Physics Forums photography thread and image sharing

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A tighter crop of my ladybug buddy from earlier today. Shot at 135mm (closest focus) with the 28-135 EF.

Red ladybug with black spots crawling on a thin green branch among green leaves, against a blurred green background.
 
Borek said:
Street performer in a dark jacket with yellow and red sashes and white trousers, tossing a flat disk into the air with a stick in a paved plaza, with a crowd of spectators behind.



Edit: I was just suggested (on some other forum) that this picture should be titled UFO over Warsaw. As such it is for Ivan :smile:

It would be if you cropped above the stick that the man is using to throw the disk with.
 
turbo-1 said:
Here is a blue-flag (iris) in the shaded little frog-pond near my vegetable garden. As luck would have it, the only little glimmer of sunlight that got through the trees was on the flower. I'm not really happy with the DOF, but it was pretty dark in there.
Purple-blue iris flower with pale veined petals growing from green stems above dark water, with grass blades in the background.
:redface:

Lovely color you captured Turbo!
 
hypatia said:
Sandy beach with a line of rounded pebbles at the waterline, choppy waves rolling in from the left under a sky of large cumulus clouds, with green trees along the shoreline to the right.


My Lake
That is beautiful hypatia! I really like the clouds.
 
Turbo, that's a beautiful flower and great picture. Nice pic of the ladybug (ladybird beetle). If you see a 2-spotted or 8-spotted one let me know. We're looking for indigenous ladybugs.

Borek, thanks for the wonderful pictures from Warsaw. It's on my list of places to go.

hyaptia, I love the picture of the beach, lake and clouds. It's looks so inviting.
 
Thanks, larkspur! It was glowing beautifully in that deep shade. I lost some detail due to the shallow DOF, but that's the price you pay when shooting hand-held with short shutter-speeds. One of my favorite parts of this image is the blue sky reflected from the meniscus at the base of every piece of foliage penetrating the surface of the water. Silly detail to get caught up on, but I like it.
 
Lovely flower macro Turbo, and that lakeside view is amazing hypatia. I love the soft orange light.

I've just bought a hoya r72 infrared filter which I've been playing with today. It blocks out nearly all visible light and if you use long exposures you can cach images using only near infrared, which most digital cameras have some natural ability to pick up. The colours here have been messed with substantially

Infrared-style landscape photo of a rural footpath through hedgerows, with a wooden five-bar gate on the left, a bright cloudy sky and foliage rendered in purple and cream tones.
 
matthyaouw, looks like we're about to see the strange new world

Thank you larkspur,matthyaouw and Astro, my summer place is just around the point.
 
matthyaouw said:
Lovely flower macro Turbo, and that lakeside view is amazing hypatia. I love the soft orange light.

I've just bought a hoya r72 infrared filter which I've been playing with today. It blocks out nearly all visible light and if you use long exposures you can cach images using only near infrared, which most digital cameras have some natural ability to pick up. The colours here have been messed with substantially

Infrared photograph of a country path running between hedgerows, with a wooden five-bar gate on the left and bushes and trees in purple and pale tones under a yellowish sky.
Thanks matt! That's actually a tight crop of a 135mm shot from across that tiny pond.

Nice IR shot. I might want an IR filter someday, if I ever get around to buying a head for my massive old Bogen. There a guy on another forum who plays with IR a lot and his landscapes can be ethereal.
 
matthyaouw said:
Lovely flower macro Turbo, and that lakeside view is amazing hypatia. I love the soft orange light.

I've just bought a hoya r72 infrared filter which I've been playing with today. It blocks out nearly all visible light and if you use long exposures you can cach images using only near infrared, which most digital cameras have some natural ability to pick up. The colours here have been messed with substantially

Infrared-style photo of a wooden field gate on a grassy path, flanked by bushes and trees with pale purple foliage under a yellowish cloudy sky.

Very interesting matthyaouw!
 
Castle Gardens in Asten

Garden pond with a fountain jet in the foreground, a potted palm tree on a stone plinth beside the water, and flower beds and trees in the background.


fits to:

Water cascading down a curtain-like fountain on the left, with a still pond edged with reeds and water lilies, a curved stone walkway, and green trees beyond under an overcast sky.



