The Photography Thread - Part 1

[the_ultimate_evil]

So I bought the 70d on an impulse, got a great price on staff lol. Bloody love itt:

 

[Dr Lee]

The charity group my mumworks for needed an image for their creative writing class... I came up with this...


Once upon a Time

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

So I bought the 70d on an impulse, got a great price on staff lol. Bloody love itt:

Damn, nice choice. I wanted 5D Mark III but for some reason I'm waiting for Mark IV until I upgrade lol.

 

[SpideyVille]

Spideyville,

Drop by anytime to show us what you've got and we'll definitely try to give you some suggestions. Even though we have some real amazing talent on SHH, it's safe to say we're never done learning.

Sure, I've been meaning to post here but I haven't really had much time to get stuff ready to post. I don't really have much free time because of my job so I've been taking my camera to work with me and testing it out during my lunch break. These are some of the best that I feel like I was able to get.









This is one of the last ones I took with my old camera, a Sony Cybershot DSC-H20


And of course, its the obligatory lack and white reflection selfie.

 

[chaseter]

Took this with my iphone

 

[thalidomide]

@Ultimate_evil

You're a freaking Pro, dude!

@Spideyville

Those are good shots, good job

 

[SpideyVille]

Thanks!

So right now, I have a 18-55mm lens and a 55-250mm zoom lens. With NYCC coming up in a couple of days and pay day coming on the same day, I'm considering buy a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I'm still getting used to my camera and trying to learn which works best for taking portraits of people, but the thing that really intrigues me is the low aperture, which will allow to overcome one of my biggest problems at comic con in the past which was trying to get a decent balance with my aperture and shutter speed.

 

[thalidomide]

50mm is a good choice for shooting portraits, just always remember to shoot in RAW. Good luck!

I noticed that I'm the only Nikonista here t:

 

[Asteroid-Man]

On a walk with my father during the summer:

 

[SpideyVille]

Great Shots A-Man!

50mm is a good choice for shooting portraits, just always remember to shoot in RAW. Good luck!

I've heard this a few times already, but what exactly does it mean to shoot in RAW? I remember hearing about it in my photography class years ago, but we were never taught how to do it.

Also, I picked up the 50mm lens minutes before I got to Comic Con today, so I was learning how to use it on the fly today. Here's some of the decent ones I got. I'm kinda mixed on how I feel about them because on some I feel like I got the bokeh that I wanted, but on others. like the last one, I feel like I should have tinkered with the aperture a bit and I could have ended up with a great shot.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Thanks spidey! Was doing some test shots for cinematic effect. Love me some Terrence Malick!

Those are some beautiful shots, btw! Great portraits.


EDIT: Some of them seem a little soft - do you have photoshop?

 

[SpideyVille]

Thanks spidey! Was doing some test shots for cinematic effect. Love me some Terrence Malick!

No problem. And I should have known, there's something about your photos that almost had me convinced that they were screencaps from a film for a second.

Those are some beautiful shots, btw! Great portraits.

EDIT: Some of them seem a little soft - do you have photoshop?

Thanks, I'm a little disappointed though because I passed up so many shots that day since it normally take me a while to get used to asking people for a pic.

But yeah, I have photoshop. And I also took the advice of shooting in both RAW and JPEG today, and I jumped my aperture to f/2.5 to fix with blur issue a bit. I'm still working on the pics I took today, but I am definitely happier with how they came out.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Are you using the viewfinder to take your pictures or the digital display?

Also in Photoshop you can apply smart sharpen. What I like doing is applying that over a duplicate layer and masking only the part that you need in focus. Ideally you wouldn't have to do that, but worst case scenario, the option is there.

Also make sure you adjust the optics in the viewfinder to your own eye using the -/+ dial attached to it.

 

[SpideyVille]

I'm using the viewfinder now since my last camera, an advanced point and shoot, didn't have one.

And thanks, I'll look into doing that. What I was doing with some of my pictures lately was making a duplicate layer where I would adjust the levels and a bit, and then I would lower the opacity so it blends with the original.

 

[Alistair]

But yeah, I have photoshop. And I also took the advice of shooting in both RAW and JPEG today, and I jumped my aperture to f/2.5 to fix with blur issue a bit. I'm still working on the pics I took today, but I am definitely happier with how they came out.

RAW: It's just the image, no compression, no altering, it's just the data of the shot. This is why it has more latitude and the ability to adjust the photo more, since it doesn't drop pixels when shot.

I would assume your shooting with poor light, correct? This is why you had to shoot so low? I can kinda tell with your low depth of field. Also, a lot of things are going to be "sharper" as it's a prime, and no a telephoto so shots will act different when shooting. It's a fantastic starter lens, that I do admit.

For the shake, or the weird blur effect that seems not so sharp. Your screwed, no matter tool in photoshop you do to sharpen it will make it worse. Order to get that effect, you have to be in focus already. So, this, I will ask...what shutter speed are you shooting at? Anytime you shake below 1/60th of a shutter can cause this. There is tricks to this as putting on your shoulder, holding your breath, or both. Another thing it could be is...where are you focusing? Are you choosing focus points or is the camera?

