January Photo Thread

[dodgsun]

i know some peeps doing the 365 on flickr.....but not me. wouldnt mind the 52...but theres enough ugly shots of me on flickr..so no need for more

last pic from last years session....

and the first from this year...

cant do much with it being on the lot after hrs!

Edited January 6, 2010 by dodgsun

[stenve]

Went out today and took 500+ shots with the new camera. man i'm tired

this is my 3rd effort at some HDR stuff, shot from kangaroo point over towards brisbane city

got some more at dusk and night from the same spot but yet to touch them up etc maybe tomorrow.

also have 11 billion shots from mt cootha botanic gardens

Let me know what you guys think

[Jay019]

sounds like you're still drunk

How so? I wasnt drinking.

Anyway, another first for me in 2010. My first light orbs

and a spiral for good luck

[FST513]

Stenve - That HDR is way too overdone IMO.

There's some chronic CA still on the right hand side buildings and It's a bit soft too.

But overall, good effort

Jay - They look awesome!

I finally uploaded everything to my website. Project 365!

And here's a pic from yesterday. Probably crap quality as i just pulled it off my website and uploaded to flickr because i am at work.

[funkymonkey]

Went out today and took 500+ shots with the new camera. man i'm tired

eep that's a lot of chromatic aberation. I think it looks soft cos the focus is on the plants in the foreground.

[ZENNON]

I thought the photo was supposed to include you?

some do that but you dont have to, some people have themed projects (but you dont have to do that either if you dont wanna)

best themed project I saw was a Lego man theme - had a different photo everyday of a Lego man doing something lol

[ZENNON]

Let me know what you guys think

colours are a little over the top

as for the softness

I have a suggestion:

pick the single photo you like the most

copy and paste it twice

(now you should have three copies of the one file)

in photomatix open them for hdr

(it will detect that they have the same exp bias and offer you to set new ones)

just hit ok so it uses the default or 1/3

then do your hdr doing that

(you dont need to do any aligning as it was all the same photo so everything will line up perfectly)

[ZENNON]

How so? I wasnt drinking.

Haha - oops my bad. Said so because this didn't make any sense to me:

Time in my camera is off,

but I re-read it for the 3rd time just now and then clicked lol

ps your light orb and spiral pics are amazing

[Sl!m]

w00t... just got a remote shutter control for the D90. now i just have to figure out how to leave the shutter open overnight using the remote on lock.

put the shutter time on bulb. then lock the remote shutter.

are you talking about doing this for star trails? it won't work the sensor will get too hot.

[FST513]

Not to mention if you leave it on overnight, make sure you dont have the auto turn off for the camera on

And moisture will cloud your lens as well as bugs etc... best to do it for 2 hrs/3 hrs and check it every half hour/blow it with a rocket blower to get rid of moisture etc...

If you want star trails, head to somewhere remote with little/none pollution, e.g. country etc..

[ZENNON]

funkymonkey - set camera to continues shooting mode - set shutter speed to 30secs - then lock remote shutter button - so it just keeps taking 30sec photo's all night (read: until your battery dies)

(ps try some test shots to get correct aperture and iso first)

[FST513]

You can actually buy remotes that have timers on them or you can pre-program times into them. I think they are about $100.

Sounds easier to me than having 2 composites a minute. Before the battery dies would be about 2-3 hrs, thats 120 images an hour. Lots of disk space taken up and a lot of compiling in PS.

that would be good if you wanted something for 5 minutes or something like that, but until the battery runs out would be too long, IMO

[stenve]

Good eyes guys, i did that at 2am last night so i didnt even see it. nice big green lines down the sides of my buildings haha

I did some other hdrs also that werent as crazy as that one was just trying different things to see what effects it made. Like i said ive only ever done 3 hdr images haha

Thanks for the tip zennon. that one there was from 3 seperate exposures using aeb on my cam onsite. however i did manually change exposure on a couple of other single images and it seemed to work well.

keep playing with it i guess, seems to be a fairly personalised thing. the girlfriend and i were disagreeing on what was better on a few last night.

[funkymonkey]

funkymonkey - set camera to continues shooting mode - set shutter speed to 30secs - then lock remote shutter button - so it just keeps taking 30sec photo's all night (read: until your battery dies)

(ps try some test shots to get correct aperture and iso first)

hmm might give that a go. ah according to the manual I have to set the shutter control to bulb to hold it open. apparently max time is 30 mins lol

lot of guys on the interwebs warning about dew etc forming tho

just wanted to try it as I did it a long time ago running my Powershot S3 IS overnight on DC power, and used the CHDK firmware hack to run a script that held the shutter open all night.

[FST513]

Good eyes guys, i did that at 2am last night so i didnt even see it. nice big green lines down the sides of my buildings haha

I did some other hdrs also that werent as crazy as that one was just trying different things to see what effects it made. Like i said ive only ever done 3 hdr images haha

Thanks for the tip zennon. that one there was from 3 seperate exposures using aeb on my cam onsite. however i did manually change exposure on a couple of other single images and it seemed to work well.

keep playing with it i guess, seems to be a fairly personalised thing. the girlfriend and i were disagreeing on what was better on a few last night.

Also, big red lines too

Yes, HDR is a very personalized thing. Theres plenty of tutorials out there but really its your own personal choice whether you want it to look natural or over the top.

Just what ever you do, don't start pixel peeping! It will make you unhappy on 99% of the photos anyone takes because its not sharp enough/too much noise etc etc... Be happy with what you take and when you want to get serious about it, then start pixel peeping, to a certain extent.

Also, what camera/lens are you using? Seems that the corner sharpness on the lens is distorting, hence all the CA/softness as well. Quite common on a lot of lenses.

[stenve]

havent got the best gear, only had a camera for about a month

currently using canon 30d with 17-85mm is usm f4.5-5.6 canon lens mostly.

[siddr20]

For star trails, its best if you take multiple exposures and then combine then..

If you do a really long exposure, you will get hot pixels and moisture on your lens.

Here is an example, where i have combined over 100 images or so:

Edited January 7, 2010 by siddr20

[siddr20]

hhmm motivation is needed........................

If you were in Sydney, i'd say you can play with my Alien Bee strobes but your not, so i guess i can't motivate you!

What are you planning to do for your project 52? Anything in particular?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO im first remember that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and a spiral for good luck

Awesome jay..Looks good

Edited January 7, 2010 by siddr20

[FST513]

Hahaha yeah Sidd. Your still 1st. (But sshhh, trying to get him motivated!).

Maybe you should do a project 365 as well?

[Jay019]

im considering getting a cheap second hand film camera for star trails. would be much easier in the end than all the work you have to go through to make it work with a digital camera.

main issue is the dew on lens. but if you can find a way to control the ambient temp around the camera it would be fine.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Jay019