Hey guys

[bowneracing99]

Im a hobbyist shooting an old XTi im going to upgrade and become more active as soon as i decide whether to buy a canon 60d or a d7000 nikon, help? I take alot of island pictures, guam, muag, saipan, tinnian, yap, rota, and palau, if you would like any i would love to send them,

Thanks,
Tyler Bowne

[Andrew76]

Hello Tyler, and welcome to Cambridge in Colour. Sounds like you get to take pictures of some pretty cool places, I hope you post some so that we can all see!

As for your camera decision, I don't want to sway you one way or the other, but if you're already shooting Canon, do you have any Canon glass that would be lost if you went to Nikon? Also, might be a good idea to make a list of the reasons that you want to upgrade - there are a few different features between the two cameras you're looking at. What limitations of the XTi have you met?

[bowneracing99]

My biggest peeve is the auto settings are really noisy, and i end up with a lot of washed pictures, i'm on a ship alot, so there are times when i cannot take time to set myself up for success manually. I do find i get a lot of noise, my friends Nikon, he isn't into photography, so it's a large point and shoot to him, beats me every time. So whereas i may have better composition, his colors and clarity kill mine. And i am down to when 18-55 lens so glass is no problem, I do, however, like Canon's UI alot. I also appreciate the d7000 toughness factor, with the alloy plating.

[bowneracing99]

Also, now that i've looked at your pictures. I have no composition, you have a very good eye...

[bowneracing99]

oh and ill post some muag yap and falleron shots for you to see!

[jeeperman]

I can't really help with the camera choice as I shoot neither brand. However I can tell you.....stick around a bit and the composition as well as other things will begin to creep in. Ask questions and post images and ask for C&C. I would hold off making a choice right away being the more you learn the more likely it is that you know exactly what you want.

[Colin Southern]

My biggest peeve is the auto settings are really noisy, and i end up with a lot of washed pictures,

We'd really need to see some unadjusted shots to diagnose the cause, but fundamentally, only one thing causes visible noise -- and that's significant under-exposure (especially at high ISO settings).

Post a couple of noisy ones and we'll take a look.

[Colin Southern]

On a side note ...

I think you've got some darn good stuff here - it just needs some tidying up in post-processing; here's what I mean ...

- Decreased saturation so the foliage doesn't look like it's been the victim of a nuclear accident

- cropped the image to improve the aspect ratio (even though the original all had points of interest)

- Presented it in a frame with a title (the difference between restaurant food and army food is the presentation!) (not 100% accurate, but you get the idea)

- Wee output sharpen

[bowneracing99]

Here comes the noise , these are all auto shots. It can be somewhat corrected with proper settings... Some of it is blending, and weird saturation I get...

[bowneracing99]

sorry the first pic is the wrong one. I did shake on that, but you can still see the over saturation...

[Andrew76]

Also, now that i've looked at your pictures. I have no composition, you have a very good eye...

Well that's very kind of you, but I'm just learning too, and take something away from this site every time I visit!

Notice Colin's version of one of your shots - all it takes is a little patience, and the ability to see what's there, and what needs to be removed. I think you have some good shots, but you need to work on your processing skills. Once you can edit your pictures as Colin has above, you will begin to 'see' the shots before hand, and get more in-camera composition.

Also, I believe it's been mentioned already too, but with all of the beautiful colours around you, you really have to watch your WB, and take care when adding any saturation, or vibrance to your images. Greens can, as Colin says "look like they've gone nuclear" pretty quickly.

I'd stick with the body you have now for a little bit, save your $$, and keep practicing. But be sure to take advantage of your location - from some of your posts I've gathered that these islands are not the place where you normally live? So, make sure to make the most of it while you're there, or you'll regret it!! But that's just me being envious!

[FrankMi]

Im a hobbyist shooting an old XTi im going to upgrade and become more active as soon as i decide whether to buy a canon 60d or a d7000 nikon, help? I take alot of island pictures, guam, muag, saipan, tinnian, yap, rota, and palau, if you would like any i would love to send them,

Thanks,
Tyler Bowne

Hi Tyler, an XTi is an excellent camera but if getting a new camera would help encourage you to become a more active photographer then either the 60d or the d7000 will give you excellent results.

Just as "it isn't the expensive hammer but rather the craftsman's skill that builds a beautiful house", excellence in photography has much more to do with the skill of the photographer than it does with the refinements of his equipment. Here is a link that may help you move from hobbyist to enthusiast: How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

As a Canon user, you may be more comfortable with the 60d but I would definately handle and shoot with both if at all possible before I made a decision.

Do you have your images posted on a website where we can enjoy looking at them?

[Colin Southern]

Here comes the noise

Can't say I can see any noise in any of these. If the noise you're seeing is only visible when you zoom in to 100%, then just don't worry about it - it gets sampled out when you down-sample for internet display, and the noise is too small to show in anything but a HUGE print.

Keep in mind that photography is always a compromise - noise usually comes from under-exposure at high ISO modes; some people try to avoid using high ISO for this very reason, and as a consequence have issues with camera shake - subject motion - or insufficient DoF, which impacts the image far more. As Jay Maisel said "Don't ruin the picture trying to save the pixels".

[bowneracing99]

I like the save the pixels remark, I definitely can see the noise at zoom mostly. And as for the website for the images, do you guys have any recommendations for where to put them? I have alot on facebook, you can add Tyler James Bowne if you'd like. I live on Guam for the next few years, and i travel to the outer islands a few times a year, if you all have any interest in a specific island I would love to send pictures.

Thanks for the comments,
~Tyler

[FrankMi]

And as for the website for the images, do you guys have any recommendations for where to put them? I have alot on facebook, you can add Tyler James Bowne if you'd like. I live on Guam for the next few years, and i travel to the outer islands a few times a year, if you all have any interest in a specific island I would love to send pictures.

Hi Tyler, having a website is not a requirement. I just thought that if you did happen to have one, I'd go look at your images. You can create an Album here at CiC if you like by going to the top of the page and selecting My Profile, then on the left Album. I got a SmugMug account so that I wouldn't be bothered by advertisements and I can load unlimited images for anyone to view and freely download but there is a small yearly cost. The link to my SmugMug website is in my Signature, below.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your island image posted to CiC!

[Andrew76]

+1 to Frank's comment. I, Frank, and several others here use SmugMug. It's great, very reasonably priced, very intuitive, and has lots of user changeable settings - so that you can customize it as you see fit. Also, it has the option for e-commerce built right into it, and you can even set it up with Google Analytics, as if it were your own domain - this is a really cool feature if you're into that sort of thing!

[Colin Southern]

I use pBase.com myself ... www.pbase.com/cjsouthern

[bowneracing99]

Thank you again!