More to follow
 
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All my shots here and most on the other photo threads are made by a new Canon Rebel XSi AKA Canon EOS 450D. I spent weeks selecting the camera and the final decision was only made when comparing reviews were available at DP-review. I really thought that it was going to be a Sony or a Pentax, but one has to be objective. Image quality must prevail especially at higher sensitivities.

But if you get inspired, assuming that I did my homework well enough and follow my example, be careful. The XSi/450D is not a beginners - point and shoot camera, like the Sony A350 for instance. You need to be aware of several pecularities. Nowadays the photography forums are getting flooded with threads like: "My Rebel is consistently focussing badly. it's no good so I returned it and got a Nikon/Sony instead".

I had some focussing issues in the beginning but quickly discovered that it was my own fault. My EOS is fine but you need to know how to handle it. For instance you cannot merely point at the main subject, push the shutter button halfway to do the metering and then recompose the picture, moving the camera. This works fine with most of the digitals but for the Canon, you have to select Auto Focus "one shot" first, then it will focus only once and you can move anything you want.

However if you are in a dynamic situation with subjects moving around constantly then you would select Autofocus "AI-Servo", which keeps checking the distance to the subject in the selected sensors, trying to get you the best focus all the time. Nice for sports but not something you'd like during recomposing.

But there is a compromise setting "AI-Focus", which basically assumes that your subject does not move. But it will check it and if it finds that the subject did move then it will refocus. However this is not fail safe and it may get active refocussing during recomposing resulting in "My Canon is focussing badly - no good".

So should you select the Canon for superior images at economic rates, be prepared to keep thinking what you're doing and check and adjust your settings beforehand, otherwise you'll not be amused. Finally, the "canon - bad" threads all over internet could be a hoax but it's more likely that it's the result of pointers and shooters converting to a real quality machine without doing the homework.
 
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Good advice, Andre. My transition from Olympus P&S to Canon 30D was fun, but not trouble-free. The incredible flexibility of the Canon EOS invites experimentation, but the hard reality is that the flexibility offers you a LOT more ways to screw up shots - especially if you change several settings to try to get a particular effect, and neglect to reset them afterward. When I bought the second 30D, it was an out-of-the box new body that had been on display in a shop. The very first thing I did was restore all settings to default (Clear Settings function) because there are just too many options that curious customers might have played with.

Like you, I suspect that people who have negative things to say about these cameras were unprepared for the complexity they would encounter, and they gave their opinions before they had learned how to operate their cameras properly. Getting less-than-ideal photographic results is rarely the fault of the camera.
 
Right, it's fun to play with. I'm getting a bit addicted a bit playing with RAW.

The basic raw shot on 8% (full frame):

Landscape photo of a large cumulus cloud tower rising over green trees and flat fields under a blue sky, with a darker storm cloud on the left.


After tuning just about everything:

Landscape photo of large white and grey cumulus clouds over a flat green field with willow trees and a distant line of trees and sand piles.


Of course you stumble upon this scenery after the contest is closed.

It's in the shallow IJssel river valley near Zwolle in The Netherlands
 
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My attempt of a macro picture

Close-up of an orange-red lily flower in full bloom, with purple flowers, green leaves and an unopened lily bud in the background.


A larger shot, I succeeded in getting both subjects in focus and the sun helped a great deal with the lighting of the church :smile:

Orange and pink lilies in bloom in the foreground with green leaves, with a brick Gothic church with pointed arched windows and spire pinnacles behind them under a blue sky.
 
Nice work, Monique, such a extreme large field of view is only possible with a small sensor camera, getting a very small magnification, lens in wide angle and much light for a small aperture. Sensors of pocket camera's are usually around 25% of the size of a DSLR semsor.

Incidently, it is a common mistake to assume that the focal length of the lens is not a factor in determining the field of view. It does, albeit a small factor. Working out the math for that is first years level. It will show that the focal length will remain the in the outcome.
 
A bit more about depth of field (DOF). My extremes, the Panasonic FZ-18 small sensor at wide angle (28mm equivalent SLR) at F8:

Red begonia flowers in the foreground on a paved edge, with a sunlit lawn and tall green hedges blurred in the background.


and the same begonia moments later taken by Canon large sensor 300mm (480 mm equivalent SLR) at F5.6:

Close-up photo of clustered red begonia flowers with ruffled petals and dark green serrated leaves, against a soft blurred green background.


