Al Beatty 0 Report post Posted September 19, 2009 Hi guys, I just got a 90mm 2.8 Tamron Macro lens and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I used it for a protrait shoot on Friday and really liked it rather than the 18-200 I've been using. Thanks for listening; even an old guy can get excited about a new piece of equipment! Take care & ... Tight Lines - Al Beatty www.btsflyfishing.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scud 0 Report post Posted September 20, 2009 My computer must be broken. I can't see the pics? Jeremy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WYKnot 0 Report post Posted September 20, 2009 Sounds great Al, a well regarded lens from what I have read. Tried the macro capabilities yet? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lykos33 0 Report post Posted September 20, 2009 You're only old when you don't get excited about anything anymore.... :thumbsup: Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Al Beatty 0 Report post Posted September 22, 2009 Sounds great Al, a well regarded lens from what I have read. Tried the macro capabilities yet? Hi Russ, I just finished 11 macro shots for the Flyfisher and the lens is incredible/sharp. I really like that it has a real manual focus ring and it is also what is used to switch from auto to manual focus. Now I don't have to look on the side of the lens to find the M/A switch. Push/pull on the focus ring is all I have to do and even I can find that without taking my eye away from the view finder. I'm sure looking forward to a live view for macro shots but for now neither my Fugi S5 nor Gretchen's Nikon D200 has that option. Our next magazine check is headed for a D300; we'll fight later over who gets to use it! <G> Take care & ... Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty www.btsflyfishing.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WYKnot 0 Report post Posted September 23, 2009 Sounds like a great lens Al. You are right, the M-A switch can be a nuisance. A friend shoots the D300 and uses live view more than he imagined, can see it would be a plus for shooting macro (layout, proportions, framing). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WYKnot 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 So Al, did you and Gretchen get the D300 yet? Wondering what you thought about it. Sounds great Al, a well regarded lens from what I have read. Tried the macro capabilities yet? Our next magazine check is headed for a D300; we'll fight later over who gets to use it! <G> Take care & ... Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty www.btsflyfishing.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimk 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 Congrats on your new lens Al - macro is a lot of fun! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tybugs1 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 Hi guys, I just got a 90mm 2.8 Tamron Macro lens and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I used it for a protrait shoot on Friday and really liked it rather than the 18-200 I've been using. Thanks for listening; even an old guy can get excited about a new piece of equipment! Take care & ... Tight Lines - Al Beatty www.btsflyfishing.com Hi Al That should be an awesome lens for you and should have alot of fun. It sounds like you already have Can't wait to see some photos from the new lens. Lynn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Al Beatty 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 Hi Russ, No we have not gotten the D300. Instead we spent the dollars fixing our rec room/office after a damaged water pipe cause trouble. We ended up tearing everything back to the studs and starting over. We just finished installing insulation, hanging drywall, taping/mudding and painting. Today, Gretchen is back on fly orders and I'm doing trim so the project is almost done. Yeah! I never knew some of the most important things I'd learn in college was at the part-time job working for a couple contractors. One was a general contractor and the other a painting contractor and they shared "the kid" (me) mostly for cleanup but I did learn a bunch about general carpentry and did a lot of hand painting; EX: I can paint the edges/corners (cutting in) without putting down any tape. That sure saves a lot of time. But after this week, I'm back to shooting pictures. Thank God! Question: During the project I did have to take a break from the construction to shoot a couple dozen pix for Cabela's. I've never used the ".png" option when saving files; I've always used RAW (.dng), Tif or Jpg so this was a new thing for me. In reading on the Internet about .png files I learned it is a "lossless compression" file format. Have you (or any of the people on this group) used that format? Should we be using it instead of .jpg? I don't know but I'd like to learn more about it from those of you "in the know" on this group <G>!? Take care & ... Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty www.btsflyfishing.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JayMorr 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 Question: During the project I did have to take a break from the construction to shoot a couple dozen pix for Cabela's. I've never used the ".png" option when saving files; I've always used RAW (.dng), Tif or Jpg so this was a new thing for me. In reading on the Internet about .png files I learned it is a "lossless compression" file format. Have you (or any of the people on this group) used that format? Should we be using it instead of .jpg? I don't know but I'd like to learn more about it from those of you "in the know" on this group <G>!? Take care & ... Hey Al! I hope all is well with you and Gretchen. We are looking forward to seeing both of you at the Wasatch Fly Tying Expo this coming year. In regards to your question, I hope I can shed some light that you find useful on .PNG files. PNG was designed back in the mid 90's to replace .GIF files. To give you a bit of history on this reason, 1. The .GIF file extension got patented by a company called Unisys. 