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How do I art? [PHOTO THREAD]
anable
North TexasRegistered User regular
North TexasRegistered User regular
In this thread, we post photos!
All photos are welcome, though most people post with the intention of receiving criticism so that they can become better photographers. Please do not spoiler your photos as that defeats the purpose of the thread.
For photography newbies:
What type of camera should I buy?
This can't be answered the same for every person. There's little difference in the photo quality between most major brands (Canon, Nikon, etc) so it comes down to price and personal preference. Make sure your camera lets you control settings like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO and preferably lets you capture images in RAW format. Other than that, get a bit of hands on time and see how the camera feels to you. Also remember that if you're buying an SLR, camera bodies come and go but lenses usually last while. For this reason it might be worth it to buy a cheaper body and spend a bit extra on some lenses.
Speaking of lenses, which ones should I buy?
Most kit lenses are a good starting place, though you'll begin to find them more limited once you're more comfortable with your camera. A good entry level prime lens for Canon cameras is this little guy. Other than that, you'll probably want to pick up a telezoom lens with a macro feature. This should get you set for a long while.
Any good books/sites I should read?
Lots of people recommend Understanding Exposure or the first Ansel Adams book. Don't bother buying any book that tells you how to use your specific camera model. All of that information can be found in your user's manual.
How do I become awesome at arting?
The best advice I can give is: keep taking pictures. That being said, don't just randomly point your camera at something and hit the shutter button. Stop for a moment to think about why you're taking this picture. What are you trying to show people? Is the current lighting/angle/etc going to help you show that? If so, proceed. If not, adjust your settings or body to capture it another way.
Resources/Tools:
Lightroom - Awesome software for managing your photo collection and editing RAW files.
LR Mogrify - Unfortunately Lightroom doesn't have a border option so use this tool. It also does watermarks and the like.
Canon Firmware Update - Unofficial firmware update that allows more options one some Canon cameras.
Strobist - Fantastic source on getting into off camera lighting. Don't be put off by initial complexities. It'll come.
Flickr - A free photo hosting site. Also has a pro option if you like. There's also a PA flickr group.
Phorumr - If you're using flickr and Firefox, this script auto generates the code you need to paste into the forum.
Photoshop Pyramid - Helps regulate your daily dose of Photoshop.
A DIY plexiglass frame - Nifty.
DIY Bokeh - A neat DIY to getting bokeh shapes.
There's also a great write up from Pope:
All photos are welcome, though most people post with the intention of receiving criticism so that they can become better photographers. Please do not spoiler your photos as that defeats the purpose of the thread.
For photography newbies:
What type of camera should I buy?
This can't be answered the same for every person. There's little difference in the photo quality between most major brands (Canon, Nikon, etc) so it comes down to price and personal preference. Make sure your camera lets you control settings like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO and preferably lets you capture images in RAW format. Other than that, get a bit of hands on time and see how the camera feels to you. Also remember that if you're buying an SLR, camera bodies come and go but lenses usually last while. For this reason it might be worth it to buy a cheaper body and spend a bit extra on some lenses.
Speaking of lenses, which ones should I buy?
Most kit lenses are a good starting place, though you'll begin to find them more limited once you're more comfortable with your camera. A good entry level prime lens for Canon cameras is this little guy. Other than that, you'll probably want to pick up a telezoom lens with a macro feature. This should get you set for a long while.
Any good books/sites I should read?
Lots of people recommend Understanding Exposure or the first Ansel Adams book. Don't bother buying any book that tells you how to use your specific camera model. All of that information can be found in your user's manual.
How do I become awesome at arting?
The best advice I can give is: keep taking pictures. That being said, don't just randomly point your camera at something and hit the shutter button. Stop for a moment to think about why you're taking this picture. What are you trying to show people? Is the current lighting/angle/etc going to help you show that? If so, proceed. If not, adjust your settings or body to capture it another way.
Resources/Tools:
Lightroom - Awesome software for managing your photo collection and editing RAW files.
LR Mogrify - Unfortunately Lightroom doesn't have a border option so use this tool. It also does watermarks and the like.
Canon Firmware Update - Unofficial firmware update that allows more options one some Canon cameras.
Strobist - Fantastic source on getting into off camera lighting. Don't be put off by initial complexities. It'll come.
Flickr - A free photo hosting site. Also has a pro option if you like. There's also a PA flickr group.
Phorumr - If you're using flickr and Firefox, this script auto generates the code you need to paste into the forum.
