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1500 questions
49
votes
12 answers
How many photos should I keep?
When I started with digital photography, I used to keep a copy of ALL the photos I took on a backup drive, "just in case". As the years have gone by, I have become more ruthless, permanently deleting the very worst technical shots (severe focus &…
Ken
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49
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7 answers
Is it better to shoot with a higher ISO, or use lower ISO and raise the exposure in post-processing?
Suppose there are two photos taken in the following scenario:
Scenario 1 - Photo taken using ISO of 3200.
Scenario 2 - Photo taken using ISO of 100.
Both photos are taken in a medium light scenario. The photo in Scenario 2 is quite dark, while the…
Jack
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49
votes
7 answers
Does Photoshop have an equivalent to Gimp's "Color to Alpha"?
I have discovered Gimp's "Color to Alpha" feature, and man is it awesome! Basically, it will extract a particular color out of a selection and convert it to transparency. This gave me the ability to make a bottle taken on a flat background a truly…
Stephen
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49
votes
3 answers
What does STM mean on a Canon lens?
The Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 has a designation of STM on the lens. What does this mean? What are the advantages of having it and does it replace an older technology?
We have a terminology thread that usually covers these questions but this is not yet…
dpollitt
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49
votes
5 answers
What apertures are required to enable autofocus, including cross-type or high-precision focusing, on Canon DSLR cameras?
This is a follow-up to Why does Canon and Nikon limit or disable autofocus beyond certain f-numbers? I'm doing this to separate the AF aperture requirements from the linked question above. My goal here is to create a canonical answer for Canon AF…
bwDraco
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49
votes
10 answers
What is the best way to clean lenses and filters?
After removing dust with an air pomp and a brush, what are you using to remove stains from the lens and filters?
So far I'm using the liquid from a Giotto's CL 1002 cleaning kit for the lens, but I'm not sure what should I use for the filters, and…
alexandrul
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48
votes
24 answers
What are good photography projects?
I am currently in the middle of a year long photo a day project, and am beginning to think about what I will do once this is done.
What types of photography projects have you done?
Please keep answers to a single type.
chills42
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48
votes
9 answers
Which focal-length lens is usually used for portrait photography, and why?
What focal length or range of focal lengths are usually used for portraits?
What is used by professionals? Why would one select a certain focal length? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different choices, and are there certain situations…
txwikinger
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48
votes
6 answers
Why don't cameras offer more than 3 colour channels? (Or do they?)
Currently, most (all?) commercially available cameras capture light in three colour channels: red, green and blue. It seems to me that it would be very useful to have a camera with a greater spectral range and resolution, and so I'm wondering why…
N. Virgo
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48
votes
7 answers
How did photography work before auto-focus was invented?
Having just spent some time reading questions about auto-focus, I came up with a question of my own: How did cameras even work before auto-focus technology was invented?
Presumably everybody used manual focus. But here's the thing: I've tried…
MathematicalOrchid
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48
votes
9 answers
Do professionals really never use a 24-70 lens?
I was reading lens reviews on the Rockwell site — mostly because it came up as first result in Google search — and he was saying professionals don't need and don't use mid-range zoom lenses like 24-70 and they use a tele, an ultra-wide and then also…
Brandon
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48
votes
5 answers
What is the "Rule of 600" in astrophotography?
This question mentions the "Rule of 600" for avoiding star-trails in astrophotography.
What is this rule?
How was it derived?
How should it be applied?
mattdm
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48
votes
20 answers
How can I maximize the "blurry background, sharp subject" (bokeh) effect?
I know that this effect occurs when there's a shallow depth of field.
My question is, what are the various ways I can increase this effect in my photos when I'm taking them?
Note that I'm not asking how to use an editing program to achieve this…
Jaydles
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48
votes
9 answers
HDR then Panorama, or Panorama then HDR?
When creating a panorama for a scene of huge dynamic range, intuitively I always merge exposure brackets to HDR and tone-map them and then stitch the resulting images into a panorama. My intuition here is that the HDR process is much more…
Itai
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47
votes
8 answers
How do I achieve the technique which creates the illusion of busy locations being empty?
I remember seeing a series of photos where popular tourist locations are shown to be completely empty. I'm assuming it was done by taking a series of photos and then combining them in Photoshop. But what is the name of that technique so that I can…
JonathanReez
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