Camera Labs

A few weeks ago, my wife and I traveled to the American Midwest to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her family. Her father is a farmer, so I decided to bring my 40D along and see if I could capture anything interesting around the farm.

You'll see that a few of them are in black and white. I almost never use B&W, since I think it's really over-used, but I thought it was well-suited for those particular images. I am interested to know if others agree.

You'll also notice that I was a little overzealous with the polarizer in a couple of these -- note the dark portions of sky. But other than that, I'm pretty pleased with them.

All images were captured with my Canon 40D, paired with either my EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 or my EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6. I'd like to also note that this was the first time I've ever extensively used my 28-135mm lens, other than a few quick shots here or there. When I first tried the lens (about a year ago), I wasn't that impressed with it, but having used it in more real-life situations, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the image quality after all. I just wish it went a little wider.


I know these aren't perfect -- please let me know what you like or don't like.


1.) 28-135mm @ 135mm, f/11, 1/15 sec, ISO 400


2.) 17-55mm @ 55mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 160


3.) 28-135mm @ 28mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO400


4.) 17-55mm @ 55mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO 800


5.) 17-55mm @17mm, f/8, 1/100 sec, ISO 100


6.) 28-135mm @ 90mm, f/8, 1/640 sec, ISO 400


7.) 17-55mm @ 17mm, f/8, 1/100 sec, ISO 160


8.) 17-55mm @ 17mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO 160

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Canon 40D
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM | EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM | EF 50mm f/1.4 | 430EX Flash

New! EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

...and too much other stuff to mention...

Very nice collection. I love the black & whites, esp. #4, and #7 in the color shots. Nice work, thanks for sharing!

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~ Julie

Visit my Web site
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Great shots, the first one is my favourite. I'll post more specifics tomorrow as I'm really bloody tired now.

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Canon 40D | 24-105mm F4 L IS USM |

http://patrickandacamera.blogspot.com

5 and 7 work for me great stuff

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Nikon D90 / 55 - 200 VR / 50 - f1.8 / tammy 90 / SB - 400

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'm glad you liked them, and it's really nice to get some feedback!

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Canon 40D
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM | EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM | EF 50mm f/1.4 | 430EX Flash

New! EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

...and too much other stuff to mention...

Good images. Good exposure. I like #4 and #5 the best.
Are there much sharpening involved with thoise?

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Canon EOS 40D - Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM - Canon EF 50/1,8 II - Canon EF 70-200/4L IS USM - Speedlite 430 EX - Lowerpro Nova 4 AW
My Flickr

Thanks, Khol!

Yes, most of these have been sharpened a lot, since I am usually unhappy with the sharpness of images from my 40D. Do you think I used too much sharpening?

#6 is JPG straight from camera, with no post-processing. But the rest were all shot in RAW and converted in Canon's DPP software. I have CS3, but I still prefer the converter in DPP.

#5 has a medium amount of sharpening (a setting of 6 on the "RAW" tool panel, and a setting of 0 on the "RGB" tool panel).

The rest of the images all have sharpness settings of 8-9 in the "RAW" tool panel. The black and white images also have sharpness set to approximately 250 in the "RGB" tool panel, while images #7 & #8 have sharpness set to 100 in the "RGB" tool panel.

I am not sure what the difference is between setting sharpness in the "RAW" panel and the "RGB" panel, but both setting influence the image. So, I change both until I get what I want.


By the way, Khol -- were you able to fix the problem you were having with your center focus point being off-center?

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Canon 40D
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM | EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM | EF 50mm f/1.4 | 430EX Flash

New! EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

...and too much other stuff to mention...

No, not at all, they look fantastic.
I was just curious as i certainly dont get that kind of sharpness from my 40D, not even with L-glass.

I have found out that i need to sharpen quite a bit to get the images to "stand out". And i also found that i get the best result if i apply unsharp mask ony to the Lightness-channel in LAB-mode. Dont know if its my imagination, but i tent to get the best result that way.



I did everything i could to find out what was wrong.
Canon-support told me to get my gear to a certified canon service as there probably was something wrong. So i went there today. Hopefully i get the stuff back in crisp condition and as soon as possible.

I'll get back to you when i have the end result.

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Canon EOS 40D - Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM - Canon EF 50/1,8 II - Canon EF 70-200/4L IS USM - Speedlite 430 EX - Lowerpro Nova 4 AW
My Flickr

It's not your imagination. When you sharpen the lightness channel, it allows you to sharpen more without getting halos and colour artifacts that occur when you overdo the sharpening otherwise.

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Canon 40D | 24-105mm F4 L IS USM |

http://patrickandacamera.blogspot.com