My blog, although I don’t see myself as a blogger but as a Photographer I will try to blog some interesting material during the weeks.
Expect at least 2 updates a week.

Updated our webshop with instructional videos

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Updated the instructional video part of www.frankdoorhof.com/shop2 
We moved some DVDs to the “classic” label, meaning lower pricing and of course also lower pricing for the downloads.

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So make sure to check out the instructional DVDs or download and order them online, all DVDs and downloads are jampacked with tips and hints and are at least 60 minutes of instructional material (live in Boston over 130 !!!).

 

And with the new “classic” label pricing they are more affordable than ever (starting at just 20.00 per video).

Sony A99 with sports

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PLEASE DO READ THE FIRST LINES OF THE REVIEW….
In short.
This was the FIRST outing with the Sony, I figured out the problem in the last 15 minutes of the game. They were just posted to show that the camera can keep up with the fast moving action, I mention clearly that the images are soft due to the e-front curtain, but posted them because a lot of people kept asking for them and I knew I did not have time for the next 6-7 weeks to do more sports. So please don’t blame the camera for not being a good sports cam, I was more than happy with it’s performance but the e-front curtain literely destroyed the image sharpness, as soon as I figured that out the images were great. I will do some more sports in the next 1-2 weeks.

 

 

Let me start out by saying that the images in this review should actually NOT be considered as “this is what the A99 can do” and in fact the only reason I post this on my blog is because a lot of people have been asking me about it and the next time I will be shooting sports will be at least 2-3 weeks away so I decided to post this small review anyway to let you know what I think of the A99 for sports.

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Now let me first clarify why I start the review like this.
I’ve been using the A99 for some time now and I have to say that I really fell in love with the camera and the system, the older Minolta lenses are great and the dynamic range and sharpness of the Sony A99 is just stunning, and as mentioned many times before, when you get used to the EVF it’s very hard to go back to the OVF, every time when I use a Canon/Nikon or my Medium format camera it’s a bit of a “Oh yeah, it’s an OVF story” instead of “Pffff, finally an OVF again” yeah you get used to the EVF very quickly and you will love it (well at least I do).

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After Sandy 2

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A few months ago when I visited New York I was escorted to Rockaway beach to see the devastation of hurricane Sandy. You can read that story here.
Today I wanted to do another part of the story, around 6 months after Sandy. Of course I hoped that everything would look a little bit better (I hoped a lot better) but to be honest I was still shocked to see what the state of the area still is. I don’t think we need more words, but just the images.

 

One thing I want to make clear, I don’t go to these areas for the “kick”, I want to register what’s going on and maybe help out just a little bit to get some awareness for the situation of the people there.

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Quick calibration tip

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We all know that calibrating our monitors is something that’s very important, right?
But how do we calibrate?
Well there is a lot of talk around the web about this and also a lot of problems that can happen when you do it wrong.

cm_design_reqs
For example did you ever notice a difference in brightness between Lightroom and Photoshop?
In other words, the images in Lightroom look great but when you open them up in Photoshop they are a bit too bright and there sometimes is some banding in darker areas?

 

Chances are that you have a defective colorprofile for your monitor.
“But Frank I calibrated with a great color analyzer so how can that happen?”

 

With most analyzers you can set 2 different kind of profiles, a V4 and V2.
If you experience the brightness differences between Lightroom and Photoshop make 100% sure that you are using a V2 profile, if you use a V4 profile chances are that Lightroom is showing everything correct and Photoshop makes a mess out of it, the problem is that with most images people won’t see a lot of difference, but when you open up something that’s really dark and barely has detail in Lightroom you will find out that in Photoshop there is a lot more detail, this is when you know that there is a problem. Now check your software settings and make sure that you are using a V2 profile. You can find this in the preferences or settings.

 

Other settings I use for photo editing  :
Gamma 2.2
Colortemp D65
Brightness 120-130cdm
Profile V2