The "Post a Picture You Took" thread

[Hornius Emeritus 12419]

Light of a train approaching at twilight near Altuda.

[DougO 5239]

Not much extended shooting in the past few weeks. Here are a few odds and ends.

 

[HouTex 1850]

Nice Painted Bunting.

[stc 1452]

Some cell phone pics from the davis mountains last weekend. Took a roll of film as well, excited to get those back.

[DougO 5239]

"Nice pics, you must have a good camera." That never gets old, does it?

Stellar cell phone pics.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

[Lhorn 4885]

That’s some pretty elite level graffiti right there 

[El Diablo 4232]

I need some help. 

I thought I could go to the horse shows in town and maybe shoot whatever is going on and learn a little while I was at it but I'm stumped. One of the barns has a good bit of natural light coming in thru windows and doors and so trying to shoot moving targets in there is near impossible for me at my skill level, the light is constantly changing if you're trying to track a horse/rider. 

The larger show arena is entirely indoors so the lighting is constant and predictable. Still relatively low light though, it's indoors. I've not been happy with the result I've gotten the few times that I've tried shooting in this place and tried to figure it out on my own but I'm just not getting anywhere fast. 

So I came up with a game plan, I was going to let the camera set the ISO in manual mode. Part of my problem, I think, is not having a fast enough lens for this situation. I want to shoot tight zoomed shots but I don't have the glass. But I DO have a f1.8 35mm. I'm not going to be able to get zoomed in shots but if the subject is close enough I figure I'll get something at least. So I set my shutter speed a couple different speeds while I was shooting today, depending on whether the object was galloping or sitting still. I was varying it to try and get the ISO as low as possible and still not have motion blue. Anyway, this is a typical result from today's outing.

Obviously the subject occupies only 1/4 of the frame but still... I'm guessing I need to be using some exposure compensation but I'm not sure how to know that when I'm shooting. If I check the picture on the LCD screen it appears to be reasonably well exposed. Here's some data from that picture.

Here's the histogram ...

 

Any suggestions?

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Shot a similar angle with some JCH Streetpan, but still have about 10 frames left, so who knows when I will get it developed.  This is an iPhone shot.

[pops 6974]

On 5/31/2019 at 9:47 AM, stc said:

Some cell phone pics from the davis mountains last weekend. Took a roll of film as well, excited to get those back.

I would pay money for a full res of that tanker desk. Pm me. 

[naija 2854]

El Diablo, I think you are trying to change too many variables at once. Remind me which camera you are using. Natural light coming in through the doors is a GOOD thing for shooting. What you need to do first is figure out what autofocus modes your camera has.

Second, is your exposure mode. Manual is great if you want your exposure to stay constant but from what you are describing, I would recommend you either stick with Aperture priority or Shutter priority so that you are changing only one of the three parts of the exposure triangle and letting the camera handle the other two. If eliminating motion blur is your primary concern, then choose Shutter priority, pick a fast enough speed, set the camera on auto-ISO if it has that function, or if it doesn't pick a high ISO with an acceptable noise level.

Edited June 8, 2019 by naija

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Finally, after a decade of wanting to go and one failed attempt, we made it to The Narrows.  I have to say, that hike was intense and I honestly think it was harder than the South Rim and Guadalupe Peak.  However, it was worth it.  Photos of this place do not do it justice whatsoever.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have been.  I am glad it is so difficult to get to because I think people would fuck it up if given the chance.  The crown jewel of Texas swimming holes...

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Wow. Very cool, Swayze.

[nycHorn 2967]

Finally, after a decade of wanting to go and one failed attempt, we made it to The Narrows.  I have to say, that hike was intense and I honestly think it was harder than the South Rim and Guadalupe Peak.  However, it was worth it.  Photos of this place do not do it justice whatsoever.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have been.  I am glad it is so difficult to get to because I think people would fuck it up if given the chance.  The crown jewel of Texas swimming holes...

Those are fantastic.

[DougO 5239]

I would get a major case of heebeejeebees in fear of getting sucked down one of those deepass holes.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

I would get a major case of heebeejeebees in fear of getting sucked down one of those deepass holes.

