Real life photography/photo editing

[Tovarish 0]

Taken with my new toy:

Taken in manual mode I might add, no automatic settings .

I for one like Albert's idea, so:

ISO:200

Shutter Speed: 1/2 sec (tripod used)

F-Number:5.6

No Flash

Camera: Pentax K110D

touched up colour and exposure a bit post process.

*edit*

Another one, this one taken with the camera's macro mode.

ISO:200

Shutter Speed: 1/60

F-Number:5.6

Flash fired

post process: "fall colors" setting in virtual photographer

This weekend I plan on going to Winterlude to get some pictures of the ice scupltures - I think those were actually the first thing I posted here, about 3 years ago .

[SpeedyDonkey 0]

Hey guys!

I'm wondering about shooting in RAW. What is the main advantage? That one can correct under / over exposure better in photoshop? I'm somewhat used to working in photoshop, but never used RAW's. Any beginner’s tips are very welcome.

Should I use the program that came with the Canon, or Adobes own system (assuming that there is one)?

[killagee 0]

There are many reasons to use RAW:

a) If anybody ever wants to buy the image profesionally from you, they will first ask for a RAW image...

b) The image is recorded in all possible white balance settings

c) The image is uncompressed and any cropping necessary can be done without interpolation to get to correct usable size.

d) If you made an exposure boo boo, its easier to correct during RAW conversion... especially underexposure with out excessive noise in the shadows...

There are many reasons why NOT to use RAW

a) Files are bleeding huge... You will only fit 1/3 the amount of pictures on your card

b) RAW conversion is another step to add to your workflow when processing your images

c) You need specific software to read your RAW files from your camera

Photoshop includes ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) which is very good for its purpose. Apparently the RAW conversion in CS3 is awesome, but I havent upgraded to this yet...

[Daddl 10]

I found the software that came with my camera (Digital Photo Professional) quite enough for my needs - but then I only use it for simple histogram manipulation and to change the white balance (there's also some scene settings that influence the colors somewhat) before converting the images to JPG. The nice thing about it is that you can batch export your optimized raw images and have them resized and renamed to your liking in the process.

Simple to use, and - at least for my basic needs - more than sufficient. The results look very good.

[AfrographX 0]

Experimenting with my stereo and a candle as light source.

[Tovarish 0]

Another macro with my new camera - because I'm getting home from work too late and it's too damn cold for anything else.

Getting this one below 100kb while still preserving some of the detail had me

ISO:200

Shutter Speed: 1/2 sec

F-Number:5.6

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Tovarish, thanks for adding ISO and shutter speed, this will accelerate my learning process. I received my Nikon D40 yesterday and try to work things out. I am just trying to sort out how to manually change the shutter speed. Can anyone explain to me what this "F-number" is, that Tovarish is mentioning.

[BlackScorpion 0]

F-number. Basically, it's the entrance pupil diameter - focal lenght ratio. The smaller the number, bigger pupil diameter, and more light will enter the lense. But it also has an affect on the image sharpness and focus, read more about that on the article and the next answers.

[Tovarish 0]

Tovarish, thanks for adding ISO and shutter speed, this will accelerate my learning process. I received my Nikon D40 yesterday and try to work things out. I am just trying to sort out how to manually change the shutter speed. Can anyone explain to me what this "F-number" is, that Tovarish is mentioning.

for macro shots like those I would go lower on the ISO if I could, but my camera only goes down to 200. However, I think it does quite well at that ISO. F-Number is the aperture - see here for an interactive explanation:

Shutter speed and aperture

also see

Film speed

and

Reducing camera shake

BTW congrats on the D40!

I'm actually on my way to the store now to exchange my open box unit for a brand new one - I found last night while shooting long exposure night shots from my balcony that there are a couple of huge dust bunnies on the sensor! .

Hope there's some left. Website says there are some left in my local store but only 14 in all of e'm.

*edit* After freezing my ass off (windchill must be around -30) I'm back with a brand new K110D - maybe the last one in the store - the clerk had to really dig to find it. Works out in a way, seems the open box camera had a few items missing (lens hood, lens manual, warranty papers! ). Plus I decided to invest in a good camera bag.

The K110D looks even more beautiful now with the lens hood attached

[Supah 0]

Tovarish, thanks for adding ISO and shutter speed, this will accelerate my learning process. I received my Nikon D40 yesterday and try to work things out. I am just trying to sort out how to manually change the shutter speed. Can anyone explain to me what this "F-number" is, that Tovarish is mentioning.

for macro shots like those I would go lower on the ISO if I could, but my camera only goes down to 200. However, I think it does quite well at that ISO. F-Number is the aperture - see here for an interactive explanation:

Shutter speed and aperture

also see

Film speed

and

Reducing camera shake

BTW congrats on the D40!

I'm actually on my way to the store now to exchange my open  box unit for a brand new one - I found last night while shooting long exposure night shots from my balcony that there are a couple of huge dust bunnies on the sensor!  .

Hope there's some left. Website says there are some left in my local store but only 14 in all of e'm.

*edit* After freezing my ass off (windchill must be around -30) I'm back with a brand new K110D - maybe the last one in the store - the clerk had to really dig to find it. Works out in a way, seems the open box camera had a few items missing (lens hood, lens manual, warranty papers!   ). Plus I decided to invest in a good camera bag.

