Thanks to all the guys that turned up for the 3rd course held at my Dunsborough gallery. We managed to keep talking till midnight and discussed all aspect of photography and the benefits of solar panels on the roof!!! A special mention to my new sponsors Flametree Wines for their stunning wine. I think it made my job easier after a nice relaxing glass or two. As I mentioned if you guys have any questions please put them forward on the blog and we can try to get some answers. Nicky said you were the best looking bunch of blokes yet, don’t tell those from course 1 and 2. I didn’t notice, your all ugly blokes to me!!
Cheers
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Really happy to hear you all had a great night, but really sad that ai am stuck over on the eastern side in smokey Bright, unable to attend one your famed sessions. I won’t let it stop me from asking questions tho ……….
I need a new monitor, is there a more affordable one to eiso? Have just upgreded my PC to handle the increasing file sizes and the monitor that came with it is a total pigdog !!!
Hi Christian
Thanks very much for the very informative session. The wine and the company was great. Learnt a lot and will now have to try and better myself. Got up early to go to sugar loaf mountain only to sit in the car in the rain. Will have to set up a proper website with a blog. All the best. John
Hi Rhonda,
Try looking at the Samsung XL20.
It’s an LED backlit screen, great colours, it comes with a screen calibrator and a hood to shield light.
At the moment they are around $600 on ebay.
Only one small problem they are still developing the drivers for the calibrator for Windows Vista.
Thank you again for a wonderful night, I learnt a lot, no more filling the memory card with bracketed shot’s for the sake of it. Inspirational to say the least and a great insight into the world of someone whose made it! I too woke up to find rain and mist, but as I was in the Ferguson Valley, I tried to make the most of the atmosphere. Oh, I didn’t bracket any shots’ either:)
G,Day Christian
Very informative evening on saturday, Thanks. Took the prototype pano head out to SugarLoaf this morning and gave it a work out in between showers, did the job pretty well but will fine tune things in the next week or so and let all those who might be interested from the last course know about it via your your blog if thats ok with you.
Cheers Pete.
I know one of the blokes there on Sat is pretty ugly, but I can’t comment on the rest.
(He’s gunna kill me when he reads this.)
Glad to hear it was a hit again and everyone enjoyed it. When we have a course 1 reunion you can load up the poor fools who missed out on a drink the first time around.
Fletch if you keep this up people will be going to you for a wine tasting evening, and up around the corner to the wine bar for a photography night.
Thanks guy for the comments on the course, hope I didn’t bore you too much, Sorry to hear about the rain, lets say I didn’t get up to shoot, to tired and surprisingly felt hung over!!!! Don’t know why. I owe all the first coursers a drink, so when you all come to my photoshop course !!!!!!!!!
Merv he was better looking than you!! But nothing photoshop couldn’t fix. I think he might be able to sell a few of his custom built pano heads, the “head-ge Hodgson” I will be getting a commission as I am a struggling artist!!!
Rhonda, sorry I ‘m not full bottle on screens, I just bought the Eizo on the recommendation of someone else. Haven’t even looked into what is a good one. Obviously the more you pay the better it will be, hopefully, so thats what I work on. I suggest getting a mac and stop beating yourself up with a pc.
I can’t believe it, I thought we’d agreed that it was going to be called Merv’s Affordable Pano Head. Obviously he hasn’t told the the full story and is taking all the credit,jeezzz I still can’t believe it.
Sorry but this time,as you said, it’s commiserations to you and not commission.
doh !!!!
Hey Christian, a huge thanks for the course, really interesting to hear the history and see the work flow. Fairly hard to concentrate when the beautiful nicole was sitting across from me. When I grow up I want a co-worker like her.
Thanks Christian….(I am now totally despondant, not only do I have a crap monitor, but I am smoked out, shoot with a nikon and have just bought a new pc…….how very unmac of me) LOL
But I do see a tiny chink of light, thanks to Thomas, am on to the samsung. cheers
Tony, Tony, Tony, she is young enough to be your daughter. Actually most guys like our Nic. In fact she gets asked out weekly!! I’m sure the other blokes thought she was a bit of alright. These are the perks of coming to a later course. First there was no wine, Second there was just the wine, the third we had wine, and woman, for the fourth I plan on breaking into song!! Wine, Women and song, what more could you want???
Glad you liked the other part of the course, the one I was holding!! Cheers
Rhonda, what??? you shoot with a Nikon, sorry I may have to delete your posts!!!………………………..nah I won’t………………..we need someone to feel sorry for.
The night was “Worth every penny”. Have already ordered the CS3 Kelby book and downloaded the PTGUI software and addressed and used both the sharpening and the local contrast methodologies with fantastic results. Old pictures have now improved and my new hi-res pano pictures are stunning (well I think so).
