The Official S-T.N Photography (methods) Thread

[torags v2]

Yup.

Say for those that use Picasa2 there is a new Picasa3 with new features. You might like to check it out.

Rags

[doodah man]

I haven't taken any new photos for a few weeks so I have started going through my backlog.  Here is one where a polarizing filter was used to darken the sky.  I converted to B&W and added a red filter effect in Canon DPP software to darken the blue sky even more.  I then increased contrast to emphasize the darker and lighter areas and knocked the brightness down a little bit.

Edit to add: ultimately I liked this photo better in color than in B&W.  The B&W conversion did help to hide the unevenness of the polarizer on such a wide angle shot, though.

Edit to add (again): well I obviously don't know what the hell I'm doing with this one.  Now I've cropped it to take out the worst of the unevenness of the polarizing effect.  I think I've improved composition as well because the big cloud is no longer dead center.  I've added a sunset photo I am happy with just to balance my obvious incompetence with this one.

[torags v2]

Nice doodah....

Well I sold my D70S a dependable back up cam......





Then I sold my D200 also a good backup... a good sports cam (with high fps) but poor low light performance........




For what.... A D300. This DX cam compliments my full frame D700. I started using the D200 as more than a backup. The limited reach of the full frame hampered some shooting at Laguna Seca.
Now the D300 DX gives me a 1.5X crop on stated lens reach (200mm stated = 300mm on DX) with high iso noise mitigation.

It looks like I have the best of both worlds for the Baja1000. The only problem now, is the competence of the the photog.......

[torags v2]

Well... I canceled the D300 from a private party on the internet who failed to ship after 4 days of charging my card.

After I insulted a few more people with my offers; then I tried a new tack. The D300 gives 6fps. My D700 4.5 fps, Except when you add a battery pack to brings it up to 8fps.

A full Frame with 8fps is sexy. Then I looked at the Nikon D90. This cam has good low light performance, a auto selection (good when traveling....., here - please take our pic) and movee selection. The first dslr with a movee component that you can use different lenses.

I got a new D90 + the battery pack for the same amount as the used D300 w/o warranty.

Hey do you guys have low batteries? No pix? Here's a local Japanese garden

[vitaminC]

Meet Claude the albino alligator:



Probably would have been better with either a tripod or higher ISO, so I could go with faster shutter speed. Guess it's time to upgrade the from the D70 so I can get better high-ISO performance!  

[torags v2]

Nice. Hey VitC my shot is of the San Mateo Japanese Garden. You might consider visiting - it's neat.

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Had another lighting and protrait class last night here are two out of around 200 I took. I think the are okay need to learn Photoshop   



[/quote]

[torags v2]

#2 is better for me.

Seems to me a loss of detail tween blouse and left chest. Low contrast probably (skin color/blouse). So how does one establish a line between the two? (lighting?)(Is it important??)

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

The two above were took with 6- 400 watt Alien Bee lights not turned all the way up of course. I didn't edit much just softened the skin. I am still knew to this so I don't know the proper terminology for lighting yet other then its a fun process to me at least setting the stuff up.

[DavidLSI]

I found another cool photo stitching program called clevr http://www.clevr.com/

You download the program put the photos you want to stitch together and then your get the ability to to this... (i hope this works it seem to be like the video emmedding)

Panorama of Pool View in Sunlakes, AZ on CleVR.com

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Nice find David.  

[kurtw]

Methods observations and questions...

This last weekend, I went out to a a local offroad race. I spent Saturday shooting photos of the team race and Sunday riding the crosscountry race. Report, including some photos, here.

First of all, this was my first time trying to shoot an offroad event. Without riding it, I underestimated how difficult it would be to find the course before the start, much less an ideal place to photograph it. Much more planning and scouting will be required next time I do this. When my wanderings finally intersected the course, I parked my bike and walked around about a quarter mile of it to try various shots before riding off to try to find a different section after having gotten a look at the map from one of the marshals.

Before leaving the staging area, and I had chatted with a pro photog, Dave, who was also getting ready to go out scouting. We chatted and I actually got some useful pointers from him, mainly the suggestion that I might want to have a flash handy.