Haha, maybe if it was really flowing. But the pools were pretty calm. Some were at least 20 feet deep. Lots of underwater arches and tunnels from one pool to another. One went under a waterfall and that was to swim under and pop up under the falls.

[Lhorn 4885]

Amazing stuff 

[El Diablo 4232]

23 hours ago, naija said:

El Diablo, I think you are trying to change too many variables at once. Remind me which camera you are using. Natural light coming in through the doors is a GOOD thing for shooting. What you need to do first is figure out what autofocus modes your camera has.

Second, is your exposure mode. Manual is great if you want your exposure to stay constant but from what you are describing, I would recommend you either stick with Aperture priority or Shutter priority so that you are changing only one of the three parts of the exposure triangle and letting the camera handle the other two. If eliminating motion blur is your primary concern, then choose Shutter priority, pick a fast enough speed, set the camera on auto-ISO if it has that function, or if it doesn't pick a high ISO with an acceptable noise level.

Thanks for replying. I'm shooting in manual but letting the camera set the ISO. So shutter speed is to freeze motion - tried several different speeds from 1/400 to 1/1250. Why? To see if I could freeze the motion. f1.8 Why? To keep the ISO down. Target is too far away to completely fill the frame and so the backlighting causes the ISO to jump wildly as riders go from un-backlit to backlit in the blink of an eye. Get the ISO down but the motion is obvious and blurry picture results. Freeze the motion and ISO is thru the roof.

The camera is an entry level DX model, D3500.

I had better luck today. I was in the entirely enclosed arena so completely artificial light and using a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion and at f1.8 the shots are still grainy a hell. 

Here's a sample.

ETA: It's a 35mm lens so roughly 52mm equivalent. It's the fastest lens I have. 

Edited June 9, 2019 by El Diablo

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

That is a much better shot! Good job.

 

In that type of situation, you’re just gonna have to give it a higher ISO and live with it.

 

You can always apply a touch of noise reduction in post (I know you’re still learning post processing stuff). Higher ISO in somewhat still decently lit areas isn’t that bad, especially on newer cameras.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

9 hours ago, Anton Chigurh said:

That is a much better shot! Good job.

 

In that type of situation, you’re just gonna have to give it a higher ISO and live with it.

 

You can always apply a touch of noise reduction in post (I know you’re still learning post processing stuff). Higher ISO in somewhat still decently lit areas isn’t that bad, especially on newer cameras.

 

On that particular shot the ISO isn't so bad but there was plenty of white background etc... which lowered the ISO. On shots where the rider was much closer to myself and the barrel and filled the frame more completely it got much higher. I was using center weighted metering initially but switched to spot and don't recall what I was using on that particular shot. I may go back today and tinker with some settings, maybe try to figure out the lowest shutter speed I can get away with. 

Thanks for the thoughts!

[El Diablo 4232]

Okay, so I went back to the horse arena a little while ago and shot a few more pictures. I've been shooting in RAW btw so I used the Nikon NX-D software to generate this JPEG that I uploaded to tinypic. It's as true to the original as I can get it I think. This is at 1/800, f1.8 and auto-ISO. Focus mode was AF-C and 11pt 3D tracking (camera only has 11 focus points). The camera gave it an ISO of 8000. I was trying to lock on the target at the barrel across the arena or in between the 2 barrels as the rider was coming towards me and then spraying and praying and shooting 3-8 shot bursts as they approached and came around the barrel in front of me. 

What, if anything, can be done in post processing to improve the image?

Here is all of the data. (One thing I do see in looking at the data is the very last item "Contrast detect AF - OFF". Is that normal? Or is it off because I was using the 3D tracking? I thought the contrast was one of the primary ways that the Nikon locked on for AF).

