Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Sometimes, but not mostly. I only have the 85mm 1.8G currently (had the 35mm before and almost never used it). Been thinking of picking up a 50mm 1.4D, but I want to get my 70-200 2.8 first before anything, but the new damn 150-600mm Tamron is seriously tempting me.

Most my shots were with a 17-70 2.8-4 on my DX or my current 24-70 2.8.


Did you know that the Long Exposure Noise reduction in camera, the body literally just takes another photo of the same exposure with the shutter closed, and then stacks the images to remove hot pixels and ****?

If you want to save battery and delay, I'd suggest keeping that function off. If you take a 30sec exposure, the camera with be useless for 1min (your 30sec shot, plus the second), plus any buffering time. I'd rather do it in post.

ever just thought about light painting during a longer exposure?



this was with my 85mm:


Pookie in Autumn Sun 2 by The Braineack, on Flickr

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I knew that about the Long Exp NR. I thought about it after that post and realized how pointless that would be if I would also be stacking. Light painting works, but you end up with something pretty unnatural looking. Not that any light in a cave is natural per se. I was hoping to just let the light from a few small sources radiate a nice gradual glow throughout the scene. I think I can do this with ISO 12800 and a stack of several images. But the only bad thing about stacking, is capturing subject in the scene will not be possible. Maybe unless I take a separate long exposure shot with curtain flash and edit them in.

I want a long fast prime like the 85. I've really had the 105 2.8 VR on my want list for years now. Excellent bokeh, great portraits and also macro function. Such a useful lens for under $1k.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

I've never shot in a cave, but I was thinking a diffused flash fired multiple times in various spots during multiple long exposures to create one evenly lit photo.

similar to what he did here maybe: http://www.pgdesigns.co.uk/blogInner...logID=11&id=11

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

That would work. So long as you could find suitable places to hide the flash. There are usually lips of rock and cracks to hide things in. It would just be nice to avoid bringing anything I didn't absolutely need. I would either need a larger Pelican case, or more than one to bring camera, lenses AND speedlights and remotes. It's tough enough getting into some of these places with no camera gear. Which is why I like the idea of the stacking with just headlamp light and maybe a high power flashlight with a diffuser. I can carry my camera in a small Pelican case that straps to my equipment pack.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

hide? multiple exposures! see my edit to the post.

honestly use dont even need a flash, you could use a spare lamp.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Well, the only problem with that method is that some of these chambers I'm wanting to fill are quite gigantic in size. So I would have to do a lot of walking and painting to get a decent fill.

Kind of an extreme example, but this is a bit... large.



To get that lighting, they used a high power studio light with battery pack at the entrance, at the top where the light is spilling down, and at the bottom it looks like they probably have a few speedlights for fill, as well as their headlamps. The stuff I'm wanting to fill is probably only 1/3 of that, but still a bit too large for painting I think.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

And I have now proven my camera in snow and cold. Was outside earlier at 8 degrees with decently heavy snow fall. Viewfinder eye piece was completely packed closed with snow/ice and I had to use live view to frame. Body got pretty soaked as well. Never a second of concern, it did well.

This snow is stupid! People around here lose their damn minds when it snows. Cars piled up everywhere on roadways.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Stop thinking in 1 exposure, that car shot took at least 9.


lets say you were doing it in 1, you can walk around with a speedlight and fire it at will during the exposure across the faces of walls. If you cant get everything "painted" in one shot, do another flashing in different spots, and put those together.

But yeah I can see how an area that large can be tricky.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I am thinking multiple exposures. But that's still a lot of surface to cover with a flash or constant light. It can be done. I'll just have to get in there and play around and see what works.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Finally! I've spent the last 2 or 3 hours trying to sort out some colorspace issues. Files in photoshop, adobe raw, my desktop and webpages ALL looked different from one another. Apparently, Adobe Raw was the only real issue, as it was embedding AdobeRGB profile, which was then opened and saved by PS in sRGB, but my proof setup was checked by Working CMYK which was displaying files open in PS as more saturated and slightly bluer than they were in reality. Then I found out my favorite browser, Chrome, doesn't even support embedded colorspaces. So when I or anyone else views them with the Chrome browser, they won't look true to color. Why must this **** be so damn complicated!?

Now I just need to calibrate my monitor colors and I'll be good to go.

BTMiata

iTrader: (5)

So how did you guys all go about starting to learn photography? Did you get a camera and just dive right in? Read up on every little aspect? Both? I just had a d3000 fall into my hands and I would love to learn how to take some semi-decent photos. I have off work tues/weds every week and I think this would be a fun way to get out and see the world, instead of my usual ritual of sitting on the couch eating mozzarella sticks while watching reruns of "boy meets world"... Any tips?