Photoshop Pyramid - Helps regulate your daily dose of Photoshop.
A DIY plexiglass frame - Nifty.
DIY Bokeh - A neat DIY to getting bokeh shapes.
There's also a great write up from Pope:
Some Photography Stuff
Types of Lenses:
Prime Lens - A lens with no “zoom.” While this might limit composition choices, it also usually means the lens is “faster” (meaning can achieve larger apertures, usually 2.8 and larger (2.0, 1.8, 1.4, 1.0, etc). The wider the aperture, the more light gets in and therefore the faster the shutter can be which is why primes are considered faster.
Zoom Lens - Any lens that can span a range of focal lengths. For example: 18mm-55mm. There are zooms in every category (normal, telephoto, wide, and macro).
Telephoto Lens - A lens that makes objects in the photo appear larger than they were to the naked eye. This is akin to being “zoomed in.” These lenses are comparable to physically moving closer to the subject. Some distortion can occur in the form of “compressing” the distance between objects.
Normal Lens - A lens where objects in the photo appear to be the same size as when seen by the naked eye. This lenses do not change your perceived distance from the subject.
Wide Angle Lens - A lens that shows a wider field of view than the naked eye. This is comparable to being further from the subject. Some distortion can occur (with a fisheye being an extreme example). Foreground objects appear disproportionately larger than background objects.
Macro Lens - A specialty lens that allows focusing on objects MUCH closer than with other lenses. Favored for all closeups (insects, flowers, etc).
Other Terms:
DOF - DOF stands for Depth-of-Field or Depth-of-focus. This describes how much of the shot is in focus (a plain perpendicular to the lens).
Focal Length - The size of a lens. Controls how “zoomed in” or “zoomed out” the picture is. On a 35mm camera a 50mm lens is pretty ‘normal’ and an 85mm lens is a short ‘telephoto’ and a 20mm lens is ‘wide.’ On a lower-end SLR a 50mm is a little bit telephoto.
Crop Factor - The ratio of size of the field of view between various cameras and compared against a 35mm film camera as the baseline. A typical digital SLR has a crop factor of 1.6 (meaning the field of view of the digital chip is smaller than a 35mm film frame). This affects the field of view offered by lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a typical Digital SLR (DSLR) would be the equivalent of an 80mm lens on a 35mm film camera. A 200mm lens on a typical DSLR would be the same as a 320mm lens on a typical 35mm film camera.
Aperture - The aperture is the size of the opening of the shutter when it fires. It is measured as a fraction (so that 4.0 really means 1/4.0 and 16 means 1/16 and 1.8 means 1/1.8). The smaller the number, the wider the aperture. The wider the aperture, the smaller the DOF and the more light that gets in so the faster the shutter needs to be set.
Shutter Speed - How fast the shutter fires. Conventional wisdom dictates that a camera can be handheld at a shutter speed equal to 1/x where x is the focal length of the lens. For example, if shooting with a 100mm lens, you can handhold the camera up to 1/100 sec. Anything slower (1/50 sec, etc) would need to be balanced on a tripod or monopod or other stabilizer.
ISO - How sensitive the chip is to light. The higher the ISO, the faster the shutter can be set at. ISOs over 200 can start to introduce digital noise (comparable to film grain) with more noise coming from higher ISOs.
Exposure:
There are 3 major factors that affect proper exposure: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. Adjusting any of these factors affects exposure unless compensated for by either of the other settings.
For example, take the “sunny 16 rule.” The sunny 16 rule is a generalized rule of thumb for achieving proper exposure in sunny conditions. It states that you set the shutter speed to 1/ISO (ie - if using ISO 200 then set the shutter to 1/200 sec), then set the aperture to 1/16 (f-16 or f/16). So a proper exposure would be ISO 200, 1/200 sec, F/16.
Now if you wanted to change the shutter speed because you are using a 300mm lens and don’t have a tripod you could set the shutter to 1/400 sec. This would unbalance the above equation, so you could then compensate by raising the ISO to 400. Now you have ISO 400, 1/400 sec, F/16. Both this setting and the one above give the same exposure.
Depth of Field:
Depth of field is affected by two details: aperture and distance between the camera and the subject. Of these, aperture is the factor that gets manipulated most often when trying to change depth of field. The wider the aperture, the smaller the depth of field. When a lens is “wide open” (using the widest possible aperture, the smallest number) is has the smallest DOF. This is useful for blurring backgrounds and drawing focus where you want it. On the other hand, the smallest possible aperture (anywhere from F/16 on most lenses to F/22 or even F/45 on some lenses) gives the longest DOF. This is most useful in landscape photography where the ideal is to have ALL of the scene in focus.
