The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[Salt Peanuts]

Ah, good ol' Ikea. Before we can get new glassware, we'll need to get rid of mugs. We have entirely too many mugs.

Now back to regularly scheduled photography thread.

[Salt Peanuts]

House Season Finale Filmed Entirely with Canon 5D Mark II

[voodoochile]

no, that's just the bog standard 18-55 zoom. it takes pretty decent close in pics, though. most of what is in that picture, with the exception of the striped glass, is cheap as chips Ikea. it's the black and white conversion that makes it look nice.

Not that I saw the original image, but that's an outstanding B+W conversion. Looks great!

Haj- is that the 5MDH in your pic... you like?

[Salt Peanuts]

It's a 6MDH, and yeah I'm liking it, though I do wish it was just a tiny bit larger. I briefly considered 7MDH, but that was entirely too big for my need (it's almost twice the capacity of 6MDH, IIRC).

[voodoochile]

Nice. I agree about the 7MDH, it's massive. My whole laptop bag would fit inside it.

[aerius]

If you're going to be using B&W a lot then the channel mixer tool in Photoshop is your friend. Quick example page Once you get the hang of it you can simulate all kinds of filter effects to set the lighting & contrast relationships exactly where you want them.

[Currawong]

To each their own, I suppose. I shoot the D700 exclusively these days, and I split my time fairly evenly between the M and A modes. I always use manual when shooting with flash, as well as for most all tripod-mounted uses. I also often like to use manual mode when shooting handheld, controlling aperture for the desired depth of field, shutter speed to counteract camera and/or subject movement, letting the ISO float in Auto ISO mode. This has been the best method I've found, for fast moving action where there isn't really a second chance to get any particular shot.

I've been using mostly P and A modes on my D80, though recently re-discovered how handy manual mode can be. I usually set up auto-focus, white balance and whatnot for whatever I'm shooting beforehand. I really want a D300 though. I use the 18-200 outdoors out of laziness, and a straight 35mm as a universal lens otherwise. I really need a 12-24 or similar, as I've been going nuts shooting panoramas with my iPhone and Autostitch. It's more likely I'll pick up a 24mm and a 50mm sometime though when I feel it's time to get more kit again.

Anyway...the little one in the breeze with Cherry Blossom petals:

[Beefy]

that was a self-portrait by my ex girlfriend after she got home from performing in a local production of The Vagina Monologues, a few years ago. horrible in color. i think it's rather nice in B&W.

I'm not entirely convinced the B&W is better. It makes her skin seem overly shiny and blotchy compared to the more natural colour shot.

[Knuckledragger]

Re: B&W Conversions.

Shot with my 30D and a borrowed 85L @ F/2.2, 1/125th, ISO1000. Converted to B&W and tweaked in PS using, ahem, a plugin or two. In retrospect, I wish I'd dropped the ISO to 640 and opened the aperture a bit. I didn't have use of the 85L nearly long enough to get to know it. I've got quite a long and convoluted story about the subject, but that's not something I'd discuss here. Maybe in the Casino. Maybe.

[aerius]

i use Silver Efex Pro in Aperture, which gives better B&W conversion than i can in PhotoShop. it has a bunch of presets, including filters and simulated film type, but also gives me control similar to PS, if i want to use it. i'm getting exactly what i want, which isn't necessarily a homogenous look for a set of photos, though, with the exception of the Stela photo, i've haven't strayed out too far from the kinds of filters and film types i used when i shot B&W film years ago. Ilford mostly.

Cool. I'm used to doing it by hand in Photoshop since if I use plug-ins, there's always something that looks wrong compared to the original and I end up having to do some masking and manually blending it out to make it look right. I guess if I didn't have the original to compare it to I probably wouldn't notice anything wrong with the automatic conversions done by various plug-ins.

From today:

[Hopstretch]

The Shire?

[shellylh]

I like that picture Reks. I guess I falsely assumed that Cincinnati was completely flat... that is embarrassing.

