July Photo Thread

[ZENNON]

Looks good mate. (I like how the comment field isn't required )

ps you don't cater for those of us with 1920x1200 resolutions either

[FST513]

Hey Zennon, thanks for the kind words!! Yeah i figured i couldn't cater for everyone. 1920x1080 i figured most people have that resolution and 1680x1050 is large enough for everyone else.

So hard to find a mutual agreeance thats not too big people can steal images and claim as there own (by printing or cropping watermark etc.)!

Appreciate the comment mate!

[MaTBoY]

the last one of the pan car is an f'ing awesome shot dude!

i need a new monitor. i'm stuck in the land of 1280x1024 still haha. with dead pixels too. i'd replace it, but building a house is sucking up any extra pennies that once could have been spent on fun stuff ;/

[33driver]

Hi all,

Been a while since i have posted, here is a few from the gold coast over the weekend:

[FST513]

Nice shots 33driver! Have you thought about buying some filters like a Graduated Neutral Density filter and like a Cokin holder? Your shots are really nice and would look even better if you used some filters! I love the goldy.

the last one of the pan car is an f'ing awesome shot dude!

i need a new monitor. i'm stuck in the land of 1280x1024 still haha. with dead pixels too. i'd replace it, but building a house is sucking up any extra pennies that once could have been spent on fun stuff ;/

Thanks Mat

Wow, sounds like you do need a new monitor lol. Dead pixels too?! Shall i start a charity fund raiser for Mat to get a new monitor?! Hahaha. Well, the house is worth a lot more than a monitor. Theres some bargain monitors out there at the moment! Although if your looking for an IPS you'll be paying ~$350'ish minimum

[33driver]

Hey FST513, thanks for the comments! I actually have a B&W ND1000, but its a full filter, not graduated, so wasn't going to help me on the weekend, but I think you're right, I'm going to have a look into picking up a few graduated ones as I struggled to get the light balances correct.

Cheers,

Matt

[FST513]

Hey FST513, thanks for the comments! I actually have a B&W ND1000, but its a full filter, not graduated, so wasn't going to help me on the weekend, but I think you're right, I'm going to have a look into picking up a few graduated ones as I struggled to get the light balances correct.

Cheers,

Matt

So many Matt's on this forum

No problems You got a ND10 They are like $300 (Or am i thinking of the wrong filter). Super exy. I want one too, but can't afford to buy one when i wouldn't use it as much as i would like.

But yep, a GND would definitely have helped you expose correctly. Unless you HDR and stack it in post.

Keep up the good work man, you'll only get better the more you get out there

[33driver]

it wasn't cheap, but I think it was around $135 delivered from the states on ebay. Brilliant filter and I love using it. I'll be looking into the cokin kits shortly i think

[ZENNON]

Got mine for $100

[MaTBoY]

i bought a set of ND filters for about 40 from ebay. mainly just to experiment with. would really like a good GD. i think i'd use it a bit, but at the moment it's low on the priority list. even under a new monitor haha

[barraspalding]

bought a sigma 50mm f1.4... its a bit bigger than the kit 18-55 lens. (pics taken with phone camera)

diaphragms wide open... spot the difference

few sample pics taken this arvo... i'm too lazy to leave the house right meow

[FST513]

Nice!!! Good to see your experimenting shooting at 1.4/2 A lot of the guys in the USA have had problems with front focus/back focus, but yours looks spot on!

A guy on ozfoz asked me how i take landscape shots.... So i kind of wrote an essay reply... Thought you guys might like a read.

Landscape kit as follows:

- MUST have a sturdy tripod. No cheap $50 plastic piece of crap. A tripod that is sturdy and has a ballhead or a panhead.

- Filters. A CPL (circular polarizer) filter at MINIMUM! Then along comes the GND's, ND's and various other coloured filters e.g. warming filter, cooling filter, red,blue etc etc..

- Cokin/Lee/Hitech Filter holder. Screw on adaptor onto the front of your lens and you can use 1/2/3 filters at once. WARNING - Stacking can cause colour casts and vignetting at certain focal lengths.

- Dual Axis spirit leveller to put into your hot shoe (where the flash goes on top). I use one to make sure my camera is straight. Although don't trust it 100% as it only judges if your tripod is flat/ballhead is level. IF you shoot seascapes/beaches/uneven scenes etc... etc... It will help a lot in post but don't always trust it! Double check it in Post!

That's about it, for ESSENTIAL gear.

Sharpness - Sharpness all depends on your focusing spot and the effect you are trying to achieve. With landscape photos, i am going to assume you want the most you can get in focus.

Google "HFD" which stands for Hyper Focal Distance focusing. This relates to focusing roughly 1/3rd of the way into the scene and this will effectively make your photo REASONABLYsharp front to back. Now i'm a pixel peeper (always zooming in to 100%) and i find this works sometimes and doesn't depending on your scene. There's no one "magic" rule for everything. Remember that.

Use live view and zoom in to 5x and 10x to see if it is reasonably sharp (depending on distance from you). Remember there is atmospheric Haze, sea haze, salt etc... to deal with.

Now... PHOTOGRAPHY TALK!

F-Stops - Often referred to as STOPS (shutter speed). Your camera can change the way you change your shutter speed by increments of 1/3rd 1/2 or FULL stops.

