Pete - it never stops

LOL! I have the 67mm too. I just hold it over the 12-24.

HINT: If you want a really, really cheap way of getting incidental WB then Lee filters do a three pack of white translucent caps for £3 from Speedgraphic They are huge and will fit anything (they are supposed to clip over the Lee filter adaptor ring).

With the *ist-D I used the Expodisc all the time, using the dedicated WB button to grab a white balance in camera. However, with the K10D's manual white balance being so fiddly and the file size so large I haven't bothered so far (especially since Silkypix does a pretty excellent job of getting it with the skin sampler - or maybe it's also because I have more experience of picking the WB manually!)

Matt

Peter (Mannesty),
I wouldn't say the "all of your problems" disappear with an Expodisc
You've got another thing to learn to use (and it can be used wrongly) And with mixed and complex lighting it's still often easier to use the reflected method. But yes, the Expodisc is a nice tool.

Pete - preferably get your model to hold the white paper in front of them, then take that as a shot. If you shoot RAW then that's all you need to do during the shoot. Retake that shot whenever the lighting changes appreciably.

When you are back at the PC, you load up the white test shot into Silkypix (or anything else for that matter), select the White Balance adjustment tab, and pick the dropper tool - then you just click on the white paper and Silkypix will take a reading from the white and setup the white balance for you. (You may want to slightly tweak it to make it slightly warmer/cooler - that's up to you)

You can then just Ctrl-C to copy the WB setting, go back to the thumbnail/folder view, select all of the shots in the same lighting conditions, and press Ctrl-V. Silkypix will apply the white balance to all of your shots in one hit

If you shoot JPG, then you can use the in-camera manual WB setting. But this isn't necessary for RAW shooting (if you do it though, your previews in camera will be correctly coloured).

Hope that makes sense!
Matt

Pete,
As Rodger mentioned, you can adjust the colour temperature very easily if you've shot RAW and are using Silkypix. You can try manually setting the temperature, or use the "Skin sampler" in Silkypix to set the WB.
Even better - take a test shot holding a white piece of paper and use the "White sampler" to set the WB.

The "glow" on the clothes is down to the gold reflector. DSLRs favour white (and silver if you want a "hard" light). Gold tends to max out the red channel. You can always add warmth in Silkypix by tweaking the WB, or by adding a Photo Filter adjustment layer in Photoshop (or more complex: adding a "Color Balance" adjustment layer which gives more control).

Do watch your backgrounds when you shoot The split of light and dark is a bit distracting for me - it draws my eye away from the face. Don't be afraid to try different angles (looking from above etc) - whatever engages with the subject and helps the background too

Have fun
Matt

Ben,
Don't forget the large dose of the English sense of humour
I've seen some mighty fine Canon images - I have every respect for their top-line stuff. I just can't afford it
Oh, and I couldn't possibly carry it around - it's all too heavy!

LOL @ Will - maybe they're all muscly to carry around that gear?

Matt

Do Canon do chisels?? LOL!
Matt

Peter,
I have Lightroom v1. Doesn't stand up to C1 or Silkypix
It's high ISO handling isn't great - produced highly "speckled" results from the K10D. C1 is better (on the *ist-D), and Silkypix is consistently the cleanest and most controlled output

I've nothing against Lightroom, I quite like the GUI touches. But no one else sees that, so it comes down to IQ, and Silkypix is a clear winner (by a looooong way in my shots).


Matt

Ben,
Another mighty fine image
As Peter says, I think it just shows how far we've got to go!!!!

(Peter - I think Ben uses Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop)
Matt

Haha! Yes, that's a good adjective for the 100mm macro. Definitely brutal

I found it was stunning for fabric and the like - you could see every thread and the fibres within the threads.
Matt


BTW, I removed the duplicate thread - it gets difficult to moderate when there are several threads on the same/very similar topic.

Ben,
The macro image looks a bit abstract... I'm puzzling over what it is (is it the shoe??).

What's your view then of these? (Personally I love the resolution and bokeh of the SMC-F 100/f2.8, which is probably very similar to the SMC-DFA 100 you have).

The portrait looks wonderful

BTW, how many heels did she break??
Matt