Official Photography Thread: Vol. ICan'tFindTheLastOne

[kdwallace]

Went to the zoo today and snapped a few pics of birds. It was a really dull day but some came out okay.

This was a cool new enclosure they had with tons of these birds - they would fly down and land on your hands and eat out of them - I didn't managed a picalthough I tried while I had a bird in the other hand - they kept flying away. I had a better shot lined up than this - the whole tail was in it - but when Ilooked at it here it was slightly out of focus.

A couple of penguins:

Getting pretty dark when I got to the sea eagles so this isn't great. Impressive birds though.

This stork one is a little better as I could get closer and was shooting in more light - even though it's about 10 minutes later. More of a silhouetteobviously and the blur around the bird is the bars of the cage - I thought that made it more interesting.

 

[kdwallace]

Found a new feature on my D40 today too which is well worth fiddling with if you have one.

If you go into the main shooting menu and then optimize image you get different options - vivid, b&w etc. Go to the bottom one which is custom and you canalter a few settings that have improved the look of my pictures. You can change the color mode and saturation and stuff to make them look better - I alwaysthought my images were a little under-saturated and since I added a little there they come out better - less post-production.

 

[SVNTI]

Originally Posted by kdwallace

Found a new feature on my D40 today too which is well worth fiddling with if you have one.

If you go into the main shooting menu and then optimize image you get different options - vivid, b&w etc. Go to the bottom one which is custom and you can alter a few settings that have improved the look of my pictures. You can change the color mode and saturation and stuff to make them look better - I always thought my images were a little under-saturated and since I added a little there they come out better - less post-production.

I haven't even been through the whole menu yet. ill check that out later.

Do you guys have an LCD protector on your DSLR? im thinking about getting one cause when i put my eye to the viewfinder, the screen dirty. Does the screenget scratched easily?

 

[kdwallace]

I don't have one - but it's not a bad idea. My screen does get greasy from rubbing up against my cheek - and I think I'm pretty clean!

Don't know if the protector would help that but it would certainly prevent scratches. I have thought about getting this armor which is kind of cool IMO -and it comes with a screen protector.

 

[ebayologist]

Just picked this up this morning. 50mm CF Distagon lens for my Hassy. It's a slight wide angle probably similar to angle to 35mm wide angle DSLR lens.

 

[kevin2nd]

kdwallace - nice rainbow lorikeets

 

[kdwallace]

f^ good spot - they called it rainbow forest or something - just a big room with tons of them flying around - you can buy little pots of nectar to entice themnear to you - but as soon as you walk in the door carrying one there are about 5 on you. Then when it runs out they start biting and licking your fingers.

Good fun though.

 

[j paycheck]

I been messing around with new tricks and techniques - check them out...


Finally got around to messing with the TTV technique shown and explained a few pages back on this thread (using a Brownie w/ a cracked viewfinder)


First try at a panny and it worked out... now to try this on a ill car


Everyone's favorites type of shot "Flower Macros" LOL ... hey I'm just trying to practice... I will begin doing macros of other stuff forpractice -I promise! These I actually printed, framed, and gave to some folks for a Christmas... hey its been a tough year!

My Tree - the stars were done with these Snowflakeglasses Really hot shades... makes all lightslook like snowflakes... really hot when driving. LOL

Im always open for criticism on any of the pics I ever post.

Merry Christmas (a day late) to all yall and humm... Happy New year too (if I dont repost by then) and hummm... feliz ano nuevo, navidad, y cumpleano para mitambien (on the 31st)... all that! Off to DR until 08! PEACE! Heck and while im at it GO SKINS!

 

[wanksta23]

nice zoo pics

 

[ienycepnoyi]

wheres the best place to buy an lcd protector?

 

[jayllogic]

a couple snaps.

 

[kdwallace]

My Tree - the stars were done with these Snowflake glasses


That's pretty cool - imaginitive.

I saw a webpage with a thing where you could make a shaped aperture and then it gave you a sort of bokeh effect - with the blurred lights being the shape ofthe aperture - I thought Christmas lights would look good with stars on them or something. Not got around to trying it yet though.

wheres the best place to buy an lcd protector?


Probably any camera shop or even just Walmart or something - they sell them for all sorts of devices that you can cut to shape or you get better polycarbonateones.

Amazondo one too if you'd prefer not to leave the house - seems expensive to me though.

 

[relevant sx]

anybody know what i'm doing wrong or what i need to do? as you can see in my previous posts, my pics don't come out as clear and sharp as everyoneelse's.. i have bad eyes so i just shoot w/ the AF.. i shoot w/ the 18-55 mm stock lens on my rebel xt.. what am i doing wrong? also, critiques/comments onmy previous post please?

 

[ebayologist]

^That shot glass one you might be inside the camera's focal range. That would be my immediate guess. The one with the bottles my guess is camera shakemaybe? I'll get back to you later with more, gotta run...

