Physics Forums photography thread and image sharing

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That is some mighty fine lighting Andre :smile:

I spent a couple of weeks in Scotland last month:

Photo of a long lake winding between forested mountains under a pink and orange sunset sky, with dark conifers in the foreground.


Photo of a lichen-covered grey rock partly submerged in clear, shallow water, with small pebbles and a darker rock visible on the sandy bottom.


Weathered wooden rowing boat with broken, peeling planks lying on muddy shore, with a river, grassy banks, trees and a small white building under a cloudy sky.


Long-exposure view across calm, misty water toward distant dark hills under a pink and lavender dusk sky, with lights of a town along the shoreline and lichen-covered dark rocks in the foreground.


Long-exposure photo of two yellow painted lines running down into calm, misty water beside a rocky shoreline under a grey, cloudy sky with distant hills.
 
Nice work Matt, excellent.

So, after finding myself unable to satisfy a request of a sibling to make wide angle -real estate broker- interior pictures, I decided that I needed a wide angle lens.

So instead of going to the retailer I did some research and settled for a second hand, like new, etc, economical feasible Tokina 12-24mm for these reasons

So I wanted to compare it with the kit lens and I made this test shot with both lenses.

Front garden with pink hibiscus blooms and red flowering shrubs beside a brick house window, with three white rectangles marking crop areas.


This messy rainforest is my front yard. I see if I can make something decent of it next year. The white rectangles are the crops below at 100%.

So I first processed the RAW shot, with only one click out of ten for sharpening and some trail and error work to take care of the Chromatic aberration. To the left is the camera processed jpg and to the right the result of the RAW processing and especially the fuchsia stems in the middle crop show some success dealing with the chromatic aberration.

Three pairs of side-by-side crops of garden plants: dark red flowering shrub at top, fuchsia stems with red hanging flowers in middle, and pink flowers against a brick wall at bottom, left and right versions compared.


A second shot almost similar was made with the kid lens with identical processing giving these results:

Four 100% crops comparing two photos of garden foliage: red hydrangea blooms and green leaves on top, and red fuchsia flowers among dark green leaves below.


Again, especially the fuchsias suggest that the Tokina wide angle lives up to its expectations.
 
matthyaouw,

Amazing work! How much work was done in post? My favorite is the second from last. :smile:

- Warren
 
That looks a pretty nice lens. I didn't consider it when I went for my ultra wide because I thought I'd miss the extra 2mm advantage the sigma had, but I'm finding 10mm is just too wide for most things I want to do with it.
 
chroot said:
matthyaouw,

Amazing work! How much work was done in post? My favorite is the second from last. :smile:

- Warren

Thanks! Most of them have just had a contrast & saturation tweak and a sharpen. The second to last had the sky darkened a tad. The last had some pretty strange colours because of the filters it was taken through so it had its white balance changed a whole load and the sky was partially desaturated.
 
Hazy orange sunset over rolling hills and silhouetted trees, with the bright white sun partly obscured by clouds in the upper left.


I have several versions differing in the size of the white spot, can't decide which one is the best.
 
Beautiful pictures Andre, matthyaouw, and Borek!
 
Moths are cute

Close-up frontal photo of a brown moth with long thin antennae, large dark eyes and reddish-brown legs, resting on a smooth grey surface.


This is Behe :smile:

Or somewhat closer (60% crop)

Close-up head-on photo of a brown furry moth showing its large dark compound eyes, short antennae and fuzzy thorax.
 
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Darn your macro hide, Andre! I have been looking for one for over a month, and nobody in the US has them. Everyone wants my credit card # to lock me in, but nobody can ship a lens. I don't play that game.
 
turbo-1 said:
Darn your macro hide, Andre! I have been looking for one for over a month, and nobody in the US has them. Everyone wants my credit card # to lock me in, but nobody can ship a lens. I don't play that game.

Sorry to hear, Turbo. I was looking around to see if I could assist. This is definitely true:

Here is a warning for anyone contemplating the purchase of the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens: You will find yourself looking for little things to use for subjects - which are everywhere. No bug is safe. You will find you neck hurting from looking down all the time. You will discover a world you never knew existed. Macro photography is great fun. And men - You now have another reason to buy your wife flowers (they make great subjects).
 
Thanks, Andre, though possible warranty issues and for-certain import duty issues make me want to buy from a US company. I'll just have to wait it out - meanwhile the nicest macro season (summer) is waning.
 
some 'against the light' pictures that somehow I did not select for the contest, because I thought the big sunset -although not my favorite- would be considered best

Sunlit Japanese maple with orange and yellow autumn leaves on a branching trunk, backlit against a bright lawn and shaded grass in a park.


Hazy backlit landscape photo of a wind-bent pine on a steep wooded slope, with a deep forested valley and distant ridges fading into the sunlit mist.


Backlit photo of tree branches and yellow-green leaves against bright sunlight, with dark horizontal wooden rails or beams crossing the scene.


Autumn landscape photo taken against strong backlight: a small shrub with orange-red leaves in the foreground on a rocky ridge, looking down a wooded valley with mixed orange and green forest.


Sunlight shining through a woodland of tall bare-trunked trees with yellow and orange autumn foliage, with fallen leaves covering the forest floor.