Distance between camera and subject becomes an issue when shooting Macro photography specifically. When the lens is w/in mere inches from the subject then even a “normal” aperture like F/5.6 can yield a small DOF (a scant couple millimeters). To get all of a macro subject in focus it is usually necessary to shoot a F/8 or F/11 or smaller. This results in slow shutter speeds (see above) unless additional light is brought in (ie - from a flash). Slow shutter speeds increases the chance for motion blur (especially on a breezy day or when the subject is animate, ie a butterfly).
Types of Lenses:
Prime Lens - A lens with no “zoom.” While this might limit composition choices, it also usually means the lens is “faster” (meaning can achieve larger apertures, usually 2.8 and larger (2.0, 1.8, 1.4, 1.0, etc). The wider the aperture, the more light gets in and therefore the faster the shutter can be which is why primes are considered faster.
Zoom Lens - Any lens that can span a range of focal lengths. For example: 18mm-55mm. There are zooms in every category (normal, telephoto, wide, and macro).
Telephoto Lens - A lens that makes objects in the photo appear larger than they were to the naked eye. This is akin to being “zoomed in.” These lenses are comparable to physically moving closer to the subject. Some distortion can occur in the form of “compressing” the distance between objects.
Normal Lens - A lens where objects in the photo appear to be the same size as when seen by the naked eye. This lenses do not change your perceived distance from the subject.
Wide Angle Lens - A lens that shows a wider field of view than the naked eye. This is comparable to being further from the subject. Some distortion can occur (with a fisheye being an extreme example). Foreground objects appear disproportionately larger than background objects.
Macro Lens - A specialty lens that allows focusing on objects MUCH closer than with other lenses. Favored for all closeups (insects, flowers, etc).
Other Terms:
DOF - DOF stands for Depth-of-Field or Depth-of-focus. This describes how much of the shot is in focus (a plain perpendicular to the lens).
Focal Length - The size of a lens. Controls how “zoomed in” or “zoomed out” the picture is. On a 35mm camera a 50mm lens is pretty ‘normal’ and an 85mm lens is a short ‘telephoto’ and a 20mm lens is ‘wide.’ On a lower-end SLR a 50mm is a little bit telephoto.
Crop Factor - The ratio of size of the field of view between various cameras and compared against a 35mm film camera as the baseline. A typical digital SLR has a crop factor of 1.6 (meaning the field of view of the digital chip is smaller than a 35mm film frame). This affects the field of view offered by lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a typical Digital SLR (DSLR) would be the equivalent of an 80mm lens on a 35mm film camera. A 200mm lens on a typical DSLR would be the same as a 320mm lens on a typical 35mm film camera.
Aperture - The aperture is the size of the opening of the shutter when it fires. It is measured as a fraction (so that 4.0 really means 1/4.0 and 16 means 1/16 and 1.8 means 1/1.8). The smaller the number, the wider the aperture. The wider the aperture, the smaller the DOF and the more light that gets in so the faster the shutter needs to be set.
Shutter Speed - How fast the shutter fires. Conventional wisdom dictates that a camera can be handheld at a shutter speed equal to 1/x where x is the focal length of the lens. For example, if shooting with a 100mm lens, you can handhold the camera up to 1/100 sec. Anything slower (1/50 sec, etc) would need to be balanced on a tripod or monopod or other stabilizer.
ISO - How sensitive the chip is to light. The higher the ISO, the faster the shutter can be set at. ISOs over 200 can start to introduce digital noise (comparable to film grain) with more noise coming from higher ISOs.
Exposure:
There are 3 major factors that affect proper exposure: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. Adjusting any of these factors affects exposure unless compensated for by either of the other settings.
For example, take the “sunny 16 rule.” The sunny 16 rule is a generalized rule of thumb for achieving proper exposure in sunny conditions. It states that you set the shutter speed to 1/ISO (ie - if using ISO 200 then set the shutter to 1/200 sec), then set the aperture to 1/16 (f-16 or f/16). So a proper exposure would be ISO 200, 1/200 sec, F/16.
