Thank, I need to think about that. And certainly yes about overthinking. There are now all these “doubts” before I press the shutter. I’ve tried to fix that by taking one phot quickly, and then consider all the possibilities. I never used to do that - I just “took the picture”. I realize that I need to do the work before a feed an image to PhotoLab - there is only so much it can do. Spontaneity does not mean “sloppy”. GIGO.
Shooting with the Leica reminds me of shooting with my old film rangefinder cameras, where nothing was “precise”, even the edges of the image. Set exposure properly, focus, and don’t jerk the shutter release.
So, both are at their maximum, 2560 for the ASUS, and 1920 max for iMac.
From what Joanna wrote, I guess I leave everything as is for now, but if I remember correctly, the Apple display I might buy is much larger.
I guess I’m done with this. For now, things stay as they are, and I’ll follow through on all the advice up above. (Joanna, you mentioned 27" iMac, but mine is only 21".)
Correct me if I’m wrong. But displaying an image shows that image at 100% as 1 image pixel is 1 monitor pixel. Irrelevant of the setting.
I just changed the resolution to to 1920x1440 but the only thing that happens is that the active window is getting smaller. The pixel pitch doesn’t change.
Let’s pretend the resolution for my imaginary monitor is 100x100 pixels.
Now, I want to view an image which is 100x100 pixels, at 100% which to me means this image will fill the viewable screen, filling my display screen.
Now, I do the same with an image which is 50x50 pixels. I would expect it to be shown filling half the screen, with nothing around it.
Now, I take a monitor that has a resolution of 200x200 pixels, and do the same thing. I would expect a large empty area on my screen, surrounding the same thing as before, but smaller.
I’m assuming one pixel on the image equals one pixel on the display, unless I change the settings to make the image bigger or smaller on the screen.
Is this valid? I see the confusion, and I’m confused now.
(My iMac and my ASUS have similar resolutions, and the image when moved half way onto the other looks the same, but the ASUS has much more space around my image.)
Thanks; for my original purpose, the ASUS seemed like a good solution. As soon as I can afford it (meaning sell something so I can use the $$$) I want to buy the Apple Display, but there is no “urgency”. Thanks to all the advice up above, I feel much more comfortable about this color “stuff”. Do I “need” perfectly accurate color? Nope. But I’d like to get close.
Another “off-topic” question. For maybe ten years, I’ve been trying to get photos of lightning from my balcony from approaching storms. I was talking to a friend about it earlier, and he suggested a “lightning trigger”. The camera senses when the strike is going to happen, and the camera fires. He told me (his words, not mine) that the D3 would be a perfect camera for this because it is so fast. He used to do this with his own D3, and he bought two of those “triggers”. One more thing to look into, before I head back to India.
That might work when the lightning hits you neighbours but not far away.
I think it’s a matter of long exposure and some luck. And a tripod off course.
Hmm, could be useful in town and not too much lightning activity, but then you’d want times longer than 30 seconds. It takes a few tests in order to see which setting works best.
The following was captured with 15 seconds at f/16 in summer 2014.
Lots of water and lightning flashes pouring all over the place!
Edited with the tone curve and HSL. Cranking up the shadows would reveal details in the trees and parts of the house. I darkened/clipped the shadows with the tone curve and could have raised the RH parts of the sky, but after all, it’s about taking the photo in the first place…
Some of the activity was happening in the clouds which produced blue to magenta lighting. First take was 30 seconds, second was 8 seconds, all the rest was taken with 15 seconds.
One could also set time to “B”, press the shutter, wait and release the shutter after a lightning or two … all while trying to stay reasonably dry.
He lives south of Miami, and I may do that. I invited him to come to my home some time in the future, and shoot the city of Miami with lightning from my balcony. Oh, and I can’t borrow his D3 because he tripped while carrying a tripod, the D3, and a long lens, and he says the D3 is too damaged to repair. After that he went through several Nikon mirrorless cameras, was not happy, then bought a Z8 which he loves. He explained how the best triggers “sense” an upcoming lightning strike, which I don’t yet understand. These images are from the website I copied - but $400 may be too much to spend. I’ve got a lot of reading to do, and will check out the devices sold by B&H Camera: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/camera-trigger-systems/ci/27982/N/3777857686
South India, and I have good access to Wi-Fi.
That’s what I used to do. Yuck. Every so often I might get a useful image. Tripod? Yes.
That’s what I meant, but as usual, you said it much better!
His D3 is broken beyond repair, and he now uses a Nikon Z8. According to him, the D3 was the fastest camera he ever used. I’ll accept that, for now - maybe I’ll try to check this out.
I used to try it your way, and occasionally was rewarded with a useful image. As to Lightning Season, Miami seems to always be in that season, but most storms here seem to come from the South or West, giving my great photo opportunities before the inevitable rain reaches me, blocking out any view I have of Biscayne Bay and the city. I see potential photos I wish I had taken all the time. Good advice - plan ahead.
From the quick searching I did last night, almost everyone suggested one of the lightning triggers. I’m doubtful that an ND filter combined with a long exposure would help, but maybe that’s an alternate thing to try.
I love your results! Maybe not the getting drenched part, but those are VERY nice!
I got curious about what you wrote. Apparently the correct term is “shutter lag”.
Here is a comparison chart for many cameras, listing their shutter lag:
I didn’t realize this until now - this device controls not only the timing and the release, but also the exposure settings. The D850 and the D3 are almost tied. You might find this device even more useful, with all the resolution you’ve got. As for the D780, I need to contact them, as it isn’t updated yet.
Most of my (not that great) lightning photos showed the color of the lightning as white. I don’t remember any of my camera settings - this was with my D750, and earlier, long ago, and I kept trying until I got too frustrated with what I thought was “my timing”. Anyway, your images are very consistent about this. I would have expected the flash to be more “clear/white”.
I did find one image in the gallery I posted, that looks like what you saw, with the “purple” color:
When/if I get to doing this again, I will most likely set the camera as @Joanna suggested, to 5600K, and see what I get.
All things considered, despite what my friend told me, I expect to try this with my D780, not the D3. I expect to crop the final image, and I’d like the resolution of my newer camera.
Instead of inserting all the silly advertisements into the forums, DxO could insert “tips” on how to get the most out of their products. Reading about a thousand new DxO Optics Modules is just a waste of screen space. @Joanna could be paid to create 100 useful “tips” that can be inserted instead of these annoying ads. That would also likely be a far better advertisement than what DxO is currently doing…
Or, at the least, provide a check-box to close the ads. Sorry for interrupting… Grumble…
