The Online Photographer

Past Blasts: 'The Cure for Camera Agony'

[Note: The Online Photographer's M.C., majordomo, and Chief Bottlewasher, Mike J., just had his eye operated on and is recuperating. Big rule during recovery: no screens, no reading, lie flat and stare at the ceiling. He got an Echo and is listening to Audible books! Meanwhile, for your amusement and delectation, a few blasts from the past. At least one will be published every day while Mike's away. But so sorry—no comments (the moderator is also staring at the ceiling...).]

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What's the cure for camera agony of any sort? Just work. Shoot. Get interested in something. Take stock of what equipment you already have, and figure out what it can be used for. Go shoot. Get involved in the pictures. If your camera isn't the last word in high ISOs, then find a little more light and shoot at lower ISOs. You'll live. If your camera doesn't have the best dynamic range, then avoid high-contrast scenes. If your camera won't print really, really big, then make your prints a little smaller. It won't kill you, I promise. It ain't the camera.

The more that people get interested in the pictures they're making, the less they obsess about equipment. Try it. It's really true—it really works.

—Time-Traveling Mike, from 2008

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Amazon.com • Amazon UK • Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany • B&H Photo • Adorama

(Sorry! There are no comments this week—the moderator is also stuck supine staring at the ceiling.)

DxO Deal

I'm not supposed to be posting today (still prepping for the big week ahead), but I thought you might like to know (especially given the rumors recently that Adobe is toying with the idea of doubling the price of a Photoshop CC subscription from $10 to $20 a month) that DxO is having a summer promo deal of its PhotoLab 2 Elite Edition software. PhotoLab 2 Elite Edition (i.e., the full version) is a raw converter with specific lens+camera correction modules and some local editing features added to make it into a complete image editor. The normal one-time price is $199 and it's on sale for $89 until June 4th (Tuesday). The promo code is SUMMER-GIFT-BY-DXO. I can't give you a link I'm sure is reliable for everyone; go to DxO and navigate.

I've never used DxO, as it doesn't support Fuji X-Trans. But it might be another option to consider for those of you still looking for an alternative to Adobe.

DxO, a French company located in Boulogne-Billancourt in the Western suburbs of Paris, is famous for its DxOMark Sensor rankings which consider the capabilities of sensors. (There also, Fuji is omitted.) [CORRECTION: DxO (software) and DxOMark Image Labs are no longer the same company. They split in September of 2017. Thanks to O.G. for this, and sorry for the error. —Ed.] Note that at DxOMark only the sensor is considered, so when it ranks a camera highly for "Sports," for example, it means only the low-light capability of the sensor and is not considering any of the other camera capabilities that have to do with sports shooting. DxO was originally famous for its lens modules, which provided software corrections for lens deficiencies tailored to individual lens designs.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Amazon.com • Amazon UK • Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany • B&H Photo • Adorama

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