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Digital [Photo]graphy Thread
gilrain
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Yeah, so -- I thought this might be a fun thread to try out in the new subforum. Let's post photos we're particularly pleased with, or are technically interesting. This is the technology subforum, so be sure to mention what gear you took 'em with, how it was retouched, if at all, and whatnot. Also, feel free to post using Flickr accounts -- all us PA folks should be contacts on Flickr, right?
I'll start us off with a couple photos I took for a still-in-the-works cocktail-and-tobacco-nerd blog:
They were both taken with a Canon SD850 IS, with no retouching aside from cropping and downsizing (bicubic) in GIMP.
Let's see some photos! 8-)
List of PA Flickr accounts (forum - flickr):
gilrain - gilrain
Sharpie - nefhithiel
area - area
phamtq - bemusementpark
Stregone - stregone
sonictk - sonictk
Dark Moon - gelias
I'll start us off with a couple photos I took for a still-in-the-works cocktail-and-tobacco-nerd blog:
They were both taken with a Canon SD850 IS, with no retouching aside from cropping and downsizing (bicubic) in GIMP.
Let's see some photos! 8-)
List of PA Flickr accounts (forum - flickr):
gilrain - gilrain
Sharpie - nefhithiel
area - area
phamtq - bemusementpark
Stregone - stregone
sonictk - sonictk
Dark Moon - gelias
gilrain on
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My two favorite styles are low-light and macro because they offer different and fun challenges.
An example of a low-light shot from my trip to the Georgia Aquarium last year:
This is a Sea Nettle. The picture has been resized to 25% original size for ease of forum viewing.
An example of a macro shot:
This is the same size as the nickels still in circulation today, in case anyone is unfamiliar with these coins. I forget how much I reduced it by, since I did it a while ago. I didn't want to shrink it any more because the point of macro photography is to make small things bigger. All that's been done to it is cropping and resizing, and of course combining two pictures to showcase the obverse and reverse. My setup is a camera on a short tripod with two halogen desk lamps providing light.
I use a Sony CyberShot DSC90. It's kinda old, but it has always served me well. It lets me mess with the ISO, aperture and shutter speed on manual mode to compose the shot how I want it to look. I rarely do any computer editing beyond resizing/cropping. Also, I almost never use flash fill. I feel it makes the lighting kinda sterile and that it has the potential to ruin the mood of a setting. Neither of the pictures I just posted use flash.
Also, before I go, one more shot from my trip to Tybee Island last month:
BTW I like your composition, Gilrain.
Do you use Flickr?
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Thanks!
Well, my camera doesn't go above 400, so I bet that's what I was using. Maybe 200 for some better-lit areas. I hate digital noise.
I just made a Flickr, there's only like 30 pictures on there though.
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Wow, this one is great:
I need to go to an aquarium, now. I live in San Diego, so there are probably some good ones around.
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Thanks.
I've been taking a photo a day this year of something that I've done, or made me laugh or smile, or was just a nice photo opportunity. The idea was to improve my photography, but two of the best photos were taken 10 months apart (the two below), so I'm not sure how much improvement there's been. These two are very much the highlights!
The top one was retouched to make the red redder, and the bottom one hasn't had anything done to it. I'm using a Sony Cybershot DSC-P200 which has taken a serious beating in the time that I've had it; it goes everywhere with me. Unfortunately, I've started seeing evidence of what I assume is dirt on the CCD, which I'm not really sure what I do about
That's a neat idea, too. I think I'd feel too much pressure to take a great shot each day. I might do something like that weekly, though...
For the dust, I know there are people who clean them professionally, but I imagine they're targetting at the higher-end and might charge you more than the cost of a new, equivalent camera... Christmas is coming up, though -- last minute gift request?
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So far the Olympus e410 or e510 are really tempting me. The e410 comes with 2 lenses for the same price as the e510 with a single lens. I'm leaning towards the better body and just added lenses later though.
