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17 minutes ago, isosika said:

I am not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy great photos.  When I was scuba diving, I shot photos in RAW and I liked what I could do with that format.  This was several years ago, since I was using a 5MP Olympus camera.

 

Now I've gotten older and no longer dive but still have a desire to shoot photos in RAW.  We made three trips to Africa and the animal photos were shot in RAW and JPEG using a Nikon camera.

 

I started to process these photos in Photoshop 5 but found that I needed a plug-in in order for Photoshop to work.  To date I have downloaded 3 different plug-ins and none has worked.  I've become so frustrated that I no longer shoot in RAW, but still have a strong desire to do so.

 

Any suggestions?

Photoshop 5 is from May 1998, and Photoshop CS5 is from April 2010. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop_version_history#5.0) If your camera is newer than that, there's a certain amount of "closing the gap" possible with updates to Adobe Bridge and/or Camera Raw, but you could be exceeding the compatibility of your version of Photoshop. Although tedious, you could perhaps use the Nikon software to convert RAW to TIFF, which is an almost ageless format and should be readable by ancient versions of Photoshop.

6 hours ago, plettza said:

The reason I do this is because after using Lightroom since about version 3, I could never get my raw images to look like they did on the back of the camera.  When browsing in Lightroom catalogues, the images would look fine as Lightroom pulls the JPEG preview from the raw image but then when I go to the Develop module, the image would revert to the poorly-processed raw version resulting in a flat, dull, lifeless image.  So then I'd have to spend an inordinate amount of time messing with sharpening, contrast, vibrancy/saturation, etc.  Lightroom's gotten better with its default processing but I've been trying other raw processors such as On1 Photo RAW, DXO PhotoLab and Alienskin Exposure X4.  All of them just don't render the CR2 the way the camera processes the JPEG.  This always frustrated me so I now use the JPEG to remind me how the image looked when I captured it.  The JPEGs don't necessarily remain on my HDD.
 

The reasoning here is actually relatively simple, and it should help you close the gap. For almost all brands, a "RAW" file includes an embedded small JPEG within the confines of that RAW file. The camera creates this JPEG using all of the things that would feed into any other JPEG it creates: White Balance, Picture Style (contrast, saturation, etc.), and who knows what else. Meanwhile, the RAW is raw sensor data (in some cases, losslessly compressed) without any of those factors. When you pull the RAW into LR, you actually see the small JPEG initially, until LR has time to render the RAW data the way it chooses to do so. If you were to pull up your camera, see what settings you have in the Picture Styles and such, and replicate those into LR, I bet you'd get real close. You could then capture those settings and store them in such a way that they're automatically applied on import, helping to get your RAW files to what you seek quicker. (I'd also recommend loading the RAW files, selecting them, and then telling LR to generate Standard Previews so that at least the initial rendering is now done.)

10 hours ago, Re-tired said:

I have used Lensrental a few times and it is a great way to go.  They'll even rent you the correct size polarizing filter to go with whatever lens you end up with.

Same here. Every Alaska cruise we've done has been made better with a sizeable rental from them. Lately I really just rent the 600mm, but I've been all over the map with them. We've tried lenses that we later bought, we've tried lenses that we realized we'd never buy, we've rented stuff we had no hope of affording (to purchase) yet, etc.

My tips: have your rental arrive at least a day before you need to have it, so if there's a shipping issue or a (very rare) equipment problem, they have time to overnight you a replacement thingy or you have margin for the shipment to arrive. Be aware that LR does sometimes (if stock permits) ship your order a day early (at no extra cost to you), so if you're not certain that you'd be at the listed shipping address for both of those days, I highly encourage you to have your order shipped to your nearest "FedEx Office" location (LR knows how to do this quite well). You then show up at FedEx Office with ID in hand, sign for your package, and walk out with a smile, rather than fuming at home that you missed the delivery (it's absolutely positively always "Signature Required" so they absolutely will not leave it on your doorstep). Heck, by doing it this way, I've had the pleasure of picking up my order as early as 8:30am and 12:00noon at the latest; the drivers start their route rather close to my nearby 'Office and they want to empty out their truck as early as possible.