The K110D looks even more beautiful now with the lens hood attached

Good to hear you are having fun mate! Looking forward to seeing more of your work with the new camera

@Albert: All that theory is good and you really should read it. How I imagine it in my mind is this, The F-number is a sort of band around your point of focus. Inside this band items will be sharp, outside this band they will not be sharp. Now at F1 (no lens on earth does that I believe) this band will be extremely small, this will help blur out background in portraits. At F22 this band will be HUGE! Almost everthing will be in focus. Now you'd say why not leave the thing in F22 then? Well the larger the band of focus the more light you need. So if you shoot at F22 you're shutterspeed will become really long. You can use your lens like that but you need to use a tripod. For a action photograph on a sunny day I'd go with F8. Offcourse you can use the F number to trade focuswidth for a faster shutter time or vice versa.

[sniperuk02 0]

Random picture I took while waiting in a carpark:

[GoOB 0]

Now at F1 (no lens on earth does that I believe)

The fastest lens ever made is the Canon 50mm 0.95, it was made for the Canon R in 1961.. After that came Leica with their Noctilux (f/1.0, still in production) in 1976, which was only a few years after a Russian optics manufacturer developed a f/1.0 lens (MIR III or something). The most recent "one lens" is the Canon 50mm EF 1.0L, which has been discontinued in favour of the 1.2 variant.

I had the privelige of trying a Leica Noctilux on a Leica M3 once, it is a fine piece of equipment indeed

[killagee 0]

Lover shot SniperUK

[Tovarish 0]

I need new boots, they get wet whenever I go out into the snow.

ISO:200

Shutter Speed: 1/10 sec

F-Number:3.5

No flash.

Post process: Colour temperature maxed out in Picasa when editing the RAW file, slight tweaking of shadows, highlights & midtones. (mostly making the shadows a bit darker)

[the_shadow 0]

ill go out with the cam tomorrow i think, and i think it´s mainly gonna be nature and landscape photos....

any tips?

what should i think about?

dont have a tripod yet, so i´ll have to improvise if needed...

[MI_Fred 0]

Hi!

I'm back'ish.

You prolly didn't even notice I was gone... Sorry for the outdated stuff. Haven't shot anything significant lately, except a mild depression down. Ok perhaps a severe one. But the war isn't over yet. Atleast my doctor allows me to drink again. That's something eh? Oh, you don't care. Sry. Why you reading this then? (J/K!   )

[sniperuk02 0]

[killagee 0]

I see you are all getting stuck into your Depth of Field stuff... Groovy! Thats the bummer about having a photo agent, they demand that an entire subject is in focus or they reject the picture.

Stink I reckon it looks cool...

Went back out to Murawai the other morning for some practice at tracking moving targets with the 70-200 + 1.4x Converter. Practising for these AirShows coming up you see... Was not impressed with the continuous auto-focus using this combination, but with just the 70-200 was fine... I might have to reconsider my options...

[killagee 0]

And of course I took some landscapes while I was there... How could I not?

[sniperuk02 0]

Your photos always make mine look bad.

The landscape ones are really nice, I like the last one the most.

The one thing I wish my camera could do is longer exposures. 4 seconds really isnt long enough.

[killagee 0]

Most digital cameras exibit too much noise after anything more than that anyway bro... A digital camera will just "make stuff up" if there is not enough light, hence the light.

What sort of camera do you have? Does it have a "bulb" feature?...

[Sole 0]

If your camera is noise free then go for 800 Since I use Nikon I cant really go over 400 without getting problems...

nope, same here....

guess i should buy a 50 f1.4 lens for it...

or maybe "just" a 50 f1.8 lens as that is a little cheaper.....

you got any recomendations for a replacement lens similar to the kit 18-55 lens?

someone told me that the Sigma 17-70 lens is quite good... but it´s expensive.... (atleast i think it is)

I use Canon's 50/1.8 for concerts at the moment.

Settings I use:

Aperture Priority mode: f/2.8, ISO800, -1 exposure bias

Manual mode (if the lighting is really crap): f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/60s or 1/80s

At f/1.8 you get a very shallow DOF, so I doubt an f/1.4 lens would be very useful given the even narrower DOF. That's one of the reasons I use my 50/1.8 @ 2.8, just gives a bit wider DOF.

I'm looking into getting a fast zoom lens for concerts though, as 50mm is often too narrow and sometimes too short. Thinking of getting a 17-50/2.8 or 28-75/2.8 (Tamron) or something similar. (The Canon equivalents cost about 3 times as much)

And regarding your previous post, yes I was refering to the Sigma 70-300/4-5.6 DG APO Macro.

@ supah, the 70-300/4-5.6 IS USM only costs about 600 or so, not 1499 :P

[edit] I should talk less and post more photos

[the_shadow 0]

thanks guys... this has given me some good knowledge....

oh btw.... maybe you want me to post some random photos here when i´ve been out and then you can give me some feedback on what´s good and what´s less good?

i´ll post a image or two in a short while, stay tuned

[Daddl 10]

Thinking of getting a 17-50/2.8 or 28-75/2.8 (Tamron) or something similar. (The Canon equivalents cost about 3 times as much)

I'm thinking about replacing the kit lens with the 17-50/2.8 lens made by Sigma. Just seen it for 399.- € in town today (didn't look for online prices yet). I have yet to find any (affordable) zoom lenses with a better f-value. Simply the fact that it offers the same aperture over the whole zoom length (and much better than the 3.5-5.6 of the the kit lens, too) makes it perfect for any indoor/low light photography.

Anyone tried this lens (or the respective Tamron equivalent)? Is there an equivalent Canon lens, and what would that cost?

[Tovarish 0]

Installing Ubuntu Linux from a CD that turned out to be damaged

ISO:200

Shutter Speed: 1/45 sec

F-Number:4

No flash.