The "Post a Picture You Took" thread

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

33 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Alrighty then! I watched that video thru once just sort of glancing at my camera then watched it a second time paying closer attention to the items that caught my interest the first time thru and then watched it a THIRD time just to make sure I felt comfortable making changes and knowing where I made them and how to get back without having to watch the video again. Whew, I'm tired! I was shooting last night with it on Auto just to get a picture out of the thing. Did the same today when I first got home and fumbled around with it a bit more. After digesting the videos I went full Manual and don't know if I'll ever go back. I can't believe I've waited this long to get one of these things. My experience with the point and shoot variety had me convinced that they just couldn't compare to film but I think this thing can. Pretty impressed so far. I'll need to brush up on my skills, a LOT but hey, I'm not having to process rolls of film to get my jollies and ain't that a relief?

Eh, I shot a snail.

Good first attempt.  What settings are you shooting at in full manual?

[El Diablo 4232]

5 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Good first attempt.  What settings are you shooting at in full manual?

I'm all over the place. Remember now that pretty much the highest speed film we had was 400 so I'm going nuts and just mixing and matching stuff. It's like a whole new world playing with the ISO and shutter speeds that a mechanical camera couldn't touch. The snail was 1/125, f3.5 ISO 4000. 

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

1 minute ago, El Diablo said:

I'm all over the place. Remember now that pretty much the highest speed film we had was 400 so I'm going nuts and just mixing and matching stuff. It's like a whole new world playing with the ISO and shutter speeds that a mechanical camera couldn't touch. The snail was 1/125, f3.5 ISO 4000. 

OK, so those high ISOs are why the image looks "noisy".  If you have a tripod, use it (especially since you are shooting indoors).  If not, try to rest the camera on something stable.  Drop that ISO to 800 and re-shoot that same shot.  However, if you are shooting fish, you may need to keep the ISO higher (probably not 4000, but more like 1600) as the motion of them swimming will be apparent. 

[El Diablo 4232]

30 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

OK, so those high ISOs are why the image looks "noisy".  If you have a tripod, use it (especially since you are shooting indoors).  If not, try to rest the camera on something stable.  Drop that ISO to 800 and re-shoot that same shot.  However, if you are shooting fish, you may need to keep the ISO higher (probably not 4000, but more like 1600) as the motion of them swimming will be apparent. 

I'll give that a try. No tripod (yet), I've been bracing it using my elbows against chest and the strap pulled fairly taut, a sort of 3 point brace if you will.

[El Diablo 4232]

ISO 1600

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

ISO 1600

Much better. Can you see the difference in the noise? It also looks sharper.

[El Diablo 4232]

16 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Much better. Can you see the difference in the noise? It also looks sharper.

Most definitely. I've got some fish that are yellow with white bellies and the bellies were all blown out from the white. I've got a shitload of new driftwood in the tank and it's leaching tannins a good bit still so the water is stained yellow too, which throws some things off with the colors I'm getting in other shots I've tried. I'll do a water change tomorrow most likely, clean the algae off the glass and try to make 'em purty. Anyway, I don't want to bury this thread in my amateurish shit so I'm going to give it a rest for now. Tomorrow will be the first day that I'll have had to get outside with it and also might go see my 93 y/o mom. Should be an opportunity to play with it somewhere along the way. Any tips on shooting indoors, portrait-y type stuff?

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Most definitely. I've got some fish that are yellow with white bellies and the bellies were all blown out from the white. I've got a shitload of new driftwood in the tank and it's leaching tannins a good bit still so the water is stained yellow too, which throws some things off with the colors I'm getting in other shots I've tried. I'll do a water change tomorrow most likely, clean the algae off the glass and try to make 'em purty. Anyway, I don't want to bury this thread in my amateurish shit so I'm going to give it a rest for now. Tomorrow will be the first day that I'll have had to get outside with it and also might go see my 93 y/o mom. Should be an opportunity to play with it somewhere along the way. Any tips on shooting indoors, portrait-y type stuff?

I am a natural light guy. Some others might have more experience with flash. So my portraits I try to do outside. However, I think a good set up for indoor would be ISO 800, f5.6 shooting in aperture priority (the camera assigns the shutter speed). F5.6 is a good depth of field for portraits in my opinion. Depending on the light you might need to crank the ISO up a bit.

