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GAF Photography 2009 - Q4

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chaostrophy said:
My new desktop background for work (I work at a datacenter)
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hm i think it would look better in black&white.
 
Ok, my trip to Portland and Oregon Zoo. I'm going to break one of my own rules of being conservative when posting images, just because there's a lot to go through.

I learnt a few things as well as honed my Zoo skills regarding shooting through glass and pushing limits on my gear. Also, I learnt that going to a Zoo on a weekday, on an overcast day ensures hardly any visitors. At the zoo, I was armed entirely with my new 7D and the 70--200 f/4L with a 1.4x teleconverter (I haven't used this that extensively until now), mostly used wide open. I also learnt that this combo not only attracts people's comments, but also the animals attention - they just simply want to stare at a gaping big lens when it is pointed at them. Makes life easier!

One of these will be the assignment submission.

Check out the iso and shutter speeds I used to get an idea of the challenging light conditions of an overcast zoo day with a long lens.

Click images to access larger versions on my Flickr (click "All sizes"):


EF 17-40 f/4.0 L, 17mm, f/8.0, 1/640s, iso200.


EF 17-40 f/4.0 L, 17mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, iso200.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/50s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 235mm, f/5.6, 1/160s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 158mm, f/5.6, 1/6s, iso6400.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 189mm, f/5.6, 1/100s, iso800.

I just thought this looked funny:

EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 98mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, iso6400.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 121mm, f/5.6, 1/125s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 98mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 152mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, iso800.

This is the look a cheetah gives you when it wakes up to a big lens pointed at it. Oh, and check out his cute little heart-shaped nose:

EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/11.0, 1/40s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 98mm, f/5.6, 1/125s, iso3200.

Self portrait through a display showing 'the eyes of a python':

EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 176mm, f/5.6, 1/200s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/125s, iso800.

The stuff nightmares are made out of:

EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 131mm, f/5.6, 1/80s, iso6400.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 246mm, f/5.6, 1/10s, iso6400.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 98mm, f/5.6, 1/30s, iso6400.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 98mm, f/5.6, 1/30s, iso6400.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/160s, iso1600.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/160s, iso1600.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, iso800.


EF 70-200 f/4.0 L + 1.4x TCII, 280mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, iso3200.


EF 17-40 f/4.0 L, 17mm, f/5.6, 1/13s, iso1600.


EF 17-40 f/4.0 L, 17mm, f/8.0, 1/125s, iso400.
 
Flippin eck, those are superb kgoo! I love big cats and you got some crackers there. Amazing shots of the bat too, usually it's so dark in the bat caves even the human eye can't see um!

One more from last weekend in swanage, I have a few more but they are pretty bland.


One from this morning, nice location to have on your doorstep!

 
PeteJ said:
Flippin eck, those are superb kgoo! I love big cats and you got some crackers there. Amazing shots of the bat too, usually it's so dark in the bat caves even the human eye can't see um!
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Thanks!

Maybe this bat display was a little different, as it was ok to view by eye (but of course, damn hard to hold a 280mm lens still).

Pressing up against the glass is your friend.

I love your two shots posted here too, especially the second. Love the warm tone. Is it me or is the first shot slightly not straight?
 
Playing around with a bit more processing on a few different shots from the zoo:


EF 70-200 f/4 L + 1.4xTCII 145mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, iso1600


EF 70-200 f/4 L + 1.4xTCII 263mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, iso800


EF 70-200 f/4 L + 1.4xTCII 263mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, iso800


EF 70-200 f/4 L + 1.4xTCII 280mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, iso800


EF 70-200 f/4 L + 1.4xTCII 280mm, f/5.6, 1/50s, iso800

This is a screengrab of a frame from a 720p 60fps movie from the 7D (click to go to original size):
 
BlueTsunami said:
OM NOM NOM at that screengrab, mrkgoo!

And I love those eagle shots... such a majestic creature.
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Thanks! Do you find occasionally surprising yourself with what you achieve? For the Eagle shot, there was no glass to lean on, although I think I may have leaned on a rail, but I was getting a 1/50s shot at 280mm (no IS). I was surprised I managed to get a sharp shot.

The video looks even more glorious moving. Too bad it was only 4 seconds... I really framed those 4 seconds well.
 
In the spirit of the ever looming "convergence" of media, why not upload it for all to see? :P
 
SnakeXs said:
In the spirit of the ever looming "convergence" of media, why not upload it for all to see? :P
Click to expand...

