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[captive]

Hello, new quarter, new thread.

GAF Photography Q3 2015
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1074200

GAF Photography Q2 2015
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1029667

GAF Photography Q1 2015
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=964465

Official Camera Equipment Mega Thread
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144603


This will be the last quarterly thread, next year we'll start with a yearly thread.

Rules:
1. All photographers are welcome from novice to professional. No matter the camera, camera phones to medium format.
2. NSFW content is allowed, so long as you follow the TOS and post only the link to the photo and designate it as NSFW.
3. Have fun shooting!


Some from the last ten days or so.

I've been slacking at posting... Here are a couple recent shots.


Red Rock Canyon


Road to Big Dipper

DSC_3701 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3733 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3694 by Marcus Beasley, on FlickrDSC_3732 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3720 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr

Work sent me to Marquette this week. Such a beautiful part of the country. Also picked probably the best time of year to visit.


DSC00104 by Tyler Jacobs, on Flickr


DSC00134 by Tyler Jacobs, on Flickr


DSC00602 by Tyler Jacobs, on Flickr

Yesterday:



Northern lights have been crazy this year.

Sunset and Jet by Pieter, on Flickr

I used Photoshop for about the 3rd time ever. Can you tell or does it look natural?

wandering about in the botanic gardens in Melbourne this weekend.

Untitled by Bodie Strain, on Flickr

Untitled by Bodie Strain, on Flickr

Untitled by Bodie Strain, on Flickr

I recently got a Canon FD 50mm 1.4 for my A7ii. First batch of test shots with it:

I also attempted some star photography. I've never been able to pull it off quite right:

flickr.com/mauriciofelippe

29-Sep-2015-3 by Ben Grady, on Flickr

I guess I should actually post some of mine, yeah?

20151016-_DSC0185-Edit.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151016-_DSC0143.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151016-_DSC0198-Edit.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151016-_DSC0307.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151016-_DSC0400.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr

Bronica ETRS on Ilford FP4 - Processed in Kodak Tmax dev @ 21c for 8 Mins

422


422 by Samuli Puolakanaho, on Flickr

Love this. That pop of red is great.

One of mine from this weekend.

Untitled by Bodie Strain, on Flickr

Lovely. One of these days I must have a northern lights photo in my library...


High Roller

Two new ones. Don't know if these will resonate with other people, they're more personal photos. I'm in the process of documenting my surroundings in a more negative light, I guess.


In the bag by Samuli Puolakanaho, on Flickr


Urban getaway by Samuli Puolakanaho, on Flickr

The all natural lens flare.


Best time of year.

A few shots from a local resort



[

These are my latest

HCC-Promo by Samuel Vasquez, on Flickr

Karla-Brick-Wall by Samuel Vasquez, on Flickr

Sunrise at 27 by Samuel Vasquez, on Flickr

I took that last one today. Wanted to capture the sunrise on my birthday.

Took a few pics on a whim with my little sister.

Mariam by Sami Mckee, on Flickr

Mariam by Sami Mckee, on Flickr

I haven't really posted much in the last few months but I went to Eastern State Penitentiary this weekend so I thought I would post a couple

10-2015-esp-44 by Ike Maruri, on Flickr
10-2015-esp-45 by Ike Maruri, on Flickr

very cool, Ike!

a lumber shop burned down near my house the other day. went and snapped this:

Fire by Taylor, on Flickr

 

[TheTurboFD]

Looking to get into some portrait photography. Does anyone know any good budget setups for it? Lights, backdrop and such?

 

[Lender]

Had a short shoot with a friend of mine. (she's no model, so go easy on her But then again I'm also no pro photographer) Unfortunately it was already quite late so the lighting was a bit annoying. Was my second outing with the strobe. It was my intention at first to also use some natural lighting this time, but the situation didn't really allow it, so all the shots were taken with the strobe. I tried the tips I got last time like dialling down the strength at certain points, and I had the feeling it was already better. Next time we'll do it at a better time.