Now, I would invest after you learn how your camera works, and how it focuses and such. Read the manual, and I can not stress that enough.

Granted, this is just advice, so take it with a grain of salt since I'm still a newbie.

Anyways, what's a post without pictures? Here is one of a senior I did using my new setup of Alien Bee 1600, Pocket Wizards and my Softlighter. This are straight out of camera and my first real usage with this setup. Since the wedding was kinda messed up and only used it for like 5 shots. This I really moved around.





Here is a little outskirt of my umbrella that I used.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I'm using the viewfinder now since my last camera, an advanced point and shoot, didn't have one.

And thanks, I'll look into doing that. What I was doing with some of my pictures lately was making a duplicate layer where I would adjust the levels and a bit, and then I would lower the opacity so it blends with the original.

That can make it look like it has some sort of aliasing issue - just a heads up. I used to do that too. Masks can solve this though. Just make sure to apply a max'd out gaussian blur to your mask so it blends into the image without having the original blurry image seeping into the portion you want to look sharp.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I'm not a photographer by any means but I have to admit that I am proud of this picture. It's of a distant family member's barn in Wisconsin. Keep in mind I took the picture from the window of a speeding car.

 

[Sensi]

It's a wonderful photo.

 

[SpideyVille]

Thanks for the advice guys! I shot the rest of the days in both RAW and JPEG using just my 50mm lens and I really saw the difference when I was processing the photos. I am definitely going to start shooting in RAW from now on. I love it. I ended up having some other problems like cropping issues and in some cases, really extreme changes in lighting that could not be fixed, but overall, I'm much happier with how my photos came out this year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/103393701@N02/

Here's my Flickr where I uploaded all of my photos. I'll post some of my favorites here though.

For the shake, or the weird blur effect that seems not so sharp. Your screwed, no matter tool in photoshop you do to sharpen it will make it worse. Order to get that effect, you have to be in focus already. So, this, I will ask...what shutter speed are you shooting at? Anytime you shake below 1/60th of a shutter can cause this. There is tricks to this as putting on your shoulder, holding your breath, or both. Another thing it could be is...where are you focusing? Are you choosing focus points or is the camera?

I'm pretty confident that this was the issue. The camera was choosing the focus on its own, so for poses where the person had something pointing towards me, that was what was getting the majority of the focus. I found a way to work around it by shifting the camera to set it focus on one thing before moving it to get the right framing.

But as for the shutter speed, I was tight that 1/30th was the lowest I could go to avoid the camera shake. But to be safe, I ended up shooting mostly between 1/80th and 1/125th. I also had my ISO set to auto, although in some cases it would go as high as 3200, so there was some sacrifices I had to make.

 

[Alistair]

Spidey,

Aye! Good shots on the rest of them, and then I would agree. I wasn't to sure, so please take it with a grain of salt. Yes, learning to choose your focus points will help very much so! Either way, those are safe numbers, but due keep that rule in mind as it will help in the future if ya don't have IS. I don't recall the exact rule, as I'll have to find it.

Don't worry about ISO, really. Well, I mean due, but don't worry about the quality as it's better to get the shot than not get it. This I learned very much so when I shot a few Quincenera's. When you get use to your camera, I strongly suggest learning how go to manual as you'll have a lot more control.

Now I wanna go to comic con. =/ I just don't know if OCF would work that well there since all the people moving about. Oh well. On camera it is. Hahaha. One of these days.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Shot, processed, and printed by me.

 

[Alistair]

Here is I did today at high noon, with a few outtakes and no real editing besides white balance. I so need to get a ND filter. Anyone know of a good one? Price doesn't matter, long it's not 500+.





http://smg.photobucket.com/user/AlistairM/media/IMG_7114_zps96128a46.jpg.html

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

50mm is a good choice for shooting portraits, just always remember to shoot in RAW. Good luck!

I noticed that I'm the only Nikonista here t:

I kind of want to shoot portraits at around 75 to 80mm. One of these days, I'll invest in a good prime lens for that...whenever I get to making my own little studio and beef up my skills.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

On a walk with my father during the summer:

Spoiler

Reminds me of a Terrance Malick's Tree of Life for some reason.

EDIT

That explains it:

Thanks spidey! Was doing some test shots for cinematic effect. Love me some Terrence Malick!

lol

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Great Shots A-Man!


Also, I picked up the 50mm lens minutes before I got to Comic Con today, so I was learning how to use it on the fly today. Here's some of the decent ones I got. I'm kinda mixed on how I feel about them because on some I feel like I got the bokeh that I wanted, but on others. like the last one, I feel like I should have tinkered with the aperture a bit and I could have ended up with a great shot.

Spoiler

What was your technique for shooting these? If sharpness is your problem, and it can be difficult sometimes, it might be where you are metering or your ISO settings. I wouldn't say you need a stabilized lens, but it sure does help for handheld.