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I pretty much got a camera and dove in. It's been a learn as I go process, reading a little here and there, but mostly finding things out through experimentation and practice. Started with a D50, moved to a D5100, and now I'm at a D7000. Slowly climbing the ladder. Just now after 8 or 9 years of owning a DSLR, I'm only now beginning to feel comfortable with what I have learned and generally feel pretty confident. I'm also just starting to really focus on making more of my shots look artistic and creative, and not just capturing a moment with correct camera settings. It's proving a bit more difficult that I had anticipated, but it's still a fun learning process. Learning and training yourself to see composition and perspective almost instinctively is a tough thing for me to get a grasp on. I have a hard time seeing a final shot in my minds eye, and deciding what actually looks good. Still a lot of my decent or good shots are mostly luck. With more practice and study of other peoples work, I'm confident in the near future I will begin to improve at a faster rate than the last 8 or so years.

skidude

iTrader: (3)

IMG_4380 by skidude108, on Flickr

Here is my next entry for critique. Taken in northern Quebec on a camping trip I took through Labrador.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Oh man, I know the feel. I had this issue on my last PS install. I have no idea how I fucked it up, but everytime I opened any file in PS it would ask me what colorspace I wanted to open it in, and if I picked anything but "keep original" it would use the Adobe Colorspace and then completely **** the colors.

Before I figured out what was happening, I was working on some web graphics and I'd pick colors, and then when I'd save them and publish they weren't even close to a match, when in PS when I thought I was at #000000 (pure black), it might have been a dark gray when uploaded.

I did figure out if I saved the file I had to save it a certain way to make sure it was all a match.

I never figured out how to clear out the Adobe colorspace thing until I redid the install. It was annoying.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

I took 3 years of photography in HS and learned on film so I new the basic techniques of photography before digital and auto-focus. But I was never a scholar and really put little effort into learning/experimenting, I regret that.

I also worked for a 1-hour photo when they still had those things.

During college I only had a little Kodak PNS (before cell phone cameras were a big thing) and that was better than nothing, and once I graduated I upgraded to a D40 because I missed having an SLR.

And I mainly used it to take pictures of cars on the track/autox and the miata stuff. Nothing really beyond that.

But it really wasn't until last May when I went to the Dominican Republic that I really got back into photography to do more than just take "good" pictures. I ended purchasing a Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4 lens, for my D3100, so I'd just have one decent lens I could travel with and while there I took some pretty good shots that I'm proud of.

That really sparked up my interest again beyond just taking car pics.

Since then I went from a D3100 to a D5100, replaced my 55-300mm with a 70-300mm, sold my 10-24mm and bought a 85mm 1.8G, bought a second flash and remote triggers and modifiers like umbrellas and softboxes. And now since I started part my car and moving my money back into this hobby I've upgrade further to a D600 and a 24-70mm F/2.8 and I'm about to pull the trigger on a 70-200mm F/2.8 once I can sell my wheels/tires.

I still don't shoot enough, and that bothers me with all this money invested into it. Come spring I have a few peeps that want some portraits done and I hope that it takes off a bit and I can monetize the hobby a bit by doing it. But yeah, besides my cats, I don't have much to shoot at home, so I need to start venturing out and making opportunities for myself to practice and learn. The more you shot the better you get; photography is really a technical skill, it's what you do with that skill that makes you a good/noteworthy photographer or not.

Also, anyone who's trying to venture in to flash photography would be smart to read: .

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Not a bad shot, tough to expose for both a sky and subjects and I think you made the correct choice of exposing for the sky and letting the subjects go to silhouette. Could have been interesting with some off camera flash to fill the subjects, but whateves. I wouldn't mind if you pushed the saturation just a bit in the sky.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Here's a few shots of my backyard this weekend:


Thirsty Squirrel by The Braineack, on Flickr


Thirsty Squirrel by The Braineack, on Flickr


Deer in Sun by The Braineack, on Flickr


Deer in Woods by The Braineack, on Flickr


Deer in Woods by The Braineack, on Flickr


Deer in Sun by The Braineack, on Flickr

BTMiata

iTrader: (5)

That's awesome! Keep it up because you definitely have some talent!

The wife and I were discussing taking a photography course at the local community college, but I'm not sure if it will happen with our work schedule's

Here are a few of the first pictures I ever took with our "new" D3000. I really struggled with the shots off my deck... No idea what I'm doing obviously lol. Pretty bad but I hope to keep at it and learn how to take some decent shots.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

This is the type of shot I hate. Especially if you don't have an ND Grad filter.

But you can fake it by bracketing and stitching...

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

finally found the one shot I wanted to link when we were talking about high ISO.

From that same Flickr page:


iso 20,000