3A0A4276 by Bram Van Der Stichelen, on Flickr


3A0A4427 by Bram Van Der Stichelen, on Flickr


3A0A4445 by Bram Van Der Stichelen, on Flickr


3A0A4384 by Bram Van Der Stichelen, on Flickr


3A0A4350 by Bram Van Der Stichelen, on Flickr

 

[JadedWriter]

Holy shit. I come in here to see some of my pictures quoted, is this real life? I almost had a heart attack.
DSC_3797 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3760 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3771 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3802 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3784 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3783 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3834 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr

 

[JORMBO]

Had a short shoot with a friend of mine. (she's no model, so go easy on her But then again I'm also no pro photographer) Unfortunately it was already quite late so the lighting was a bit annoying. Was my second outing with the strobe. It was my intention at first to also use some natural lighting this time, but the situation didn't really allow it, so all the shots were taken with the strobe. I tried the tips I got last time like dialling down the strength at certain points, and I had the feeling it was already better. Next time we'll do it at a better time.

Watch your positioning on the light. You have created a large nose shadow in the last two.

If you are worried about how much power to use I find it best to take a picture of the scene without your subject in it to get your camera settings. Then dial the light in to match those settings.

Shooting with lights outdoors can be fun. I don't do it too often anymore because I got tired of hauling all the stuff around, lol.

 

[Thug Waffle]

NA 2 by Taylor, on Flickr

 

[marimorimo]

Hi! It's my first time to post on Photography-GAF. I bought my first "real" camera this August in preparation for a trip and I've gotten hooked.

Aside from honing my photo-taking skills, right now I'm preoccupied with learning how to post-process, or more specifically, crop photos. I know a lot photos totally transform into something better just by the simple act of cropping, and I'd like to optimize my own photos that way, but I hesitate. If you have any tips or suggestions on cropping the any of the 2 photos below, I'm all ears!

Shot with a Canon EOS M3 mirrorless camera.


Green Carpet by chocolate mint, on Flickr


Sky Mirror Lake by chocolate mint, on Flickr

 

[Lender]

Watch your positioning on the light. You have created a large nose shadow in the last two.

If you are worried about how much power to use I find it best to take a picture of the scene without your subject in it to get your camera settings. Then dial the light in to match those settings.

Shooting with lights outdoors can be fun. I don't do it too often anymore because I got tired of hauling all the stuff around, lol.

I noticed too late on the first one. The second was the best I could do due the situation. It was a very small little bridge, and I couldn't position the light in any other way. Like I said, it was sadly getting quite late. The first one was taken at 6pm on a very cloudy evening. I do wanna try and get some natural lighting photos to next time, always loved taking those.


VIktor by Bram Van Der Stichelen, on Flickr

Some part of me also wants to bring along my 300mm f2.8 next time. It's a beautiful portrait lens as well, but it's just so huge.

 

[Lucky Forward]

Hi! It's my first time to post on Photography-GAF. I bought my first "real" camera this August in preparation for a trip and I've gotten hooked.

Aside from honing my photo-taking skills, right now I'm preoccupied with learning how to post-process, or more specifically, crop photos. I know a lot photos totally transform into something better just by the simple act of cropping, and I'd like to optimize my own photos that way, but I hesitate. If you have any tips or suggestions on cropping the any of the 2 photos below, I'm all ears!

Shot with a Canon EOS M3 mirrorless camera.


Green Carpet by chocolate mint, on Flickr


Sky Mirror Lake by chocolate mint, on Flickr

For the first one, I notice the guy is just left of center...I think this photo might work better if he were exactly at center left-to-right. In cropping, I would keep the same proportions on the photo overall, but crop off some of the right of the picture to bring the guy to center and lose a bit of the sky above the highest cloud...but don't go so far as to crop into that cloud. Or you could try keeping the sky intact and crop just above the joint in the walk at the bottom of the frame. Actually, after doing a quick "crop" by scrolling that picture off the top and bottom of my screen, I like the second idea better.

For the second, the bottom edge of the foreground isn't particularly attractive. I would crop it just above the piece of wood on the left but leave a little space just under the nets. That would cut out those bits of junk along the bottom edge. In order to keep the same proportions, I would cut a corresponding amount from the right side of the photo. Cropping like this would bring the horizon closer to the center of the picture, which is usually to be avoided, but it's a game of tradeoffs.

