The Photography Thread

[Gareth C]

Amazing photos recently everyone.

I have been quiet on the snapping front but i'm off to Hong Kong and then Oz next week with my new f1.0 Noctilux so expect lots of blurry light shots soon!

[winky]

Forgot to mention to you all that I have upgraded the 70-200 f4L to a 100-280 f5.6L, can you guess how?

1.4 TC? :P

[Alastair]

Indeed Winky, got Kerso to send me the Canon 1.4x EF MkII. Spanked a bit of the bonus I've just got at work.



Tested it out at a trackday on Sat morning and it makes a hell of a difference to the reach of the lens, more than I was expecting really in a strange way. Doing a bit of commission shooting at Brands Hatch next week for friends though and I think it'll come into it's own there where I can't get quite as close to the track.

Can anyone recommend a home sensor cleaning solution? My rocket blower just wont shift a certain piece of dirt I have at the moment and it was caused by using one of those spinning brush things that my Dad has that he was recommended, it was crap and made my sensor worse. 30d sensor seems much more dust attracting than the 300d did

Gareth, always look forward to you shots, need to see more so have a great time travelling.

[Magnakai]

my new f1.0 Noctilux

*Drool*

This one's a few weeks old. Again, I'm not sure how good it'll look an another monitor. Please let me know if it's too dark. I've got to figure out this monitor calibration business.



Also, I think it looks a lot better when bigger. It looks a bit messy small.

[Gareth C]

Magnakai, when I said NEW noctilux I actually meant old and second-hand... just new to me! Still looking forward to using it though...

And before I head off here are a few shots from a trip down to Cornwall this weekend. Thought I would have a play with some vintage processed look...More up at flickr as usual!

[Alastair]

Very nice, particularly like the middle two.


Better big and there's a link in the usual place.

[Gareth C]

Nice shot Alastair. Like the tones and the vignetting helps draw you in too. What lens was this?

[Alastair]

Thanks Gareth, lens is the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and the vignetting is caused by the normal filter and the polariser just extending that little bit into view. not PP'd on in this one.

[Gareth C]

No, I guessed it was "out of the camera" so to speak. Again, nice shot.

[MonkeySteve]

Gareth those boat shots are lovely - I especially like the soft vintage look - so pleasing on the eye. Really like yours too Alastair - great idea.

This one is a bit of an experiment. The concept grabbed me, but I'm not used to working with mutiple light sources and getting them to mix.

[winky]

Soo many good pictures, I have been leaving some comments on your Flickr pages but I will summarise here

Magnaki: Your picture is dark but not too dark (if that makes sense) I dont really like the trees but the mirror is fab.

Gareth C: I love your pictures. The vintage feel is perfect. The last one in particular is wonderful.

Alastair: Lovely picture and a great idea. It does look like you were wearing the same shoes though

Monkeysteve: Your picture of the lights is nice. The colour is good and the darkness frames them well. The only cticism I would have is that it looks a little squint (This happens to me all the time).

I borrowed a mates extension tubes today. Was shooting in our dull living room, so I struggled a bit with the manual focus. The shots aren't great but I uploaded them to Flickr anyway as I like to see my own progress.
After using these for a short while I think I will be picking myself up a set because they are so much fun.

[MartyG]

Great colours in that pic Winky - against the black background it's really striking.

I got that bargain D70 this morning - seems to be in good working order other than the flash which I was already aware of - looks like it's had less than 5000 shutter releases too ( just checked EXIF info on a test shot: Total Number of Shutter Releases for Camera: 5120 ).

No charger or battery with it ( but the D80 one fits and works so I've been able to test it ), and along with the body is a Nikon kit bag, a number of filters along with a circular polariser, the SB600 flash unit, the Nikon 18-70mm DX kit lens and a Sigma 70-300 DG Macro lens ( sadly not the APO version ). Still for price, that's a pretty good haul.

I'll take some shots with it on the way to work to check it out a little more.

[Alastair]

Alastair: Lovely picture and a great idea. It does look like you were wearing the same shoes though

Thanks, the boots we have are made by the same company, different models but the soles are the same yes. Like the extension tube shots, looking good, I've never used any.

Marty, that does sound a bargain, well done, good find.

MonkeySteve, that's pretty cool, you seem to have sorted the exposure and effect no get to work on the composition and you'll have a cracking shot.

[MonkeySteve]

Winky - those shots aren't quite my thing, but they are still blummin' fantatsic! Are you sure you're only a beginner with this photography lark?!

MonkeySteve, that's pretty cool, you seem to have sorted the exposure and effect no get to work on the composition and you'll have a cracking shot.

Cheers Alastair. What would you suggest re: composition? I took a load of shots from different heights and angles, but for me the centre approach with the black surround seemed to work best.

[Alastair]

Well, it's up to you really but I would give a portrait shot a go, centre the 'things' (dunno what they are!) left to right but get them nearer the top of the frame. Then either get higher or lower (whatever works best to give a longer/brighter reflection). It's just a suggestion and may not look any better though, as Winky said though, make sure to get it straight/level next time, or at least crop/rotate to sort it out

Winky, I back up Steve's comment there too, you're not new to photography are you! Maybe to digital SLR but I get the feeling you already knew about composition and exposure