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mrkgoo · May 6, 2007

Ok, so I went out assignment shooting again - nearly killing me, as I'm very busy with work, but GAF is distracting, and I always take any excuse to go shoot - but getting up at 5:30 after late nights is not good

I was hoping for a foggy morning like yesterday, or the day before (which I didn't shoot, but it was spectacular - the city covered in fog), but alas, no fog, and mostly a clear day. Still, I wasn't about to waste the trip out, so I took some snaps. They are pretty much typical-type shots, but well, I still consider my self a learner, so I'll keep practicing. I took a lot of shots, but not many very varied ones.

Lol, this is about as cliched as you get - but there's a reason for cliches - they are nice! The peak you see in the background here is Rangitoto - our resident volcanic island.

efs17-55Is, 55mm, f7.1, 1s, iso100

efs17-55Is, 17mm, f7.1, 1s, iso100

Zooming during exposure:

efs17-55IS, 17-55mm, f9.0, 1s, iso100

Pink clouds:
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3682/img7074ay4.jpg
efs17-55IS, 17mm, f5.6, 1/30s, iso100

Sunrise coming!

efs17-55IS, 17mm, f8.0, 1/80s, iso100

Hello:

ef70-200f4l, 200mm, f8.0, 1/4000s, iso100

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2699/img7125pt3.jpg
ef70-200f4l, 70mm, f8.0, 1/500s, iso100

ef70-200f4l, 200mm, f8.0, 1/2000s, iso100

ef70-200f4l, 200mm, f8.0, 1/1600s, iso100

My prerequisite silhouette:

ef70-200f4l, 70mm, f4.0, 1/2000s, iso100

ef70-200f4l, 200mm, f4.0, 1/2000s, iso100

P.S.Lollers, I steal top position on page 9! Hmm... a lot of these are very samey - I might come back later and delete some.

imastalker co. · May 6, 2007

maybe you should start shooting on film, or only carry a 128MB card. it'll definitely force you to put more effort into shooting, and will only make you better at shooting when in the clutch. having said that, obviously the beauty of shooting digital is that you can keep at it til you get it right.

either way, it's only a problem, if you have a problem with it.

AirBrian · May 6, 2007

mrkgoo, OK, now you're just rubbing it in.

mrkgoo · May 6, 2007

imastalker co. said:
maybe you should start shooting on film, or only carry a 128MB card. it'll definitely force you to put more effort into shooting, and will only make you better at shooting when in the clutch. having said that, obviously the beauty of shooting digital is that you can keep at it til you get it right.

either way, it's only a problem, if you have a problem with it.

It's a good point - limiting your tools can improve one's abilities...but I don't really have a problem with it really - I'd like to get better, but I'm in no rush. I do feel that my pictures are improving over time. (although recently, there seems to have been this gradual leap in colour quality - I don't think it's entirely from embedding colour profiles properly - maybe it;s just the kinds of pictures I've been taking recently - I haven't adjusted anyhting on my camera or process).

Air Brian:

Thing is, I've been up that place to take photos quite a lot - I nearly feel lazy for going back up there. funnily though, it doesn't matter if you go somehwere to take photos you've been before...there's always something else to take shots of. I was planning on going back tomorrow morning (again hoping for fog), but I don't think I will sacrifice sleep for it.

SnakeXs · May 6, 2007

Here's a few from this morning. Had nowhere good to go, and shooting at 5AM was a new experience. Plus it was my first time out with my 70-210.

Surely to be overshadowed by someone's recent extravoganza, but alas. :lol

mrkgoo · May 6, 2007

SnakeXs said:
Here's a few from this morning. Had nowhere good to go, and shooting at 5AM was a new experience. Plus it was my first time out with my 70-210.

Surely to be overshadowed by someone's recent extravoganza, but alas. :lol

I like your first shot - but then I like powerlines

The 2nd shot appears too dark for me (again, though I'm on a crappy LCD on my powerbook - sometimes I wonder what people actually see when I post photos).

I like the use od DOF in the bird silhouette.