Filename - MTT_9337.NEF

ImageWidth - 160

ImageLength - 120

BitsPerSample - 8 8 8

Compression - 1 (None)

PhotometricInterpretation - 2

Make - NIKON CORPORATION

Model - NIKON D3500

StripOffset - 153420

Orientation - Top left

SamplesPerPixel - 3

RowsPerStrip - 120

StripByteCount - 57600

XResolution - 300

YResolution - 300

PlanarConfiguration - 1

ResolutionUnit - Inch

Software - Ver.1.00

DateTime - 2019:06:09 09:02:49

Artist -

ReferenceBlackWhite - 0

Copyright -

ExifOffset - 12904

DateTimeOriginal - 2019:06:09 09:02:49

ExposureTime - 1/800 seconds

FNumber - 1.80

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ISOSpeedRatings - 9000

Recommended Exposure Index - 9000

DateTimeOriginal - 2019:06:09 09:02:49

DateTimeDigitized - 2019:06:09 09:02:49

ExposureBiasValue - 0.00

MaxApertureValue - F 1.74

MeteringMode - Spot

LightSource - Auto

Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode

FocalLength - 35.00 mm

UserComment -

SubsecTime - 42

SubsecTimeOriginal - 42

SubsecTimeDigitized - 42

SensingMethod - One-chip color area sensor

FileSource - DSC - Digital still camera

SceneType - A directly photographed image

CustomRendered - Normal process

ExposureMode - Manual

White Balance - Auto

FocalLengthIn35mmFilm - 52 mm

SceneCaptureType - Standard

GainControl - High gain up

Contrast - Normal

Saturation - Normal

Sharpness - Normal

SubjectDistanceRange - Unknown

 

GPS information: -

GPSVersionID - 2.3.0.0

 

Maker Note (Vendor): -

Data version - 1120 (825307696)

Image Quality - RAW

White Balance - AUTO

Focus Mode - AF-C

Flash Setting -

Flash Mode -

White Balance Adjustment - 0

White Balance RB - 910

Exposure Difference - 0.0

Thumbnail IFD offset - 23998

Flash Compensation - 393472

Serial number - 3147400

Colorspace - sRGB

Active D-Lighting - Off

Picture control - Version - 0200

Picture control - Name - STANDARD

Picture control - Base - STANDARD

Picture control - Adjust - Default

Picture control - Quick Adjust - Normal

Picture control - Sharpness - +-127

Picture control - Contrast - +12

Picture control - Brightness - +-124

Picture control - Saturation - +4

Picture control - Hue Adjustment - +-124

ISO 3 - 8000

ISO Expansion - Off

Lens type - AF-D G

Lens - 35.00

Flash Used - Not fired

Shooting Mode - 33

Contrast Curve - I0

Noise Reduction - OFF

Lens info - 0204

Total pictures - 38390

Vari Program - Not defined

AF info 2 - version - 0101

Contrast Detect AF - Off

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

A few more of The Narrows, truly a magical place...

All black and white photos have a color version on my flickr.

[Hornius Emeritus 12419]

Gorgeous photos, Patrick.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Gorgeous photos, Patrick.

Thank you sir.

[Hornius Emeritus 12419]

Edited June 10, 2019 by Hornius Emeritus

[Wyatt Mann 17]

RIP Rochambeau (2000?-2018) Yes, the "other" cat is a ceramic clay statue.

Edited June 10, 2019 by Wyatt Mann
add caption

[UT_OB1 2200]

@Patricio Swayze

Do you have a "how to" on where this trail starts, ends, and needed gear?  That looks amazing.  

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

[mention=98]Patricio Swayze[/mention]
Do you have a "how to" on where this trail starts, ends, and needed gear?  That looks amazing.  

I am thinking about writing something up since a few people are asking. I’ll let you know.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Double post

[El Diablo 4232]

So I tried my hand outdoors today. I went over to the LL ballparks and there were some kids and grownups practicing. I think maybe my frustrations with the pics I've been taking indoors is partly to blame on the lighting. I've tried shooting outdoors before and got frustrated as hell with trying to focus the damn camera. Much of that is due to my partial blindness, I didn't know until the past weekend that there were crosshairs in the viewfinder. I'd never seen them before. I was outside at the horse arena messing around and pointing the camera at the top of a light pole and at first I thought I had a bunch of dust specks but then realized that I was seeing focus points. It wasn't until I had them silhouetted against a bright background that I noticed them. FML. Anyway, that helped a little bit.  I took these today and tried to get the sun at my back so that I'd have good illumination on the subjects. Getting the kids locked in focus was tough because they don't sit still and I can't track the ball so it's kind of hard to know where they're going to go. But the coach who was hitting was pretty much staying in one place when he wasn't walking into the infield and chewing ass. I compressed these quite a bit, they're not lossless jpegs so may be a bit rough looking. The second one is just a crop of the first just to check the detail/focus. These were at 1/1000, f10, auto ISO, 300mm from maybe 120 feet away.  Not super sharp but better than that indoors shit.

