flash. It was a VERY handy tool, for 'snapshots".
@platypus - now that I’m back from India, I have lots of “free time”, and the “Digital Photography School” articles are something I know nothing about, yet, and I can see that they are well worth learning. I thinking doing things as described are likely a far better idea than trying to use PhotoLab to correct the colors later.
@mwsilvers
A big advantage of Filmpack is that it is totally integrated with Photolab and works even with all RAW-files Photolab supports. NIK is an Adobe-oriented plug-in that needs an intermediate format - read TIFF and since I really hate TIFF I´m not at all happy with this poor integartion with Photolab.
I would like DXO to turn NIC Collection to a real integrated plug in like Filmback is. They own them all, what is stopping them?
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In fact most of Nik collection functionality is already incorporated in PhotoLab
@Required
Since you seem to have got back to this nice long tread by @mikemyers I would like to add that ClearView Plus can be a problem to use with images taken during conditions like a dark November or December if there is no snow that can help.
Be really careful with ClearView because it uses a lot of Microcontrast and that tool is really bad for an evenly colored or grey sky.
There is also no coincidence I also have a Sony A7 III and A7 IV, because the first of them is still I think the Sony-model with the best low light sensor. Together with Deep Prime XD it is as good as it gets - and you need it here
In theory but not in practise. There are filters there that is not in Filmpack. NIK is a quite a lot more but it is for sure up to you, which choice you do. TIFF is almost a show stopper for me so most of the times I prefer use Filmpack.
TIFF is a remnant from the nineties or even the eighties when that was needed for the transfer to Photoshop.
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I wasn’t aware of that.
I do know that I try to avoid external methods of adjusting my images, that take the original RAW file out of the loop. I have the original (free for download) Google version of NIK, and I also bought the DxO version, but I stopped using them. The only external program I’m likely to use is Topaz Sharpen, but that results in a Tiff file. What I felt, and still feel, about NIK software as I feel it is somebody else’s idea of what my image might look like, not my own. Just like with Luminar AI, I end up with what (to me) feels like a fake image - no longer “my” photograph. I understand that my feelings are irrelevant, as they are based on “photojournalism”. I think “sky replacement” is fun, but (to me) fake.
To @Joanna - where would I find this Nik-like functionality in PhotoLab? I didn’t know it existed. Just curious.
Hi Mike!
If you have Filmpack just click the “Light”-symbol
You can also get a lot of “Style presets” by clicking “Apply Presets” at the top right as you probably already know. I guess some of these presets comes from Filmpack too.
Rather than faffing around with expensive and complicated flash equipment, simply buy a folding reflector and prop it up in front of your backlit subject(s)
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@danielfrimley
I will show you how extremely fast conditions can vary in the dark times of the year at Rindö Island in the Baltic Sea where I live. This period in Sweden can be as long as from October to March and sometime we can have ice even in the beginning of April. A few times it has been snowing as far in the spring as on Labour Day the 1:st of May. The summer is very short but often fantastic but the real peak of the tourist season is from middle of June to middle of August.
A popular Swedish summer song translated goes something like this: “The summer is short and most of it rains away”. So, what are we really doing here?? Well, I think more than 100 000 has emigrated to Spain and Portugal for good has the answer to that.
Is it cloudy in the winter time of the year , it gets even darker and a good advice if you happen to be at work and still want to take pictures then use your lunch time to do that. Especially up to around the 20th of December when it is as darkest there are just a few hours in the middle of the day when there can be good light conditions. For most people in the darkest period, it is completely dark when they go to work and it is as dark when they leave work.
Below I will give you a few examples have much the weather can vary injust a few days and together with that the conditions for photography. All are taken with my Samsung A42 and all are “as is”. The only thing I have done with them is to level the horizons.
A year ago 2023-02-06 There was no ice at all and so it was the whole winter I think.
This year though we have had a totally terrible ice winter with thick packed ice here and sometimes the boats have to struggle hard to get to the jetties with long delays as a result. Long periods we have had between -10 ti -15 centigrades but this is nothing. In Lappland we had an all-time low for January of -44. February is normally the coldest and all time low is -52,6 ºC at a place called Vuoggatjålme 2 februari 1966. So much for that global warming :-).
google maps Vuoggatjålme - Sök (bing.com)
But some days even in January it can be absolutely fantastic.
The day after the picture above the children were scating on the ice of the sea
Ten days later, I took this picture standing at the very same jetty as the boat is approaching in the picture above, after coming from the boat transportation hub of Vaxholm in the middle of the day after buying som food.
