FST513

Nice pics mate! Maybe try some panning shots next time too! Good captures.

Head to Warringah Mall, go see a movie or do some shopping at coles or woolworths haha. Go for a walk along the corso to cold rock and get some ice cream? Drive out to narrabeen/terry hills and go to the driving range/chip and putt? Lots to do if you have a car!

Also, a few panning shots from BMW's Super sprint at wakefield 2 weeks ago lol. Seems like i lose detail with photobucket...oh well haha there on my website if you wanna be nit picky

I remember that B&H had some "impact" lighting kits, which consisted of 2 umbrellas i think and i can't remember what else for around $100 US, might be worth looking at? Yeah, check if AB ship to australia, because as far as i know, they only ship to the states which is sad because they got some awesome gear e.g. AB800's!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Steyne!! Lol.... Go to the shark bar(New brighton Hotel) if you want some drinks at the moment, otherwise tonight, shore club (Beach front, on the opposite side on the steyne if your looking down the corso) has a fair few people going there on sunday. Theres also wharf bar (Where the ferries are) besides that, it's too late to do anything now besides drink and what better thing to do!

Lol, nothing going on in Manly lately, 2 weeks ago was the food and wine festival and besides that nothing hahaha, venture around the northern beaches!

If your after alternative triggers, try cybersyncs from alien bee (unsure if they ship to aus as they seem to only sent there strobes to the US, check alien bees website), otherwise i recommend cactus triggers, there great, but as expected sometimes they don't fire multiple flashes and the build quality is a little bit flimsy,but then again you get what you pay for and they work for me 99% of the time. www.gadgetinfinity.com Get the V4's as they are the newest ones. Also for all you canon Nutta's i HIGHLY recommend you head over to http://photography-on-the.net/forums There is a vast amount of information on how to's as well as you can post anything photography related or show your photo's or ask for help on how to process/print something and your bound to get an answer, great bunch of people!

No worries. Any other questions, fire away!

Landscapes – 10-22mm or the Sigma 10-20. Both have comparable IQ and around the same price. If you can afford and want too, I suggest getting the Tokina 12-24. This has a little bit better IQ than the lenses above, but is a little more pricey. Also, depends on how you take landscape shots, whether you just aim, focus and fire away, or you use Hyperfocal Distancing for sharpness front to back. General Purpose use – Canon 17-55 2.8. For a crop camera, this is the best lens you can get. Pretty much equivalent to the 24-70L. IQ is comparable, sharpness corner to corner, no softness at all! I had a copy, they are great. Just be wary, that the build quality is not that great, the IS is a bit noisy and it is known to gather a lot of dust if not well treated. Has glass which is L standards. Lens you must own – 70-200 2.8 IS. No doubt about it. Fantastic lens. People often complain that they don’t like the bulk or it is too heavy, but personally I find it is a perfect lens. Great for low light shots, great for portrait/candid shots, you can use a 1.4x TC as well as a 2x TC and still AF (f/5.6 with the 2x) although IQ drops with the 2x TC. This is a need for any photographers bag. Although this usually fetches for ~$2K used, you will not be disappointed. Otherwise, a f/4 IS (Sharpest zoom lens in canon’s line-up). Fisheye – Don’t even bother, wait until you go full frame. Otherwise, maybe just buy a 10-20 or 10-22 and just use it at 10mm if it will be sufficient enough. Have you ever used a lens at 10mm? It is wiiiiddee. Low light photography – Depends how low light you mean. Can you take a tripod for long exposures?? The DOF at 1.2-1.4 is razor thin and EXTREMELY hard to keep in focus and get the right DOF. This takes practice. I think the 85 1.8 is an extremely good lens, but on a crop camera this is quite a long lens. I would suggest Sigma 30 1.4. Great lens. They are my recommendation for your 40D

Do you guys really think the Stig was michael schumacher?? In last nights episode of Top Gear UK they revealed the stig... i know it used to be a BTCC driver (or ex) but i am unsure if this is for real. Its on Youtube at the moment and i am in the process of err... "getting" Season 13 episode One right now.

