The "Post a Picture You Took" thread

[El Diablo 4232]

Anyone here use a filter just to protect the lens? 

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

No, just the hood.

[El Diablo 4232]

I've got a retired neighbor who does lapidary work as a hobby. He showed me a couple of tiger eye stones he's been working on. Somehow it looks like I managed to focus on the heel of his palm. Fail. 

 

[DougO 5239]

I put a protective filter on most of my lenses, unless it has a bigass sturdy protective hood. Sometimes I take them off when they can cause ghosting and weirdness with bright points of light. If the front of the glass is vulnerable to being scratched I don't want to take chances. Don't get cheap Best Buy filters, but a modestly priced Hoya multi-coated filter will do just fine. I usually get them from a seemingly reputable seller on eBay.

[DougO 5239]

I've been kinda tempted to get the 10-20mm AF-P Nikon for under $250 refurbed because supposedly it can be used on an FX body at 13 or 14mm and gets good reviews. I have a Tokina 11-16 which is really sharp, and 2.8, but I rarely pull it out of the box. You can use it on FX as well at around 15mm. But there are times when I wish I had a crazy wide lens, especially for shooting stadiums as fully as possible.

[El Diablo 4232]

14 minutes ago, DougO said:

I put a protective filter on most of my lenses, unless it has a bigass sturdy protective hood. Sometimes I take them off when they can cause ghosting and weirdness with bright points of light. If the front of the glass is vulnerable to being scratched I don't want to take chances. Don't get cheap Best Buy filters, but a modestly priced Hoya multi-coated filter will do just fine. I usually get them from a seemingly reputable seller on eBay.

I bought a filter for the lens that I just bought simply because to me it was a good bit of money for the lens and the most expensive one I own, damn near as much as the camera kit, lol. It's a B&W brand filter for whatever that's worth.

[DougO 5239]

3 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

I bought a filter for the lens that I just bought simply because to me it was a good bit of money for the lens and the most expensive one I own, damn near as much as the camera kit, lol. It's a B&W brand filter for whatever that's worth.

Yeah, those are good. I spent about $15 for the filter I put on the $69 lens I just bought. Never spent that much more for lenses i paid nearly $2 Gs for.

I have had about four decently pricey lenses saved by filters in my shooting days. With sports and lugging stuff through crowds and tight places surrounded by metal and concrete objects it's going to happen at some point.

[El Diablo 4232]

21 minutes ago, DougO said:

Yeah, those are good. I spent about $15 for the filter I put on the $69 lens I just bought. Never spent that much more for lenses i paid nearly $2 Gs for.

I have had about four decently pricey lenses saved by filters in my shooting days. With sports and lugging stuff through crowds and tight places surrounded by metal and concrete objects it's going to happen at some point.

I'm sure I paid more than I needed to for what I do and I keep a hood on the lenses that I have also but I am one clumsy fuck due to my blindness so I figured fuck it. I may get another for the other prime lens that I bought. It's *only* a $200 lens but I know me. 

[DougO 5239]

3 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

I'm sure I paid more than I needed to for what I do and I keep a hood on the lenses that I have also but I am one clumsy fuck due to my blindness so I figured fuck it. I may get another for the other prime lens that I bought. It's *only* a $200 lens but I know me. 

Some people buy filters in the most popular sizes that fit multiple lenses and just put them on before they use them. They will even get a cheap step ring to make one fit that's close so they don't have to buy another.

[DougO 5239]

It's a dust thing for me, too. My clumsy greasy-fingered ass is probably more likely to damage a lens trying to clean it. To me, the less you have to clean the actual lens the better shape it's going to be in. I tend to leave filters on long term and dust off the filter, until the situation calls for removing a filter for optimum results.

[El Diablo 4232]

3 minutes ago, DougO said:

It's a dust thing for me, too. My clumsy greasy-fingered ass is probably more likely to damage a lens trying to clean it. To me, the less you have to clean the actual lens the better shape it's going to be in. I tend to leave filters on long term and dust off the filter, until the situation calls for removing a filter for optimum results.

Honestly, my clumsiness aside, that was my thinking when I bought it. I'd rather not have to touch the glass that I paid good money for. I probably got some shit on my fingers or even my lens cloth and didn't notice it so there I'd be fucking shit up while thinking I'm doing good. It's safer for me this way, lol. The filter I bought supposedly has no effect on the lens, something like .2% loss of light transmission and that's it. 