Pot shots are nice, but it could be a bit sharper, or is that a limitation of your lens? Which lens did you get?

Yay, more industrial shots! There's a bit of noise there. No complaining - sometiems noise works for a shot. Iso?

The windoe shot is ok - I want totry more of this kind of thing myself, eventually (capturing textures and the like). The framing seems a bit off for me though. The window is the focus on the left, and then I try to move right, but the direction the window is facing fights me.

Moon:
lol, here's what the moon looked like this morning from down under!

SnakeXs · May 6, 2007

mrkgoo said:
I like your first shot - but then I like powerlines

The 2nd shot appears too dark for me (again, though I'm on a crappy LCD on my powerbook - sometimes I wonder what people actually see when I post photos).

I like the use od DOF in the bird silhouette.

Pot shots are nice, but it could be a bit sharper, or is that a limitation of your lens? Which lens did you get?

Yay, more industrial shots! There's a bit of noise there. No complaining - sometiems noise works for a shot. Iso?

The windoe shot is ok - I want totry more of this kind of thing myself, eventually (capturing textures and the like). The framing seems a bit off for me though. The window is the focus on the left, and then I try to move right, but the direction the window is facing fights me.

Moon:
lol, here's what the moon looked like this morning from down under!
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8427/img7073la8.jpg

Thanks. The pot focusing was indeed a pain. Low light, slow-ish lens focusing on little contrast, so I focused on the bricks underneath. I got the Nikkor 70-210 4-5.6. The push-pull zoom one. This was my first real outting with it. Shooting at such a long (in comparison) telephoto feels so different.

The ISO in that shot was indeed intentional. I was at 800-1600 the whole morning due to light. That one's at 1600.

And yeah, there was almost 0 light with the lions, so I tried to make the most of it. I sorta like the atmosphere of it.

And yeah, the window shot's framing is off, to the degree that I may change it to another... I was unhappy with what lay beyond and did what I could, but I don't think it works.

Edit: Fine, I'll leave it and add another, plus a 100% crop of the moon for kicks.

AirBrian · May 6, 2007

It's cool to see the different rotation on the moon.

mrkgoo · May 6, 2007

SnakeXs said:

I always wanted to know wha tthe difference between different lenses was (more real world application, rather than test shots):

100% crop:

Of course, I had a tripod with me at teh time, and that makes a huge difference (smaller apertures).

I justified getting my tele because I liked the compression effect - like when you take a photo of a row of pots like you did. Also great for portrait shots! Go give it a whirl on some people!

aidan · May 6, 2007

Here're a few more from the last couple of sets I posted.

Unfortunately I was out shooting sunset pics just a couple of days before the new assignment started!

I know there's not a whole lot of artistry in the concert shots I've been posting, but they bring back fond memories for me and they were a lot of fun to take, so there's got to be something to that!

fart · May 6, 2007

a couple of assignment rejects

abq · May 7, 2007

mrkgoo said:
abq: I like your image. It reminds me of kuran's iamges...all these shots look non-descript at first...which only serves to make you sit there and observe them even longer. Soon, you start to see things you didn't notice straight away - lines, lighting, textures. It's a very soothing kind of viewing experience - quite opposite from the kind of cliched shots I'm taking. I notice strong colour, contrast, sharpness and 'pop' make people go 'wow', but subtleness is a harder skill to master. Well done.

Thanks. Your sunrise sets are beautiful. I would like to learn to take shots like those, but I'm afraid I lack time, place and a tripod. So I'm gonna keep trying to do kuran-esque shots while experimenting with other things.

mrkgoo · May 7, 2007

abq said:
Thanks. Your sunrise sets are beautiful. I would like to learn to take shots like those, but I'm afraid I lack time, place and a tripod. So I'm gonna keep trying to do kuran-esque shots while experimenting with other things.

Thanks, time and place are important - but tripods mostly unnecessary - since you're pointing at the sun, and you don't want to over expose, you tend to use really high shutters anyway.

Man, cool shots. Haha, we should have an assignment of "Mimic some one elses style".