The course was mostly in the trees (at least the parts I was on). So dappled sunlight and shade made things very challenging for me. I pretty much ended up using my flash the whole time. It's a Canon 580EX and this is exactly the type of thing I had in mind when I got it.

Most of the time, I was set up in Manual mode, exposed for the backgrounds with the flash firing to illuminate and freeze the subject. I was shooting with my 70-200 f4L IS and 17-85 both always wide open.

1/200s, f/4.0, ISO 400


1/200s, f/4.0, ISO 400


1/80s, f/4.0, ISO 200


It worked out okay, but sometimes motion was visible where I didn't want it. Spinning wheels ok, bouncing fender, bouncing rider not ok, excepting in an occasional accidentally creative looking shot.

All of my photos are here.

I guess my questions are, how could I have improved the photos in these conditions? How could I have better used the available light or better used the flash. Any creative ideas? What would you be trying in these conditions? Especially looking for what I can do with the equipment I have, rather than simply getting faster lenses.  

[kurtw]

I just found some photos from the pro that I chatted with in the morning. Stunning work!!! The guy definitely knows what he is doing and has some creative vision. Very inspiring. THE FOLLOWING ARE NOT MY PHOTOS: (but I have to admit that I wish they were   )
http://web.mac.com/davidvschelske/iWeb/Site%2014/Fall%20Classic.html
http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=714677

Other than having a terrific eye and capturing a much broader view of the event, he did some really interesting things both in the field and post-processing. E.g., using dust to provide a backdrop for action (maybe with flash?) underexposing the backgrounds (definitely using flash)... not even sure what else.

[torags v2]

I think the flash power/distance from subject is a problem in the shots.

You can see a flash was used. The flash should act as fill light & be less apparent.

If you can't adjust flash backup then crop in PP or lower the intensity of the flash where you're standing.

In daylight SS of 300-340 can give blurred wheels. You might like to hike up the ss to 250 w flash, you will freeze a lot more of the subject. In twilight you can let the f4 blur the background for subject separation.

Dust is a great separator, but you have to get the first that passes you or else



There was a slight wind here but the turn was low and held the dust from the previous rider for a few minutes, but it gave the subject separation



Good luck, a lot is trial & error (its what you call experience), try to check your lcd histogram & review your shot (if you can) to adjust for the settings.

It's a good beginning & you're watching what others are doing.

Rags

[kurtw]

The problem was the lack of light to be able to boost the shutter speed to where I would have liked it. Flash sync on my humble RebelXT is 1/200s.

In retrospect, the correct solution would have probably been to employ the Hi-speed flash sync feature on my 580EX, get closer, and bump up the SS. Lesson learned.

[torags v2]

Yup.. trial & error. My recent experience with darkness/dust & flash at the Baja1000 was not good.

The air was still, I had a great shooting site and at darkness the flash lit up the dust (similar to brights in fog) lost all my subject except the bright spots of the headlites. I left for home, what's the point.

Rags

[evilmedic13]

 Here's some from my latest airshow trip w/ the wife. I took about 1800 pics so there is a ton more,but I'll save the bandwidth.
 

[torags v2]

I like #2, the rest seem a little soft. Great event shots.

Since this is the methods thread, I'm going to get presumptuous ( in a constructive way).

You might like to use a slower shutter speed (than 1000) for prop driven planes to get prop blur. I run into too fast a SS with bikes (I freeze spokes)

I found a circular polarizer very helpful in shooting flying events. Removal of glare saturates the colors.

Does this guy look familiar (he's great)

[vitaminC]

Anyone have thoughts, opinions (), experience, etc with so-called "superzooms"?

Specifically, I'm thinking about:
1. Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO
2. Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX

Obviously there are some compromises with this type of lens, yet one of those and my Sigma 10-20 would make for a pretty good "walkabout" setup...

I do plan to head over to the local shop and test them out.

[torags v2]

I had the 18/200. I really liked it & took some really good shots with it. Its a very versatile walkaround day lens.

I sold it because it has a variable aperture. I drove me nuts shooting a indoor rodeo, I couldn't manually open the aperture.

I recommend it. I don't have any knowledge of the Tamron.

Rags