Of course, these are just my choices if they were my photos, you might have something different in mind.

 

[captive]

For the first one, I notice the guy is just left of center...I think this photo might work better if he were exactly at center left-to-right. In cropping, I would keep the same proportions on the photo overall, but crop off some of the right of the picture to bring the guy to center and lose a bit of the sky above the highest cloud...but don't go so far as to crop into that cloud. Or you could try keeping the sky intact and crop just above the joint in the walk at the bottom of the frame. Actually, after doing a quick "crop" by scrolling that picture off the top and bottom of my screen, I like the second idea better.

For the second, the bottom edge of the foreground isn't particularly attractive. I would crop it just above the piece of wood on the left but leave a little space just under the nets. That would cut out those bits of junk along the bottom edge. In order to keep the same proportions, I would cut a corresponding amount from the right side of the photo. Cropping like this would bring the horizon closer to the center of the picture, which is usually to be avoided, but it's a game of tradeoffs.

Of course, these are just my choices if they were my photos, you might have something different in mind.

I agree a lot, on the second one especially, this one in particular I would crop to at least 2x1 if not 3x1 as there is a lot of negative uninteresting space in the sky and foreground.

 

[DJ SLEV3N]

My recent trip to Ireland. I'll try and post some more.

 

[Thug Waffle]

Vending by Taylor, on Flickr

 

[Astral/H3X]

Went to a cave the other day, finally finished my pp on them. Tried doing noise reduction stacking, I'd like to know your opinions on how that worked out (They didn't allow tripods )

20151021-_DSC0514-Edit.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
[This one is really cool -- I didn't mirror the photo, there's a 4" deep pool that just reflects the entirety of the room with how still it is. ]
20151021-_DSC0962-Edit.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151021-_DSC0918-Edit.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151021-_DSC0768.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20151021-_DSC0600.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr

 

[RoKKeR]

Looking great as always GAF! Shots from Ireland and that cave mirror shot are really good.

Two from Vanderbilt's football game (win!) against Mizzou tonight. Goofing around with some of the saturation/clarity/WB settings in post just for the hell of it and to make things look more dramatic. That, plus some rain! Which always looks cool after you're done shooting with a damn Ziplock bag around your gear haha

Stephen Weatherly (45) by Blake Dover, on Flickr

Special Teams Celebration by Blake Dover, on Flickr

 

[sfedai0]

IMG_1011 by sfedai0, on Flickr

IMG_0667 by sfedai0, on Flickr

 

[dhlt25]

recent pics

the next 3 are cell phone pics

2015-09-12 13.07.53 by thai tran, on Flickr

2015-09-12 12.45.29 by thai tran, on Flickr

2015-10-04 09.38.30 by thai tran, on Flickr

finally got my zeiss 135, 2 quick shots of my cat, the IQ is absolutely amazing even with handheld. Can't wait to do some real shooting with it

zeiss test by thai tran, on Flickr

zeiss test by thai tran, on Flickr

 

[theepicoftyler]

recent pics

the next 3 are cell phone pics



2015-09-12 12.45.29 by thai tran, on Flickr

I am blown away that this is an LG G4 photo. Is there a lot of post work with this?

 

[Lender]

zeiss test by thai tran, on Flickr

zeiss test by thai tran, on Flickr

That lens is just fabulous. A couple of my previous photos above were also taken with that lens, and it's always very easy to tell them apart. It's just so much sharper than my other lenses.

 

[dhlt25]

I am blown away that this is an LG G4 photo. Is there a lot of post work with this?

I don't think I spent a lot of time on it, just changed the color, add a little vignette and then sharpen. Here's the original for comparison.



The G4 is capable of some great images but on auto mode the results have no consistency, the manual mode is ok but without dials and button it's a pain to take picture with. LG really needs better software.

That lens is just fabulous. A couple of my previous photos above were also taken with that lens, and it's always very easy to tell them apart. It's just so much sharper than my other lenses.