. I love the use of round objects in a very straight environment/shot.

thatbox · May 7, 2007

This page is great so far, especially mrkgoo and SnakeXs! These are some of my first shots with my new Vivitar (made by Sigma) 28-70mm f/2.8 - it's a lot sharper than the kit lens that came with my Maxxum 5D, even wide open.

mrkgoo · May 7, 2007

thatbox said:
This page is great so far, especially mrkgoo and SnakeXs! These are some of my first shots with my new Vivitar (made by Sigma) 28-70mm f/2.8 - it's a lot sharper than the kit lens that came with my Maxxum 5D, even wide open.

Wow, I love them, particualry teh contrast of having both these images (and only these images) posted together. Was that deliberate? I know sometimes when I post, I will arrange them particularly to be more appealing as a post.

That first one is slightly distracting in the reflection - I love the shot otherwise. I'm lead to believe that it was taken through a window - perhaps a polariser would help if you intend on taking more images like that? (lol, I'm just on a polariser high - I want to get one for my large lens, but they are quite costly, and don't get ALL that much use. I want to try the polariser for other effects as well).

thatbox · May 7, 2007

Yeah, the first one is through a window. I tried to minimize the glare in post by desaturating and deluminancing that blue hue, but I didn't like the flatness of the result, so I trashed the effort to hide it and tried to pretend that I liked how the area of lower contrast was almost directly covering the mannequin's faces. I've been meaning to get a polarizer, but then it's a whole deal of finding step-down rings for my other lenses and I just haven't gotten around to it. I've really enjoyed the polarizer shots in our threads recently, though, especially with the effect on the sky. The second I was reluctant to post, because it's just a photo of a giant poster, but I really dug the enthusiasm of the guy in contrast with the blue color and crinkling paper. Thanks!

imastalker co. · May 7, 2007

thatbox: you gotta let me have that poster. pleeeeease.

aidan · May 7, 2007

Alright, I went on a bit of a hike to a nearby waterfall today. It was a great time and I managed to get some cool shots. I wanted to use the long shutter speed technique for the water... but I also found that this slightly overexposed my photos... which is too bad.

Well, here they are:

I also have a couple of other shots from the last couple of days.

This Last one here is an attempt at a Kuran-style shot... I'm not sure I'm quite up to par, though!

abq: I love those shots. Where were they taken?

mrkgoo: Looking back at your sunset shots... if those are the ones you turned down, I think we should all just give up on this assignment thread and let you just choose the next theme!

fart · May 7, 2007

oh man, i have a long way to go. here's a shallow-age shot of my car:

more graffiti

johnsenclan · May 7, 2007

aidan said:
I also have a couple of other shots from the last couple of days.

Gorgeous. I love the color.

I'm still playing around with a cheap lightbox I made last week. Weather outside has been horrible for photography, so I'm stuck in the basement.

Here's a couple of shots.

aidan · May 7, 2007

johnsenclan said:
Gorgeous. I love the color.

Thanks!

I remember that pencil crayon shot from your flickr account. I really like it and the others from that set, I adore the colours you chose.

imastalker co. · May 7, 2007

what's everyones biggest beef with photography?

Great King Bowser · May 7, 2007

I want to make a lightbox, but I can't seem to find those clip-on light fittings anywhere in the UK. Ugh.

abq · May 7, 2007

aidan said:
abq: I love those shots. Where were they taken?

An abandoned house a few minutes walking distance from my home. I dunno how many years I've lived here but I first noticed it when I got my camera. In my defense, I live in the middle of nowhere and the house is located in the direction of the end of the world. It's in Sweden.

A few shots from downtown:

imastalker co. said:
what's everyones biggest beef with photography?

Inability to control as much as I want too. Mostly due to lack of knowledge and laziness.

thatbox · May 7, 2007

imastalker co. said:
thatbox: you gotta let me have that poster. pleeeeease.

Haha, yeah, isn't it great? It was on the inside of a storefront, unfortunately, so I couldn't rip it down and make off with it!

what's everyones biggest beef with photography?

