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

[torags v2]

Opanda... a free software

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

The SD870 is about the size of a deck of cards it takes pretty good photos. I will upload some later on Thursday after my camera class.

[Thunder7]

Well last nite I went out to get the moonrise over the Golden Gate Bridge. The damn moon moved over (or the bridge did) and I couldn't get the moon/bridge in the frame.

I tried my 70-200 2.8 instead of a 400mm+. I wanted wider. Last month I tried the f4, but there is quite a difference with 2.8. Hard to control inconsistent glare of headlights here, but here goes



Next month I'll try the D700 and maybe by that time I'll have my D70S sold

I cant believe after all the great images you've shown us you forgot to put one foot on the bridge and the other on the moon. Do we have to remind you of EVERYTHING??????  

[torags v2]

Damn.. Could I attribute that to a "senior moment?"      

[Thunder7]

Damn.. Could I attribute that to a "senior moment?"      

As age can be a personal thing, try cranial flatulence instead  

[torags v2]

 

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Damn.. Could I attribute that to a "senior moment?"      

Nope!!    I hope to get some Chicago night photos next month. I am going to have to move out by torags he has all the great scenery.  

[doodah man]

These are ironically the first motorcycle pics I have posted.  Overcast, crappy looking day in Nelson BC so outdoor photo opportunities were not great.  This bike was not exceptional, located in an ugly industrial setting, so I took it as somewhat of a challenge to make it look good.  This is all I was happy with.  I was once again shooting in manual so my first shot was massively overexposed, but it kind of looks like a line drawing effect in B&W so I kept it as it quite nicely eliminated the butt ugly background.





Here are some other Nelson shots.  On such an overcast day I either try to avoid shooting landscapes or convert to B&W to emphasize tone.

[Craigart14]

I have a quick question to everybody that takes photos. When does a photo quit being a photo when its photoshopped or some similar program? I for one have no skills in it at all and just read a article in Popular Photography that some are arguing that the Photo isn't real. Anybody else believe this? Please pardon my ignorance about this I am just starting to learn somethings in photoshop.

It's not a simple question.  I think manipulating a photo in your computer is fine.  The great photo artists of the past did plenty of manipulating.  Matthew Brady even dragged corpses into position for better composition in his Civil War photos.  Ansel Adams, aside from inventing the Zone System, did plenty of dodging and burning on his prints.

It gets trickier when you're talking journalism or that hazy area between art and journalism.  Art Wolfe, the famous wildlife photographer, used a shot of zebras on the cover of his book, Migrations.  The photo jumps off the page because there are so many zebras in such a small space.  A closer look reveals that some of those zebras turn up in the shot more than once.  A great photo, but does it misrepresent the number of zebras left in the wild?  It makes it look like there are plenty, when maybe there aren't.  Art or wildlife photography?

Every portrait artist fixes up faces in the computer.  Before computers, they did it with airbrushes.  Watch an old Doris Day movie sometime; she was a knockout in the 1950s, but they shot her through cheesecloth to get rid of the freckles.  Bob Guccione, the Penthouse guy, smeared a little Vaseline on a filter to get those soft focus shots I've heard about.

When photography first appeared, many people thought it would be the end of painting.  But painters make their subjects look the way they want.  Photographers do, too.  They just use a different set of tools.

Shoot what you like and how you like.  If you represent it honestly, there's no problem . . . IMHO.

Craig

[torags v2]

I don't know if honesty has anything to do with it, that's a moral judgment to me.

Do what you need to do to make the image as presentable as possible to the viewer (who may be you alone)

my .02

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Welcome Craig,
Well since I suck at photoshop the only thing I really adjust is the contrast, shadows and lighting. Other then that I am done. I wish I knew how to do all the cool stuff just not yet.  

[Thunder7]

I have to say- Its taken me an inordinate amount of time to learn all (Ok, many) of the ins and outs of my Nikon D300. Its wasn't as easy as I thought and on top of that I had to go through an almost entirely different workflow process due to Nikon's less aggressive in camera sharpening which initially led me to believe that all my images were terribly soft.

This is the first one off my D300 that I feel somewhat positive about- I used my Tokina 12-24 f4 zoom @ 12mm, wide open. exposure was shutter spd: 1/10 sec @ f4. ISO 1250 (Gaze upon the low noise!).

[torags v2]

Yeah its a pain to get used to the ergos of different cam families. Canon really throw saturated images, most times it's fine. My D200 is steps behind Canons, but not the D700.

I went to Tahoe this weekend (with my daughters dog) to pull my boat down the hill. The weather wasn't good - rainey & flat light.

Here's one of the dog (an 11 month puppy or retarded adult)



The sun came out a little, I was lucky to be near this stream..

[Thunder7]

Still nice stuff. Funny about the 4 legged, fur coated 'tard.

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Ahh what a weekend, Went to a camp ground that specialized in this for Halloween. Just one of many outside camp bars 

[torags v2]

My gawd... Does rum and Koolade make you grow coconut boobs?

 

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

My gawd... Does rum and Koolade make you grow coconut boobs?

 

   The fun part was to watch all the women make sure they try to fill them out.  Theres nothing funnier then drunk hockey/soccer Moms 

[torags v2]

Shutter speed

1/100 sec (look at the feet...)


1/800 sec... sharp subject but no panning blur....

[torags v2]

Guess who... where?



Going to the limits of my new D700//// 1/3200 sec shutter speed; ISO 6400

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Nice photos torags, I see you are enjoying the new camera.