2. The .GIF extension has a limitation of only 256 colors. This means that a computer is only capable of displaying 256 colors on a GIF. With technology advancements and computers being more capable of handling more colors arose the need for a different format. PNG is not to be used or replace professional photos. The reason that PNG has become a file format is due to the transparency options that can be used with it. Most graphic designers/web guys use PNG files to handle any kind of transparencies for logos etc. A GIF file is limited to 8-bit and PNG offers a color depth of 24 and 48-bit (True Color). This results in smoother fades and much more controlled color outputs. The reason you would not replace a JPEG file with PNG is the fact that JPEG can produce much smaller files than a PNG on photographic images. This is because JPEG uses what people call a "lossy encoding method" that is designed specifically for photo data. Using PNG instead of a high-quality JPEG would result in a enormous file size increase, typically 10x's lager and you usually do not see any kind of improvement using the PNG file. PNG is a much better choice for images that contain text, line art. This is why you see most graphic designers who do vector art or using Adobe Illustrator, saving files in PNG format. Another reason you would save in PNG is because JPG does not support transparency. If you are going to be saving images that require a lot of editing in the future then you can justify saving the files in PNG format. Otherwise do not use it. In the past if you wanted to save something as a transparency, you would use GIF. GIF is still nice for smaller types of logos and images and cuts down on file size. I almost always use PNGs now! I hope this information helps you Al. There are also some nice links out there that go over this topic in full detail. Bottom line, I only save to PNG when I am working with images in Adobe Illustrator and doing some sort of logo or design that encompasses a photo or is a file with lots of gradients. Take Care! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
720 Kevan 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 very cool must be fun Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Al Beatty 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2009 Question: During the project I did have to take a break from the construction to shoot a couple dozen pix for Cabela's. I've never used the ".png" option when saving files; I've always used RAW (.dng), Tif or Jpg so this was a new thing for me. In reading on the Internet about .png files I learned it is a "lossless compression" file format. Have you (or any of the people on this group) used that format? Should we be using it instead of .jpg? I don't know but I'd like to learn more about it from those of you "in the know" on this group <G>!? Take care & ... Hey Al! I hope all is well with you and Gretchen. We are looking forward to seeing both of you at the Wasatch Fly Tying Expo this coming year. In regards to your question, I hope I can shed some light that you find useful on .PNG files. PNG was designed back in the mid 90's to replace .GIF files. To give you a bit of history on this reason, 1. The .GIF file extension got patented by a company called Unisys. 2. The .GIF extension has a limitation of only 256 colors. This means that a computer is only capable of displaying 256 colors on a GIF. With technology advancements and computers being more capable of handling more colors arose the need for a different format. PNG is not to be used or replace professional photos. The reason that PNG has become a file format is due to the transparency options that can be used with it. Most graphic designers/web guys use PNG files to handle any kind of transparencies for logos etc. A GIF file is limited to 8-bit and PNG offers a color depth of 24 and 48-bit (True Color). This results in smoother fades and much more controlled color outputs. The reason you would not replace a JPEG file with PNG is the fact that JPEG can produce much smaller files than a PNG on photographic images. This is because JPEG uses what people call a "lossy encoding method" that is designed specifically for photo data. Using PNG instead of a high-quality JPEG would result in a enormous file size increase, typically 10x's lager and you usually do not see any kind of improvement using the PNG file. PNG is a much better choice for images that contain text, line art. This is why you see most graphic designers who do vector art or using Adobe Illustrator, saving files in PNG format. Another reason you would save in PNG is because JPG does not support transparency. If you are going to be saving images that require a lot of editing in the future then you can justify saving the files in PNG format. Otherwise do not use it. In the past if you wanted to save something as a transparency, you would use GIF. GIF is still nice for smaller types of logos and images and cuts down on file size. I almost always use PNGs now! I hope this information helps you Al. There are also some nice links out there that go over this topic in full detail. Bottom line, I only save to PNG when I am working with images in Adobe Illustrator and doing some sort of logo or design that encompasses a photo or is a file with lots of gradients. Take Care! Wow, Jay! Thanks for the information on PNG files. That was most helpful. I'll stick with JPG, TIF and RAW for now. They seem to work well with Lightroom 2.5. When I'm shooting fly/product pix I use RAW/TIF. For weddings, etc. I use JPG just because it's easier to produce contact sheets, etc. and when I do enlargement on MPIX they want JPG files. Thanks again for all the good information; I appreciate you taking the time to make the post. Take care & ... Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty www.btsflyfishing.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WYKnot 0 Report post Posted November 18, 2009 I second the "Wow Jay". Thanks for the post, lots of good information. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WYKnot 0 Report post Posted November 18, 2009 I took a photo workshop over the last two Saturdays (being largely self-taught there are plenty of bad habits to uproot). I had the chance to shoot with a D300 coupled to a 70-200mm/2.8, what a treat! Anyway, the Nikon reminded me of this thread. Glad to hear the renovation is nearing completion. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