Yes, it is amazing, I'm still blown away by how good it is.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Gosh damn. This shit is perfect!

 

[mooksoup]

Gosh damn. This shit is perfect!

Oh awesome, thank you.

 

[jd196]

Camera: Hasselblad 202FA
Medium: 120 Film (Kodak Ektar 100)
Location: New York, Vermont



Image53 by Javier DeJesus, on Flickr

Image57 by Javier DeJesus, on Flickr

Image62 by Javier DeJesus, on Flickr

Image64-2 by Javier DeJesus, on Flickr

Image66 by Javier DeJesus, on Flickr

 

[JadedWriter]

DSC_3880 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3883 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3851 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3860 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3888 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3944 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
DSC_3878 by Marcus Beasley, on Flickr
Rest of the album here

 

[marimorimo]

For the first one, I notice the guy is just left of center...I think this photo might work better if he were exactly at center left-to-right. In cropping, I would keep the same proportions on the photo overall, but crop off some of the right of the picture to bring the guy to center and lose a bit of the sky above the highest cloud...but don't go so far as to crop into that cloud. Or you could try keeping the sky intact and crop just above the joint in the walk at the bottom of the frame. Actually, after doing a quick "crop" by scrolling that picture off the top and bottom of my screen, I like the second idea better.

For the second, the bottom edge of the foreground isn't particularly attractive. I would crop it just above the piece of wood on the left but leave a little space just under the nets. That would cut out those bits of junk along the bottom edge. In order to keep the same proportions, I would cut a corresponding amount from the right side of the photo. Cropping like this would bring the horizon closer to the center of the picture, which is usually to be avoided, but it's a game of tradeoffs.

Of course, these are just my choices if they were my photos, you might have something different in mind.

I agree a lot, on the second one especially, this one in particular I would crop to at least 2x1 if not 3x1 as there is a lot of negative uninteresting space in the sky and foreground.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions! Exactly what I needed. I've tried to incorporate them, not sure if successful. For the lake and mountain one, I'm not even sure if the original photo itself is salvageable :/

Edit: Not happy with the lake and mountain crop, so I'll update later with a 3:1 crop as suggested by captive.


Green Carpet crop 1 by chocolate mint, on Flickr


Sky Mirror Lake crop 1 by chocolate mint, on Flickr

 

[JadedWriter]

So I take it that it's not frowned on to crop your pics? I just started doing that a week or two ago myself.

 

[Astral/H3X]

So I take it that it's not frowned on to crop your pics? I just started doing that a week or two ago myself.

You want to get as close as you can without cropping, but yeah no issue with cropping a bit.

 

[JadedWriter]

You want to get as close as you can without cropping, but yeah no issue with cropping a bit.

Yeah I do my best but sometimes there's either a guy half cut off or just more than you really need. Nice to know there's no issue with it though.

 

[captive]

It depends on who you ask and what your cropping/how your cropping.

I frequently crop to 3x1 with my D800, because my sensor is 2x3. Nothing I can do about that ratio size. But I also go out and shoot with 3x1 in mind. I also will stitch two or more shots together if the scene allows it. Other popular formats are 4x5, 4x3 and of course square. Its not practical to carry around a camera for each ratio you may want the final image to be in.

What people, more often than not, purists, get all in a tizzy about is cropping to make up for bad composition, cropping just to get closer(when not doing bird/wildlife photography) when you probably should have gotten closer to start with.

Ultimately I don't think its a big deal at all to crop. People take other peoples photography way to seriously, instead of maybe going out and making their own photography.

 

[vio]

I don't think I spent a lot of time on it, just changed the color, add a little vignette and then sharpen. Here's the original for comparison.



The G4 is capable of some great images but on auto mode the results have no consistency, the manual mode is ok but without dials and button it's a pain to take picture with. LG really needs better software.



Yes, it is amazing, I'm still blown away by how good it is.

Here is something from the G2. Shot with Freedcam (Mi2Raw does not work on Lollipop ), tuned some in Photoshop express.

By the way, is there something like custom presets on G4?

 

[Astral/H3X]

It depends on who you ask and what your cropping/how your cropping.