Lets take a base shutter speed of 1/500th.

If you attach a CPL it will most likely cut 2 stops of light. to determine how much 2 stops of light is from 1/500th see below.

Shutter speed: 1/400th - 1/3rd stop

1/320 - Half stop

1/250th - Full stop.

1/200th - 1/3rd stop

1/160th - 1/2 stop

1/125th - Full stop.

So by looking at that, 2 stops of light will be 1/125th.

ISO - You always want to shoot at ISO 100. This will reduce noise and provide nicer images. ISO is your cameras sensors sensitivity to light.

Aperture - Landscape images vary on the look you want, but as said above, assuming you want everything in focus as much as possible.

Shoot between F8-F22. I recommend F8-F11 but as said, ALL SCENES ARE DIFFERENT.

WARNING: Shooting at and above F16 can cause barrel distortion. Also, IF your sensor is dirty it will also show dust spots. To check if your sensor is dusty/dirty, take a photo of a blue sky at F22 and look at those ugly black spots!!

DoF - Known as Depth of Field. Basically, the wider your aperture, lower number, the less will be in focus. The narrower (higher number) the more will be in focus. This is the basic principle but it doesn't always work like that and i cbf explaining that. Google has TONNES of topics on this.

Thats it for settings.

Back to filters and reasons why you need them:

CPL - Cuts light and reduces glare. Also enriches contrast. Have a play with one and rotate it (thats where circular comes from) and you will notice the difference. Best for skies and cutting glare.

ND2/4/6/8/9 - Neutral Density filter in various stops. As title suggests, cuts the amount of light by X amount of stops. Best to use when you need to slow your shutter speed down e.g. panning/want water "silkiness" etc..

GND2/4/6/8/9 - Same as the ND filter just graduated. So half is clear, and half is X amount of light stops cut. Used for skies to cut the appropriate amount of light to compensate and keep the foreground nicely lit.

Various other filters e.g. warming/cooling filters - As title suggests, they do what they say! Cooling filter will make it "cooler" or more blue. Warming filter will make it "warmer" or more yellow.

WARNING - Filters and stacking filters cause colour casts. This is common. Make sure to correct in post by adjusting the white balance. There are several ways to do this, find the one that suits your workflow.

PP - Post Production e.g. Photoshop/Lightroom etc... - This is how you add colour/correct white balance/contrast/saturation bla bla bla.

Any more questions just ask

Thanks,

Kory

[MaTBoY]

Low F stops turn me on. We've fot a 1.2 here at work and it's crazy fun.

Can't wait to see some funky weird pics!

[ZENNON]

F-Stops - Often referred to as STOPS (shutter speed). Your camera can change the way you change your shutter speed by increments of 1/3rd 1/2 or FULL stops.

Lets take a base shutter speed of 1/500th.

If you attach a CPL it will most likely cut 2 stops of light. to determine how much 2 stops of light is from 1/500th see below.

Shutter speed: 1/400th - 1/3rd stop

1/320 - Half stop

1/250th - Full stop.

1/200th - 1/3rd stop

1/160th - 1/2 stop

1/125th - Full stop.

So by looking at that, 2 stops of light will be 1/125th.

Just to explain this a little more

F-Stops (or stops) are not shutter speed.

Stops is a measure for the amount of light, where the difference from one stop to another is either double the light or half the light.

This amount of light can be changed by changing EITHER the shutter speed or the aperture.

Eg Some lenses have an aperture ring where you can manually set the aperture

the f-numbers on the side might read something like this

2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 32

each number here is one f-stop apart.

This means for a given shutter speed the lens will at f/2.8 (which is the f-number or aperture) let in double the amount of light (one f-stop more) than what it will at f/4.

[ZENNON]

Hey Zennon, thanks for the kind words!! Yeah i figured i couldn't cater for everyone. 1920x1080 i figured most people have that resolution and 1680x1050 is large enough for everyone else.

So hard to find a mutual agreeance thats not too big people can steal images and claim as there own (by printing or cropping watermark etc.)!

Appreciate the comment mate!

Totally agree - was just being a smartass

Think you choose well - both my work monitors are 1680x1050 actually

[FST513]

Haha well thats good then My second monitor at home is 1680x1050.

And thanks for clarifying the wording of stops lol. I was explaining it to a n00b so tried to keep it simple. I found it hard to explain easily, what stops were so i just dumped them onto shutter speed as an example (i forgot to put that in their that it was an example).

[MaTBoY]

Ok Ok. Seriously. last little fix and update for this pic. i'm going to put it to rest now.

[FST513]

Nice Mat!

I like the opacity it has been set at. not too much, but shows enough. The intercooler piping is a bit distracting but thats only because it has a scoop.

I still agree with one of the above posters, you should clone out the sticker in the top left and rego sticker in the right of the windscreen

But overall, excellent!

[GoldZilla]

The best analogy I've heard (or read) regarding the relationship between Aperture and Shutter Speed was in relation to a water tap - the wider you open the tap (i.e. the lower the Aperture value and hence wider the opening), the less time you have to have that tap open (i.e. the faster the shutter speed you can use) to let the water flow (i.e. let light into the lens and onto the sensor or film)...

[ZENNON]