[Anton Chigurh 3335]

I have pretty much zero experience with flash as well.

[El Diablo 4232]

I spent a little bit of time looking around the web at the various editors and so now I have a question or two. @DougO , you use Photoshop or Elements? What features do you use most? I know you said you shoot JPEGS, does Elements work with RAW files also?

For anyone using Lightroom, is it a downloadable software or is it completely cloud based? My brief search didn't make it clear how it works. 

I used AutoCad and Solid Works at work so some of these concepts aren't foreign to me with various tools and layers etc..., I'll just need to try to pick up the commonalities and transfer some of what I know about the environment. 

I went ahead and ordered a couple more media cards and a second battery. My pictures still suck but I'll be able to take more of them now.

ETA: I've been using IView32 for about 20 years as a very lightweight JPEG editor and I just checked the file types supported and it supposedly works with RAW files. I might give that a shot first just to see what it can do. 

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

I shoot raw and edit initially in the photoshop raw editor. The. I bring the image into photoshop to clean up any spots from dust on my sensor or maybe use a filter from the NIC collection. However, you can open a jpg in photoshop and open the raw editor and use it with a jpg, just with less capabilities.

[El Diablo 4232]

Any tips on file management as far as organization/structure?

ETA: The IrfanView32 editor seems to handle the RAW files just fine. Not terribly powerful but for basic functions it's not bad. Plus it's free.

Edited March 9, 2019 by El Diablo

[naija 3064]

Lightroom has a desktop version. Its your best bet for organization/management.

If you want to shoot indoors, have to see what your available light is. If its decent, you might get away without flash. If it isn't, then you need to get acquainted with a flash unit.

By far, the quickest way to get going is to read  Strobist

[DougO 5266]

I would be cautious about using flash to photograph fish. The have sensitive eyes, they can't even blink. Repeated flashes of light could possibly be damaging. You rarely see fish in very still shallow clear water in direct sun unless they have some shade to protect their eyes. So flash is probably not good for them.

I would maybe try a diffused LED light instead, and not too terribly bright. You can get some battery powered hand held LEDs, or a small work light with adjustable power and color temp. I'm sure there are some tutorials online about photographing aquarium fish.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

I would be cautious about using flash to photograph fish. The have sensitive eyes, they can't even blink. Repeated flashes of light could possibly be damaging. You rarely see fish in very still shallow clear water in direct sun unless they have some shade to protect their eyes. So flash is probably not good for them.
I would maybe try a diffused LED light instead, and not too terribly bright. You can get some battery powered hand held LEDs, or a small work light with adjustable power and color temp. I'm sure there are some tutorials online about photographing aquarium fish.

I think he/we are talking about portraits. Not fish.

[Lhorn 5097]

Maybe he's talking about fish portraits?

 

With regards to LR vs Photoshop i think for basic needs LR was considered the more user friendly option. I can't speak from personal experience because I haven't used either.  I've done a little research however. Ultimately i went on Craigslist and found NOS copies of the last (not the most current) versions for very cheap, much cheaper than the going rate on EBay and way way cheaper than buying the current version. I think they'll have way move capability than what I'll need.  I was going to just get LR but it doesn't do photostacking which is something I wanted to try macrophotography. So I picked up PS too

Edited March 10, 2019 by Lhorn

[Lhorn 5097]

On 3/8/2019 at 6:08 PM, Patricio Swayze said:

I’ll post some photos in a minute. Part of the aperture decision will be based on how long you need to expose for. But anywhere between 7.1 and 13 will be good. You want 15-25 seconds of exposure to get really nice light trails. I always try to shoot at ISO 100 at night te reduce noise (and this also factors into your exposure time.

ISO 100, f7.1, Shutter 20 seconds:

ISO 400, f7.1, Shutter 25 seconds:

ISO 100, f13, Shutter 20 seconds (I think this is better than the one of Houston above where the headlights wash together too much):

ISO 250, f4.5, Shutter 20 seconds (by the way, I think some jackass spray painted this tree, so maybe you want to try from the other cliff):

Thanks for posting those.  That's what I'm looking for.  Might try to get some Rudys BBQ (don't judge) and get up on the cliff above the 360 bridge for sunset then stay a til it gets a bit darker to try and photograph the traffic light trails

The second pic from the bottom is nice. Is that the upper and lower deck of I35?  Where were you standing?

