w00d's Photo Muse: In the Bag ...

Thursday, August 16, 2012

In the Bag ...

Sony CyberShot DSC-H9

My first digital camera was the FUJIFILM FinePix 2800 Zoom. The Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 (review) was the second digital and my last Point & Shoot camera.

Sony Cybershot DSC-H9

Nikon D90
... My wedding to Nikon and the D90 ~ review
.

Nikon D90, the first DSLR into the BIG Bag of Wonder Toys

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 16-85mm 1:3.5 - 5.6G ED Zoom.
Sing along "Just an all purpose ZOOM" ...

Into the creative mix came the ever popular Circular Polarizer, the HOYA PL-CIR 67mm.

Eye-Fi Pro X2 - Always in my D90 is this little gem, the WiFi enabled SD card. It is sure is convenient not having to do the typical (wired) camera to PC image file transfer.

Lexar Professional, 16GB SDHC Class 10. The fastest SD Card in the bag but no WiFi. Used when frames per second, speed is the priority such as the case in action photography.

...

I do allot of what could be called 'product' photography and having a good lighting setup is a must. With better lighting in mind and not wising to use my camera's built-in flash I have a couple of small and inexpensive LED Flood-lights, 2 x 160 LEDs.

w00d's Play Station
... The Computer and Photo-editing ...

"Toaster" desk, work station ~ © 2014 w00d, pwoodyp

An important if not the most important tool for any photographer is a good photo-editor and of course the knowledge and skill to use them effectively. The primary editor I use is PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate where 'Ultimate' is both the KPT Collection and Color EFX Pro 3 plugins.

Although I tend to agree Paintshop Pro is not quite (not even close) the equivalent of Adobe Photoshop CS6 (review and free trial download link) nor Adobe's newest "rental" version, Photoshop CC and it's certainly the resource hog the reviewers claim. However if the budget is the concern then Paintshop Pro might be a good candidate for anyone just starting out. Alternately for one of the many free options available see my list of FREE photo software on my Photography Tutorials page.

Complimenting my copy of PaintShop I've added Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop Elements 11 to my arsenal of photo-editors. Also after trying their 30-day free trial I will buying a license for a special purpose application called Helicon Focus. This software will give my MACRO workflow the post-processing power that according to Helicon "enables one to extend the depth-of-field beyond what is available within one shot".

Sure some day I'll pony up the cash for Photoshop CS6 or CC but until then the photo-editors listed here will do what I need or as they say "this is as good as it gets" ... for now!