First and foremost being comfortable with a big camera in public. I'm extremely shy, so I don't always get the shots I have in mind because I'm reluctant to be intrusive or obvious about it. I don't know if we have any other Minolta users, but my 5D has an almost infamously loud shutter. That said, carrying around, say, my 70-210mm f/4 with the lens hood on the front is pretty empowering simply because of its size, which boosts my confidence some.

Second beef is developing my eye to find the best angle to shoot something. My initial instinct is always just hey that looks awesome shutter clap, when if you want to bring back the best images you need to be constantly working out other sight lines and compositions in your head. That's where there's the most room for growth and what separates the competent photogs from the great photogs, I feel.

guess · May 8, 2007

some assignment pics:

thatbox · May 8, 2007

The noise really works well in your third picture, guess. Usually colorful skies look best silky smooth, but there it's quite nice.

mrkgoo · May 8, 2007

thatbox said:
Haha, yeah, isn't it great? It was on the inside of a storefront, unfortunately, so I couldn't rip it down and make off with it!

First and foremost being comfortable with a big camera in public. I'm extremely shy, so I don't always get the shots I have in mind because I'm reluctant to be intrusive or obvious about it. I don't know if we have any other Minolta users, but my 5D has an almost infamously loud shutter. That said, carrying around, say, my 70-210mm f/4 with the lens hood on the front is pretty empowering simply because of its size, which boosts my confidence some.

Second beef is developing my eye to find the best angle to shoot something. My initial instinct is always just hey that looks awesome shutter clap, when if you want to bring back the best images you need to be constantly working out other sight lines and compositions in your head. That's where there's the most room for growth and what separates the competent photogs from the great photogs, I feel.

I'm the same with most of your sentiments.

Guess: cool pictures...I like your second one and last one in particular - something about that strip of light that is very appealing. The second-last one is cool, but the composition doesn't work for me.

otthon · May 8, 2007

guess said:
I used this tutorial to fake the effect on a few of my photos
http://recedinghairline.co.uk/tutorials/fakemodel/

I gave this a try:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8135074@N03/sets/72157600185979936/

imastalker co. · May 8, 2007

im seriously fed up with not being able to pull that effect off. is post processing the only way to do it? cause if so, i think it's time to install photoshop.

------------------

trying to emulate an american apparel ad

pixelated · May 8, 2007

Cool otthon, that effect is pretty easy with paint shop pro.

abq · May 8, 2007

imastalker co. said:
im seriously fed up with not being able to pull that effect off. is post processing the only way to do it? cause if so, i think it's time to install photoshop.

It's called tilt-shift miniature faking so my guess is that it's possible without post processing if you have a tilt shift-lens.

lens_MC-HARTBLEI-TS-35-SR_tilted'shifted.jpg

mrkgoo · May 8, 2007

abq said:
It's called tilt-shift miniature faking so my guess is that it's possible without post processing if you have a tilt shift-lens.

Exactly, apart from tilt-shift lenses, I know of no other way to get that kind of DOF from that distance. You probably have to have some sort of inverse lens that can open up wider than it's focal length like f -1. lol

I believe the effect is an optical illusion - that your brain tells you that scenes with such a narrow DOF can only be close up - and to be that close must be a miniature.

To aid the illusion, you also take images with strong directional lighting (to simulate flood lighting a model), and have high sharpness in the "in focus" zone.

yonder · May 8, 2007

I'm looking for a pocket-sized camera with manual controls that let you set the shutter speed, white level etc. A nice macro mode would be a plus. Does such a thing exist?

Otherwise I can get a good deal on the Canon A570 IS. It's a bit chunky but it fits the bill otherwise. Anyone tried it?

aidan · May 8, 2007

My biggest photography beef?

Noise. Well unwanted noise! I have a low end point and shoot, and so noise, especially in low light situations, is something that really affects what I can shoot (along with my knowledge of cameras). I did just recently come across a program called Noise Ninja that works to eliminate unwanted noise, and it seems like it might be fun to play around with.

I was out last night with the girlfriend and grabbed a few shots.

