There are more questions then answers

Last week, with the help of all my blog readers, I launched “Quick Shots” my new video tutorials. It needs a bit of time to get the format right, but the reaction has been better then I hoped. At the same time as uploading the video I updated the front page of www.gavtrain.com which now sports a Quick Shots form where anyone can send me a question. And lots of you did just that.

I’ve got some great questions to answer; although many of them will need a bit of planning and the photography questions will need an outside shoot to be filmed.

However there were lots and lots of questions that didn’t quite fit into the format of the new Quick Shots videos or ask a question I’ve answered before.

Below is a selection of those questions and some answers that might be useful.

Name: moazzam
Question: which camera and lens do u use urself?
Answer: I own lots of lens and Canon bodies. My main two bodies are the 40D and 400D. I use a Canon 24-105 L most of the time but you’ll also find me using Sigma’s 10-20 and Sigma’s 18-50 f2.8 (a great lens)

Name: Shahbaz A
Question: which camera setting are best for snow fall season
Answer: This video should help

Name: Dinger
Question: can I create the effect of turning a page in pro show producer
Answer: Not really, Proshow producer doesn’t allow that kind of distortion to an image. I wish it did and if anyone knows a way I’d be happy to learn it myself.

Name: Simon R
Question: When should you use curves rather than levels when adjusting an image?
Answer: When ever the mood strikes you. To be honest I never liked using Curves and ALWAYS use levels. From talking to lots of photographers I get the feeling the use of curves is diminishing as the use of RAW software is increasing.

Name: MARTIN R
Question: Hello Gavin, I would like to see you edit and include some video footage with stills in ProShow Producer.
Answer: I don’t use Proshow Producer for video editing, yes it can do basic editing, but it’s not a very efficient way to work. I use Premiere Elements 7 for all my editing work. If there’s a demand for it I’ll do some tutorials on video editing in the future.

Name: Bazil
Question: Your Question Here Do you have instructional videos for wedding photography
Answer: We’re working on new videos, but have no plans to do one on Wedding Photography

Name: Darshan
Question: Which is the best way to calibrate monitor...? is it the same procedure for desktop or laptop.... they both r LCD anyways...
Answer: I use a Spyder 2 Express on all my PC’s it works really well and I’d recommend one to anyone (and no, I’m not being paid to say that)


Well that’s a selection of the questions, if you have one of your own, then hop over to the Gavtrain Home Page and send it over to me. The next Quick Shot video is out on Friday and will appear right here on the blog.