 

 

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Make sure the diopter is adjusted on the viewfinder. You should be able to see it.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Make sure the diopter is adjusted on the viewfinder. You should be able to see it.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Make sure the diopter is adjusted on the viewfinder. You should be able to see it.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Make sure the diopter is adjusted on the viewfinder. You should be able to see it.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Cool. Tapa is shitting the bed.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Cool. Tapa is shitting the bed.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Hahaha happened to me too.

[El Diablo 4232]

Well I'm not DEAF too dammit!  Yeah, I've got the diopter cranked all the way over, still blurry but it's as good as I can get it. 

[nycHorn 2967]

49 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

So I tried my hand outdoors today. I went over to the LL ballparks and there were some kids and grownups practicing. I think maybe my frustrations with the pics I've been taking indoors is partly to blame on the lighting. I've tried shooting outdoors before and got frustrated as hell with trying to focus the damn camera. Much of that is due to my partial blindness, I didn't know until the past weekend that there were crosshairs in the viewfinder. I'd never seen them before. I was outside at the horse arena messing around and pointing the camera at the top of a light pole and at first I thought I had a bunch of dust specks but then realized that I was seeing focus points. It wasn't until I had them silhouetted against a bright background that I noticed them. FML. Anyway, that helped a little bit.  I took these today and tried to get the sun at my back so that I'd have good illumination on the subjects. Getting the kids locked in focus was tough because they don't sit still and I can't track the ball so it's kind of hard to know where they're going to go. But the coach who was hitting was pretty much staying in one place when he wasn't walking into the infield and chewing ass. I compressed these quite a bit, they're not lossless jpegs so may be a bit rough looking. The second one is just a crop of the first just to check the detail/focus. These were at 1/1000, f10, auto ISO, 300mm from maybe 120 feet away.  Not super sharp but better than that indoors shit.

 

 

Looks good.  What was the ISO selected here by Auto ISO?  Seems to be midtone noise, but not really any in the black background.  It doesn't look bad.  Grain is "in" these days.

Check the settings in the camera.  I know in mine you can make the focus points brighter in the viewfinder.  That might help.  

Also, the focus system in these camera are contrast based focusing systems.  Say for example if this ballplayer was standing still and you put the focus point in the middle of his shirt, it might have a hard time catching focus because there are no details for the focus to lock onto.  But if you put the focus point on the intersection of his grey shirt and black short, it can catch focus there easily.  Know what I mean?  And your middle focus point is usually always the sharpest.  Not to say others are not, but there is definitely some softening as you move away from center.

And on a purely visual aesthetic note - at f/10 you're getting a lot of depth of field and the fence is really factoring into the image.  Maybe at like 5.6 that fence would drop off (blur) and the player would pop out of the frame more and be the star of the show.  It'll also give you a little more shutter speed which would probably help with stopping action.  Just my .02  

[El Diablo 4232]

2 minutes ago, nycHorn said:

Looks good.  What was the ISO selected here by Auto ISO?  Seems to be midtone noise, but not really any in the black background.  It doesn't look bad.  Grain is "in" these days.

Check the settings in the camera.  I know in mine you can make the focus points brighter in the viewfinder.  That might help.  

Also, the focus system in these camera are contrast based focusing systems.  Say for example if this ballplayer was standing still and you put the focus point in the middle of his shirt, it might have a hard time catching focus because there are no details for the focus to lock onto.  But if you put the focus point on the intersection of his grey shirt and black short, it can catch focus there easily.  Know what I mean?  And your middle focus point is usually always the sharpest.  Not to say others are not, but there is definitely some softening as you move away from center.