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Thanks for posting those.  That's what I'm looking for.  Might try to get some Rudys BBQ (don't judge) and get up on the cliff above the 360 bridge for sunset then stay a til it gets a bit darker to try and photograph the traffic light trails
The second pic from the bottom is nice. Is that the upper and lower deck of I35?  Where were you standing?

No problem. Yeah, that is 35. I think I was standing at 32nd St.

[naija 3064]

y'all know you can get Lightroom and Photoshop together for about $10/month

[Anton Chigurh 3335]

y'all know you can get Lightroom and Photoshop together for about $10/month

This.

[El Diablo 4232]

The portrait question was in regards to two legged critters. The fish tank has a 2 LED light fixtures on it, I don't lack for light there, just lighting conditions. I can mess with the color temp a good bit but it comes directly down on top of everything no matter what, so lots of shadows and blown out areas. Sigh. Oh well, it's fun to play with because of all the different lighting scenarios available. I spent the afternoon messing with the camera in manual and aperture priority modes. Getting better. 

 

ETA: This is the picture I pulled that out of.

Edited March 10, 2019 by El Diablo

[BearSchlong 8248]

Meanwhile its sunbathing day here at the Cattail Marsh. Cell phone from 6 feet.

[BearSchlong 8248]

A veritable Jurassic park.

[El Diablo 4232]

I've figured out that spot metering works better for shooting fish in a barrel. 

[Lhorn 5097]

2 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

Meanwhile its sunbathing day here at the Cattail Marsh. Cell phone from 6 feet.

Damn Beaumont....you scary.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Cross post from the snek thread.  Found 3 copperheads today.  Disappointed one of my mushroom shots didn't come out.

[Hornius Emeritus 12806]

SXSW: Last night on Dirty 6th Street.

 

[Lhorn 5097]

Damn that’s a cool picture.  What’d you take it with?  Setting? Lighting?  Shadows on the dummies face make it look like the lighting was from down by your knees. 

Edited March 11, 2019 by Lhorn

[Hornius Emeritus 12806]

3 hours ago, Lhorn said:

Damn that’s a cool picture.  What’d you take it with?  Setting? Lighting?  Shadows on the dummies face make it look like the lighting was from down by your knees. 

I used perhaps a 15-25 watt fluorescent light that the ventriloquist had, placed just out of camera from the bottom left then had him lean into it with his head.  Mocked me with his dummy the whole time. Good guy.  

[Hornius Emeritus 12806]

A different shot:

[Lhorn 5097]

B&W is great but for that pic, the colors in his jacket and in the background are so cool.  Vibrant yet creepy too.  This was with a DSLR?  Auto mode with on camera flash?

Edited March 12, 2019 by Lhorn

[El Diablo 4232]

Ventriloquist has Strong finger game.

[El Diablo 4232]

I threw my 18-55mm lens across the room last night. Not on purpose. I picked it up off of my desk and somehow it squirted from my fingers and flew maybe 5 feet and landed on the hardwood floor with a terrible sound. I just stood and stared for maybe 30 seconds with my heart sunk to my stomach. The lens cap had popped off and I imagined that I'd heard the sound of shattering glass. After reflecting on what had just happened I picked it up and inspected it and it seemed to be intact. I put it on the camera and it seems okay. Scared the shit out of me.

So, what's your worst camera gear story?

[Anton Chigurh 3335]

I threw my 18-55mm lens across the room last night. Not on purpose. I picked it up off of my desk and somehow it squirted from my fingers and flew maybe 5 feet and landed on the hardwood floor with a terrible sound. I just stood and stared for maybe 30 seconds with my heart sunk to my stomach. The lens cap had popped off and I imagined that I'd heard the sound of shattering glass. After reflecting on what had just happened I picked it up and inspected it and it seemed to be intact. I put it on the camera and it seems okay. Scared the shit out of me.
So, what's your worst camera gear story?

When I had my Canon 7D, I was at COTA for a race. It was raining. I didn’t really have a proper rain cover for the camera and I knew that the 7D was “weather sealed”, but not to what extent.

So I’m shooting and all of a sudden it starts shooting continuously and will not stop. I figure that water is shorting the shutter button. I tried to hold it under a hand dryer in the bathroom to no avail. On the way home I placed the camera in the footwell of the car, and turned the heater on full blast, and it eventually dried it out and the camera had no ill effects whatsoever after that.

