Tekforums
Chat => Photography => Topic started by: zpyder on September 05, 2010, 17:20:19 PM
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Was out with Binary for a jaunt in the New Forest, Didnt really take many photos other than these two:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/4960101903_b82a55b571.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/4960101903/)
Fistulina hepatica (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/4960101903/) by Chris_Moody (http://www.flickr.com/people/zpyder/), on Flickr
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4960690534_c2ea3d5e7c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/4960690534/)
New Forest Reflections (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/4960690534/) by Chris_Moody (http://www.flickr.com/people/zpyder/), on Flickr
If youre bored enough, try rotating the water one 180 degrees, its pretty cool (I think it is anyway)
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Good Bokeh on the first one, was that with the 50mm?
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yeah. The reversed ones were ok-ish, but suffer in that there isnt anything to actually look at. Would have been better if there had been some gnats or something sucking on its juices.
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Im just wondering, did you actually take any photos with my camera Adam? AFAIK you didnt, just want to make sure the reflection one isnt yours!
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good question, im pretty sure i only checked the AF and didnt actually take an shots
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Haha. If you did I doubt you did a portrait shot, I hope not anyway!
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i would have remembered that if i did, just sorting my images now, what sort of processing have you done on yours?
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Almost none believe it or not! :P I ran a mild unsharp mask over them as I figured it couldnt hurt, and it didnt make any difference tbh, usually I end up oversharpening things to make up for a soft lens or similar.
As it was raw I opened them in camera raw and used the auto values, and again it barely changed anything, might have just notched up the exposure by .2 or something, and I changed the blacks value from whatever they were (~2-3) to 5 or something else non-major.
The only other thing was in the river shot there was a plank of wood at the end that was just visible once you really started to scrutinise the shot, so I clone-tooled it out. I cropped about 3% from the bottom of the river shot too, other than that theyre both full frame.
I also rotated it 180 degrees at one point out of curiosity. Seriously, looking at it upside down is weird, you kind of know its upside down but still end up looking for the waters edge in the wrong place.
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They look good, the colours look great nice and vivid, i think my shots look a bit flat tbh
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Like the fungus shot, nice use of depth of field and I always like the textured effect sharply shot bark can give.
The reflection shot is just a bit disorienting for me - wouldve preferred to see the thing being reflected properly in shot - but dont know if that was possible given the setting?
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I think theyre potentially the best photos Ive taken with an SLR to date, which I know didnt take much lol. Considering that the Beefsteak bracket fungus was a 50mm prime, and the river shot was with a lens that should be £350+ new, its hardly surprising though, given before that I was using the 18-55mm kit lens and a nasty sigma :D
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The reflection shot is just a bit disorienting for me - wouldve preferred to see the thing being reflected properly in shot - but dont know if that was possible given the setting?
What do you mean, a mirror reflection all the way up to the top with no ripples, or something else? Sadly it was the only real bit of the 1km stream that we covered that was nice and open and didnt have loads of branches and/or rubbish in it etc :(
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The reflection shot is just a bit disorienting for me - wouldve preferred to see the thing being reflected properly in shot - but dont know if that was possible given the setting?
What do you mean, a mirror reflection all the way up to the top with no ripples, or something else? Sadly it was the only real bit of the 1km stream that we covered that was nice and open and didnt have loads of branches and/or rubbish in it etc :(
No I was thinking taking the shot from further back so you get the top of the tree in as well as the reflection rather than just having the tree peeping in.
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Ahhh ok. Yeah, that would have looked better, the problem was the bank in question, there was a buckthorn bush just below out of shot, so any wider/further back and it would have been in the way. Also its portrait rather than landscape as pretty much to the left/right its a bit more trashy. We were right next to a wooden bridge which is kinda like the M1 for people walking and riding, so there was a lot of disturbance in the close vicinity from people, including half a dozen rope swings.
You live and learn though, hopefully Ill get out somewhere next weekend :D
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and plenty of mad dogs about as well
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Right here are my photos, only cropped nothing else done to them.
Rope swing reflected in water under a bridge, didnt come out as well as i hoped it would:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/4964123289_0be1d9530c_b.jpg)
Wild rose:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/4964130261_939226f655_b.jpg)
Holey tree, reckon something lives in here:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/4964141253_206e7936b8_b.jpg)
Deadwood:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/4964155273_aa7692a9a5_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/4964831964_4d874f63fa_b.jpg)
Demsel fly?
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/4964156631_bcbd7828c4_b.jpg)
Rope swings:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4148/4964773778_ebd7529fb5_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/4964181749_34efcf12ed_b.jpg)
Reflected tree:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4964190199_ac5ba8f7b9_b.jpg)
New forest equine:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/4964195793_d693c4b22a_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/4964162623_159af80b28_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/4964839622_262a1c0c1a_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/4964204729_946f6bceda_b.jpg)
Fungii:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4091/4964815630_e71206e6cd_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/4964820828_d1cd30bbdb_b.jpg)
The seemingly never ending path:
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4153/4964243193_6ccd73e72e_b.jpg)
And now.. a very rare photo indeed..
its an image of the mythical new forest BEAST!