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At the same time, do you need it? Would a long range zoom lens be more useful? Only you know.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
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Oh my god man. You live in SD and you've never been to Scripps Aquarium? Man, it's awesome. I go at least once a year.
I really, really want to get a DSLR but it's just not high enough on my priorities list to spend money on. I take film shots with my trusty N50 and develop them at school. I should really get around to scanning some of them.
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Here are some more:
I got kittens today! The "safe room" they're in is very low light, so it's been hard to snap any good shots, so far. I got one decent one, though -- more coming, I assure you.
That's ISO800 (yuck), and was level-tweaked in GIMP for white balance and contrast.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stregone/
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T-shirts | Last.fm | Flickr | dA
Edit: by the way, is this a profession, for you?
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No special special filter. I just set up the camera with a tripod and set the shutter speed really slow. It's weird how the air itself had a tannish hue that night. I guess it was due to the street lights.
I don't know where your focus was set, but it seems like a lot of the photo was really subtly out of focus. If you're going to use a tripod, you may as well take advantage of your ability to take insane long exposures and use a higher aperture to keep more of the shot in focus. Unless you're trying for a depth of field trick but really, dof is kind of pretty weak about 95% of the time.
Also, everything in the photo seems tan because most of the lighting is really warm and yellow, coming from those street lights. If you adjust your white balance you can correct for it to be a little less yellow. A lot of the time you can get a really nice effect from taking slightly warm photos, it has a bit of a vintage look to it that a lot of people find appealing. I think that's mostly the case with this photo, although I couldn't help but imagine that making it sliiightly cooler might benefit it, too.
The real appeal of shooting RAW is that you can adjust WB to your heart's delight without the slightest effort. It's literally a slider in most RAW converters, and in Canon's DPP app you can click any spot in the photo and tell it that the pixel you've clicked on is supposed to be white. DPP then adjusts white balance across the whole picture to make that spot white. Very slick. There are a handful of other settings that are greatly simplified when editing in RAW vs. JPEG but white balance is the real selling point, because it's such a pain in the ass to nail consistently in the field, especially if you're moving from scene to scene a lot.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Same here. Though you do start to learn the basics better this way.
For me, the first step I took was to find what kind of photography I liked and then tried to copy it. Along the way you pick up how certain shots are taken or they lead you to take photos that are unique.
I like taking photos of people when you're not paying attention so I had to learn a non-camera technique. People seem to want to pose or avoid the camera when you're first taking pictures. What I learned was to keep taking photos until you fade into the background. Learn to become background "noise" if you want to do this kind of photography.
Taken at ISO400, then tweaked its levels and desaturated it, since ISO grain looks better in B&W.
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CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
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I've got a Sony DSC-H1 which I received Summer '06 for my honeymoon in October of that year. So far, I've been getting used to how it performs in everyday settings, and in special situations as well. I've got a small 15" tripod that I bring along as well, for night shots or timed group pics I want to be in.
I've got some stuff up online, but not on Flikr. I'll post a few shots soon for critique.
Anyways, I shoot with a Pentax K10D at the moment. My favourite part about shooting with a DSLR is being able to bump my sensitivity up to ISO1600 without any heavy grain. I am drooling over the recently announced K20D, though, which will do up to ISO6400, which looks like the K10Ds ISO1600. External strobe photography is also fun, if not outrageously frustrating. The only disadvantage I find with the DLSR vs a nice small P+S is that the DLSR tends to attract a lot more attention and get me kicked out of places I was able to photograph freely before. Even my local public library is making me go through the administration to get permission to shoot freely during regular business hours.
Oh, right, photo thread.
And my flickr, for the interested.
Yeah, as much as I am loving the portability of my PowerShot SD850 IS, it's really annoying to have everything above ISO400 completely useless for the noise. I'm seriously considering getting the latest Rebel, or whatever is hot and under a grand.
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I hope to see you guys over there. I know AC has a reputation, but so far the people in the photo thread have been nice.
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