PF Photography: Tips, Tricks, & Photo Sharing

[larkspur]

Very delicate lighting, larkspur! Lovely.

Wow, how soft light... Great shot.

Thanks turbo and Borek. I saw this shot from my rear view mirror, pulled off the road, set up the tripod and got lucky.

 

[Cyrus]

Weeeeeeeeee I want to drive really really fast down that road! (Insert ferrari here /\ )

 

[larkspur]

Weeeeeeeeee I want to drive really really fast down that road! (Insert ferrari here /\ )

Then you would love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK1SKFdVwYs" It is called the Tail of the Dragon. Bikers come from all over the world to run it. It was still a lot of fun in the Miata but the exotic cars looked like they were having more fun.

 

[matthyaouw]

Great shot Larkspur.

 

[Andre]

Nice one, Larkspur.

Another road is on this bridge, exactly halfway on my monthly commute between Germany and the Netherlands. The river is the Mosel, famous for its wine. The grapes vines are in front.

 

[larkspur]

Great shot Larkspur.

Nice one, Larkspur.

Another road is on this bridge, exactly halfway on my monthly commute between Germany and the Netherlands. The river is the Mosel, famous for its wine. The grapes vines are in front.

Thanks Matthyaouw and Andre.

Andre, You are lucky to live in an area blessed with so many photographic opportunities!

 

[Borek]

Andre, You are lucky to live in an area blessed with so many photographic opportunities!

World is beautifull everywhere, you either see it or not

 

[turbo]

World is beautifull everywhere, you either see it or not

That's a very good observation, Borek. There are many times when I have seen things that aren't too attractive, like this wasp and Japanese beetles stealing my raspberries.

 

[matthyaouw]

World is beautifull everywhere, you either see it or not

Well said!

In my mind, it's one of the marks of a good photographer if they can go out and shoot something beautiful of a subject or place most would find dull and uninteresting. One of my favorite local photographers is excellent at 'making magic out of the mundane' as someone put it. Here's one of his photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncmc/2459714845/

 

[turbo]

That's a nice panorama with great skies. Rendering that old mill in gray-scale was a good touch. I'll have to do that with a few less-than interesting shots to see if anything "pops".

 

[Math Is Hard]

That's a very good observation, Borek. There are many times when I have seen things that aren't too attractive, like this wasp and Japanese beetles stealing my raspberries.

I really like Japanese beetles. We used to call them june bugs.

 

[turbo]

I killed the Japanese beetles in that picture shortly after taking their obituary portraits. They are highly destructive and I have to battle to keep them out of my vegetable garden and off my fruit trees. A spray-bottle filled with a strong solution of dishwashing liquid and water knocks 'em dead.

 

[Andre]

World is beautifull everywhere, you either see it or not

Absolutely, but at some places it's easier to find some kind of beauty than elsewhere.

 

[Borek]

There are many times when I have seen things that aren't too attractive, like this wasp and Japanese beetles stealing my raspberries.

They can be dangerous - but they are not ugly. And all bugs are busy on the picture, your raspberries must be yummy

 

[turbo]

They can be dangerous - but they are not ugly. And all bugs are busy on the picture, your raspberries must be yummy

I don't mind wasps at all. The Japanese beetles are highly destructive, though, and my appreciation for their iridescent colors is tempered by the knowledge that they can ruin vegetables and fruits. A heavy infestation last year made me fear for the survival of some of my little fruit trees - they can strip the leaves from a small tree in a very short time. Luckily, we had heavy snow-cover last winter, and the ground didn't freeze hard, allowing voles and moles to tunnel everywhere eating their larvae. That should suppress this year's population.

 

[Andre]

Meanwhile,I hiked to my favorite panorama view for some more shots, trying out RAW conversion.

The scenery after toying with RAW:

Here 100% size crops of the centre rock. Left the standard JPEG output, right reworked RAW, with a little sharpening and color enhancement.

Clear that it's a good idea to go for RAW.

 

[turbo]

Looks like Andre's having fun! Very pretty vista!

 

[Andre]

You can say that again. BTW, that's the Danube valley in Southern Germany. The village is "Hausen I am Tal".

 

[Borek]

Was your jpg saved with sharpening, or not?

 

[Andre]

No, just on default, no NR, no sharpening

 

[turbo]

I tried shooting RAW for a while Andre, and went back to jpeg because it's fast and easy, and Windows previews jpegs automatically. I may have to give RAW another critical trial.

