Summary: In Episode 24 of the Improve Photography Podcast, Jim and Dustin answer listener questions about polarizers, anti-aliasing, exporting photos, external flashes, and more! If you are reading this post via email or RSS, be sure to click the blue title of this post so that you can come to the website where the free audio download of this show is available. If you're new to the podcast, you can see all the previous episodes of the Improve Photography Podcast here. How to Subscribe to the Podcast on Your Phone or MP3 Player (free!) For iPhone/iPad/iPod listeners - Grab your phone or device and go to the iTunes store and search "Improve Photography Podcast." This will help you to download the free Podcasts App (produced by Apple) and then subscribe to the show from within that app. Every time I produce a new episode, you'll get it downloaded right on your iDevice. For Android listeners - Download the Stitcher Radio app (free) and search for "Improve Photography Podcast." Or, if you have already downloaded a podcasting client, follow the directions in the next sentence. For podcast enthusiasts - If you already listen to podcasts and have a podcatcher that you prefer, the feed you'll need to add is http://improvephotography.com/feed/podcast For those who don't have a mobile device - You can always listen to the show by clicking the audio file at the top of this episode. Guide to Episode 24 [1:16] External Flash Units: will they work on any camera? And can I use my flash trigger with different brand flashes too? If your flash will fire on your camera, it will work fine. Canon and Nikon have agreed on one thing: how the hotshoe should work. The killer, however, is Sony: the flash gear that you get is going to work fine on most the camera brands except Sony. [3:32] Exporting from Lightroom: Is there an optimal output for different types of photos? There are no specific settings based on the genre of your photography. Rather, the specifics are based on the medium your photo is going to go on (i.e. printing, web, etc). For the web, generally use something around 900 px on the longest side. Remember that for the web, you don't need to worry about the resolution. For printing, you will need to have the exact size. First, set the dpi, and make sure you know what the printer needs or your photo might wind up being a drastically different size than you anticipated. Generally, professional labs need the resolution set to 300 dpi. Then, to set height and width, if you want to make an 8"x10" print, put (8 * the dpi you just set) pixels in the height and (10 * the dpi you just set) pixels in the width. [8:17] Would you recommend a D7000 or a D7100 for video? For video, it doesn't matter how many megapixels you have on your image sensor. So if you are deciding between the two based on the number of megapixels, it doesn't matter. The D7100 has a stereo mic and a headphone jack, so Jim would spring for the D7100 because of those features if it is in your budget. fps = frames per second. Most TV is 30 fps, and when you watch a movie it is slower (24 fps). Some cameras are coming out with faster frame rates. [13:20] Do you have an opinion on cameras without an AA (Anti-Aliasing) filter? Does the image quality really suffer or will you not really notice? Google "moire texture" to see the texture Jim and Dustin are talking about. If you are taking landscape pictures, there's no reason to have an AA filter, but if you ever shoot portraits, you should keep it. It won't make your photos totally blurry - it just takes out that tiny bit of sharpness. [17:20] Do you recommend a particular type or model of digital frame? Jim hasn't seen any good quality digital frames out there. However, his parents have a Kodak Easyshare Digital Frame - it's great because you can send a picture to the email address associated with the frame and it will show up in the frame. If you happen to know of a good quality picture frame, please - let us know.