Snowy woodland path backlit by low winter sun, with long shadows of bare and evergreen trees stretching across the snow and footprints in the path.


Winter scene on a snowy hillside path with a tall pine tree backlit by the low sun, with a hazy valley and distant hills beyond.
 
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Yesterday I have seen a friend of mine. It happened that in the last few years we have seen each other about once per year and only for a moment, so we have not exchanged much information. We have finally spent a few hours talking about everything that have happened in the meantime. He told me his 18 y.o. son is interested in photography and just got accepted to National Film School in Łódź (200 people interested, 7 places available). Then he gave me these links:

http://miachal.fotolog.pl

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11516102@N07/

There are moments when you want to throw the camera away and to stop thinking you ever knew how to take a simple picture.
 
True

Anyway, I browsed some old files and had forgotten about this capture of the dew in the cold morning

Dark silhouetted branch tips against a grey sky, covered in dew droplets and fine spider silk strands strung between the sprigs.
 
I have been waiting for the Canon 100mm macro to come off back-order. Canon has made no announcements, but it is funny that such a popular lens should be out of production for such a long time. That's got me thinking...is Canon re-designing that lens with Image Stabilization? It would be a really great move on their part.

Until that happens, maybe I should be happy with what I've got. I shot these today..the first one with the 28-135 at 135mm and the second with the 100-400 at 400mm. I used the on-board flash for the first, and natural lighting for the second.
Close-up photo of a dark cicada with orange markings and clear veined wings resting on a white woven fabric surface.


Close-up photo of a dark cicada with orange markings and clear veined wings resting on a textured light grey fabric.
 
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I started digging around, and this site has a Canon press release that claims that Canon's new hybrid IS system is a perfect match for macro lenses, in which high magnification also magnifies the blurring effects of shake and tilt. That would explain why the 100mm macro has been unavailable for months. My fear is that a new 100mm macro IS will also carry a red band (L designation) and jump several hundred dollars in price. Grrr!

http://www.canonrumors.com/
 
Link is not working - I mean, it displays only generic CanonRumors logo. Probably protection against hotlinking.
 
Borek said:
Link is not working - I mean, it displays only generic CanonRumors logo. Probably protection against hotlinking.
Oops! It showed for me after I checked the link, but that was because I had the image in my cache. It's a picture of a 100mm macro USM IS, with a red band, so it's been upgraded to L-series.
 
So here's your lens Turbo, officially announced: 100m f2.8 L with iS

But good news for your wallet:
The Canon EF 100mm F2.8L IS USM macro will supplement, rather than replace the existing 100mm F2.8 USM macro

Now all you need to do is convince yourself not to buy the nicer version. Good luck!

Canon have also announced the Eos 7D. This looks like a nice camera! The same size sensor as the 40d, 450d etc but with some of the perks of the 5d and its ilk.
 
I wonder if 7D CFx settings allow to remember - for example - +/-1 Tv bracketing with continuous shooting. This is a setting that I use now and then when it is hard to decide what exposition will be the best, but setting it requires a lot of tinkering; having it as an easily accessible preset would be a perfect solution.
 
Anyway, spent sometimes in the modest dutch forest and heather fields today to shoot ~200 pictures. I named this picture wow-heath.

Close-up of pink bell-shaped heather flowers on a dark background, with clusters of water droplets beaded across the petals, stems and hairy sepals.


The species is Erica tetralix, but this specimen was the only one covered with those thick sticky water like bubbles.

Wow.

It was way too late for dew, I see that the leaves also possesses sticky, adhesive glands but this is weird.
 
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Andre said:
Anyway, spent sometimes in the modest dutch forest and heath fields today to shoot ~200 pictures. I named this picture wow-heath.

The species is Erica tetralix, but this specimen was the only one covered with those thick sticky water like bubbles.

Wow.

It was way too late for dew, I see that the leaves also possesses sticky, adhesive glands but this is weird.
Any bugs caught in the sticky stuff? Around here, we have little plants called "sundews" that often live in nutrient-poor places like on rotting wood. They have sticky stuff on their leaves that looks tempting to insects. Bugs get stuck in the goo, and as they struggle to escape, the leaf folds around the bug, and as the bud dies, the plant absorbs its nutrients.
 
We have sundew as well, but no bugs here and lots of these flowers without the sticky stuff. It was close to this tree

Heathland with reddish-purple flowering heather in the foreground, a gnarled pine tree on the right, and a line of dark green trees in the distance under a blue sky.


Notice the boxes in the centre at the back. If you get real close it loox like this:

Honey bees crowd the yellow landing board at the entrance of a green beehive while several others fly in the air above it.
 
Andre said:
We have sundew as well, but no bugs here and lots of these flowers without the sticky stuff. It was close to this tree

Heathland in bloom with pink and purple heather in the foreground, a large gnarled pine tree on the right, and a line of dark green trees and a blue sky with thin cloud streaks behind.


Notice the boxes in the centre at the back. If you get real close it loox like this:

Honey bees crowding and flying around the entrance of a green wooden beehive with a yellow painted landing board.

Ah, very nice...I bet it's a wonderful place for a bear to go on a long explore :smile:.