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Are we allowed to use filters, like a white neutralizer?

Yes, color correction is kosher.

Neutral Density

You mean Graduated Neutral Density? I would think so.

Glamour Glow

This one is probably over the line?

http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/usa/entry.php?view=intro/cep3_filters.shtml

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I don’t know PS well enough. Is this really, really true? What is so much better about it? For B&W in the past, I just desaturate and then mess with contrast/brightness/unsharp mask.

I’m very interested in learning a better way.

It does depend somewhat on the original image, but frequently, yes – it can make a huge difference.

Both the black and white and channel mixer tools allow you to adjust the relative intensity of different colors from the original image (e.g. to make blues darker and reds and yellows brighter), in the same way people used to do with color filters and black and white film.

I usually use the Black and White tool as an adjustment layer because it gives you some handy presets to start with.

[sleeping]

This one works. Easy-peasy.

http://www.digital-photography-tips.net/wedding-photography.html

That’s basically how I did it, but a black and white or channel mixer adjustment layer will allow you to get a *much* better black and white conversion than simply desaturating.

Also I would never flatten adjustment layers in your original, you can’t get them back and make adjustments later if you do that…

[sleeping]

They stopped making polaroid roll film back in the 80s. You can sometimes find rolls on ebay, etc, but the chances of getting a usable image off them at this point are less than good.

They can be converted to take other kinds of film (4×5, 120, instant packfilm), but I don’t think anyone is producing a kit. There are a bunch of instruction sets out on the web though, eg:

http://www.foundphotography.com/PhotoThoughts/archives/2005/09/polaroid_95a_12.html

http://option8.110mb.com/polaroid/rollfilm.html

converting them to 120 is a good deal less work than packfilm, I believe.

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Plastic is getting down into Holga quality.

It’s acually pretty common for aspherical lens elements to be made out of plastic bonded to glass in cheaper lenses, including name brand ones. It probably isn’t cheap holga plastic though.

[sleeping]

Perhaps I’m thinking too much about this, but I also know that it’s pointless to “keep practicing” if your form is wrong or if you’re practicing the wrong things.

Practicing more is actually good advice, but only if you are actually practicing, not just taking a bunch of random photos. People tend to assume they are the same thing, but I don’t think that’s the case at all.

One thing that helps a lot is not taking just one photo of anything. Take 2 or 3 or 4 (or 10 or 20) and make them all different.

Then, and this is probably the most important part, you need to look at what you’ve shot as objectively as you can, and try to figure out what you did wrong, and what you did right. I don’t just mean the basic technical stuff (exposure, focus etc.), but also composition – shapes and lines, texture, color.

When you go out shooting after that, try to remember what you did right, and see if you can do it again….

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Well, my first advice is that HTML Image tags don’t work in the forum 😉 I use this site to convert them to BBCode (which does work): http://www.seabreezecomputers.com/html2bbcode/

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Oh, man we do need to have another contest for abandoned stuff, I just found a great spot…

[sleeping]

Oh, ok it is now.

[sleeping]

I submitted a notification to the admins, the thread doesn’t appear to be going live at midnight like normal.

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I can mount FD with an adaptor =)

Not unless you’re willing to degrade your results by adding additional corrective optics or lose infinity focus (the EF mount has a longer flange-focal plane distance than FD). If you want to use old lenses on an EF mount camera you’re actually better off with Nikkors….

[sleeping]

Canon FTW

Hey, at least you can still mount and use older lenses. Try sticking an FD mount lens on your shiny new Canon and see what happens. 😉

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UV filters *are* usually very very slightly pinkish. You might be able to see this if you stick one down on top of a white piece of paper.

Here’s the thing though – if this was going to be a problem for people, it would have been a problem back when they were shooting slide film (which is very sensitive to color shifts and can’t easily be corrected), not on digital where the camera can adjust the WB automatically and it’s absolutely trivial to correct in post processing when the camera gets it wrong…..

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In the compact camera market, Canon seems to do a lot better overall than Nikon, but things are a bit different when you start looking at DSLRs.

Nikon and Canon are the two biggest companies in that market (but there are others – Pentax, Sony, Olympus etc), and most professionals use one or the other. There’s a large range of lenses and accessories available for each system, but they aren’t generally intercompatible.

The perceived advantage between them tends to swing back and forth depending on where they are in their release cycle (whichever one currently has the cool new toys, basically), but I don’t think there’s a lot in it overall. They do tend to have somewhat different ergonomics, though. I had a strong preference for Nikons when I handled them side by side, and I’ve heard other people who had exactly the opposite reaction.

[sleeping]

I’m just guessing, but I think this answers both of your questions: http://www.apple.com/aperture/

[edit: A minute too late. Oh well…]

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