Now if you wanted to change the shutter speed because you are using a 300mm lens and don’t have a tripod you could set the shutter to 1/400 sec. This would unbalance the above equation, so you could then compensate by raising the ISO to 400. Now you have ISO 400, 1/400 sec, F/16. Both this setting and the one above give the same exposure.
Depth of Field:
Depth of field is affected by two details: aperture and distance between the camera and the subject. Of these, aperture is the factor that gets manipulated most often when trying to change depth of field. The wider the aperture, the smaller the depth of field. When a lens is “wide open” (using the widest possible aperture, the smallest number) is has the smallest DOF. This is useful for blurring backgrounds and drawing focus where you want it. On the other hand, the smallest possible aperture (anywhere from F/16 on most lenses to F/22 or even F/45 on some lenses) gives the longest DOF. This is most useful in landscape photography where the ideal is to have ALL of the scene in focus.
Distance between camera and subject becomes an issue when shooting Macro photography specifically. When the lens is w/in mere inches from the subject then even a “normal” aperture like F/5.6 can yield a small DOF (a scant couple millimeters). To get all of a macro subject in focus it is usually necessary to shoot a F/8 or F/11 or smaller. This results in slow shutter speeds (see above) unless additional light is brought in (ie - from a flash). Slow shutter speeds increases the chance for motion blur (especially on a breezy day or when the subject is animate, ie a butterfly).
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Yeah, my bad on that. I just wanted to head off the same dozen questions we seem to get every thread.
Haha anyways I guess this is the official photo thread now?
I went for a 5 mile jog/hike last night, and as I always take my camera with me I decided to mess around for a bit. Backpack as tripod and wind-charge lithium battery flashlight as flash (in hand) haha. Ghettoooooo
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Anyway, I've been doing a little bit more portraiture lately, and I've had more success shooting in black and white, and it's starting to turn into a habit. So I did this trying to get good results with color.
Ryan M Long Photography
Buy my Prints!
Wait, what?
Long - That's a pretty great come back to color portraits. I really like how warm it feels without being washed out yellow.
Man I just
I don't really like this
I don't like the lighting on your face, it's too strong, and the composition just isn't doing it for me
Sorry man, I want to like it, but I just don't.
This is beautiful, but what are the bright spots of color? Just dust floating in the air or something?
But man, that backlighting is just
Angelic
Sheri Baldwin Photography | Facebook | Twitter | Etsy Shop | BUY ME STUFF (updated for 2014!)
Also, thanks.
Ryan M Long Photography
Buy my Prints!
Seriously after I posted it I thought to myself, "wow I look like a creep right here, good job me." Kinda just looks like I'm poking into the picture
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t Prospicience: the lighting and composition make it look like I'm looking at a videogame. If that was your intention then it's amazing, otherwise you shouldn't have put so much light on the face.
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Maybe I'm taking the idea too far here.
Canon 24-70L f/2.8
Canon Speedlight 580EX II
Canon Speedlight 430EX
Two diffusers
One 5-in-1 22" reflector set
One UV filter for the aforementioned lens
One neckstrap
The FedEx guy just brought me two batteries
UPS all the way!
Sheri Baldwin Photography | Facebook | Twitter | Etsy Shop | BUY ME STUFF (updated for 2014!)
Argh! That's awesome sheri, very very awesome. I'm jealous like hooker's boyfriend.
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Aperture is not the size of the opening of the shutter, it's the size of the opening of the aperture - the shutter is a completely different mechanism and is part of the camera, not the lens. I'm guessing Pope knew this, just bad wording.
I was not aware of the distinction. So the "shutter" sits on the sensor always opens full and the aperture is another shutter like mechanism in the lens?
There are some cameras that have the shutter inside the lens but I don't think any modern SLRs do.
Long, that is a really lovely portrait. The backlighting and dust and that perfect lighting gradient in the background that helps tone down your colourful human backdrop - yum. Is the focus on, though? It's tough to tell on such a small image, but it almost looks like her shoulder is on the plane of focus, rather than the eyes. On smaller prints this shouldn't matter, but if you want to get it 8"x10" or larger it might become distracting - assuming I'm correct and the focus is off, that is.
My Pentax LX shipped. Ahhhhh! Even with shipping it came out to at least $100 under what it's worth, so I can even call it a sound investment. Image of my camera, taken by the shop I bought it from, before it shipped. I don't know about you, but that sure doesn't look like a 7+/10 on a rating system based entirely on external aesthetics (mechanics are guaranteed to be perfect).