I totally forgot I could upload video onto FlickR! It's actually not all that glorious when it's only 4 seconds (25 MB), but here you go:

FlickR

Keep in mind, there's no IS, so it's all shaky cam, and it was through green-tinted glass (I custom white balanced the tint out).

edit: Huh. FlickR destroys the quality.
 
Great photos guys... this is the last batch of my photos before I switch over to my new d700!!! Taken with a borrowed D90...

4010686066_c38b6731f1_b.jpg

4009903435_038a8c31eb_b.jpg

4010658370_3639ef2084_b.jpg

4010678314_a81c46a037_b.jpg
 
Amazing backdrop, zhenming! I love the first and second shot.

Edit: I just noticed the four helicopters in the first shot. Are these HDR? Or was there helicopters in formation?
 
Great shots, Zhenming. Good colour.

Just a suggestion - put a blank line in between each image to better separate them when displaying.

Have you considered using a polariser to remove car reflections?
 
BlueTsunami said:
Where are you located PeteJ? From the shoreline shot to the landscape of the second shot. Extremely scenic.
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Thanks for the comments :)
I live in Devon, UK. About two minutes from the sea (though this seafront was several hours away) and five minutes from the other place. It's a great location but I find it very difficult to photograph - anyone else get the problem of being over familear? I'm trying to rdvist places and look at them in new ways, buts it's harder than I realised!
 
Nice shots, TheWiiCast. I especially like the crying Spidey. A great, great image.

Is it just me, though? The shots seem EVER SO SLIGHLTY flat, as in they could do with a tiny bit of contrast/saturation...
 
mrkgoo said:
Wow, great shots VNZ. What focal length? Are you stitching/HDR? Or are the blurs at the edge from the lens?
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Thanks! Those are shot with the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. No stitching, but I shot at about 1/15s at rather high ISOs which I suppose explains the blurring. That lens can produce extremely sharp images if used under more ideal conditions. I haven't thought about before, but of course the edges of images shot with a (rectilinear) wide angle lens will be much more prone to blurring than the center.

No HDR either. Actually I tried but I've never been satisfied with the results. I'm gonna do some details of the stained glass windows in the same cathedral this week and then I'll give HDR-merging another try.
 
Some new stuff from today. Played around with gritty looks, silhouettes, reflection, purposefully shooting out of focus and general night photography...

4021127908_2fa3ab1f1d_o.jpg


4021127686_64ea777511_o.jpg


4020368091_3e786fbc28_o.jpg


4020497731_c8da4993b1_o.jpg


4021127794_9a21fbbfc0_o.jpg
 
BlueTsunami said:
Some new stuff from today. Played around with gritty looks, silhouettes, reflection, purposefully shooting out of focus and general night photography...
Click to expand...
I usually don't dig out of focus pics, but I like that last one for some reason.
 
VNZ: Ah, the 10-22, sweet! I don't normally like HDR either, but I've dabbled, and stained glass church interiors are perfect for it.

BLueTsunami: Great images. What the heck is going on in the bokeh at the top of the second pic?!

I love the hydrant - the noise has a nice quality. Do you know any trick s to getting nice noise in digital images?

Thought I'd cross post these from a Star Wars exhibtion/concert, that I wasn't allowed to bring a 'professional' camera to (defined as any camera with a detachable lens :/). So people were allowed their G9s and 12x super zooms, but I couldn't use anything but my iPhone.




















Perhaps my favourite shot of the night:















 
Rentahamster said:
I usually don't dig out of focus pics, but I like that last one for some reason.
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Same here. I've tried in the past but didn't really work. I think points of light and dramatic sky really helped. I sort of had this painterly rendition envisioned, I'm happy the way it came out.

mrkgoo said:
BLueTsunami: Great images. What the heck is going on in the bokeh at the top of the second pic?!

I love the hydrant - the noise has a nice quality. Do you know any trick s to getting nice noise in digital images?
Click to expand...

Thank, mrkgoo!

In the first image I used a specialized B&W color filter within Photoshop (part of Nik Silver Effex Pro plugin). I think I used a spectrum opposite of whats in the image so it turned the bokeh inside out :lol (so the rings are prominent instead of the circles themselves).

As far as the fire hydrant image, used the same program as the bench but added the noise via the plugin (it also simulates film grain). That shot is at ISO1600 and had a little nasty noise but I've been employing that particular plugin to add appealing looking grain to mask the digital noise.

On your images... convention/event photography looks very hectic but I need to hit one up, the interesting costumes and stages seem fun to shoot.

vitaminwateryum said:
2v33pzs.jpg
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Interesting image. Its a figurine? The angle of light on the figures profile is very nice.
 
