The Photography Thread

[MartyG]

Cool clouds, I got a shot on Friday with smart clouds, had to cross a dual carriage-way slip road to get the angle, but sadly there's a telegraph wire across it :/ Should be easy enough to shop out, when I get around to it.



I did an abstract too ...



Like the bird on a wire

[Magnakai]

Some ace shots here guys.

Alastair, I've taken tons of gig photos (far more than are on my Flickr) with a relatively poor camera (my G5) for the task. They often ended up being 100 or 200 ISO because 400 made them unacceptably noisy. I found that the only way to take good shots like that is to work with the long exposure. Underexposing and focusing on the backlights is a good trick, as is using the movement of the artists to accentuate their character.

Obviously you don't need to do that with the 30D's excellent high ISO performance, but it may give you some ideas for making it a bit more fun next time.

For what it's worth, your stuff is on par with pro music photographers, and better than most of the ones that the NME use. Still, I think that's it's generally an under performing field. Unlike sports photography, gigs are usually terribly lit.

Good luck to you.

Ish, those bird pics are ace. Marty and GT - glad you recorded that blue sky. Proof enough that I wasn't imagining it!

[MartyG]

The invisible flying men ...

[Alastair]

For what it's worth, your stuff is on par with pro music photographers, and better than most of the ones that the NME use. Still, I think that's it's generally an under performing field. Unlike sports photography, gigs are usually terribly lit.

Good luck to you.

I you!!

Means a lot when people say things like that. Cheers mate.

[Magnakai]

Aww, you're welcome!

Though I'm not saying rest on your laurels! You need to capture a bit more of their character, but that's always harder when you're not photographing seasoned performers. Amateur bands etc tend to be a lot less expressive generally. And the pros that never learn to let go? They usually at least get a decent light show.
Technically you're way up there. You've got shadow, colour, tone and atmosphere. A lot of gig photos are totally flat. I mean, look at these. One of the most photogenic bands out there with a good light show etc, and half of those photos are rubbish.
It's quite heartening, to be honest! Makes me feel like a genius. :P

[Alastair]

I'm not saying rest on your laurels! You need to capture a bit more of their character...

First you giveth then you taketh away Cheers for the compliments and the advice, it's all taken on board. I did want to get more character but these guys are generally trying to be rough tough rappers and look hard rather than charismatic!

Here's a few more I processed.

JFB, won the UK DMC champs the night before this gig, played an amazing set.


One half of Black Twang.




MOBO award winning Soweto Kinch, what a guy, jazz sax player, rapper and poet all in one amazing set.


Things are moving on for me, as of tonight I'm afraid I'll be pulling the all sizes link on my Flickr pages , I'll try to link you guys to the static/private big version pages when I get time in future as I love you all so much

[Magnakai]

First you giveth then you taketh away

Such is the hand of Magnakai!

Good luck with your illustrious future, Mr Bigshot!

[Alastair]

Such is the hand of Magnakai!

Good luck with your illustrious future, Mr Bigshot!

It's nothing too fancy, just that if something in the planning stage at the mo' comes off I don't want people to be able to pinch decent sized shots straight from my flickr page.

[MartyG]

Just been spending my money on lenses again - you're never quite satisfied are you?

Decided to grab one of these little beauties: http://www.europe-nikon.com/product/.../overview.html

Should have it on Friday \o/, so hopefully the rain will have cleared for the w/e.

[Ginger Tosser]

Things are moving on for me, as of tonight I'm afraid I'll be pulling the all sizes link on my Flickr pages , I'll try to link you guys to the static/private big version pages when I get time in future as I love you all so much

Someone nicking your stuff?

It's the reason I only stick stuff on flickr at a max of 800px, mostly 600px. might have one thats bigger, but thats all!

[MartyG]

Things are moving on for me, as of tonight I'm afraid I'll be pulling the all sizes link on my Flickr pages , I'll try to link you guys to the static/private big version pages when I get time in future as I love you all so much

You know you can set it so that only contacts or only friends and family can see the larger sizes right?

I was having a play with a 50mm f1.8 E Series Nikkor lens earlier ( tis from my Nikon FE ) on my D50. The lens is well over 30 years old.

http://picasaweb.google.com/martypg/Nikon50mmESeriesManualLens

-------------------

And something totally different, has anyone played with these?

http://www.lensbabies.com/

Had a quite search of the thread and I haven't seen them mentioned. I was thinking of taking a look at them as they look like fun, and aren't bankruptingly expensive.

[Alastair]

Someone nicking your stuff?

It's the reason I only stick stuff on flickr at a max of 800px, mostly 600px. might have one thats bigger, but thats all!

Not that I know of, just pre-empting something that may happen in a week or two, it may not happen either though.

You know you can set it so that only contacts or only friends and family can see the larger sizes right?

I was having a play with a 50mm f1.8 ...

Had forgotten that Marty thanks, have been through and set the important people to friends now so lets see if it works. Took this one with my 50mm f1.8, great lens, best 60 quid I've spent on camera gear. Let me know if any of the usual suspects can't click through and I'll add you as a friend.



Have read about lensbabies yes but never tried one, seem a bit gimmicky for me!

[Ginger Tosser]

Think there is a couple of versions of the lens baby out now. No idea what the difference is though.

A fixed 50mm does get you thinking when taking shots. The wide aperture is superb in low light. Crank up the iso and you get get fairly usable shots albeit with a bit of noise.



Wife and Daughter taken with the 50mm @ f/1.4 1/40 iso3200. Difficult to tell, but it was quite dark.



A bit more light on this one 50mm @ f/1.4 1/25 iso200. Played with the colour on Lightroom as the harbour light gave off a yellow cast.

[Richard.John]

You guys are so damned good.

[MartyG]

A fixed 50mm does get you thinking when taking shots.

Definitely, and I do like playing with them. The Nikon 1.8f is suppose to be really sharp, so I'm looking forward to getting that one. The manual E series lens I have produces some nice sharp images, but it's tricky to focus because you don't have the focus matt available that you have on the Nikon FE, and leaves you wondering if you have the point wanted pin sharp sometimes.

The bokeh on your lens seems a bit harsh in that second pic ( which is nicely composed ), it's the sort of stuff I'd expect on a mirror lens rather than a 50mm.