I'll also point out that their sister site, lensauthority.com, is a fantastic place to buy used lenses. They have better repair/calibration capabilities onsite than some of the major lens manufacturers; they've done consulting work for at least one major brand but can't disclose which one due to NDA. They also have a fantastic system called "It's a keeper", so if you've rented a lens and decide you love it, you can buy it and keep it. Their online system will give you a no-haggle price on the spot; there's no need to send that lens back to them and wait for a different copy to come to you.

On 2/23/2019 at 12:28 PM, Mediterranean_Honeymooner said:

I have looked at a 75-300 and a 55-250, but I’m not which of those or if something completely different is best?  I want to get one that will give a lot of zoom (some things may be quite far away), good image quality, and stay under $200 if possible.

With all due respect, a budget of $200 won't go far enough to make it a worthwhile purchase for Alaska. Rent the 70-300 L-series (the white one) or maybe the 100-400 Mark II for about that $200 and be much happier. If you feel the urge to buy, skip the 75-300; you won't be happy. Be sure that any telephoto you buy has Image Stabilization - you really won't enjoy Alaska if you're stuck having to maintain significantly higher shutter speeds to avoid camera shake.

My suggestion is to go to Wikipedia, look up the product, and then you'll probably find a clickable link near the bottom with the manufacturer's timeline in a chart. This allows you to get a quick overview of where the product fits in the line by level and calendar.

I'm a freak when it comes to Alaska. My last trip was primarily 3 cameras and 4 lenses: 24-70/2.8 on a 5D3, 70-300L on a 1Dx, and 600/4 plus 1.4x TC III on a 5DsR, with a 14/2.8 II in a pouch on my belt for the occasional wide-angle shot. A 35/1.4 back in the room for low-light shots on the ship. (I would have used the 100-400 but my wife claimed that one...perhaps time for a second, though I also feel that next time I'll skip the 1.4x TC.)

I do want the EOS R, and it'll be our next camera (unless that purchase slips closer to the rumored "pro R").

I can't speak for experience, but the EOS R to EF adapter does have a white square, so presumably an EF-S lens would mount. No idea how it'd look though.

TagalongWell said it well - JPEG is lossy and you can never get the details back.

For me, culling is a huge part of my post-processing. I share 10% of what I shoot, at most. It's extremely rare that an unedited shot would go out the door ever, so I shoot in RAW only. On the very rare occasion that someone asks me to shoot an event and they need rapid turnaround, THEN I might shoot RAW+JPEG; if the deadline is super tight then I'll either send the unedited JPEG or do a quick edit on the JPEG and send it, otherwise I might use the JPEGs for culling to find the few I'll submit, and then import just those corresponding RAW files for edit and send.

We've done the TAF small-boat tour twice with Princess; both times the ship did some scenic cruising in TAF before continuing to Juneau. First time was a 2pm docking in Juneau with a 8:30am-2:00pm TAF tour and a 3:15-8:15 whale watch with Gastineau Guiding. I'm pretty sure the ship got into Juneau early and had begun passenger exodus by 2pm. The TAF tour got to the ship about 2:05pm. My wife was one of the first off the boat and had time to get up to our cabin and catch a photo of the small boat casting off from the ship; I was one of the last off the boat and (after skipping the elevators because they were mobbed going up for some reason) got to our cabin by 2:30. We changed clothes (to shed the cold) and had time to dash up to the buffet with all of our camera gear, grab some quick lunch, and make it off the ship in time for our tour.

Second time we did it, interestingly there were two small boats, and the small-boat tour was published as 7:30-1:00pm. Princess kept asking everyone on the tour if they had excursions at/before 1:30; our whale watch (published as 1:45-6:45) had a call time of 1:35 so we (stupidly) didn't speak up. First small boat got back to the ship at 1:30, we had to wait our turn so it was 1:50 when we got on the ship and 1:55 by the time we were out the other side to get to our excursion. The excursion had already left without us, but we played the "Princess knew we were still out on the earlier excursion and we bought this one through Princess so you should have waited" card and they came back for us in a jiffy.