The larger the image the shorter the depth of field. Sometimes benificial, sometimes not.
Reason to keep your point and shoot camera when converting to a DSLR, since the latter won't follow this act:

Meadow of pink campion flowers with green grass and fern-like foliage, with a dense conifer forest on a hill to the right under an overcast sky.


Depth of field 15cm - infinity. Camera FZ-8 this time.
 
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I wished I lived in such a pretty place Andre, Monique, and hypatia. Too bad there isn't much of that here.
 
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Thanks, Christina, In the Netherlands we tend to think that our country is flat and boring, but compared to many places it's very green and life is everywhere. The last picture was taken in southern Germany, where I used to live part time, which is even more green with much more flowers and hills too as you can see .
 
Talking about pretty places, it's my sis who really lives in a pretty place, we came to talk about that in this thread:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=250146

A few pictures I made the other year.

View from the garden:

View from a garden terrace over a pond with water lilies and a small statue, a white balustrade, and wooded hills and valley fields beneath a cloudy sky.


The little chateau

Large cream-coloured stone chateau with terracotta tiled roofs and yellow shutters, seen across a lawn with a wooden picnic table and fence, under a blue sky with trees in the foreground.


Morning fog in the valley:

Morning fog filling a valley below wooded mountains under a clear blue sky, seen from a garden with a stone balustrade, a pond and leafy plants in the foreground.


This is what you see when that morning fog starts to lift up due to convection in the heating of the sun.

Sunlight streaming through morning fog among trees, with two hanging lanterns on a wooden pergola and red flowers in the foreground garden.


Now I know why I travel those 1200 km again so happily.
 
Erm, after Andres pictures the one I am going to post looks completely out of place... But after I have posted photo contest picture Lisab commented on the desk and I just happen to have picture of my desk here, taken last year - and I should not post it in the contest thread, so I am left with this one.

Cluttered wooden desk with a beige CRT monitor, a second older CRT monitor on a shelf, a keyboard, a telephone handset, a calculator, a mug, and piles of loose papers and documents.


If a clean desk is a sign of sick mind, I am a real picture of health :wink:
 
Borek said:
If a clean desk is a sign of sick mind, I am a real picture of health :wink:
I'm healthier. :smile:
 
Astronuc said:
I'm healthier. :smile:
My wife has to clean my desk periodically to make sure that I won't be immortal. The stress of trying to find all my papers, little notes to myself, etc isn't enough to kill me, but it probably cuts my longevity somewhat.
 
Sometimes I hear people wondering: can that bear fly??

Yellow toy figure of Winnie the Pooh in a brown aviator helmet with teal goggles and a red scarf, arms outstretched holding a white paper plane, one leg kicked back, standing on a purple base.


Yes, that bear can.
 
:smile:

Andre, is Pooh Bear more than just your avatar...is it also a nick name, perhaps?
 
lisab said:
:smile:

Andre, is Pooh Bear more than just your avatar...is it also a nick name, perhaps?

I'm afraid not, Lisa. One does not choose ones own nickname. Mine is `Bee´. We had a very authoritive general. who did not like his nickname `Alf´, since the size of his nose competed with the nose of the alien with that name. No luck, he stayed Alf.
 
Is it strange for a woman to be healthy? :rolleyes: Anyway add me to the list of healthy PFers!



Borek said:
Erm, after Andres pictures the one I am going to post looks completely out of place... But after I have posted photo contest picture Lisab commented on the desk and I just happen to have picture of my desk here, taken last year - and I should not post it in the contest thread, so I am left with this one.


If a clean desk is a sign of sick mind, I am a real picture of health :wink:

Astronuc said:
I'm healthier. :smile:

turbo-1 said:
My wife has to clean my desk periodically to make sure that I won't be immortal. The stress of trying to find all my papers, little notes to myself, etc isn't enough to kill me, but it probably cuts my longevity somewhat.

:smile:
 
For the past couple of years, I layered my desk with papers loaded with cryptic notes with NGC numbers, ESO designations, Arp and A-M catalog designations. The layers would make no sense to anybody but me, because I knew what kinds of galaxy interactions I was cataloging and why I singled some of these out. The first time my wife cleaned my desk, I probably lost 7-8 of my 9 lives. After that, we came to some sort of agreement.