CO / SD Slideshow - Now with data

[NateNLogansDad]

That's good to hear. You weren't the only one. I also got a message from someone on Facebook. I think I'm going to write it off as a false positive and be done with it.

I'm not that worried about this for future stuff. I think I'm going to move to strictly video based slideshows. I like the higher quality of the downloadable slideshows, but they are too much of a pain. The Full HD versions as streaming video are good enough.

Thanks for your help.

Anytime. B/T/W amazing photographs!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm a data guy. It's what I do for a living. Here is some data on my shooting. I've broken it into three categories - All, Keepers, and Slideshow.

"All" is all of the pictures that made it into Lightroom at home. It misses a few shots that got deleted on the camera or culled while on the trip. I'm sure that it has 90+% of my shots. I excluded the shots used for a time lapse experiment.

"Keepers" are the shots that survived my initial cull in Lightroom. Sometimes I cull because I have several of the same shot and I don't want them all. Usually I cull because the shot was bad - either technically (out of focus, motion blur, bad exposure) or compositionally (why did I shoot that?).

"Slideshow" are the shots that made it into my slideshow. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are the best. Some lousy shots get in because I want them for the story they tell. Some good shots get cut because I have better shots that say the same thing. There is also a bias towards landscape shots rather than portrait shots in the slideshow.

I have eight columns in the tables. The raw number columns are the numbers meeting the row criteria for all shots, keepers, and slideshow shots. The first percentage column for each grouping is the number of shots for the row criteria divided by the number of shots in the grouping. The second percentage (only on the keeper and slideshow shots) is the number in each grouping that met the row criteria divided by the number shot that met the criteria.

That's confusing. The first percentages tell you how the shots in that category break down by criteria. The second percentages tell you what percentage of shots taken survived the culling rounds. That's still confusing, but it'll have to do.

My wife and I shared photography duty and there really isn't a way to break down our shots by shooter. So the results are a hybrid of our shooting styles. My wife shoots on full auto about 75% of the time. I gathered this data using Lightroom and I didn't see a way to break down by shooting mode (Av, Tv, etc).

The first chart is the breakdown by camera. The 5D is the favored camera, so it got the most use. The 7D was used for hummingbird shots and was used as the "B" camera when two were in use. When used, the cameras clocked similar "keeper" rates, except the statistically insignificant keeper rate of 33% for the G9. Only the DSLR's shots got used in the slideshow.

The second chart is a lens breakdown. The three general purpose zooms got the most use. Keeper rates were relatively similar.

The third chart is apertures. I grouped apertures by stops except at the very open end. I thought people might want to see a more exact breakdown of low apertures.

The fourth chart is ISO. I grouped the ISO settings by stop. The last grouping is >=3200, but I don't think we shot anything over 3200. It looks like about half of our shots were at ISO 100-160.

The fifth chart is orientation. I've been shooting more landscape shots lately. I like them better for slideshows. I'm also happy to crop from landscape to portrait, so I don't fuss over portrait shots as much.

The sixth chart is flash usage. It doesn't track how many flashes were used or whether it was bounced or anything. It's just whether I used a flash or not. Wow, I need to use my flash more.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Beautiful pictures and wonderful slideshow! Great job on your hummingbird pictures and wildlife photos, too!

And I really enjoyed pouring through your data, too. Did you simply use Lightroom's Library Filter to collect the data manually and enter them into an Excel sheet? Even the color scheme for your data charts looks very Lightroom-esque.

 

[WDWFigment]

Thanks for the information regarding the filters. That is enough to keep me from moving them higher in my "need to buy" list for the time being. Perhaps in the future as funds allow.

Very interesting statistics. I am surprised by the low flash usage by you. I pegged you as more of a lighting kind of guy, although to be fair, location may have dictated lower usage. I'm still surprised usage was that low, though.

 

[WDWFigment]

Thanks for the information regarding the filters. That is enough to keep me from moving them higher in my "need to buy" list for the time being. Perhaps in the future as funds allow.

Very interesting statistics. I am surprised by the low flash usage by you. I pegged you as more of a lighting kind of guy, although to be fair, location may have dictated lower usage. I'm still surprised usage was that low, though.

 

[Josh125]

Mark -- Are you composing the slideshow in Smugmug or prior to uploading it? Beautiful pictures as always.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Thanks for the information regarding the filters. That is enough to keep me from moving them higher in my "need to buy" list for the time being. Perhaps in the future as funds allow.

Very interesting statistics. I am surprised by the low flash usage by you. I pegged you as more of a lighting kind of guy, although to be fair, location may have dictated lower usage. I'm still surprised usage was that low, though.

I'm lazy. That, and taking a camping trip with school aged boys keeps you pretty busy. I'll do better next time.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Mark -- Are you composing the slideshow in Smugmug or prior to uploading it? Beautiful pictures as always.

I composed the slideshow prior to uploading it to Smugmug. I used a video program (Adobe Premiere) and created a video file. Then I uploaded the video file to Smugmug. You can display pictures in a Slideshow on Smugmug, but you can't set it to music.