So, my guidance is to assume the small boat tour runs long. We also got good value from the cruise line's promise to take care of us by buying both excursions through the ship, so think about that for your needs as well.

Harv and Marv has lots of market share / name recognition, but IMHO Gastineau Guiding has the best boats by a mile.

The EVF of mirrorless may give you a real-time preview of the ambient light, but you're still going to have to monitor your results if you're using flash.

On 10/24/2018 at 5:12 PM, KYBOB said:

I use a Gnarbox which will allow you to connect an external drive too. Works great with iPad or iPhone. You plug a SD card into it and it downloads it. You can then use your iPad or IPhone to review the photos edit or email. I also download GoPro videos to it then edit those file on my iPad. 

 

 

Can it view RAW? Can you connect multiple drives to create backups, or do you have to keep your cards to allow the Gnarbox to be the backup?

I've had the plastic strip come loose on several SanDisk cards. I snip them, and if I snip three, I toss the card. It happens, and it's a risk with that form factor. CF risks bent pins, so there's almost always a risk of some form.

We stick to 16GB or 32GB cards, download/triplicate/verify before formatting, and life is good. We've had a couple cards flake out; once the data is recovered, the card goes in the trash.

We've done two NB, three Seattle RT (2 Tracy Arm, 1 Glacier Bay), one 4-day Alaska Sampler, three 1-day repositionings (Vancouver<->Seattle), and one Mexican Riviera. IMHO, the shorter the cruise, the worse the crowd. One-nighters are heavy with weddings and a ton of people who overrun the staff. The 4-day was perhaps 40% of the type who love to stop in the middle of every hallway (without any regard for the people about to run into them, or the long flow of traffic they're blocking), muck up the meal service/lines, etc. If you're iffy on Princess already, I'd be hesitant to do a 5-day. Paid meals might make dinner better, but breakfast and lunch could still be iffy.

Reasonable. If nothing else, just get in line for the tunnel. It may be northbound 9:00-9:15, but that's split into a sequence. I think it's cars first, then buses, then trucks; the spacing between is adjusted based on the rescue capabilities. My point here is to say that you want to be queued up in time for the tunnel opening.

Two bags cover me for 97% of my work: a traditional backpack serves as my transport mechanism to and from almost everything, and a "Shootsac" serves as my typical lens carrier while shooting. The backpack ends up so much emptier once I get everything out to shoot, and it's tedious to take off, open up, change lenses, close up, and put on; the Shootsac has changed how I shoot as it makes the lens changes so much more convenient.

Two other "bags" handle the other 3%: a Pelican 1610 handles the overflow transport, air travel, and anytime that I want to know that my stuff is in a hard case. I also have a "photographer vest" setup that I use for Alaska cruises and event shooting. I look like I'm shooting for NatGeo or BBC, but it keeps the weight manageable for a day/week. I have a BlackRapid double strap "integrated" into the vest, and a variety of cases are velcroed into the belt that's part of the vest. Key is the LowePro "LensExchange 200AW" case, which carries one lens but opens up to temporarily hold two lenses, making lens changes safe and fast (even faster than the Shootsac).

We were told that they use it to track if someone gets sick - if you show up at the infirmary with vomiting, they cross-reference what and where you ate, whoever else ate the same dish from the same galley, etc.

At 400ms latency, it's going to be relatively hard for a speedtest to get a full picture of capacity. I also wouldn't be surprised if Princess uses some specific technologies to ensure that bandwidth is shared among _users_ rather than individual _flows_, and the only way for a speedtest to measure full bandwidth of the link at 400ms latency is a lot of parallel flows. Geekery aside, I would simply assume that you're not going to be able to measure the ship's internet feed for them, and move on. Most websites are highly optimized for lower-bandwidth connections, so the bigger factor (and one that's unavoidable with present satellite constellations) is the latency, which will slow down a lot of web things, particularly given that some browsers are driving people to think that every single web page needs to be secured (it doesn't).

1 minute ago, TruckerDave said:

what are you shooting that takes 157gb per day?     That is 6-7K shots (give or take). 