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/4964198699_bbba4bc4d2_b.jpg)
Yes scary stuff indeed!
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Whilst they all load (my connection seems to be sucking lately) FYI Flickrs new layout makes it piss easy to share photos, at the top where you have the actions and share buttons, click "share this" then "grab the html/bbcode" and then choose your options. Copy and paste it here and it works straight away with not tweaking required. Handy for keeping things tidy with the medium sized images whilst also linking straight back to the flickr page etc.
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cheers for the tip, i thought there was probably an easier way but the damn new interface is annoying me at the moment as im not used to it
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The deadwood shots came out well, and the beefsteak fungus is pretty sharp too tbh.
The Damselfly is a male Beautiful Demoiselle - Calopteryx virgo I think.
The last shot would be a good example of post processing helping, Id imagine even "auto" would change the white balance to make it less orangey/stormy looking.
cheers for the tip, i thought there was probably an easier way but the damn new interface is annoying me at the moment as im not used to it
I tried it when they had the option to have a go before they properly released it, and didnt like it that much and went back. But I am finding now I have no choice and have gotten used to the new layout there are lots of things which are much better than before, such as the easier sharing options.
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Were these shot raw or jpeg? Any PP applied?
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I dont think Adam shoots raw, and he doesnt like to PP that much if he can help it. Weve kinda been polar opposites in terms of technique the two times weve been out!
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Indeed all mine are JPG and only cropped
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Very nice photos. I cant believe Im only an hour or so away and Ive never been over there, Ill have to take the time to go soon.
What areas did you visit out of interest?
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TBH Nige, why not just meet us out there sometime? :P
The area we went to is North of Brockenhurst and south of Bank. Its a little sliver of ancient woodland that runs either side of a stream. Coincidentally when I was at a meeting last week with one of the head ecologists for the Forestry Commission, and I asked him whether he had any favourite spots, he also said about it as well. Its my favourite as I used to walk there when I was at Brockenhurst college.
I know a couple of other good spots, but Ive still got a lot more to explore out there.
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I might well do, I could finally give you those DVDs back too :lol:
I had some friends staying with me over the weekend that love the outdoors and planned to do something like that, but time and costs didnt really permit, so maybe next time they come down.
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Tbh you dont want too big a group if you want to take photos, youll scare the wildlife away :D
We saw a pair of Kingfishers, thinking about it they flew past us about 15 secs before a family walked past, which kinda proves the point!
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yeah, i would have killed to have had my camera out and ready for that... never the right time or place
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Only issue I can see in any of Binary Shadow photographs is lighting. The highlights have blown. My brother bought a cheap Sigma and it does exactly the same thing. My Canon 40 D does the same on odd occasions.
If you have a dark central target focus on something else and lock the exposure, usually achieved by holding the shutter button half way down. Then re-frame onto your subject and take the photo.
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Only issue I can see in any of Binary Shadow photographs is lighting. The highlights have blown. My brother bought a cheap Sigma and it does exactly the same thing. My Canon 40 D does the same on odd occasions.
If you have a dark central target focus on something else and lock the exposure, usually achieved by holding the shutter button half way down. Then re-frame onto your subject and take the photo.
was thinking the same, some look a little washy - maybe consider using a filter
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I was using the canon EF-s lens. I noticed that my 450D tends to do this a lot more than my old 350D
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I would view your photo on the LCD and check its taken correctly, if not try again. If needed adjust EV level or even go manual exposure.
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Im going to have to learn how to read the histograms i think
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Thosell never make sense to me...and looking at a load of charts on the back of the screen isnt photography to me, wheres the fun?!
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ahh its the scientist not the artist ;)
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I do enough science at work thanks muchly :p
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If its stacked up at one end its too bright, at the other too dark.
Actually I never use this function either, I look at the image on the rear LCD and if it looks OK I move on.*
*usually after taking at least dozen extra shots from other angles
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So basically you want a nice normally distributed bell curve in the middle?
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the tricky bit with the histogram is that "correct" deppends heavily on what youre photographing. Reading them is a bit of a black art
If most of the scene is black, the histogram should be mostly down at the bottom end for example. Its something you can only really pick up by experience but one tell tale sign is massive spikes at one end or the other. Except in really extreme circumstances, massive spikes at either end is bad.
My camera (and I presume most SLRs although Ive never used a Canon for long enough to find it) has an option to make blown out areas blink red on the review screen. I find that generally more useful than trying to judge by eye and the histogram.
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they flash black in some modes on my canon if i look for them it helps hehe