[Currawong]

i've found myself shooting in P and A mode a lot more than i thought i would. actually, i've basically been shooting in P or A any time i've had my single AF lens on, switching to my AI primes whenever i've wanted to shoot manual. i never expected that.

nice pic, by the way. i've always been a fan of off center compositions like that.

Thanks. I seem to have not a bad knack for composition on the fly. My father was a big fan of people never facing the camera, whereas I, on the other hand, like to capture the feeling from people's eyes in entirely natural poses. I forgot to add to my post that the only correct I do most of the time is whatever Aperture does for RAW processing, sometimes with an exposure adjustment (since most of my photos are impulsive and the camera doesn't always guess right about what I am shooting), so within obvious limitations, the colour in that photo is a good reflection of how things looked.

[Salt Peanuts]

Sorry, wrong post.

Edited April 20, 2010 by Salt Peanuts

[Knuckledragger]

As I've said before, I've been taking pictures of this bridge for ages. Today on the way back from running some errands, I stopped to snap it again. This time I got lucky and the train went by (shots of that possibly later.) I spent bloody ages working on the levels here. I'm much happier with the results than I was last time.

Infrared is a strange medium to work in. It's dynamic range is quite limited, and not at all like normal (digital) photography. Conversely, the weirdness of it hides what would be obvious flaws or mistakes.

[swt61]

Reks you're picking this up awfully fast. You certainly have the eye for photography.

[Knuckledragger]

Reap Oasting because [A] Flickr changes the file names when replacing an image (this is a "feature") and I can't edit the original post. I backed off on the burning of the area past the bridge a bit.

[Salt Peanuts]

[Salt Peanuts]

Not an exciting picture, but trying out the Nikon Series E 75-150mm lens I picked up recently. The lens is bit heavier than I'm used to and I realize that I'm horrendous at handholding.

[penger]

So... I'm looking into getting a Circular Polarizer and my google searches seem to indicate that a Marumi filter tests well and is good for the price/performance. Specifically I'm looking at the Marumi DHG Super Circular PL.D. Any else I should consider in its price range? On ebay storefronts they seem to be going for about $50-$60ish.

[MexicanDragon]

Something I shot the other night, straight off the cam (need to install CS4 and mess around with it some). Shot in downtown Chattanooga whilst some friends (and strangers) were traversing the streets trying to figure out why we took a bus a few miles out of the way when it turns out that it was the last one of the night. Oh well, plenty of bars on the way back (including some with live music and 15 y/o scotch), and we hit every one of them. This was just before the rain came.

I wish it would have come out better, but meh, I'm just getting started (if you don't count the thousands of soccer photos I have).

**BRENT**

[Knuckledragger]

Yesterday, I finally met my neighbor across the pond. This was the first time I have seen her since the early 1980s, when I was quite young. I gave her two prints of photos of her house I took a couple of years ago:

I asked her if I could venture around to her side of the pond and get a few shots of my house before I tear it down. She said of course. I went over later that even and took a bunch of shots. I haven't had much time to go through them, but I did pick out this infrared shot and clean it up a bit:

[jinp6301]

man IR photos are so cool

thanks for sharing man!

[aerius]

Sculpture thingies in a city park

[oogabooga]

Yesterday, I finally met my neighbor across the pond. This was the first time I have seen her since the early 1980s, when I was quite young. I gave her two prints of photos of her house I took a couple of years ago:

I asked her if I could venture around to her side of the pond and get a few shots of my house before I tear it down. She said of course. I went over later that even and took a bunch of shots. I haven't had much time to go through them, but I did pick out this infrared shot and clean it up a bit:

The second shot of the house is awesome, the colours are just right. The IR shot is quite interesting, as I figured the water would absorb the IR from the trees and appear pretty black. Very cool! Did you use a DSLR or film for that one?

Edit: Just saw the info on Flickr - didn't know a G2 could do IR. Also, didn't know a G2 was that freaking sharp!