Category Archives: Wild nature equipment

Monitor calibration

Tips & tricks, Wild nature equipment, , , , , , , ,

As part of my ‘let’s focus on what matters’, I finally decided to calibrate my monitor, and my goodness, was I impressed as per the ugly blueish hue my non calibrated monitor had.

I chose a simple Spyder 4 Express, to which the working instructions are clear:

  1. be sure there is no direct light shining on your display;
  2. wait for at least 30 minutes after turning on your monitor before you start the calibration;
  3. install the software (Spyder4Express 4.5.6 Macintosh) which is included in the package you buy;
  4. plug the Spyder4 into a USB port and hang it over your display, assuring it sits flat on your screen;
  5. and let the gadget do it’s work.

A few minutes later you’ll be watching your calibrated monitor, it doesn’t get much easier than this.

Flower, Godavari, Nepal

I remember reading once that getting into post processing doesn’t make much sense if you’re doing all your work on a non-calibrated monitor and I can assure you that I’m no longer going to doubt that statement. So, to cut my sermon short, instead of investing in that next camera or that other lens, do yourself a favor and get your monitor calibrated.

Warm regards,

Guy

 

 

Spotted in Kenya

Wild nature equipment, , , , , ,

Dear all,

As shared earlier this week on Twitter and Facebook, check out this article by the nofilmschool! I’m afraid that the mentioned and long anounced 200-400 f/4 with inbuilt 1.4x converter will go straight to the top of my material bucket list and I’m even more afraid that my money bucket won’t be full enough to remove the lens from my bucket list and get it in my bag 🙁

Yet no worries, meanwhile I’ll keep on enjoying what I do with the tools I have at my disposition. To quote David du Chemin: ‘gear is good, vision is better’ and I can’t agree more! Regarding shooting what you like and improving from there, please also check this blog post by Shem Compion. And that then makes me think of a site like 1x, where you’ll be uploading images not to get them selected because the curator doesn’t like your style and turns down your image without any explanation. The choice is yours, you either put up with it and see it as a challenge sparking your creativity, or you forget about sites to the likes of 1x and focus on shooting for yourself and developing your own style, … personally I tend to lean towards option 2, yet I’d like to hear from you what you think.

But I’m deviating here, back to the Canon in the wild sighting: as per the DSLR, what is your take? 7D II? 5D Make III? And what is that Rate button about?

I’ll leave it at that for now, sharing 2 more shots of the cheetah sighting discussed in The Hunt.

The first shot may not be to the likes of you all, yet after playing around with the image for some time, I came to this fine art style of image, reflecting the way I remember the moment, extremely intense, I managed to bring this feeling into the image by dropping the contrast completely and by pushing the blacks.

Canon 350D, Canon 75-300 @ 280 mm, 1/500, f/10, ISO 200

The second one is a straightforward shot from the same sighting.

Canon 350D, Canon 75-300 @ 300 mm, 1/500, f/10, ISO 200

Warm regards,

Guy