[El Diablo 4232]

This is the event that I'll be at this weekend. Hope to come home with something I can be a bit happier with. I know it's not all gear that makes the photographer but holy fuck, trying to shoot in that place at f5 has just been killing me. I hope I can do better with this f1.8 lens. I worry that I'll have no depth of field though and that my focus is going to be fucked up too. Oh well, I'm gonna find out.

https://www.texasnbha.com/championship-show

[El Diablo 4232]

Getting a faster lens made a lot of difference. I seemed to have trouble acquiring focus though and I THINK that's because I was using the lens wide open and trying to track relatively rapidly changing targets. The lens is fast enough thought that I have some leeway now though with where I set the f stop so I can play with that and see if bumping it down a stop or so doesn't help with the focus. Exposures for the most part though were really good I thought. I've got a buttload of pics to go thru to see which ones are good and then figure out what I was doing right on those. I just started to look thru them and so far this one is a bit better as far as focus goes. There's probably things that can be done in Lightroom that would help the overall image but I ain't there yet.

 

[Hornius Emeritus 12415]

One thing that you might consider is straightening out your horizon lines when you post-process.  To my way of looking at things, most photos benefit from leveling them out, like this.

[Fire Jack Chevigny 938]

[El Diablo 4232]

15 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

One thing that you might consider is straightening out your horizon lines when you post-process.  To my way of looking at things, most photos benefit from leveling them out, like this.

Yeah, that's something I didn't do before posting. I'm using Nikon NX-D and still learning. It seems kind of hit or miss on getting the focus on a lot of these pictures. I'm going back today to try and use what I learned from yesterdays session. The pictures that I shot at first were from the bleachers and seem to have better focus. Probably because it's a bit more like shooting at a 2-D scene. 

ETA: I think it was you that posted a picture of your dad sitting on a boat dock, fishing and you commented on your photo that it kinda needed to be straightened. 

Edited August 11, 2019 by El Diablo

[PRONG HORN 3108]

On 8/7/2019 at 10:04 PM, El Diablo said:

Somehow it looks like I managed to focus on the heel of his palm.

 

 

That makes it's a better pic.  Duh.  

[El Diablo 4232]

I like this one because of the face on the horse.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

@DougO , you have any tips on how to get a sharp focus on a moving target that is coming towards you? Seems like I've got lots of decent shots where the riders were moving left to right. I've been using continuous auto focus and tried the single point tracking and the 3-D 11 point tracking and neither one seems to get consistent results. I'm not sure if it's due to the low light or just what. I guess it's similar to if you were in the end zone and a RB was coming straight at you on a 80 yard gallop. 

[Spur08 381]

Well, we took a friend trip to Bolivar this past weekend and took a lot of shots.  I made a few blunders and am wondering what the fix(es) are?

 

• I'm continuing to have trouble with subject focusing.  I'm on "Evaluative metering" with the "Sports" preseting.  Sure, there might be some camera shake but it's happening on posed pictures as well with the camera focusing on the T-shirts vs. faces.  I made sure to half click the center dot on faces, but it still wasn't focusing correctly
• How do y'all combat lens/camera fogging?  Every time I took the camera outside, it would be fogged for a ridiculously long time which made me miss a lot of shots or, if I took them, they were just foggy/cloudy
• At some point during some shooting, the camera changed to the "monochromatic" setting.  I was just rapid firing a lot of pictures b/c the kids are tough to keep still, so I didn't realize it until the end of the shoot.  Is there anyway for me to change this after the fact?

Edited August 12, 2019 by Spur08

[DougO 5239]

4 hours ago, El Diablo said:

@DougO , you have any tips on how to get a sharp focus on a moving target that is coming towards you? Seems like I've got lots of decent shots where the riders were moving left to right. I've been using continuous auto focus and tried the single point tracking and the 3-D 11 point tracking and neither one seems to get consistent results. I'm not sure if it's due to the low light or just what. I guess it's similar to if you were in the end zone and a RB was coming straight at you on a 80 yard gallop. 