It's the "double day" in Alaska: Tracy Arm Fjord, and if you take the small-boat excursion there's a lot to see and photograph. Then in Juneau the same day, "Photo Safari" whale watch and glacier "hike". And with the Canon 5DsR, a RAW image file is 55-70MB per file, so it's probably more in the 4-5k shots range if I remember. My wife has a habit of going a little nuts with the "motor drive" when there are whales, and that happened to be a REALLY good trip for whale sightings.

That day is the reason I prefer Princess' Glacier Bay itinerary over their Tracy Arm itinerary; GB calendar is a little more relaxed while the TAF calendar is more wait/hurry up/wait/hurry up/cruise is over (36 hours of relaxation to KTN, then four things in three days, then 49 hours of relaxation to Victoria, then a short sleep and time to go).

5 hours ago, Loonbeam said:

 

 

The initial request was not to purchase or use a laptop, but other options....

 

 

Sometimes, the right tool for the job is right there in front of you, and the wrong tool will end up costing you a whole lot more.

Give us more info about how YOU shoot. Are you JPEG, RAW, or both? One camera or several? One photographer in the family group or several? Etc.

For us, both my wife and I shoot in RAW, with usually a total of five cameras. We've been known to shoot 157GB in a day and 350GB in a week-long Alaska cruise. A 128GB iPad is therefore an absolute no-go. Our solution leverages a laptop and several external/portable HDDs. Within an hour (worst case) of downloading our cards (157GB takes time to read no matter how you slice it) and four hours of unattended time, I have the images AND VALIDATED in three places. On our next visit to the cabin, one drive rotates into the cabin safe and another drive comes out, so it'd take the master key for the cabin safe to steal the last copy of our images. When it's time to leave the ship (boo!), the drives travel in different bags with different people so there's a safety net no matter what. And yes, it took a laptop to get that level of safety.

However, you may consider one of the purpose-built gadgets that holds a hard drive and can read memory cards, copying them to the gadget's HD. That avoids a laptop but does still require a thingy. I'm not a big fan of something that probably can't read RAW image files and confirm to you that they were successfully transferred.

Remember that until new services with a new satellite constellation are fully operational, the latency of ship internet will remain high, and hence interactive services will remain "laggy" and sluggish no matter how much bandwidth they throw at the problem.

"Everyone" wants to eat at 6:15. The MDRs aren't big enough to handle that, no matter how they slice/dice it. As I see it, you have six options:

1) TD early seating.

2) TD late seating.

3) ATD prior to when ATD capacity fills up.

4) ATD at/after the point when ATD capacity begins recovering.

5) ATD during the time when capacity is full (this results in a waiting period until capacity recovers).

6) Other venues as desired.

They've had enough request for early TD that they commit about 2/3 of their capacity to this. However, if you ask me, Club Class Dining was an excellent way to slice up the third MDR in a way that decreases their TD capacity and augments their ATD capacity, even if it is at a lesser saturation rate than regular MDR ATD. Nonetheless, this is why reservations aren't available, and I understand it and respect them for doing it as it improves the ways in which they can turn the tables more effectively.

They don't do reservations in ATD after doors open until the point when capacity begins recovering, because those reservations require holding a table open.

They have a passport so your reply makes no sense. That is all they need to come back by plane if they need to from their Canada/New England cruise.

 

As far as Real ID drivers licenses there is no reason to bring that up since they have a valid passport and that is all they need for International flights or domestic flights.

That is all they need to come back by plane, assuming they return before the passport expires. If they should fall ill and require hospitalization in a foreign country, the passport could expire before they're ready for travel back to their home country. Never say never...it could happen, especially if the OP is pushing it down to the mark.

At least for US cruises, they have to send the "final" passenger list to "the government" 60 minutes before departure so they can decide if anyone needs to be tarred and feathered. That's the window where the muster drill fits.

I suspect there's a steady stream of helicopters being ferried to other locations as the season wraps up. The helicopter companies are smart and they know where they can earn their money.

Are you a video fanatic, set up to edit copious amounts of footage down to something enriching and captivating? If not, you're looking behind the wrong door.