And on a purely visual aesthetic note - at f/10 you're getting a lot of depth of field and the fence is really factoring into the image.  Maybe at like 5.6 that fence would drop off (blur) and the player would pop out of the frame more and be the star of the show.  It'll also give you a little more shutter speed which would probably help with stopping action.  Just my .02  

About the focus, I bought a .PDF book by Steven Perry (backcountrygallery.com) that is a very in-depth (495 pages worth and I'm on page 309)look at the Nikon focusing system(s) and he thoroughly covers pretty much all the makes and models. Unfortunately mine being an entry level camera it lacks some of the features of the more costly models.

Speaking of the contrast and focusing, if you look up at my previous post from the barrel racing I mention this in my comment just before I list all the data for that particular shot. If you've got a minute maybe you can see what I was talking about and give your thoughts on the "Contrast AF-off".

Thanks for the reply. As to the f stop you're right about the depth of field. I'll mess with that more the next time I get out. I was just trying to get a feel for the focus, trying to locate the crosshair and put it on the target and get a sharp picture. Baby steps for the blind guy. 

[nycHorn 2967]

Yeah man, just keep shooting. You’ll get a feel for it all. Shoot, shoot, shoot and then review. With digital it has this feel of “disposable” because it’s not film and tangible. But always review your images and see what you like, what you don’t, what you did right and what you don’t. Sounds like you’re doing all this. Just keep going.

I’m a canon guy but I’ll do some digging into the af contrast thing and see what I can find. I’ll report back what I find.

[El Diablo 4232]

9 minutes ago, nycHorn said:

Yeah man, just keep shooting. You’ll get a feel for it all. Shoot, shoot, shoot and then review. With digital it has this feel of “disposable” because it’s not film and tangible. But always review your images and see what you like, what you don’t, what you did right and what you don’t. Sounds like you’re doing all this. Just keep going.

I’m a canon guy but I’ll do some digging into the af contrast thing and see what I can find. I’ll report back what I find.

Thanks again. Like I said, I was shooting with 3D tracking on, it's an AF mode but I was under the impression that the primary focus mode was via contrast. I may email the guy that wrote the book, he seems pretty approachable. I'll also dig into the book a bit more and see if he's already covered that aspect and I just overlooked it.

[El Diablo 4232]

So maybe it DOESN'T rely on contrast in that particular mode. This is just a snippet from his discussion on the AF 3D tracking mode. 

It performs this bit of sorcery by examining a variety of information, such as subject distance, position, color (especially color), patterns, brightness, etc. This data is compared to an internal image database with thousands of photos allowing the camera to (more or less) accurately understand what you’re shooting. This information is used to detect subject movement and keep an AF point plastered to the selected target. Nikon calls this their “Scene Recognition System.”

And this...

In my experience, 3D AF relies heavily on color information so it’s important to note that if you have a red and white subject and start with the red area, the system will want to stick with the red area.

Might explain why there's that note in the data but then again it almost seems weird that it rated a space in the data printout since there's probably about a hundred different things the software does wrt to focus besides just contrast.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

4 hours ago, UT_OB1 said:

@Patricio Swayze

Do you have a "how to" on where this trail starts, ends, and needed gear?  That looks amazing.  

I made a thread:

 

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

I made a thread:
 

Welp, can’t access that.

[DougO 5239]

 

A few more from brief shoots over the last couple of weeks. Hope I haven't posted any of these before.

 

 

Funky clouds from yesterday's weird weather.

 

 

 

 

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

[mention=98]Patricio Swayze[/mention]
Do you have a "how to" on where this trail starts, ends, and needed gear?  That looks amazing.  

Welp, can’t access that.

Yeah I had it deleted. Want to not make it too easy for people. I don’t mind sharing with some of y’all privately, but don’t want to blast it over the internet. Feel free to DM me.

Doug, great shots.

[stc 1452]

My dad gave me his old camera that he hadn't used since the early 80's. There was still a roll of film in the camera so I finished out the roll. Got some pretty wild colors.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Oh fuck. Those are amazing man! I have shot expired film but never got results like that. You should get a 3 picture frame and put those in just like that.

[stc 1452]

thanks, yeah i was excited to get those back to see what they looked like. was very surprised and pleased with the results.