I frequently crop to 3x1 with my D800, because my sensor is 2x3. Nothing I can do about that ratio size. But I also go out and shoot with 3x1 in mind. I also will stitch two or more shots together if the scene allows it. Other popular formats are 4x5, 4x3 and of course square. Its not practical to carry around a camera for each ratio you may want the final image to be in.

What people, more often than not, purists, get all in a tizzy about is cropping to make up for bad composition, cropping just to get closer(when not doing bird/wildlife photography) when you probably should have gotten closer to start with.

Ultimately I don't think its a big deal at all to crop. People take other peoples photography way to seriously, instead of maybe going out and making their own photography.

My thoughts on this are that cropping to improve your composition a bit really isn't problematic. As long as you're considering your composition, and then later you realize "Oh, maybe I should have gotten a few inches closer to fill it better", then there's no issue. Or, oh hey a guy was walking in on the frame as I was shooting and didn't notice, or things like that. Yeah, there's issues if you take a full body shot and then crop it all the way down to a shoulders and head portrait, because then you're just fukken lazy and it can mess with how the background looks, but minor edits in cropping during post aren't a problem, as long as you aren't using it to forget about composition when shooting. It's also great for making up for some gear weaknesses -- such as taking photos of the moon when you're limited to a 200mm, or your 50mm doesn't get close enough for the shot you want.

I've only been shooting for a year, but I've been absorbing as much information as I can, doing my best to learn what to do, what not to do, and avoiding bad habits as best I can. The point that comes up, ALWAYS, is that there is *never* a thing that you should *never* do. You just need to be mindful of what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how it affects the photo.

 

[JadedWriter]

It depends on who you ask and what your cropping/how your cropping.

I frequently crop to 3x1 with my D800, because my sensor is 2x3. Nothing I can do about that ratio size. But I also go out and shoot with 3x1 in mind. I also will stitch two or more shots together if the scene allows it. Other popular formats are 4x5, 4x3 and of course square. Its not practical to carry around a camera for each ratio you may want the final image to be in.

What people, more often than not, purists, get all in a tizzy about is cropping to make up for bad composition, cropping just to get closer(when not doing bird/wildlife photography) when you probably should have gotten closer to start with.

Ultimately I don't think its a big deal at all to crop. People take other peoples photography way to seriously, instead of maybe going out and making their own photography.

I shoot random people with a 50mm, if I got any closer I'd probably get in a fight sometimes. Lately I've just been cropping to get rid of unneeded details I think. For example the mother and baby pic...the one with the glasses and purple hood I cropped the lower half out cause the way she was holding the kid gave her a wedgie so I chopped that out so I can not look like a pervert and then I got rid of the excess street space.

 

[captive]

I shoot random people with a 50mm, if I got any closer I'd probably get in a fight sometimes. Lately I've just been cropping to get rid of unneeded details I think. For example the mother and baby pic...the one with the glasses and purple hood I cropped the lower half out cause the way she was holding the kid gave her a wedgie so I chopped that out so I can not look like a pervert and then I got rid of the excess street space.

street photography is a whole other can of worms. You do what you got to do.

 

[JadedWriter]

street photography is a whole other can of worms. You do what you got to do.

Damn I almost choked on my lunch reading this. Seems like I chose the most complicated random form of photography to jump into as an amateur.

 

[lbcyalater]

Lovely shot of my wife lol

 

[Astral/H3X]

Damn I almost choked on my lunch reading this. Seems like I chose the most complicated random form of photography to jump into as an amateur.

Ehhh, it's complicated, but in different ways. YOU don't have to worry about setting up lights or diffusers or things like that. There's a lot of complications in photography, some of which apply to some forms more than others.

Street photography is more about capturing the moment, instead of making it, and there's pros and cons to it.

 

[JadedWriter]

Ehhh, it's complicated, but in different ways. YOU don't have to worry about setting up lights or diffusers or things like that. There's a lot of complications in photography, some of which apply to some forms more than others.

Street photography is more about capturing the moment, instead of making it, and there's pros and cons to it.