I went straight out to the Tuart Forest and took a 3 high, 11 across pano. CS3 just went through the 33 images and without hesitation and with no further assistance from me stitched them into a 925Mb image (70″ x 25″ @ 300dpi) that I couldn’t fault. It took an hour. The only problem is that, with my current ancient PC, anything I tried to do to the image took a coffee break to process so I am now in urgent need of a PC upgrade. Life is always a challenge! Anyway, I can’t wait to increase the photo stock and ditch the many average older shots I now look upon with disdain. Great evening Christian, good to meet the other attendees and apologies to Nicole for not thanking her for her assistance on the night. Oh, by the way, I use neither Canon or Nikon but an Olympus E-3 and I love it.
Great to hear the course has helped you Michael. The big file sizes can be a strain on the computer but it is nice to have to reduce files not blow them up. The detail you get is pretty amazing when you see it for the first time. I am really keen to make a billboard out of my biggest files just to see how it would look. I think you could just walk into them. Thanks for the great review of the night, and I will tell Nicky you said thanks.
Fletch, it would be cool if you could get a big billboard shot that is up around the entrance to Dunsborough so it is like a welcome to Dunsborough sign. (if that makes sence?)
Cheers
Yes Im starting to feel left out, but Im starting to make up for it, I bought two 22″ wide screen Samsung LCD monitors, and after seeing them at the Digital Life Expo here in Johannesburg South Africa, they are a must to have.and only R2799 each. (A$350)
Now maybe you guys can help me….! Im looking for the right direction as to what ND grad filters I should buy, I purchased a Cokin filter holder with the series P ND8 filter, unfortanatly they didnt have any stock in Australia of any of the other filters and didnt get any before I left. what would be the best ones to get to fit my system. ND2, ND4 ??? and if you stack them should a get a few of each. have a great day.
re the Samsung screens http://www.buy247.co.za/products.php?productsid=3790
Nigel, I’ve been using the Cokin filters’ as well, since that’s what I have. I’ve just picked up my ND8 which is the P121 to go with my P120 which I believe is about an ND2, so try this:
http://www.cokin.fr/ico3-p1-6.html
http://www.cokin.fr/filtres2.html?=#121
I don’t think I’ll be buying any more Cokins’ though, It’s time to move up to a Lee Filter Kit. Good luck in Jo’burg, I was there in the late 70′s as a youngster (spent a year living in Ponte(!) before moving to Bellvue, there’s some beautiful scenery over there, are you going to post any images on your site?:)
Dylan, I have a photo on the billboard coming into Busselton of the jetty. Average photo but looks good at 20 meters wide!!
Nige, I don’t know anything about the Cokin filters but the Lee are pretty good. I normally use the 3 stop nd grad but have been stacking the 2 stop nd grad as well to give it a bit more kick in the sky. I say don’t go pokin with the cokin, get the Lee, it’ll fill ya with glee……………ok that was really bad!!! Hope the light is good in SA. We have had some cracker light over here!
yeah that does ring a bell… I would have seen it on my way through. 20 metres is a decent size print! hahaha
Hi guys, the light has always been great here, but you find yourself in a car traveling on a highway while the sunset goes off. always rush home to find it all over. the other thing is trying to get a good view point without powerlines and other non descriptive towers etc. But we are going into the Drakensburgs, really nice country for nine days. hope to come back with some great shots. will try and post them on my new site, the last lot Ive done I have been very disapointed with, didnt use the grad filters when I should have. learnt my lesson now.
As for filters I have the ND8 (121s) but want the rest, I think the ND2 (121L) and the ND4 (121M). will have to order them. as for Lee’s I will have to work my way up to them, as I will need to buy extra holders etc for them too.
Have you guys ever used any of the warming or coloured filters? I beleve the red is good if you want to shoot black and white. I also have an infra red filter, but havent worked out how to use it. anybody else tried one? have a great day.
Not used anything but my lee grads, I have though used the warming filter in CS3 a couple of times, other than that a gradient here and there ( in CS3) is pretty much it for me.
Christian,
Thanks again for forwarding on your experiences and knowledge on Saturday night. It was well worth it. Also thank you for the Injidup print, I think it is the first time I have ever managed to win something. Happy as Larry. Also… bravo to Nicole for the kind hospitality and for making the course that little bit more interesting.
Again.. Great course!
Nigel,
I have, and still sometimes use the Cokin P series ND filters. There is nothing really wrong with them when used individually, but I found when stacking them you end up with a magenta colour cast. The colour cast may be desired in some cases but more often than not it is frustrating. I ended up splashing out and getting the Lee filters. Lee = No colour cast. Hope that helps in someway.
thanks for that info Luke, I will have to sort myself out with lee filters than. just been trying to get some cokin’s that I havent got as yet. and thats a run around on its own. but we will get there. got this long week end coming up and I wanted to play.
Luke, thanks for the extra information on the Cokins, I wondered where that came from! No more ‘pokin’ for me, I’ve just ordered me some ‘glee’! B & H don’t have any, and Amazon wouldn’t send them out of the US! ‘Speedgraphic’ in the UK came through and it worked out cheaper than the US as well!
Hi Christian
Since your seminar I have looked into Lee Filters. The only ones I can source here are those with a bellow filter holder. This is completely different to your system. Have you tried or heard anything on this type of Lee Filter System? Any advice would be appreciated. John