TWINSET 1793 Posted March 14, 2018 On 3/9/2018 at 1:04 PM, topforcein said: does any body have have any pics of travelling fun fairs i did used to take a few back in the 90's but they are actual photos @topforcein St Giles in Oxford, early September street fair These are from 2017 and 2016 I think 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
novicelad 787 Posted March 14, 2018 I used to be into photography a bit, I still appreciate the odd picture. Back in 2009 Brooklands museum in Weybridge surrey were to receive the Vickersvimy its last ever flight and I captured it coming in to land 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 14, 2018 Great shots @TWINSET and @novicelad Short walk today after a recertification grilling at work the last two days 🤯 This is the same tree as my earlier post but different season. Roll on when everything is in bloom again. 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TWINSET 1793 Posted March 14, 2018 Some toads :-) Proper littl'un with a Tamiya wrench 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roy2cycle 22 Posted March 16, 2018 one of my Bikes 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StrokerBoy 772 Posted March 16, 2018 Square-4 Bantam ?! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roy2cycle 22 Posted March 16, 2018 Yeah... Bsa Bantam 1960's frames, Suzuki water cooled RG500 sq 4 bottom end. One has 1960's Ariel Arrow air cooled top ends and the other has peugeot top ends . 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TWINSET 1793 Posted March 20, 2018 Few gig pics from the last couple of weeks Husky Loops at The Cellar, Oxford Life Inc at The Cellar Cassels at the O2 Oxford 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Re-Bugged 10147 Posted March 22, 2018 Floating Fish & Chip shops Hobart harbour Tasmania. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mahjik 197 Posted March 23, 2018 Nice pictures everyone! A few random ones I've done (some newer, some older): 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TWINSET 1793 Posted March 23, 2018 Cornish Orb Halo selfie Car Park Sparks Cornish Sparks 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shodog 1835 Posted March 24, 2018 Fitzgerald Marine Reserve 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 24, 2018 Some more great shots people. @Mahjik your second is ace. Really like that. @TWINSET 👌love the wire wool (I presume) ones. I’d probably go up in flames if I tried that 😂 @Shodog would love to be on that beach right now. Live has been thoroughly demanding at present. Anyway. Not done much myself. Been so busy. What I have wanted to try is exposing against the sky without making the subject a silhouette. I’m new to this and still learning as I go. Had a chance to stretch the legs yesterday and had a spot in mind to try. Now I achieved what I wanted to do with some messing about. Ended up exposing the floor. Locking exposure then recomposing the shot. Not sure if that’s ‘how’ to do it but it worked. Lost some detail in sky but obviously something has to sacrifice. Was a bleak day that’s for sure! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 24, 2018 So. I was wondering then. How serious are you all regarding photography? A hobby, passion, job even. What sort of kit are people using? I’ve just got an old Canon 1100d that I saved from going in the bin, and using the kit 18-55 lens. I’d like something newer but as only just starting it’s not justifiable. I just used my iPhone previously but with ProCamera installed. As for the act itself, do you keep your camera with you when out and about on a daily basis? The nature of my job means I can’t really so possibly miss plenty, for everything else I just rely on my phone still. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mahjik 197 Posted March 24, 2018 For me, it's just for fun. Mainly have a camera to capture things my family does but I use it for fun when I have the time. The above photo was shot at Disney World while I was waiting for my wife and daughter to come out of the restrooms.. As for gear, the bottom two of the original photos I posted were taken with my old gear. The first one was with my new gear: Old: Minolta Maxxum 7D Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 Tamron SP AF 70-300mm Tamron SP 72E 90mm F/2.8 New: Nikon D7200 Sigma EX 50mm f/1.4 Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX Sigma AF 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Sigma EX DG APO MACRO HSM 70-200mm f/2.8 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TWINSET 1793 Posted March 24, 2018 Mine are all for fun - a few of the gig shots end up on the bands' social media etc. but that's about as commercial as I got, apart from a bottle of Southern Comfort from a band a while back I've recently defected from Canon to Nikon and now have a D500 with a Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 and a MB-D17 grip Best bit of kit (apart from the obvious) I've bought recently though is this: It really speeds up Lightroom editing and works similar to a Loupedeck only more programmable and a used one is about £90 on eBay The sliders are programmed to adjust clarity, saturation etc and the knobs do colour cast, vignettes etc. Couple of social media usages :-) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 25, 2018 Some nice kit guys. Good job I was sat down when I googled them to have a look 😂 My main struggle at the minute is Exposure. Seems I’m always sacrificing one area of the shot too much (imo) to get an overall balance. Take the my last tower shot. The sky had much better detail than that but to get it destroyed the rest. Good exposure on the tower and the sky was just too intense/bright with no detail. The balance has instead ended up with muted colours. I guess that’s where the likes of Lightroom etc come into play. Although I can’t help wondering whether the kit (as well as user) are just not up to it. When using my phone with ProCamera it uses the two control points method (circle for exposure and a square for focus) and drag the exposure circle around I can generally compose a ‘nicer’ shot, but, overall quality and detail is less than the Canon. Overall the Canon destroys the phone. Poor light, speed and so much more are not even comparable even considering the camera is what 7yrs or more old. Just finding it sometimes frustrating trying to get it right, or maybe I’m just being overly critical of my shots (personal like or not of them aside), and can’t help but wonder whether newer kit would deal with this much better/easier. Maybe I need to start looking into bracketing when the sky’s a pain but then I’m back to being unable to edit afterwards as I’ve no computer at present. Anyway, sorry for waffling (!) I’m enjoying and hating it at the minute. Wish I had more time to play. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TWINSET 1793 Posted March 25, 2018 Lightroom is great for tweaking levels in a pic, but try Snapseed too - It's a free mobile app so you need to get the pic from your D-SLR to the phone/tablet Try playing with the metering modes on your camera first though - that can make a lot of difference; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc5I5r9wnsE Also, read up on HDR and merging pics - when the picture is as 'diverse' as yours you might not get it perfect in-camera in one shot You take one shot for the sky, one for the landscape then merge the two good halves along the land line GiMP is great for merging pics, but most of the tutorials you'll find online refer to Photoshop Here's what Lightroom and Snapseed can do in a couple of minutes - none of them are offered as an improvement to your pic, just a demo as to what could be done to retrieve some of the detail in the sky Lightroom: 2 graduated filters applied; top of pic darkened and increased clarity, bottom grad lightened and clarity increased Snapseed: Tweaked contrast and brightness, then applied 'drama' filter then played with lens blur Snapseed brings out more of the sky but because the 'drama' filter is applied to the whole pic it doesn't do much for the foreground. Also, with high contrast areas like where the tower breaks into sky, you'll get a nasty 'halo' around the tower if you overdo it; 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 25, 2018 Cheers. Some things to look at. I know some modern cameras deal with HDR in camera (such as most modern phones). I know the 1100D doesn’t but obviously I could bracket and achieve the same with playing. Or as you say take two shots and merge. Would need a tripod I guess for best effect. Already had Snapseed installed just hadn’t been using it since using the Canon. I notice it has a double exposure mode so that might be worth investigating. This is a quick play. Brought the sky out more and added a bit of colour back to the land... I specifically wanted to shoot something with several components going on to learn. As for metering I’ve been sticking to ‘evaluative’ for now but I’ll check that YouTube vid out. Thanks. Guess I’ll have to see if I can get the old laptop working again and download Gimp at some point. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mahjik 197 Posted March 25, 2018 A few things... The biggest difference with a photos is the photographer. The photographer > equipment. Next, the lense is the next important thing.. You can take fantastic photos with a good lense and a not so great body than the reverse. The Canon 1100D may not be top of the line, but it can produce great photos. This person appears to be using a 1100D: https://www.flickr.com/photos/64629831@N08/with/5879513343/ Lenses are where to spend the money. The rose photo I did above was with my old Minolta Maxxum 7D. That body is a lot older and worse than your Canon. The main difference is just the lense that was used. As for photo editing, today you can edit a lot with various pieces of software. However, the one thing you can't really fix is focus. If you are saving a raw version of your photos, there is a lot you can do with white and color balance. If you aren't saving in raw, it's harder to adjust the white balance and brightness. You can still do color balancing pretty well without a raw version. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 25, 2018 29 minutes ago, Mahjik said: A few things... The biggest difference with a photos is the photographer. The photographer > equipment. Next, the lense is the next important thing.. You can take fantastic photos with a good lense and a not so great body than the reverse. The Canon 1100D may not be top of the line, but it can produce great photos. This person appears to be using a 1100D: https://www.flickr.com/photos/64629831@N08/with/5879513343/ Lenses are where to spend the money. The rose photo I did above was with my old Minolta Maxxum 7D. That body is a lot older and worse than your Canon. The main difference is just the lense that was used. As for photo editing, today you can edit a lot with various pieces of software. However, the one thing you can't really fix is focus. If you are saving a raw version of your photos, there is a lot you can do with white and color balance. If you aren't saving in raw, it's harder to adjust the white balance and brightness. You can still do color balancing pretty well without a raw version. Yeah I get that. The best equipment around won’t make a great picture. A technically detailed/good whatever one maybe but obviously if the shot doesn’t engage then what difference does it make. Obviously the above shot of mine will likely not engage most but it’s a personal spot I enjoy and seemed a useful place to play around with exposing against the sky/bright background. Not shooting in raw at present purely because I’m just using my iPad for viewing/editing/sharing. I know the soft available for iOS can deal with raw I just haven’t moved towards that yet. I already assumed the lens was the main thing but also thinking that a modern camera with newer, better sensor would improve things too. Intend to keep playing before I spend anything anyway. Obviously the kit lens is a jack of all trades master of none type affair so once I know which focal length I primarily use I’ll look towards a better lens in that range and go from there. I want to take my time with this and build up. I’m doing it purely for me, to document my travels and the kids growing up. If others like some of them that’s great. Some nice shots on that link. Always dubious about pictures that have had the exif stripped though. Nothing to gain by lying but why remove? Maybe I’m just too sceptical! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mahjik 197 Posted March 25, 2018 The main thing about a photo is that you have to make sure to direct the viewer to what is important. With your photo, I'm not sure what is important... You have the base wall, the path, the building, the tree and the sky all there... It's busy so it's hard for a viewer to engage with everything at once. Here's a good article on the rule of thirds that can help you as you compose: https://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Man1c M0nk3y 564 Posted March 25, 2018 44 minutes ago, Mahjik said: The main thing about a photo is that you have to make sure to direct the viewer to what is important. With your photo, I'm not sure what is important... You have the base wall, the path, the building, the tree and the sky all there... It's busy so it's hard for a viewer to engage with everything at once. Here's a good article on the rule of thirds that can help you as you compose: https://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds/ Yeah I get all that. The picture as I said was nothing more than an experiment. Last time I was up i ended up with a silhouetted tower. This was about overcoming that. Composition wasn’t really my thought just figuring out exposing. A bad shot to share maybe but it was to highlight what I was trying to achieve. I wanted multiple ‘things’ in there to see if I could get them all relatively well exposed, a small milestone if you like for me. A poorly engaging shot I’ll grant but not on a personal level. Anyway, I’ll shut up now(!) I’ve dragged this off topic as such. I was just happy as such I’d figured out a way to expose the shot that seems to work. Back to posting pictures you are all happy with. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