Low light can definitely be a struggle on the camera's AF ability. I never use 3D, the few times I tried it freaked me out. I have messed with larger or fewer focus points, but results seem to vary depending on the type of action. I tend to go with fewer. I don't think your camera has a group area focusing option, but if it does you may give that a try for the horse stuff. It can work better for moving subjects with a lot of open space around them, like flying birds. But I only use it in certain situations. You might mess with long-on settings as well if you have those options.

It could also be just the subject briefly slipping off the focus point during erratic movement.

Edited August 12, 2019 by DougO

[El Diablo 4232]

You're right, the camera doesn't have the group area AF. I'll try a few other things next time. The 3D tracking worked really well unless I locked on for a long time and the horse reversed direction, i.e., were going left to right, stopped and then went right to left.. I learned to let up on the back button, relock the focus and then it was good again.

I think one thing that I may try is using a higher f stop, I can do that a little bit now, the kit lenses were just too slow to work with but maybe if I can get the depth of field to a decent enough distance (using f3.6 or so) I can just lock the focus on a barrel and shoot as the horse and rider go around it. Might work.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

At some point you’re maximizing the capabilities of the focusing system on the camera as well. And of course, the larger the aperture (lower F number), the better the AF phase detection system works.

[nycHorn 2966]

1 hour ago, Spur08 said:

Well, we took a friend trip to Bolivar this past weekend and took a lot of shots.  I made a few blunders and am wondering what the fix(es) are?

 

• I'm continuing to have trouble with subject focusing.  I'm on "Evaluative metering" with the "Sports" preseting.  Sure, there might be some camera shake but it's happening on posed pictures as well with the camera focusing on the T-shirts vs. faces.  I made sure to half click the center dot on faces, but it still wasn't focusing correctly
• How do y'all combat lens/camera fogging?  Every time I took the camera outside, it would be fogged for a ridiculously long time which made me miss a lot of shots or, if I took them, they were just foggy/cloudy
• At some point during some shooting, the camera changed to the "monochromatic" setting.  I was just rapid firing a lot of pictures b/c the kids are tough to keep still, so I didn't realize it until the end of the shoot.  Is there anyway for me to change this after the fact?

Which camera/lenses are you using?

Camera/lens fogging?  No way around it.  You have to acclimate the camera to the temperature and humidity.  I've left my camera bags on balconies before over night so they are ready to shoot in the morning - obviously only if it's safe to do so.   If you're taking a break for lunch or something, you can put the camera into a bag and close it before going inside, so it stays warm and it isn't getting blasted by the AC while you take a break.

I think when you shoot monochromatic, that's it.  But again, let me know your camera system.  But I think you just shot some B&W art photos.  Throw some grain on them and tell people it's film.  

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, Anton Chigurh said:

At some point you’re maximizing the capabilities of the focusing system on the camera as well. And of course, the larger the aperture (lower F number), the better the AF phase detection system works.

True. It's possible that the camera just can't keep up/discern quickly enough the change in the "Z" axis. Lateral motion is much easier.

[Spur08 381]

Which camera/lenses are you using?
Camera/lens fogging?  No way around it.  You have to acclimate the camera to the temperature and humidity.  I've left my camera bags on balconies before over night so they are ready to shoot in the morning - obviously only if it's safe to do so.   If you're taking a break for lunch or something, you can put the camera into a bag and close it before going inside, so it stays warm and it isn't getting blasted by the AC while you take a break.
I think when you shoot monochromatic, that's it.  But again, let me know your camera system.  But I think you just shot some B&W art photos.  Throw some grain on them and tell people it's film.  

Rebel SL1 50mm lens

[naija 2854]

9 hours ago, Spur08 said:

Well, we took a friend trip to Bolivar this past weekend and took a lot of shots.  I made a few blunders and am wondering what the fix(es) are?

 

• I'm continuing to have trouble with subject focusing.  I'm on "Evaluative metering" with the "Sports" preseting.  Sure, there might be some camera shake but it's happening on posed pictures as well with the camera focusing on the T-shirts vs. faces.  I made sure to half click the center dot on faces, but it still wasn't focusing correctly
• How do y'all combat lens/camera fogging?  Every time I took the camera outside, it would be fogged for a ridiculously long time which made me miss a lot of shots or, if I took them, they were just foggy/cloudy
• At some point during some shooting, the camera changed to the "monochromatic" setting.  I was just rapid firing a lot of pictures b/c the kids are tough to keep still, so I didn't realize it until the end of the shoot.  Is there anyway for me to change this after the fact?

