The Photography Thread

[Richard.John]

Beautiful as always, Alastair!


More tilty jiggery pokery. I like this one as you can almost pluck it right out of the screen. The reflections work well too.

[zeroboo]

I'm currently contemplating the idea of getting the D80. Can anyone recommend a cheap online retailer?

[Crisp_Rapper]

so do you chaps always fiddle with your shots before posting them? obviously the tilt shift ones have to be fiddled with to get the effect, but i mean the other more 'normal' shots...

i've never dabbled with photoshop for adjusting anything other than size, what am i missing out on? what stuff do you usually adjust?

[Richard.John]

I suppose that sharpness via USM is the obvious one. I tend not to apply USM but I recognise that images straight out of my cam (Canon 30D) tend to be a bit soft, but, AFAIK, it's designed that way.

[Gareth C]

so do you chaps always fiddle with your shots before posting them? obviously the tilt shift ones have to be fiddled with to get the effect, but i mean the other more 'normal' shots...

It varies for me. Overall I generally prefer to post up full-frame images (ie not cropped). I do sharpen a bit sometimes though and maybe play with curves a little in photoshop or a Raw plug-in.

The shots attached (which I posted on the last page) are a mixture:

The food one was shot in Black and white mode in my camera but I did play with the levels a little to brighten the high tones.

The others similarly, except that the one with the star was shot in colour mode so I converted it via an action i have built in photoshop to create Black and white.

The advantage of shooting Raw is that my camera allows me to choose black and white and it essentially filters the image in camera. But, being Raw these 'filters' can be undone with no loss to image quality etc.

[Gareth C]

Shot loads like this last night too. All very un-original but fun all the same...

[Gareth C]

I'm currently contemplating the idea of getting the D80. Can anyone recommend a cheap online retailer?

Can't help with online retailers but I will say that its a lovely camera. I don't own a DSLR but if I did I have never looked further than a Canon. This camera really made me change my mind. I used this camera the other day with a couple of excellent wide and fast primes and it was great.

If I was going to buy a DSLR to partner my Digital Rangefinder my first choice would be the incredible Canon 5D but for the price the D80 would probably be the realistic choice.

[Ish]

i've never dabbled with photoshop for adjusting anything other than size, what am i missing out on? what stuff do you usually adjust?

I'm trying to get better at getting the results I want actually out of the camera but I still post process a bit yes. Mostly correcting white balance and slight colour tints. I used to use Photoshop for this but I'm using Aperture to organise my photos now and for most purposes I just stick with the options it provides.

I've been out again today and filled two 1Gb SD cards... lots of shots! Now I've got the marathon task of going through them all....

Peanuts - I love that last one you posted with the car in the street. Fantastic

Alastair - great shots of the planes. I like the first yellow one particularly. The yellow contrasts well with the blue sky nicely. And its pin sharp!

[DCharlie]

little to report...
still plugging away, still getting very middling results :/
Off work, so should be able to study some more though this week

http://static.flickr.com/115/289351432_7db873a8db_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/122/288084240_fc94d8592a_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/103/287721096_15e60e56a2_b.jpg

[Richard.John]

Peanuts - I love that last one you posted with the car in the street. Fantastic

Cheers mate. I like it and it's so easy to pull off as well.

[bangaio]

As far as PS goes - levels, curves etc are all standard and can affect an image drastically.

Those who still shoot jpeg - I can't extol the virtues of raw enough - still! Working in raw allows so many adjustments but all along the lines of a lab or darkroom. Your image is just the start of the journey of production i fthat makes sense.

[Ish]

More shots

[Ish]

And a few more

[Ginger Tosser]

so do you chaps always fiddle with your shots before posting them?

Sometimes tweak the contrast/Brightness/convert to b&w

Usually crop a bit here and there. Resize for web use and maybe unsharp mask if its a little soft.

[PeteJ]

The most I do is 'clean' up the image, heal out spots on the lens etc. I keep the lens pretty clean, but when doing the super close-up stuff they show up quite badly. I also shoot in RAW which gives me more control over brightness\saturation, which I'll usually tweak.

What I have found recently is my prints are coming out much darker than my screen shows them. I can adjust my monitor accordingly but then it looks all wrong. Ah well, not the end of the world!

Nice shots ish!

This morning was perfect for taking photos - low fog everywhere, sun beams, nice clouds...unfortunately I was running late for work as it was! Damn