I've also got a couple of shots I'm considering for the Assignment thread. I'll post the ones I don't choose later on tonight once I've made my decision.

mrkgoo · May 8, 2007

Yonn said:
I'm looking for a pocket-sized camera with manual controls that let you set the shutter speed, white level etc. A nice macro mode would be a plus. Does such a thing exist?

Otherwise I can get a good deal on the Canon A570 IS. It's a bit chunky but it fits the bill otherwise. Anyone tried it?

The canon A series are awesome camera to start with. Though they are slightly chunky, and the controls are slightly in accessible, they DO have all the manual features. They're cheap, take nice quality pics, and have room to experiment for the beginner. I think ypu'd be happy with the A-series Canons. Depending on your speed of learning though, you may want to upgrade - and that will depend on your budget, and whther you are the type of person to mind having to upgrade- but I'm still reaonsably confident the A-series will have you happy for a decent while.

Kuran · May 8, 2007

Wow guys, aidan and abq ... I'm really flattered.. when I was scrolling through the page my eye immediatly caught your posts and I was like "... did I make that?" I guess that means they really are 'kuran-style' shots...

I'm jealous I didn't make them. Really beautiful!

For the type of pictures that I take, would I get any benefit from using a lens other then this standard 18-55 (i think) that came with my Canon 350D?

aidan · May 8, 2007

I'm glad you liked it! I love your style, and I feel like the best way I can learn is to approach great pictures and try to recreate the shot. Unfortunately I don't really live in the right environment to try out your style very often...

Kuran · May 8, 2007

mrkgoo said:
Kuran: In that picture with a bike, and then without- did you move the bike, or did someone take it away? ( I like your images - you definitely stand out with them, and inspired a few people here too!).

I try to never, ever move things..* I already felt like I was trespassing in that area so I had to be very careful. Thanks for your comments...

*I moved myself to put the bike in a better frame, however.. does that count?

mrkgoo · May 8, 2007

Kuran said:
Wow guys, aidan and abq ... I'm really flattered.. when I was scrolling through the page my eye immediatly caught your posts and I was like "... did I make that?" I guess that means they really are 'kuran-style' shots...

I'm jealous I didn't make them. Really beautiful!

For the type of pictures that I take, would I get any benefit from using a lens other then this standard 18-55 (i think) that came with my Canon 350D?

The best way to find out is to study what focal lengths you're using the most, isos, shutters etc. Basically find out if you're pushing the limits of that lens, and need somethign with more space to breathe.

Sure, there're lots of 'better' lenses, but again, they are only tools for you. If you find the kit lens perfect at what you're getting, there's no reason to change.

There're a number of sharper, more colourful lenses in the canon lineup - but it really does depend on your current use. Colour matters less of you are desaturating your images, for example.

Some of the questions you can ask yourself are:

Do you want to go wider? Tele? Do you want to reduce noise/grain? Do you want to reduce blur (or take pictures in darker situations)?

A good thing, rather than replace your lens is to get one that complements it, opening up new avenues for your creativity. Oh, and join the assignment threads. It'll be awesome if you took part, and somehow used your great sty;e and shoehorned it into every new assignment

SonnyBoy · May 8, 2007

mrkgoo said:
Do you want to reduce noise/grain? Do you want to reduce blur (or take pictures in darker situations)?

mrkgoo, I took these 2 shots at my birthday celebration this past sat. i didn't want to use a flash but it made the shots grainy... why is that and what can i do in the future to remedy the situation?

Kuran · May 8, 2007

Berlin last year... some teacher ended up kicking me out, its a good thing I didn't appear to be lecherous.

(Sorry for posting old pics.. )

aidan · May 8, 2007

Kuran, don't say sorry! They may be old to you, but they're new to us!

As always, any comments or critiques about my photos are always welcome from everyone!

mrkgoo · May 8, 2007

SonnyBoy said:
mrkgoo, I took these 2 shots at my birthday celebration this past sat. i didn't want to use a flash but it made the shots grainy... why is that and what can i do in the future to remedy the situation?

I'm flattered you posted the question to me

(which could be a mistake - I'm known for long overdetailed explanations...)