Hhmm i figured i might post a few corrections that i do, seeing as no one has mentioned them lately. First thing to do before you do anything is change your WB. Effectively, this is essential because it can change the colours from having a warm colour cast or a blue color cast/red color cast etc.. I have an actual shooting target card, where i can focus on and get the correct exposure, review it in the histogram and if i want to change the exposure for a bit more light or less light i can adjust by judging off the histogram. I also use it, to set my custom white balance. It is this product here: Photovision Pocket One Shot Digital Target I shoot RAW. JPEG just doesn't have the flexibility i need for most of the shooting i do. RAW is very powerful, but also time consuming. When you shoot JPEG, the camera corrects sharpness, saturation levels, contrast etc... but when you shoot RAW and connect your camera to your computer, you may notice that the photos are DULL and FLAT. That is because this is the RAW photo and has had no corrections made. I don't advise shooting RAW unless you have the time and the space on your CF cards or computer as file sizes are pretty big. I use Lightroom 2 too organise my photos, i just find it easier than bridge because i don't really need to know half the stuff that bridge shows me about the photo and i often waste time just reading half of the stuff, but it is a very good tool to use if you do not have Lightroom. Once you have opened the RAW photo it should open in PS, ACR (Adobe Camera Raw). This is where you can make adjustments to the white balance, sharpness (use low numbers here as its only capture sharpening you don't want to sharpen too much), recovery,fill light, blacks, brightness,contrast, vibrance, clarity and saturation. Once you have finished up here you can click open image and it will open it in photoshop itself (You can hold shift to open it as a smart object, but thats another story). I often check my white balance by using curves. I find it is more powerful and useful than levels for this. To check, click the left eyedropper tool (Blacks) and then on the histogram you will see underneath it two sliders, one is on the left (Blacks) one is on the right). Hold ALT and click the black slider and move it gradually to the right, until red spots start showing on your image (Your image will turn black) these are the blackest parts on your image and you should use your eyedropped to sample from here. The same thing with the white slider. For the midtones eyedropper you need something Neutral gray, which you can always use your info palette to see what the RGB values are. LAYER MASKS Layer masks are an effective tool. I use curves and create a "S" curve which lowers the initial exposure and ramps up the contrast, depending how savage you make the curve. An "S" curve is just one of many ways to use curves depending on what you want to do, but all it is, is a "dot" in the lower left hand side (shadows) and a "dot" in the right hand upper corner (highlights) You can use your arrow keys to make the image how you want, normally concentrate on making your background how you want first, then focus on the target. Once you are happy press ok, and the curves will be applied to your image. If you are happy with it overall, you can leave it. If you like the background but not the target, or you like the target and not the background, this is a simple fix. I find that if you like the target, press CTRL + I (invert) this will invert the mask and make it a black mask, (press D for black and white and then press X to change it to white if the current colour is black), it will be back to the original image. All you do then, is press B for the brush tool, change the brush to a soft edge, and "paint" your target in. Once you are happy with how your target looks, do the same thing as above, but instead of inverting the mask, this time paint the target "out". So once you are happy with the curves adjustment, press ok and in your layers palette you will see it has background and then above that it will save "Curves 1" with a white box there that is the "mask". Now change your color to Black (press D then press X to get it to black) and now paint your target out. SHARPNESS There are 3 steps to sharpening, its not just the simple sharpen it at the end and "she'll be right", there is capture sharpening, creative sharpening and output sharpening. There are also many ways to sharpen, USM (Unsharp Mask), smart sharpen, high pass sharpening, selective sharpening etc... This topic is far too in depth for me to explain as people all have there own different ways to what works and what doesn't but i will explain a simple technique which is selective sharpening. One way to do selective sharpening is to duplicate your background layer (CTRL + J) make sure you have layer 1 selected, use your preferred sharpening tool then hold ALT and press the little camera looking button at the bottom of the layers palette also know as "add vector mask". This will create a black mask on layer one and take away all the sharpening you just added. Now, if everything seems like when you zoom in it is all pixelated and not nice, or something is oversharpened, all you do is get your brush tool, select white colour, and "paint" in where you want to be sharpened. You can also change opacity of brushes etc.. if something becomes too sharp or you just want it be subtle. REMEMBER TO SHARPEN YOUR PHOTO AFTER YOU HAVE RESIZE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For this just a subtle sharpen will be fine, i often oversharpen a little but ONLY for prints, not web display. Hope i have explained some techniques here for you guys to play around with! Many thanks! Kory