 

[Andre]

The software is probably improved since then Turbo. I can shoot RAW without noticable delay, although the buffer may saturate eventually in continuous shooting. Also, full size JPEG's are stored. The RAW converter tool gives a good overview for selection of the best pictures to convert and is definitely user friendly. I can not think of excuses not to use RAW, oh yes the SD cards fills up quickly. Well I have more cards.

 

[Borek]

In my experience buffer will saturate no matter what format you use.

Just checked that cr2 is read by irfan view about as fast as jpg, that's a little bit surprising - it was much slower when I checked last year. Could be either irfan was optimized, or it is much faster on my Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz. Will give raw another try then, I was using it only occasionally, for really hard/tricky shots, as I found them to be slow to use on my previous machine (which was 2.4 GHz, so not that slow).

 

[~christina~]

wow, nice detail Andre.
I don't shoot raw because I would need to buy another program to convert from raw pics AND raw photos take up lots and lots of space on memory cards. It's annoying since I have photoshop but Canon and other companies give the raw converter WITH their camera when you purchase it.

I keep in mind that I used to use (3) 2.0mp cards and (1) 1.0mp card when taking pics and I filled them until they were full. (I don't think I'd be able to have the space to shoot raw, the way I take pics.

 

[Andre]

wow, nice detail Andre.
I don't shoot raw because I would need to buy another program to convert from raw pics AND raw photos take up lots and lots of space on memory cards. It's annoying since I have photoshop but Canon and other companies give the raw converter WITH their camera when you purchase it.

I keep in mind that I used to use (3) 2.0mp cards and (1) 1.0mp card when taking pics and I filled them until they were full. (I don't think I'd be able to have the space to shoot raw, the way I take pics.

Thanks Christina, but isn't there a RAW (NEF) converter somewhere on the standard NIKON software? Anyway, there is freeware:

http://www.graphicregion.com/ablerawer.htm
http://raifra.fh-friedberg.de/Mac/index-en.html

 

[Borek]

It turns out that irfan - while shows raw files pretty fast - cuts them down to half resolution when converting to tiff And Photoshop (at least the version that I have) doesn't open cr2. So I am forced to use Canon utility with its awkward user interface to convert and fine tune gamma/white balance, to later use Photoshop to crop and resize. Hardly convenient.

 

[Andre]

Are you referring to Canon Digital Photo Professional 2? My version is 3.3

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos450d/page18.asp

That's what I used and found it easier than Silkypix that came with Panasonic. I see no issues with white balance here. But indeed a cropping tool would have been nice.

There should be plug ins for photoshop, allowing for the .CR2 format.

 

[Borek]

I have version 2.2, will have to check if it is possible to upgrade. There are Photoshop plugins, but they are pricey. Or at least they were for me when I checked last year.

Hah, looks like you can download newest version (3.4.1) of Digital Photo Professional for free. Will try.

 

[~christina~]

Thanks Christina, but isn't there a RAW (NEF) converter somewhere on the standard NIKON software? Anyway, there is freeware:

http://www.graphicregion.com/ablerawer.htm
http://raifra.fh-friedberg.de/Mac/index-en.html

Do you use any of the 2 softwares? I assume you don't but I'm not a fan of downloads. (don't trust that they're just software but rather include virus')

 

[Andre]

Do you use any of the 2 softwares? I assume you don't but I'm not a fan of downloads. (don't trust that they're just software but rather include virus')

Right, you should not. Actually there should be software from Nikon available:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40x/page16.asp

the "Nikon Capture NX", it should be on the CD than came with the camera and a second version here: http://www.nikon.com/about/news/2008/0603_01.htm

But as you can see, there is not a lot to gain with the first version, to go through all the trouble, perhaps the second version is worth a try.

 

[larkspur]

Pink sky at night...

Pink sky at night...I was driving down a country road and saw this cloud formation. I decided to take some bracketed shots and try an HDR with the scene.

 

[turbo]

Very pretty! The borders of the hills/trees are a bit hot but the image has potential, if you are ready to devote TONS of time to Photoshopping.

 

[larkspur]

Very pretty! The borders of the hills/trees are a bit hot but the image has potential, if you are ready to devote TONS of time to Photoshopping.

I may have the time but don't know what to do with the image...

 

[~christina~]

I may have the time but don't know what to do with the image...

I like the image but it looks like you already spent a great deal of time on it. Was it taken when completely dark? (you said it was taken at night)

 

[Borek]

I was close to ask about HDR when you have posted previous picture (the one you have just entered into tranquility contest) - now I know the answer

Great shot.

I believe larkspur referred to the way picture looks, not time of the day. Sun is high on the picture, so it can't be night.