@mrkgoo

Oh yeah, one thing I was thinking about mentioning -

One of the good things about a RAW workflow is the ability to squeeze out all the dynamic range you can out of your images. If you had been shooting RAW, I'm fairly certain you would have been able to recover the detail on the top of the eagle's head (the part that's clipped to white in the JPEG).
 
VNZ I love that church shot! Sounds silly but I didn't realise 10mm would give such a wide angle (I've only ever used my 24-105), I am seriously tempted to get one despite having no money!

Crying spiderman is a superb shot too, he looks so sad despite wearing a top with freaking dinosaurs on it!
 
PeteJ said:
VNZ I love that church shot! Sounds silly but I didn't realise 10mm would give such a wide angle (I've only ever used my 24-105), I am seriously tempted to get one despite having no money!
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I was surprised, too, at how wide it is at 10mm (16mm equivalent)... :D You can really do some crazy stuff without having to resort to stitching (and all the boring work and time that involves). It's a bit on the slow side though so for interior shots you're best off with a tripod. I missed some good shots in the cathedral, especially up on the roof vaults, because I didn't bring one. :/

Also, since it's quite an expensive lens, you pretty much make the decision to go "crop frame only" when you get it.
 
BlueTsunami said:
Amazing backdrop, zhenming! I love the first and second shot.

Edit: I just noticed the four helicopters in the first shot. Are these HDR? Or was there helicopters in formation?
Click to expand...
thanks! the helicopters are from time lapse framed shots :D

mrkgoo said:
Great shots, Zhenming. Good colour.

Just a suggestion - put a blank line in between each image to better separate them when displaying.

Have you considered using a polariser to remove car reflections?
Click to expand...
Opps will remember that! Do polarisers help that much?? I think cars without reflections makes it less shiny and therefore less new looking?? I might try a polariser next time though.
 
TheWiicast said:
fair4.jpg
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Aww! This one breaks my heart. Fantastic.

PeteJ said:
Thanks for the comments :)
I live in Devon, UK. About two minutes from the sea (though this seafront was several hours away) and five minutes from the other place. It's a great location but I find it very difficult to photograph - anyone else get the problem of being over familear? I'm trying to rdvist places and look at them in new ways, buts it's harder than I realised!
Click to expand...

I know the feeling. I live in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful areas of our world, and I would still find myself getting jaded. It's one of the reasons I've been taking less landscape and nature photography lately, and steering more towards portraits.
 
Fall is in its stride within my region and a North Easter (Snow) hit my area, so I decided to go out and take some pictures of the tree colors.

4024818000_2c30ed53b0_o.jpg


4024063615_8368763409_o.jpg


4024818782_b50888e7ce_o.jpg


4024818610_13568a9f99_o.jpg


4024818440_5c317171ac_o.jpg


And my favorite of the bunch...

4024062945_0e7a7cd3e9_o.jpg

*Did not us any processing in this beyond reducing its size in Photoshop, Cropping and converting to Black and White. I exposed the image so the sky and ground were a little blown out (so the seam between the two would meld). You can still see it faintly.
 
:D Thanks guys

I was GeoTagging my images in Flickr and had seen that that particular tree is easily viewable from a Satellite

kd8h74.jpg


The red arrow is pointing at the tree in the image, the yellow circle is where I was located when I took the image. The adjacent trees branches creeped into the preliminary image but was obviously cropped out.
 
Had a shoot last night and just started working on some of the images. Its a throwback mob scene. Heres a screengrab of me working on it. Just got started on it, relatively at least, but Im digging the kitschy mob aesthetic. Its gonna be an awesome shot when alls said and done :) Just dont know when itll be done, I have 3 shoots this week so they may take a while. Ill update soon though!

Screenshot-of-Awesomeness.png


and btw I finished the image I was working on in the last quarter thread, finished it a couple days ago so its sorta q4...ish.

Badmoon-RAIN.png


BlueTsunami: Very nice last shot!
 
BlueTsunami: You put me to shame :(. Great shots.

Zombi: Great stuff!

Rentahamster: Thanks for the comment. I was looking at that myself earlier. It was only just blown out, but probably would've done better with raw. There's something about being a mac geek though - I feel like I would want to keep my images managed with Aperture or something, so I'm going to wait to see what an inevitable version 3.0 brings. And dammit, I'm going to need a bigger hard drive.