Photos weren’t tack sharp but came out decent.

[El Diablo 4232]

Wow, did you have to take the battery out to get it to stop before trying to dry it?

Quick question, are there any real differences in cable releases? I haven't looked yet to see what is available for the D3500 but I'd like to start looking.

[Armybrat 41420]

On 3/12/2019 at 8:35 AM, El Diablo said:

Ventriloquist has Strong finger game.

Not Charlie Strong good.

[Anton Chigurh 3335]

Wow, did you have to take the battery out to get it to stop before trying to dry it?
Quick question, are there any real differences in cable releases? I haven't looked yet to see what is available for the D3500 but I'd like to start looking.

No, I just turned it off.

[DougO 5266]

I once left my 105mm f2.5, best portrait lens ever, outside after doing some shooting. It rained all night before I discovered it was missing a couple of days later, then I remembered where I had it last. It was totally f'ed.

I lost a 20mm lens somewhere on the sidelines at a football game. It just popped out of my bag somewhere unbeknownst to me, never to be seen again. Those were two of the finest lenses I have ever used. Not that expensive, but I never replaced them. I eventually got newer lenses to cover those niches, but none ever really hit the mark.

Probably worst ever was when my asshole brother talked me into lending him my Nikon FE2, when it was still pretty new, because he he been assigned by his brokass pot head buddy to photograph his wedding, despite the fact the he never really took any interest in photography. Things weren't that good between us, so I decided against my better judgement to extend the olive branch. What's the worst that could happen? It pretty much happened. I had to show him how to load the camera with film. He returned the camera in a day or too. I opened the back and the shutter had been punched in somehow. It was three horizontal leaf type, the lower one had been punched all the way through toward the front of the camera, bent forward, the middle one stuck in between. I took it to an old school repair guy in Austin and did the best he could to straighten it out. It worked, but it was never the same again. I couldn't afford another new camera. My asshole brother pretended he had no idea it was messed up. He lied.

[El Diablo 4232]

Damn @DougO , that's some shit. I remember when you lost the one lens, wasn't that the first year McLane was open?

I found out last night that my camera doesn't accept a cable release, the only way to remote trigger the shutter is with the Snapbridge app. I downloaded it and got my phone paired up with the camera without too many headaches today. It seems to work just fine. Now I just need a tripod.

I spent a little time last night messing with the lights on the fish tank. It had been a while since I had set it up and had to do a refresher course on the various temperatures and combos. I can slide the light from front to back on the tank to give different shaded areas/illuminated areas. Since I spent the morning getting my car worked on I guess I'll spend the afternoon shooting fish, in a barrel. 

Lot of shit going on in downtown today btw. Spring at the Silos, Food Truck Challenge, some weightlifting competition and there's a big disc golf tournament going on. Lots of opportunities if any of those things sound interesting. Also a big bass tournament next weekend with events going on around that with classic cars, bbq etc... plus nice ass trucks and boats. Weigh-ins are at the HOT coliseum aka Extraco Events Center.

[DougO 5266]

Instead of a cable release I use the self timer, if it's not a moving object. There are some phone apps that can trigger a DSLR out there, but I haven't had cause to try them. I have a couple of cheap remotes that work but never get around to using them.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Made a road trip yesterday up to Shreveport to check out a few abandoned spots.  It was a long day, but I came away with a few shots I liked.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11860]

I found an old wood and leather-bound album of 15 or so tintypes when going through my late Dad’s boxes of photos.  I had seen it before at my grandparents when I was a kid, but never thought to ask about it.   Now that all the old people are dead, I was afraid I’d never figure out who the pictures were, I couldn’t find any writing or markups until finally after peeling away some stuck paper, jackpot!  Faded writing on paper on the back of this one said “P.H. Old, March 5 1871, aged 55 years and 4 days.  Wolfe City, Texas”.  After some internet sleuthing, figured out it was my 3rd great grandfather, Patrick Henry Old.  Born in 1816.   So the others in the album are his family.   Very strange feeling to hold a 148 year old photo in your hand.

[Anton Chigurh 3335]

Awesome! That guy looks Old.