 

[SVNTI]

Went to Niagara Falls today.

Any comments/Critiques ?

he first pic, i had to make it black and white, cause i took it from inside a car, and i guess the window gave it a weird color.

 

[atljunkie]

nice photos of niagra falls!

 

[ebayologist]

SaNTi0321
1. Contrast is really weird. Way too dark. Your middle tones shouldn't be that dark and you really have few if any light values. I'd be curious to seethe orginal.
2. Feels underexposed. Like if it was film it would definately be a thin negative. If you had closed down an f-stop or maybe even just half an f-stop wouldhave been a lot better but not bad.
3. Better with the exposure than #2 but the horizon is both crooked and it being crooked makes the top weighted horizon feel more top weighted.

Compositionally #2 feels more landscapesque and I like quite a bit. But #3 feels a bit tight, it's not bad but between the two I would pick #2 in heartbeatjust purely on composition.

Also the double boarder is a bit much. just the white is fine. And if you're whites fall on the edge of the frame and blend in with the white of theboarder its a sign your whites are too white, push them back a hair.

 

[SVNTI]

Originally Posted by ebayologist

SaNTi0321
1. Contrast is really weird. Way too dark. Your middle tones shouldn't be that dark and you really have few if any light values. I'd be curious to see the orginal.
2. Feels underexposed. Like if it was film it would definately be a thin negative. If you had closed down an f-stop or maybe even just half an f-stop would have been a lot better but not bad.
3. Better with the exposure than #2 but the horizon is both crooked and it being crooked makes the top weighted horizon feel more top weighted.

Compositionally #2 feels more landscapesque and I like quite a bit. But #3 feels a bit tight, it's not bad but between the two I would pick #2 in heartbeat just purely on composition.

Also the double boarder is a bit much. just the white is fine. And if you're whites fall on the edge of the frame and blend in with the white of the boarder its a sign your whites are too white, push them back a hair.

Thanks a lot for the feedback man. Yeah I also like #2, #3 is actually a crop of a similar picture. Ill post the originals in a sec, all i did was adjustcontrast and some saturation, cause it was an ugly day, thats probably why it looks weird like you said. I actually haven't started using the manual modesyet... I'm still using presets like portrait, or landscape, and auto mode.

RESIZED ORIGINALS

It was an ugly day..

 

[relevant sx]

Originally Posted by ebayologist

^That shot glass one you might be inside the camera's focal range. That would be my immediate guess. The one with the bottles my guess is camera shake maybe? I'll get back to you later with more, gotta run...

sorry ebay but i have no idea what the camera's focal range is dude

but any other ideas?

 

[air jericho]

does anyone here use Sigma lenses? i have two that i got as presents from my dad, 28-70mm F2.8-4 and the other is a 70-300mm F4-5.6 macro. would it be betterto have these two lenses or this one Nikon lens that my dad was telling me about/ forgot which one though. he said the lens was somewhere in between the two soI would only have to use one lens instead of carrying around two. quality is an issue so basically Nikon lenses vs Sigma lenses?

 

[sassy sis 7]

What would be a good point and shoot cam? I want clear pictures without the hassle of a DSLR

 

[jaw knee c]

^^^most Canon P&S will do the trick.

Air Jericho - Nikon lenses are def. better but they are way more expensive. I just actually ordered a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens ($450) today, compared to a12-24mm Nikkor ($1600). Just do some research on the web before buying anything. Your dad is probably referring to the 18-200mm Nikkor lens. Great lens....onlynegative I've heard is there will be some creep in the motor when you point it up or down.

RELEVANT SX - Shot glass....white balance is off. Picture is crooked. Composition is bad....the top of the flame is cut off and no foreground or background.Second shot...looks like a shaky hand. White balance is off again. Composition is bad....not showing the whole table, cabinet in the back is cut off, cup onthe left is cut off, shirt/chair on the right is cut off. if you know nothing about exposures, focal length, shutter speed....the things I mentioned above areimportant for taking good pictures.

 

[j2o]

Sup_

Thanks for the tips Johnny.

Wedding pics were harder than I thought. Most definitely needed an external flash. There were so
many challenges and I think my partner and I did a decent job. When I get back from vacation we'll
probably go over the pics and hopefully have a great album for her.

Here are some pics I took in my Aunts backyard. Nothing special just random boredness.

Messed around with the Photo Style on the camera so it would give me a nice unsaturated look with
color standing out and since people like to say this "No Photoshop" was involved.

I was getting great lighting coming from the sun reflecting off the fence.

Probably my fave out of the bunch.

Any C&Cs are welcome. If you wanna see higher quality pics peep the FLICKr.

 

[couturevanity]

 

[SVNTI]

Testing out the macro on the Kit 18-55mm lens. Its a cropped image, and it still looks extremely clear and sharp... IMO