So far my only current con is making sure I don't piss off the occasional paranoid fool and wishing I had an end all be all lens for every situation. I don't think I need to shoot 50mm for everything but it's my best lens.

 

[captive]

So far my only current con is making sure I don't piss off the occasional paranoid fool and wishing I had an end all be all lens for every situation. I don't think I need to shoot 50mm for everything but it's my best lens.

you should probably print out the photographer's bill of rights to have on you if anyone tries to give you a hard time. When I was in NYC I took my 135mm to times square for some street photography and this jamoke started yelling at me for trying to take a photo of him. You're in public, standing on a public street, you're fair game.

 

[JadedWriter]

you should probably print out the photographer's bill of rights to have on you if anyone tries to give you a hard time. When I was in NYC I took my 135mm to times square for some street photography and this jamoke started yelling at me for trying to take a photo of him. You're in public, standing on a public street, you're fair game.

I had no idea there was a such thing. I had some paranoid Jewish guy give me a bit of a hard time because I took a picture behind him, not even of him and his girlfriend ended up being the voice of reason and called his ass over to leave me alone. I have a respectable Flickr account. Dude acted like I was posting my stuff on a voyeur porno site or something.

 

[Astral/H3X]

So far my only current con is making sure I don't piss off the occasional paranoid fool and wishing I had an end all be all lens for every situation. I don't think I need to shoot 50mm for everything but it's my best lens.

If you're doing street photography, and not a whole lot of low light streets (aka night or dusk), you can probably get away with getting a sharp zoom lens. Many times streets are going to be well enough lit that having a lower aperture won't screw with things too much, and because of the already "rough" nature of what it is, a little ISO grain won't look out of place.

 

[JadedWriter]

If you're doing street photography, and not a whole lot of low light streets (aka night or dusk), you can probably get away with getting a sharp zoom lens. Many times streets are going to be well enough lit that having a lower aperture won't screw with things too much, and because of the already "rough" nature of what it is, a little ISO grain won't look out of place.

I use a 1.8 and I like the look of it. I've used 3.5 zooms and such, but I do have to crank the ISO a bit too much at times to get a decent speed out of them. Really just depends on my mood and Nikon kit lenses aren't really the best lenses. Another hurdle is I'm a bit too hard on myself regarding my pictures.

Edit:

I now have the photographers bill of rights jammed into my wallet.

 

[Astral/H3X]

I use a 1.8 and I like the look of it. I've used 3.5 zooms and such, but I do have to crank the ISO a bit too much at times to get a decent speed out of them. Really just depends on my mood and Nikon kit lenses aren't really the best lenses. Another hurdle is I'm a bit too hard on myself regarding my pictures.

Edit:

I now have the photographers bill of rights jammed into my wallet.

Noise reduction systems can do quite a bit, so don't be afraid to use them! Also, think about shooting in black and white. You have a Nikon, so a DSLR, so it's a bit harder to anticipate what photos will look like when it's all said and done, but noise on Black and White is very natural looking IMO. Not every photo has to be "pristine" to be good.

In fact, I read a few articles that were talking about ISO noise and the effects on photos, and I've found I've warmed up to it quite a bit. There are different kinds of photos were noise can even add to them, so you might want to experiment with it a bit. I've found noise gives it a nice look in B&W, "event/moment/action" types of shots, night time shots, and really anything like that. I wouldn't use it for a portrait photo of someone that's going to mount on their wall, or of a figure, or a plant, something where the clarity of the photo is a large part of what makes it good, but other than that it actually helps your photo stand out a bit, IMO.

 

[guess]

A few more from Norway:

 

[JadedWriter]

Noise reduction systems can do quite a bit, so don't be afraid to use them! Also, think about shooting in black and white. You have a Nikon, so a DSLR, so it's a bit harder to anticipate what photos will look like when it's all said and done, but noise on Black and White is very natural looking IMO. Not every photo has to be "pristine" to be good.