[Hornius Emeritus 12806]

On 3/15/2019 at 8:41 PM, DougO said:

I once left my 105mm f2.5, best portrait lens ever, outside after doing some shooting. It rained all night before I discovered it was missing a couple of days later, then I remembered where I had it last. It was totally f'ed.

I lost a 20mm lens somewhere on the sidelines at a football game. It just popped out of my bag somewhere unbeknownst to me, never to be seen again. Those were two of the finest lenses I have ever used. Not that expensive, but I never replaced them. I eventually got newer lenses to cover those niches, but none ever really hit the mark.

Probably worst ever was when my asshole brother talked me into lending him my Nikon FE2, when it was still pretty new, because he he been assigned by his brokass pot head buddy to photograph his wedding, despite the fact the he never really took any interest in photography. Things weren't that good between us, so I decided against my better judgement to extend the olive branch. What's the worst that could happen? It pretty much happened. I had to show him how to load the camera with film. He returned the camera in a day or too. I opened the back and the shutter had been punched in somehow. It was three horizontal leaf type, the lower one had been punched all the way through toward the front of the camera, bent forward, the middle one stuck in between. I took it to an old school repair guy in Austin and did the best he could to straighten it out. It worked, but it was never the same again. I couldn't afford another new camera. My asshole brother pretended he had no idea it was messed up. He lied.

 

I once left my 24-105mm lens on a bridge over the Little River in Sparks, Texas.  I drove about 50 miles before it dawned on me that I didn't remember putting it back in my camera bag.  I checked and, sure enough, it wasn't there. I raced back to the bridge and, an hour and a half later, it was still sitting there, plain as day, right out where anybody who was passing by would surely have seen it. So either nobody passed by (quite possible) or somebody passed by, saw it, and figured that whoever left it there was either out of sight or would come back for it.  I felt both lucky and stupid. 

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Eh, shooting fish in a barrel isn't as easy as it sounds, lol. Heavy light coming down from above the subject with lots of shadows and the fuckers won't sit still. This is a Honey/Sunset Thick Lipped Gourami.

Edited March 17, 2019 by El Diablo
linky no worky first time

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Yesterday I went for a walk with my youngest and of course I didn't brink my camera.  As we walked around the park and retention pond in our neighborhood, I see a Cooper's Hawk about 10 feet away at eye level eating something.  I have yet to get a photo of a Cooper's Hawk.  I went back 30 minutes later and saw the hawk but wasn't able to get a shot.  As a consolation prize, I got a couple of good shots of a Roseate Spoonbill. 

So today I went for a walk again with baby girl and I saw a the pair of Cooper's Hawks again.  This time, I had my camera.  Unfortunately, not as dramatic as one feasting on something, but a crisp shot nonetheless.  Couldn't get a clear shot of the pair perched together.  Also an ok shot of a Cedar Waxwing...

[DougO 5266]

Great stuff.  Love the expression of the coop giving you the stink eye.

[El Diablo 4232]

So I'm already looking at new lenses and sort of wishing I had gone full FX. There's a Nikkor f1.8 35mm that is only $200 that I think I *need*. It's basically the equivalent of a fixed 50mm on a 35/FX.

I'm also curious to try out the video capability on the camera. The memory cards that I bought are 256Gig cards I think but not sure how that translates to recording time.

[El Diablo 4232]

On 3/21/2019 at 12:31 PM, El Diablo said:

So I'm already looking at new lenses and sort of wishing I had gone full FX. There's a Nikkor f1.8 35mm that is only $200 that I think I *need*. It's basically the equivalent of a fixed 50mm on a 35/FX.

I'm also curious to try out the video capability on the camera. The memory cards that I bought are 256Gig cards I think but not sure how that translates to recording time.

So I pulled the trigger on the lens, should be here tomorrow. And I tried out the video on the camera. Pretty impressed with the video quality. I set the camera up on the tripod, did I mention I'd bought a tripod? well I did, anyway I set the camera up and shot about 20 minutes of my fish swimming around while blaring some music from my computer speakers. The file is just a hair over 3 gigs. And the cards I bought are 128, not 256. Still, a lot of room to store stuff. Oh, that video, I snipped a song out and posted it on youtube. Ha!

 

[El Diablo 4232]

New lens arrived yesterday. I think I like it a lot. Pic is nothing special but I can see the potential.