Wow impressive tank! (I Think). I've been staring at it for 10minutes wondering whether to write nice tank or nice TV!!! But now my mind is set its a tank! No problems, will let you know next time i'm heading out to wakefield!

I used to be a detailer and do you have like 3-4 hours time in the morning for a full detail?? Lol, on your wedding day, thats the last thing you will want to be worrying about whether the car is ready. Get it fully detailed during the week, and all you need to do is give it a hose, in the morning and chamois it thoroughly. If you think its not shiny enough, just get some quick detailer spray and a polishing pad and just quickly rub over everything (or get someone else to do this for you) would only take 30 minutes and a quick vacuum inside if it's dirty.

Hey mate, I do have more shots of the R34 GTT. Prices are on my website. Although, Price for a 1600x1200 (Seems thats a very popular size!) would be $15 for SAU members per photo. Many thanks, Kory

A 70-200 is sufficient but severe cropping is needed for those really nice tight shots. I use my 70-200 sometimes when i go there, but would rather use a 500 (although its a bitch to get a sharp panning shot with one!!) Although heat haze and atmospheric haze comes into play at those lengths sometimes which sucks. I had a 100-400 but i sold it. Was soft wide open at 400 and backfocusing like crazy, i just couldn't deal with it, sent it to canon and they said nothing was wrong with it, so i ended up losing $500 on it.

Well for me, i was using a 300 2.8 and a 1.4x TC and it still wasn't long enough Next time i go Oran Park/Wakefield i'll take a 500, for those nice tight shots.

Hmmm im not at home, so i can't search for more photos from june, but what i have at work so far, these are two images from the Oran Park day! Both 100% crops.

PM'd you Merli in regards to the BMW photos

Hey Guys! Finally finished processing the photos and they are up on my website. I've had a few enquiries about photographs of peoples own vehicles, if you require this please contact me. I am still building my website so i apologize in advance, why this information isn't up. It should be up within the next day! If you have any enquiries please contact me at [email protected] Sorry about the delay in getting the photos up, i have been really busy with work and multi-tasking. Kory Leung Photography Many thanks, Kory

Hey champ! Yep, i got some of the 626 and the '33 as well Thumbs will hopefully be up by tomorrow night around 9 p.m.! I will post in this thread and let you know, sorry for the delay also, i'm trying to multi task with work and processing two events at once, i apologize!

I found you!

This was just a quick edit, but is this it?? I remember getting a rear shot of some numberplates like A something on a 33.

What car was yours mate (Plates or what it looks like)

Hey Guys, Heres some photos that i have processed so far, i have at least 3 photos of everybodys car that was there yesterday (stills and panning shots), all photos are available to be purchased at www.koryleungphotography.com i will let you all know when i have processed all the photos, should be up by monday! Theres 61 photos i've uploaded so far, so please contact me at [email protected] or [email protected] if you want pictures of your car etc... Again, thanks for a great day of racing and relaxing!!!! Click me! The forum won't let me upload the flickr image tags for some reason?? So i had to give you the flickr link sorry!!!

Hey Guys, Great day, and i'm sure all the drivers had a great day! I didn't really have a chance to meet anyone as i was busy taking photos, but i'm sure that you all saw me, guy with the white jumper on (with my missus) with a big white lens. I got 1000 photos to process, i'll edit a few soon as i am about to have dinner and post some up Great day, thanks to the organisers, cars were freaking amazing, that matte black 300ZX was getting so close to the last turn wall! Pics up soon!