DSLRs don't always focus accurately. Fast =/= accurate. Not uncommon to have to fine tune the lens for autofocus on DSLRs. Some samples of what was happening might help.

The fogging was already touched on above. Give it time to acclimate and don't go rapidly between one temp/climate to the other

If you shot in RAW, then yes you can change the photograph from B&W to Color 

[El Diablo 4232]

A few shots from yesterday. Peruna, Alamo Saddlery and an equine Weeble.

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by El Diablo

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Here are a some shots from the second roll of JCH Streetpan I have shot.  I am not sure how much I like it.  I shot much of this roll a stop down, and the highlights are still blown out.  The last roll of it I will try 2 stop down. 

[naija 2854]

how are you metering?

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

how are you metering?

In camera. Been using this camera for 25 years, but just can’t seem to get the results I want with this film. I like the contrast in general, but the highlights are blown out.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Speaking of film, I just restocked some Ilford HP5 and bought a few other rolls I have never tried.  One is Fomapan 200, black and white from the czech republic.  I also bought some dubblefilm Apollo and Psychedelic Blue #2 for shits and grins.

[naija 2854]

might be the developer.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

might be the developer.

Could be. I have been using thedarkroom.com for awhile now. Maybe time to change it up. I had a bad experience with Holland in the 90s, but maybe time to give them a shot. Any other suggestions?

[naija 2854]

thought you might be doing the developing yourself. would look on flickr groups or rangefinder.com to see if what you are getting is really dramatically different from other folks. some people post what developers they use and it could be helpful. the lab should be able to tell you what they use and if there is an option to use another developer. could also just be the film.

I currently use TheFINDLab and they work well. Have tried Richard PhotoLab too and North Coast Photographic services and they were generally okay too.

in the end, it does seem to come down to Tri-X and HP5.

If you haven't shot Acros 100.... I highly recommend it. my B&W shooting has been culled to Acros, Tri-X and Delta 3200

Edited August 14, 2019 by naija

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

thought you might be doing the developing yourself. would look on flickr groups or rangefinder.com to see if what you are getting is really dramatically different from other folks. some people post what developers they use and it could be helpful. the lab should be able to tell you what they use and if there is an option to use another developer. could also just be the film.
I currently use TheFINDLab and they work well. Have tried Richard PhotoLab too and North Coast Photographic services and they were generally okay too.
in the end, it does seem to come down to Tri-X and HP5.
If you haven't shot Acros 100.... I highly recommend it. my B&W shooting has been culled to Acros, Tri-X and Delta 3200

No, I haven’t developed my own film in about 25 years or so. For B&W I am mostly a couple of ilford stocks, but I wanted to try something different. I have one roll left and I am going to stop down that mofo. Currently have some expired Fuji color in the camera and just ordered 5 rolls of film. Who knows when I will get around to them all. I need to make more effort to shoot more film.

[El Diablo 4232]

Tell me about my histograms, please! Both of these have the tops cut off but even after doing some cursory reading I'm still not sure what it means or what area of the picture they represent. Input would be appreciated. Uh, first the image, then the 'grams.

 

[nycHorn 2966]

Meh, don't sweat the histograms.  Only be concerned if you had one of those peaks on the far right or far left of the graph.  Far left means you have much of your image is dark and possibly to the point of no information; far right means a significant portion of your photo is really bright and probably blown out without the chance to recover highlights.

That big spike you see is probably the brown dirt.  It's a significant portion of the photo and that's why you're seeing it spike so high.

Take a very underexposed image and look at your histogram, do the same with an overexposed image.

Also, depending on your program you're using sometime you can hover your cursor over the photo and a vertical line will move accordingly on your histogram, so you can see what part of the image corresponds to the histogram.

[El Diablo 4232]

35 minutes ago, nycHorn said:

Meh, don't sweat the histograms.  Only be concerned if you had one of those peaks on the far right or far left of the graph.  Far left means you have much of your image is dark and possibly to the point of no information; far right means a significant portion of your photo is really bright and probably blown out without the chance to recover highlights.

That big spike you see is probably the brown dirt.  It's a significant portion of the photo and that's why you're seeing it spike so high.