Anyway, it's caused by your camera deciding it is too dark and, depending on the mode you were using on your camera, it raised the iso.

The iso setting is essentially the sensitivity of the sensor to light. At iso 100 (low) it's less sensitive, and at iso high (800+ depending on your camera), it is high. At higher sensitivity/iso, the sensor will pick up more and more noise. Your camera basically decided it was too dark, and depending on mode again, would adjust aperture/shutter automatically, but decided these hit their acceptable limits and adjusted the iso to be very sensitive. Check your exif and look at iso - it's proabably high like 800-1600.

ANyway, there are several ways to try and work around it.

- Flash: this will provide enough light to not warrant a high iso. (but if you're avoiding flash, this isn't much help)
- Set the iso to be non-auto: it may not be an option in the mode you shoot in, if you are going all manual. Set the iso lower -....the consequence of this will probably mean that the shutter speeds will then be reasonably slow, introducing cmaer ashake easily - it means you will simply need to keep still (both subject and camera).

Learn about exposure, and the relationship between shutterspeed, aperture and iso.

Just a point, the size of the sensor has a huge impact on noise. Smaller cameras mean smaller sensors, means smaller pixels. Small pixels pick up a lot less light, and hence are much more sensitive and prone to noise. So, you could laways buy a larger camera (lol, kidding - you can work within the limitations if you know about your camera, and what to do - hope I've been some help).

yonder · May 8, 2007

mrkgoo said:
The canon A series are awesome camera to start with. Though they are slightly chunky, and the controls are slightly in accessible, they DO have all the manual features. They're cheap, take nice quality pics, and have room to experiment for the beginner. I think ypu'd be happy with the A-series Canons. Depending on your speed of learning though, you may want to upgrade - and that will depend on your budget, and whther you are the type of person to mind having to upgrade- but I'm still reaonsably confident the A-series will have you happy for a decent while.

Sounds good. The only thing that's stopping me is that I'd really like to take my camera with me where ever I go, so a small one would be better. Since there doesn't seem the be a small compact that gives you control I'll probably end up with the A570 IS.

mrkgoo · May 8, 2007

Yonn said:
Sounds good. The only thing that's stopping me is that I'd really like to take my camera with me where ever I go, so a small one would be better. Since there doesn't seem the be a small compact that gives you control I'll probably end up with the A570 IS.

Well, I'm not sure if the ultracompacts give you more control now or not. Do a bit of googling if you want to be sure. The last camera I had was a Sony T-series, which was awesoem for portability, and did take great pictures in situations with adequate light, but it had woeful manual features (but at the time I had no idea for that kind of thing). I'm not sure if the situation has changed for that size camera - but I do know that the A-series is popular for that little bit of extra space to grow. My GF had an A95, and it has manual, but theyre kind of locked away in the menu system, so if you plan on doing mostly manual work, you might want to consider something that has teh controls for it on the outside. Sorry I can't be of more help.

imastalker co. · May 8, 2007

those of you who haven't already checked out kurans site have wasted quite some time.

kagete · May 8, 2007

Hi, I've mostly been lurking on GAF and can't help but admire the excellent photography being showcased in this thread. That being said, I'm currently looking to finally get an SLR, after using several Sony point and shoots and most recently, a Canon S2 IS.

I'm pretty torn right now between a Pentax K100d and the Nikon D40. I've been able to try the Nikon for half a day both indoors and outdoors and I've liked how fun and easy to use it was. I'll end up taking a fair amount of photos indoors so the shake reduction of the Pentax is quite appealing to me, especially since I simply cannot stay steady enough for long shutter speeds.

Any thoughts on any or both cameras? I've noticed a lot of Canon users here but maybe someone had some experience with these specific models or can maybe push me in one direction or another.

Cheers!

SnakeXs · May 9, 2007

imastalker co. said:
those of you who haven't already checked out kurans site have wasted quite some time.

I was gonna mention before, what gallery software do you use, Kuran? Very simple, elegant, yet functional (from this end, at least).

imastalker co. · May 9, 2007

Canon 400D/Rebel XTi all the way.

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