In fact, I read a few articles that were talking about ISO noise and the effects on photos, and I've found I've warmed up to it quite a bit. There are different kinds of photos were noise can even add to them, so you might want to experiment with it a bit. I've found noise gives it a nice look in B&W, "event/moment/action" types of shots, night time shots, and really anything like that. I wouldn't use it for a portrait photo of someone that's going to mount on their wall, or of a figure, or a plant, something where the clarity of the photo is a large part of what makes it good, but other than that it actually helps your photo stand out a bit, IMO.

I'm not sure if I can turn the photo into black and white using the free shit software nikon provides. I should just turn it on tomorrow morning in my camera and give it a shot.

 

[dhlt25]

Here is something from the G2. Shot with Freedcam (Mi2Raw does not work on Lollipop ), tuned some in Photoshop express.

By the way, is there something like custom presets on G4?

that is pretty great low light performance. The G4 OIS is pretty good so the low light is even better.

There's no custom preset in the default software, you can't even turn off the OIS or select image quality in auto mode. I've not tried other camera apps yet because I'd rather use my 4/3 if i'm gonna have to fiddle with stuff.

 

[Astral/H3X]

I'm not sure if I can turn the photo into black and white using the free shit software nikon provides. I should just turn it on tomorrow morning in my camera and give it a shot.

Yeeeeaaahhhh.... I'm enjoying my $10/month Adobe Photographer subscription.
You should definitely think about Lightroom or some other software that can let you do more with your photos. I don't even show off my photos until they've gone through Lightroom, because it can make such a huge difference (and I'm not even particularly good at it haha).

As a bit of an example, here's a before and after on the same photo:

 

[theepicoftyler]

DSC00622 by Tyler Jacobs, on Flickr


DSC00904 by Tyler Jacobs, on Flickr

Another shot from Marquette, and a shot of a fat squirrel staring longingly at the bird feeder being swarmed by birds.

 

[JadedWriter]

Yeeeeaaahhhh.... I'm enjoying my $10/month Adobe Photographer subscription.
You should definitely think about Lightroom or some other software that can let you do more with your photos. I don't even show off my photos until they've gone through Lightroom, because it can make such a huge difference (and I'm not even particularly good at it haha).

As a bit of an example, here's a before and after on the same photo:

Yeah my dad told me I'm doing myself a disservice by not having LightRoom. I've only really cropped and tweaked exposure and brightness settings on my pictures. I wonder what I'd be able to pull off with proper software.

 

[marimorimo]

So I take it that it's not frowned on to crop your pics? I just started doing that a week or two ago myself.

As you can see I'm just a n00b so take this with a grain of salt, but most of my photography "education" is from Japanese photography magazines, my favorite of which basically advocates "crop that shit." It's a magazine aimed for beginners and has a very informative section where a pro evaluates reader-sent pics and gives advice. Both the before and after photos can be seen. More than half of the photos instantly improved with some simple cropping, guided by the question "What is it that I wanted to tell in this photo?"

I liken it to the craft of writing where your first draft is usually hot shit, and the more you edit and trim it down, the better and more publishable it becomes.

For anybody curious about the magazine in question, it's "Shashin Life"　「写真ライフ」 and releases quarterly. Their monthly magazine for more advanced photographers is "Photocon" 「フォトコン」。

 

[HORRORSHØW]

wow. you guys are great. awesome pictures, all. i need to frequent these threads more often

 

[Astral/H3X]

As you can see I'm just a n00b so take this with a grain of salt, but most of my photography "education" is from Japanese photography magazines, my favorite of which basically advocates "crop that shit." It's a magazine aimed for beginners and has a very informative section where a pro evaluates reader-sent pics and gives advice. Both the before and after photos can be seen. More than half of the photos instantly improved with some simple cropping, guided by the question "What is it that I wanted to tell in this photo?"

I liken it to the craft of writing where your first draft is usually hot shit, and the more you edit and trim it down, the better and more publishable it becomes.

For anybody curious about the magazine in question, it's "Shashin Life"　「写真ライフ」 and releases quarterly. Their monthly magazine for more advanced photographers is "Photocon" 「フォトコン」。

Yeah, definitely, cropping will help out a lot. He just needs to make sure he doesn't over rely on it-- shoot now, compose later in other words.