Take a very underexposed image and look at your histogram, do the same with an overexposed image.

Also, depending on your program you're using sometime you can hover your cursor over the photo and a vertical line will move accordingly on your histogram, so you can see what part of the image corresponds to the histogram.

I understand about the edges being pure black and pure white and I've messed with the lines and curves just a bit. I just wasn't sure what it means when a peak goes off the chart vertically within the field. 

[DougO 5239]

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[El Diablo 4232]

On 8/12/2019 at 8:10 PM, naija said:

DSLRs don't always focus accurately. Fast =/= accurate. Not uncommon to have to fine tune the lens for autofocus on DSLRs. Some samples of what was happening might help.

The fogging was already touched on above. Give it time to acclimate and don't go rapidly between one temp/climate to the other

If you shot in RAW, then yes you can change the photograph from B&W to Color 

This post got me to thinking about my lenses and focusing and so I looked into it and my entry level camera doesn't offer fine tuning the AF as an option. I'm stuck with what the camera and lens give me apparently. fml. 

[El Diablo 4232]

I've been wanting a telephoto lens with a bigger aperture than the kit lens and am looking at the Nikon 300mm f4D ED-IF.  Reviews are generally good, the lens has been around for some years but one thing I did read and wanted to ask this forum about is this lens doesn't have a back glass on it. It is, from my understanding, open to the elements on the camera end. Should this be a red flag to stay away if buying used? Or even new?

Edited August 16, 2019 by El Diablo

[DougO 5239]

6 hours ago, El Diablo said:

I've been wanting a telephoto lens with a bigger aperture than the kit lens and am looking at the Nikon 300mm f4D ED-IF.  Reviews are generally good, the lens has been around for some years but one thing I did read and wanted to ask this forum about is this lens doesn't have a back glass on it. It is, from my understanding, open to the elements on the camera end. Should this be a red flag to stay away if buying used? Or even new?

I'm pretty sure it has a back glass, but it's way up in there. Not a bad thing, since debris and scratches to that element is going to show up the most.

If it's this one.. https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/camera-lenses/af-s-nikkor-300mm-f%2f4d-if-ed.html

Then I don't really recommend it. It's very sharp, but has an unattractive bokeh. The biggest problem is that I have had hell with the AF mechanism sticking. Sent it back to Nikon twice and had the motor replaced and a short time later it's stuck again, past warranty, hundreds in repairs down the shithole.

 

[El Diablo 4232]

Yep, that lens. Dammit. Lol. I was hoping it would be a good deal, used they're not terribly pricey. I wasn't going to pull the trigger on anything for probably another month or so anyway so I'll just keep shopping.

[Anton Chigurh 3318]

Yep, that lens. Dammit. Lol. I was hoping it would be a good deal, used they're not terribly pricey. I wasn't going to pull the trigger on anything for probably another month or so anyway so I'll just keep shopping.

Look into the Tamron 70-200 G2. It’s a 2.8 and supposed to be really great. Might could find one used. I dunno if 200mm is enough reach for you or not.

[Fire Jack Chevigny 938]

[El Diablo 4232]

2 hours ago, Anton Chigurh said:

 

Look into the Tamron 70-200 G2. It’s a 2.8 and supposed to be really great. Might could find one used. I dunno if 200mm is enough reach for you or not.

 

I've looked at those and yes, it has good reviews. I'm not even sure yet if I would want the f4. There's nothing going on at the horse barns for a couple of weeks but when they do have another event I'm going to try shooting just at f4 to see what that does.  Looking at the pictures I've taken there previously I would be very close to the shutter speed/focal length rule of thumb. 

From a performance standpoint I think I'd prefer to get a fixed, fast lens but holy cow they are proud of those things. 

[El Diablo 4232]

1 hour ago, Fire Jack Chevigny said:

70-72 looks to me like.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

Nice! I have a similar shot I posted awhile back in this thread. Well, similar only because of the truck.

So a friend of mine is in town and we went to go shoot today. Not much success with abandoned places, but he brought his drone and he got some cool shots of downtown Houston and a few other things. He let me fly it and take a few photos. Now I am contemplating. Buying one myself. I question how much I would use it, but it’s a new perspective for me.

[El Diablo 4232]

Is flying one of those in an urban area a safety issue?