Do you think it makes sense to get the photo side of things down before the RAW processing? On the other hand so much is capable on the processing side...
 
mrkgoo said:
Rentahamster: Thanks for the comment. I was looking at that myself earlier. It was only just blown out, but probably would've done better with raw. There's something about being a mac geek though - I feel like I would want to keep my images managed with Aperture or something, so I'm going to wait to see what an inevitable version 3.0 brings. And dammit, I'm going to need a bigger hard drive.

Do you think it makes sense to get the photo side of things down before the RAW processing? On the other hand so much is capable on the processing side...
Click to expand...
If you already got Aperture, then yeah, that would be fine. Otherwise Lightroom is great too, that's what I use.

You wouldn't necessarily have to shoot everything in RAW. You've got the photo side of things down pretty well already, I don't really see why you'd still have reservations about your photographic skill.

To take the eagle shot as an example, there really isn't anything else you could have done on the strictly photo side of things to recover that highlight detail since the lighting and subject are pretty heavily out of your control. Arguably, you could have patience and wait for the lighting to change, wait for the bird's pose to change, or wait for it to move somewhere else with different lighting, but those options aren't really all that practical.

When you're in a situation where the dynamic range of a JPEG ain't gonna cut it, then, well, there's not much else to do.

Like I said in the beginning - you don't have to shoot everything in RAW. Keep shooting JPEG. If you ever come to another situation that has high contrast lighting (white eagle head, white dress, bright sky, or whatever), then just switch to RAW + JEPG, take a few shots, and switch back. You'll then have the option of seeing if you can improve the image in post at a later time. If you can't, then hey, at least you still have the JPEG that you would have shot anyway.
 
Rentahamster said:
If you already got Aperture, then yeah, that would be fine. Otherwise Lightroom is great too, that's what I use.

You wouldn't necessarily have to shoot everything in RAW. You've got the photo side of things down pretty well already, I don't really see why you'd still have reservations about your photographic skill.

To take the eagle shot as an example, there really isn't anything else you could have done on the strictly photo side of things to recover that highlight detail since the lighting and subject are pretty heavily out of your control. Arguably, you could have patience and wait for the lighting to change, wait for the bird's pose to change, or wait for it to move somewhere else with different lighting, but those options aren't really all that practical.

When you're in a situation where the dynamic range of a JPEG ain't gonna cut it, then, well, there's not much else to do.

Like I said in the beginning - you don't have to shoot everything in RAW. Keep shooting JPEG. If you ever come to another situation that has high contrast lighting (white eagle head, white dress, bright sky, or whatever), then just switch to RAW + JEPG, take a few shots, and switch back. You'll then have the option of seeing if you can improve the image in post at a later time. If you can't, then hey, at least you still have the JPEG that you would have shot anyway.
Click to expand...

Good point. Sometimes it can be hard to recognise when you need raw, so I guess I fear ending up relying on it all the time. That said there's no RAW converter for the 7d yet *except canon's dpp, naturally). There's actually a nifty raw button that you hit as a once off, ad it toggles the next image as a raw+jpeg.
 
Here is a scary looking oak.

3980603692_0609b9bb37_b.jpg


At my old school (grade 1-6) we have a huuuuge oak that is from 1400-1500 sometime, its really epic. The treetop and the stem are enormous. Sadly I dont have a picture of it yet.

Not sure if I posted these before.

3959467972_c3ecccc24f_b.jpg


3958633161_7e792da355_b.jpg
 
Fall has come fast and hard to my part of the world, and the colours are sublime. I wanted to capture those fall feelings with a variety of close-up shots:

2aet7bt.jpg


dlmiit.jpg


veytea.jpg


4tslmq.jpg


fne8pe.jpg


2lc5tlh.jpg


And a few general shots:

24n2sdh.jpg


qn0npw.jpg


333ixkh.jpg
 
BlueTsunami said:
And my favorite of the bunch...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2645/4024062945_0e7a7cd3e9_o.jpg
*Did not us any processing in this beyond reducing its size in Photoshop, Cropping and converting to Black and White. I exposed the image so the sky and ground were a little blown out (so the seam between the two would meld). You can still see it faintly.
Click to expand...
do you have a desktop sized version of this? :3
 
Forsete: Awesome oak shot.

Aidan: I love the yellow leaves.

My attempts at Autumn have been less than awesome. Man, I'm in a funny mood these past few days. It's like I am second-guessing everything I do.
 
BlueTsunami said:
4024062945_0e7a7cd3e9_o.jpg

*Did not us any processing in this beyond reducing its size in Photoshop, Cropping and converting to Black and White. I exposed the image so the sky and ground were a little blown out (so the seam between the two would meld). You can still see it faintly.
Click to expand...
I like paging through this thread every so often, and this is incredible. I love it.
 
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