This does bring up an interesting point, though: I don't know much about film. Slide vs negative, what brands and types to buy, etc. Anyone have any hints? I'd really like to hear opinions on mid-level B&W film in particular, as processing is so much cheaper and my dark room is locked in the photo club office at my summer-gripped university. I'll also run a roll of Velvia through it soon after I get it simply to see what all the fuss is about.
Oh, and if someone could sell me a cheap Pentax K 35mm f/2 that would just be peaches.
My experience with film is zero so I could be completely off base with this, but my understanding is that with slides you can get Polaroidesque previews which seem infinitely awesome over negatives. I'm thinking of the camera that Burtynsky uses, so correct me if that's a camera function, and not a film function.
Up until now I had been building my kit in preparation for a school grant I was supposed to get this fall in which case I was going to buy a 5D mkII assuming it was out by then. Well, the state education budget was cut and the grant program went along with it. So I had a 20D, 50 f/1.4, 17-40 f/4L, 28-70 f/2.8L and 70-200 f/4L. None of these focal lengths were ideal for my shooting style using the 20D but I was dealing with it until the 5D. Since that's not happening I decided to sell a bunch of stuff and start over. So I sold the 70-200, 28-70 and I currently have the 17-40 for sale on ebay.
So on Monday I ordered a Sigma 10-20, two Vivitar 285hv's w/stands, mounts, optical slaves, batteries, and umbrellas for each and two 4 stop neutral density filters for my Cokin holder and a roll of black wrap. That should all come tomorrow. Yesterday I ordered a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS and tonight I bought a 100mm f/2.8 Macro. So I should have some new and exciting photos to share with you all in the coming weeks. I'm excited to finally get into macro shooting as I've wanted to for a while but never had the guts to buy the lens. And now I'll finally have a super wide angle.
This was done really late, and my water was shut off so I was only drinking what I could get from melting ice cubes.
Sheri Baldwin Photography | Facebook | Twitter | Etsy Shop | BUY ME STUFF (updated for 2014!)
Nah, Pentax didn't do a Polaroid back for any of their 35mm cameras. They probably have one for the 645, but alas I am not made of money and have yet to get my own pack mule to haul such a thing around with.
Thanks for all the tips so far regarding film. I'll likely pick up one roll each of several different types of cheap B+W film to see what catches my fancy, but I'd still like pick your brains. Does anyone hold any strong opinions on Kodak Tri-X 400? It's a silver halide film vs C41 film - what are the implications of this?
That is some slick stuff, salti. The Sigma 10-20 is gorgeous. May I ask what you chose to optically slave the 285s? Wein peanuts or something else? I have a single 285HV that I'm using as my on-body flash and would love to take it off body (wirelessly) for cheap.
Fahrenheit, you have a very unique style that I like very much. This one is great - yummy colours - but could do with a wider crop in the bottom right corner. Might you reconsider the 8x10 crop entirely, actually? I think it'd be much prettier as a 4x6 or even 8x20 (super wide angle crops look so neat, even if they are impossibly expensive to print).
I got optical slaves because they aren't too expensive (2 peanutes for $40) and it's nice to work without wires, you can also just get a PC cord and do off-camera that way (I have one of those as well incase the slave doesn't work).
Awesome, though I'm not sure that the...thing on the left contributes.
ps. I know some of these shots are a bit over-saturated, gonna sort that out but did most of this in iphoto..ugh
2. Jives, I like what you were able to do with that.
3. In the tradition of posting what we comment on, here's a kitty pic I took:
Color is weird because of fluorescent lighting. I tried (not hard enough) to fix the color balance.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
I decided to keep going with the blood thing
Gogo Batman, and Hellboy if we're on the subject.
Quite creepy. Two little things jumped out at me about the PS job though. Around the left (our right) eye, the pattern brush you used is a little too obvious. Also, you can see one of the strands of red that goes from the lips jumps to the nose, killing the makeup look.
Still! It's about 100x better than what I can whip up, so good job.
Jake!: Awesome light you have in those shots. The second to last is my favorite, very idyllic.
_
Altmann, I've already got the lens up for auction on ebay otherwise I would offer it to you. You're welcome to bid on it with the random savages though. You can be sure it's one of the cleanest used ones out there.
thanks
I was getting frustated with how long it was taking after a while hence the crappy left eye
I might go back and change it later, Or just try again
This is me, taken with a Canon EOS 10D and a 15 mm wide-angle lens.
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