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Beyond [PHOTO]dome (Two men enter, one man leaves.)
Flyingman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In this thread, we post photos! (Shamelessly stolen from Grifter)
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:
Here are a couple of articles by Ken Rockwell. they are a good read if you are interested in getting into professional photography. You've probably heard it all before though.
Why Photography is Not a Profession.
How to Become a Professional Photographer.
What Makes a Professional Camera.
His head is fairly far up his arse, but he is making money as a photographer. So whatever really.
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).
Here are a couple of articles by Ken Rockwell. they are a good read if you are interested in getting into professional photography. You've probably heard it all before though.
Why Photography is Not a Profession.
How to Become a Professional Photographer.
What Makes a Professional Camera.
His head is fairly far up his arse, but he is making money as a photographer. So whatever really.
Flyingman on
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Posts
But! I do have me trying out my 85mm! I know these basically suck, but it's like 20 degrees and I didn't go outside.
I went out with a different mission today, I went out wating to shoot scenes that looked as though they belonged in some sort of travel album from the 70s or something. I tried my best to forget all the do's and dont's of photography and just happy-snapped. I liked the result, it's got this retro-summer feel to it imo.
This stack was originally going to be higher but we couldn't find any more rings.
Wanted something simple on the last one.
Nostregar: The 3rd shot is so cool to me I don't even care that the poles are centered. I just love golden hour architecture shots. I love it.
Also, my camera arrived at Canon today. Hopefully they won't take long to fix it.
Just got the receiving notification and the lens I ordered is waiting for me at home, makes me want to bust out of work early and go play with it. I don't have anything to contribute right now, there are a few rolls of film I keep forgetting to have developed but so far the old Pentax is working like a champ.
Plus it looks like Grifter's post is awesome.
I spent the better part of a week making the OP for the fashion thread in D&D.
Flyingman if you don't mind I might come up with some additions to that with some pictures to give examples of various things regarding composition and angles and DOF.
Couldn't have said it better, and honestly... I almost like the poles centered more than I would off to the side. Since the poles are different heights in the picture it totally makes up for it. That shot is awesome Nost.
Shot #4 of yours would probably be a lot more interesting if the whatchamahoosit in the water either went above the horizon (lower PoV) or didn't intersect at all with the horizon/bridge stuffs (higher PoV).
Flyingman: That second shot is the tits. Also, I really like the use of space on number 4.
#1 has a little too much for my eyes to focus on any one object. That said I really like the feel in all of them.
ProjectM: White balance seems off in #3, but I like the comp & bokeh. #2 might be a little more interesting if you could see a bit more of the pen. Other than that I like the shallow dof.
*snip* wanted to post in the photo project for this month
My Portfolio Site
I would* if I had one! The only prime I have right now is the 50/1.8.
Oh god! When socks attack!
Photoshop fun:
My Portfolio Site
I like this shot. Good perspective and composition. I don't quite get the feeling you were going for from the series but it's a good try and I going out with a developed concept is the best way to shoot.
Dunno I rarely shoot with it anymore and I mostly shot some generic Kodak Gold 200 film. I still have a few rolls laying around so I haven't had to worry about it. I would check Wolf Camera or any local pro shop.
Nostreger, the shot with the poles and golden triangle things, I would love it so much if the poles weren't there all together. I feel like the poles are in the way of a really fantastic shot. I do like it, but again it's because of how I drawn I am to the triangles.
Grifter actually grifted that OP from me. :P
Nostregar - I really like that third shot, but the center framing on the poles kills me. Reshot those to the left or right and I'd enjoy it a lot more.
Flyingman - I'm with Saltiness, that is a strong photo.
Nostregar - The one shot that speaks to me at all is the last one, with the abstract geometric shapes. I think it needs something more to really come alive, but I like the idea behind it. The pool-balls/rings shot is so staged that it really fails to grip me. I think the poles entirely distract from the pyramids. The placement of the goose (duck?) is great, but it's slightly out of focus, I wish it were crisp. So you have a lot going on that I appreciate it, but some room to improve on top of it. Keep it up!
Commie - I like the photochopped girl. Excellent!
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
You mean like this guy:
Just post it or PM it and I'll update the OP
Skiing with my camera worries the hell out of me, even if the results can be sweet.
With the money I'm saving, I think I'll pick up a 430exII as well and start learning how to use a flash. My experiences with flashes is really limited to the tiny on on my SD1000, and I was never happy with any picture in which the flash was ever used, so I got used to never, ever using it if I could avoid it.
Rule#1 never point the flash directly at the thing you are lighting. - Use a bounce card, bounce it off the ceiling or use an omni bounce. In a pinch you can point it at the thing you are trying to light and put a white napkin over the front for diffusion.
Rule#2 If you can, get the flash off the camera so its not on the same axis.
Rule#3 Never get involved in a land war in asia.
1 is why I'm spending the extra money on the 430 rather than the 220, which seems like it wouldn't be much more use than the built-in flash on the camera.
What kind of additional gadgetry will I need for 2?
As for 3, shit.
or
Cheap wireless triggers you can get off ebay. Look for Cactus triggers.
If you don't have someone else to hold the flash or don't want to do it at arm's length then you'll need some sort of stand.
Some other cool things he told me:
-If you do portraits and want to increase your sales, try to flip horizontal. People are very used to looking at themselves in the mirror this way so they have more of an emotion connection.
-If you need a reflector in a pinch (say...at a wedding), have someone with a white shirt stand out of frame and use that.
-If you are a photographer at a wedding/event and the people are trying to be cheap and do those hand out disposable cameras. Go around with a sharpie and black out all the lenses. The viewfinder is not TTL hahaha.
He told me a lot of other wise stuff over the course of 2 hours, and I must say, the photography community is a pretty amazing one. Like anable said a while back, I have taken so much from the internet, sometimes it's good to give things back. On my flickr images I divulge pretty much all the information on how I got the shot. After all, how do you think I learned?
Thanks for all the advice!
Bitch! You didn't invite me? *goes to his room and cries*
Yeah, I found out about his workshop in Denver the day after he had it. *jealous* It was only like 15 bucks!
My Portfolio Site
I was totally gonna msg you Prosp since I know you do environmental portraits (his bread & butter). Here's his thought process for that style though: Background first, DOF/comp, what are you gonna have people act out (he likes to tell stories, exceptions being CEO pictures, they kinda just want pictures of themselves next to private jets...). His lighting was really minimal for the most part. That corporate feel is basically a gelled light on the background to be honest haha. He also loves to snoot speedlights and just aim at the face. Oh, and 70% of his portraits are shot with the new 14-24 wide angle on a D700.
Now I just need Canon to fix my camera and send it back.
This sounds really bad. You generally don't want to use anything under 50mm on a FF for a portrait. Unless he never gets close to the people in the portrait and is really just taking pictures of people in their environment.
I can't really say if it's worth it. I seldom use filters, even my polarizer.
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010