It was almost a halo effect around the sun. If you look really careful you can see some yellow on top of the exhaust outlet in the back of the boat. This image looks almost as it is taken in B/W but it’s not. It´s an RGB-image that looks like this in the middle of the day in som sort of a sunshine too. The ice has started to melt after a few days of milder weather.
The next day almost all of the ice was gone (the rest had blown away to the other shore of Sun Island Bay (Solöfjärden).
Today the 6:th of February the ice is building up in our harbor again.
The best I can say about our climate here is that the weather rarely gets boring, because it is constantly changing even during one single day often. We say we have eight seasons here and when I once lived in Israel with six months of clear skies and a merciless sun, I really missed the seasons here and I also really missed all the water here. Judea is a color less desert. We don´t only have the sea here, both in Finland and Sweden there are ten thousands of lakes too.
Rindö is a much nicer place in the summer:
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Yikes!!! One really, really off-topic question - do you have to send off your cameras to get the lubrication removed or changed, so the cameras will work in such a cold environment??
Your photos look fascinating, and like from another world. Other than the very first photo, I’ve never seen anything like the other images. Gee, forget the camera for a minute - how do YOU keep warm? As to the ships/boats, that third photo makes me think the ship might be trapped in the ice. Is it for people only, or does it also take cars and trucks?
I love the photos, and especially the reflections from the mostly hidden sun.
I don’t see the yellow exhaust though. I don’t see much color at all.
Is that two different views of the same ferry boat?
Yes, I have versions 5 and 6. Oops, in checking this, version 6 wanted to do an update. Done.
It’s getting on near 10pm; will pause here, and continue tomorrow.
It has been a year or two since I last tried to work with Filmpack, I think.
Maybe I should completely forget about NIC Collection, and instead concentrate on FilmPack to create effects that I like…
It is highly unlikely that will ever happen for a variety of reasons that I have posted multiple times in other threads so I will not repeat them again here.
Mark
One related question that I didn’t think about until PhotoLab surprised me with a performance bonus.
I’ve used PhotoLab on several Apple computers by now, all of which had Intel chips built in. My 2015 MacBook Pro, that I was about to take with me to India, developed a bulging battery (fourth time this has happened), and after replacing the battery multiple times at no charge, Apple told me the computer was too old, and they wouldn’t take it back to once again replace the battery.
After a lot of searching, I bought a new MacBook Pro last November, and used it both here at home, and the various places I went to in India.
One thing shocked me - using PhotoLab, and ESPECIALLY exporting images took a lot of time. I was used to this, so it was just part of the program I had to deal with. But, with my new MacBook Pro, exporting images hardly took any time at all. That’s wonderful, and I am now completely spoiled.
The thing I haven’t quite sorted out in my mind, is if I should continue using my Mac mini for PL6, or change my whole computer area around so that my MacBook Pro becomes the heart of the system.
For anyone reading this, who is using an Intel powered Mac, changing to a new model with the Apple chip makes for a huge performance increase. There are probably far better places to read about this than this forum entry, but I’m thrilled (and a little frustrated) by this, as if I could afford it, I would want to replace my intel powered computers with the new Mac computers.
I have no idea what is going on in the Windows world, but I think they still use Intel chips?
Use whatever you have - or spend money and time… Whatever makes you happy.
My main Mac is a 5K 2019 iMac and I also got a M1 MacBook Air in late 2020. Both work equally well with PhotoLab or any other app.
I use Go64 to check if my apps for use on the M1, which I have kept Rosetta-free so far. Rosetta is not a problem as such, I do this for the fun and challenge of having a computer with native-only apps. YMMV.
I use my 16" MacBook Pro, hooked up to a 27" Apple Studio Display. That way, I get the large screen for editing in the office and the laptop when I teach elsewhere. No need to transfer files.
That is what I want - my MacBook is new, very portable, and is large enough for me to use overseas. Now that I’m home again, I am back to using my 2018 Mac mini, but I have been spoiled by the graphics performance of the new Apple chip…
In that case, just plug it into an Apple Studio Display and forget about your old Mac Mini. You get a stunning large high resolution display, especially if you choose the nano texture model.
Hmmm…
Apple 17" Retina display
I have been asked to come up with a way to edit 4K eye surgery videos - Aravind Eye Hospital now has two Sony 4K cameras and one D780, and last year I bought my own D780. Since I read that the Apple Studio Display can edit 5K files, would it be good for 4K video as well?
That’s the one, except I strongly recommend the nano texture glass, especially for your brightly lit apartment.
Of course.