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The Photography Thread

TheCrest4 said:
Jman how do you provide the light for your photos? I always thought that natural light was best and if you couldn't have that flash.

Man I have so much to learn haha
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Truthfully, I don't think there is a clear cut answer, the type of lighting that works best will be dependent on a lot of factors.

Natural light looks nice for some situations, for what James is doing with clubs a flash or multiple flashes work really well, he's trying to show of all the detail of the hardware. Portraits look better with natural light, but it's a slim margin IMO. When I do portraits or school photos I have a single remote flash I use. It sits on it's own tripod and it allows me to point the light where I want it, as well as change the amount of light provided. I prefer taking outdoors shots because I think the lighting looks more natural for pictures of people. That is just my personal preference though.
 
Thank you Daze! Macro is fun. I really like landscape shots, but you tend to have to travel a lot to find something new. Every time you go to the garden, etc... you may find something different when doing macro. Plus it's a challenge.

Dave
 
dthrog00 said:
Thank you Daze! Macro is fun. I really like landscape shots, but you tend to have to travel a lot to find something new. Every time you go to the garden, etc... you may find something different when doing macro. Plus it's a challenge.

Dave
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Yeah, I love those up close shots, you see the coolest stuff. Things you never knew were there. A macro lens has been on my want list for a while, it's just kind of towards the bottom. Next lens I buy will be a prime lens for portraits. Where I shoot photos now is my living room, and the space is limited, so my 80-200 makes taking nice portraits a bit of a challenge.
 
Canadan said:
My four small externals are now down to three. I can get away with it by taking photos by windows on a bright day, but anything in the clouds or evenings comes out yellow/orange.

We'll see if I really start pursuing this soon.
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You can fix this by changing your W/B (white balance) before you shoot according to what your light source is.
 
One of the herons I took while in Florida over Christmas.

IMG_0664-Edit-Edit_zpspxnmnoa3.jpg
 
TheCrest4 said:
Jman how do you provide the light for your photos? I always thought that natural light was best and if you couldn't have that flash.

Man I have so much to learn haha
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Technically all light is natural light. 650nm red light from the sun is exactly the same as 650nm red light from a strobed source. Sure the source might be manmade but the characteristics of the light are the same.

I've had students in my beginner class that believed that there was a difference in the physical properties of light from one source or another and that it had an effect on appearance. Scientifically, it's just not the case.

Strobed light is easier to nail exposure because it's controllable in two parts. We can control the ambient light part of the exposure with ISO and shutter speed and we can control the strobed light part of the exposure with aperture settings and flash power.

Learning flash photography will make you a better photographer indoors and out.
 
MudFlap said:
Technically all light is natural light. 650nm red light from the sun is exactly the same as 650nm red light from a strobed source. Sure the source might be manmade but the characteristics of the light are the same.

I've had students in my beginner class that believed that there was a difference in the physical properties of light from one source or another and that it had an effect on appearance. Scientifically, it's just not the case.

Strobed light is easier to nail exposure because it's controllable in two parts. We can control the ambient light part of the exposure with ISO and shutter speed and we can control the strobed light part of the exposure with aperture settings and flash power.

Learning flash photography will make you a better photographer indoors and out.
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Absolutely 100% correct!
 
krispyk said:
You can fix this by changing your W/B (white balance) before you shoot according to what your light source is.
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With most modern DSLR's, auto WB works pretty well. On the rare times when it misses a little, it's one of the easiest things to fix in post. In a studio setting it's pretty easy to control manually, but most of my shooting is outdoors in varying natural light, so if the camera misses a little bit, or if I just want a warmer or cooler mood in the image, it's easy to just tweak the raw image in Lightroom.

Sure beats the heck out of the old film days you only had a couple of WB choices, daylight or tungsten, or sometimes you could help it a bit with filters, but you were really limited. Now just about everything is just a twist of a dial or a drag of a slider.
 
Fourputt said:
With most modern DSLR's, auto WB works pretty well. On the rare times when it misses a little, it's one of the easiest things to fix in post. In a studio setting it's pretty easy to control manually, but most of my shooting is outdoors in varying natural light, so if the camera misses a little bit, or if I just want a warmer or cooler mood in the image, it's easy to just tweak the raw image in Lightroom.

Sure beats the heck out of the old film days you only had a couple of WB choices, daylight or tungsten, or sometimes you could help it a bit with filters, but you were really limited. Now just about everything is just a twist of a dial or a drag of a slider.
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Yep agree, I know how easy is it in RAW but I suspect Canadan and many others are shooting in jpeg that is why I suggested making the adjustment before the shot.
 
dazeedmonds said:
Yeah, I love those up close shots, you see the coolest stuff. Things you never knew were there. A macro lens has been on my want list for a while, it's just kind of towards the bottom. Next lens I buy will be a prime lens for portraits. Where I shoot photos now is my living room, and the space is limited, so my 80-200 makes taking nice portraits a bit of a challenge.
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Highly recommend an 85 1.8 but if space really is limited, the 50 1.8 or 1.4 is fantastic.
 
jcurtis2010 said:
Highly recommend an 85 1.8 but if space really is limited, the 50 1.8 or 1.4 is fantastic.
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I'd have loved to have gone 85, but saved 120.00 going with the 40mm I did. Better than nothing, I'm going to have a ton of fun with it.
 
Took this with my dad's D700 a few years back. Was just messing with the settings. I think this one is pretty cool. Not perfect focus, but I was using a 210mm zoom at the time from a decent distance. resized it but no color adjustments or anything.

Benji.jpg
 

Here's a couple shots from the snocross races last weekend in Salamanca, NY.

IMG_2558-Edit_zpsqulx3jx0.jpg


IMG_2643-Edit-Edit_zpsq63dwznk.jpg
 
awesome shots!
 
Here's another,

IMG_2573-Edit-Edit_zpszndvxjml.jpg
 
what are you using for those shots?
 
One more for now

IMG_2579-Edit_zpstultfow2.jpg
 
krispyk said:
I'm using a Canon 70d with a Tamron 150-600mm.
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I know I love my 60D. My 70-200 f4 L IS doesn't have the reach you do, but it is sharp enough to stand some pretty tight cropping. If I did sports photography more than just in passing, I'd probably have to invest in something longer.
 
Fourputt said:
I know I love my 60D. My 70-200 f4 L IS doesn't have the reach you do, but it is sharp enough to stand some pretty tight cropping. If I did sports photography more than just in passing, I'd probably have to invest in something longer.
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Yep used the same 60d 70-200 setup (and still do) for alot of wildlife and sports pics. Hard to beat the sharpness of that lens. It is still my favorite.
 
Some from my Africa trip in 2014. We visited Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Motherly love
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Painted Wolf (Endangered African Wild Dog)
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Herd of Zebra crossing the Chobe River along the border between Botswana and Namibia (taken from Chobe National Park in Botswana).
i-Ng2QHVk-XL.jpg


Leopard guarding the remains of an impala, a two day old kill.
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Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River by helicopter:
i-csQnHVL-L.jpg
 
Wow that picture of Victoria Falls is amazing!
 
So, Macro is fun.

Ignore the dirt/grass in the face, and the angle, I was just messing around.

DSC_0985-XL.jpg


DSC_0984-XL.jpg


DSC_0983-XL.jpg
 
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