The Photography Thread

[Venga]

A load of my work

http://www.shaun-nops.blogspot.com/

need some inspiration, been lacking recently. Will get bk on it soon ! feel free to follow any other bloggers.

[Tyche]

Almost 3 hours worth of driving to get to the location...I get there, and it's fucking closed off. I'm in the middle of BFE southern Illinois. My GPS gets no signal, my cell gets no signal. I've got nothing, driving blind. I drive around for 45 minutes looking for a place to set up shop to shoot. All this at 2am last night. I wish it wasn't so far away, I could scout places to shoot during the day instead of at 2am. First attempt, I may try again later in the summer when the milky way is rising at midnight instead of 2am.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/...f1f8aabb_o.jpg

[zoobernut]

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs550...._4240722_n.jpg







http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4422507_n.jpg






http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6281917_n.jpg




Just a few photo's I took of the toads as they came out last night. Used the 105mm Macro lens for these.

[Zansho]

Some more of my personal projects I did recently. I used two profoto lights with grid spots, and a Canon 24-75 2.8 lens for these images.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1278/...e85ec7f8_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/...4306009a_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/...f8df2f5c7e.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/...59829837_b.jpg

[mootsfox]

The first one is unf.

[jonastheed]

Some more of my personal projects I did recently. I used two profoto lights with grid spots, and a Canon 24-75 2.8 lens for these images.

Wow, really impressive!

[zoobernut]

Zansho those are really fascinating. I love the technique and I love the fact that the smoke is multi colored. Well done.

[Zansho]

It's not as hard as it seems - just took a bit of patience to get my lights dialed in right, then it was just a matter of snapping away while trying to keep the smoke in focus.

Focusing on smoke is a real bitch sometimes. It's not contrasty enough for autofocus to catch, so I had to use a depth of field calculator, and set my F-stop for the proper hyperfocal distance so the smoke I wanted would be in focus.

That was generally the hardest part. The rest was pretty cake.

[zoobernut]

Yeah I imagine that the smoke would be hard to focus on. Well I am going to be down in E3 for the whole week next week, I can't take my digital camera (don't want to risk it because I need it for a job the weekend I get back) but I am going to take my 35mm camera so I hope I get some good pics of LA and the convention.

[Tyche]

It stormed like a mofo late this afternoon. Insane wind and rain. After it passed, it cleared up slightly, and the light was something unique.




Here's the original with no PP. I actually didn't do much at all to it other than cropping out the road.

[Doombear]

Damned impressive sir, damned impressive. Very nice.

[Mayareira]

Took me a while to climb up there in the fortress

[Zeb]

I have a question for you awesome photographers. I'm not very into cameras so when my father asked me for advice on what to buy I was a bit stumped, but I told him I'd get back to him. After doing some google-fu I'm still at a loss as to what to tell him, so I came here because I know some of you guys know your shit. Basically, he's looking for just a decent camera to take macro pictures of coins, stamps and gems so he can sell them on ebay. Do any of you have any advice?

[Headspace]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1196/...8f187c00_b.jpg

[Tyche]

I have a question for you awesome photographers. I'm not very into cameras so when my father asked me for advice on what to buy I was a bit stumped, but I told him I'd get back to him. After doing some google-fu I'm still at a loss as to what to tell him, so I came here because I know some of you guys know your shit. Basically, he's looking for just a decent camera to take macro pictures of coins, stamps and gems so he can sell them on ebay. Do any of you have any advice?

Take them to be appraised first, because conterfeit stuff is rampant and probably wouldn't sell without some proof that the item is real.

Then take the stuff to a studio with a light box, otherwise it'll probably look like trash.

[Zeb]

Take them to be appraised first, because conterfeit stuff is rampant and probably wouldn't sell without some proof that the item is real.

Then take the stuff to a studio with a light box, otherwise it'll probably look like trash.

He does his own faceting on the gems and he's been collecting stamps and coins forever, he knows his shit about that. He's looking to start selling shit out of his massive collection, so I'm sure pawning this off on a professional to take pictures would cost way more in the long run then getting a camera and setting up his own light box to take pictures.

[zoobernut]

He does his own faceting on the gems and he's been collecting stamps and coins forever, he knows his shit about that. He's looking to start selling shit out of his massive collection, so I'm sure pawning this off on a professional to take pictures would cost way more in the long run then getting a camera and setting up his own light box to take pictures.

For photography like this I would suggest visiting photo.net forums. There is a plethora of information there specific to this exact type of situation. From what I have read he would be best off investing in some sort of light box and studio lighting to get good photos.

With the right setup for lighting he might be able to get away with a point and shoot on a tripod, maybe.

[Zansho]

A shit light box won't do well for this kind of thing. Most home made light boxes are made out of cardboard with holes cut out on the side and above - with white nylon ripstop to cover the holes to diffuse the light.

There are several problems - you need enough light to actually light your subject. For something as small as a coin or a stamp, you need a SMALL light box. I'm talking, probably no bigger than a shoebox, maybe slightly larger than that. Secondly, you need enough light so that your macro lens is able to have a reasonable f-stop to actually show all the detail in the coin/stamps - and trust me, those lights you get from home depot won't cut it - you need something at least 200 watts, 400 watts would be preferable.

My suggestion? Get cheap vivitar flashes, and do the strobist route. Go to www.strobist.com and learn what they have to tell you about flashes.

Macro lenses are usually in "name" only. Just because something has a "macro switch" doesn't make it a macro lens. You want something that can focus at a 1/1 ratio, which is lifesize. Would be better if you went 2:1 ratio, which is twice lifesize. My recommendations for a budget starter macro shooter would be a Sigma 105mm 2.8 Macro lens, as it has a long enough focal length that you have a workable depth of field - I would stay away from the 50mm offerings, as they're far too short for the subjects you want to shoot.

I can show you a setup later on, when I'm back at home from vacation as to how I shoot macro stuff using two strobes and a reflector, if you'd like.

[Headspace]

Alright, I need help on a way to shoot a city at night. I need help with what shutter speed I'll need, iso, etc etc etc.

Here's the trick though, I'm going to be in a helicopter, so I need a way to do it while avoiding mass camera shake.

[zoobernut]

Good luck with that. The short answer is there is no way for us to tell you exactly what shutter speed, aperture, or iso you will need. In order to avoid camera shake from the helicopter you will need a relatively fast shutter speed, which will vary depending on your lens focal length. Once you have your shutter speed figured out then adjust the iso and aperture according to that to get correct exposure.

Shorter focal length you might be able to get away with slightly slower shutter speed and the more you zoom in or the longer your focal length gets the more pronounced camera shake becomes and the faster shutter speed you will need to get sharp photos.