Support NeoGAF

[Cosmonaut X]

Nice job Cosmonaut! Really like that close up of the cyclist and the valley scene. Glad you enjoyed and made some good contacts!

Thanks! Was a lot more hectic than I expected - the cyclists are past really quickly, even on such a steep gradient, and because it's not run over multiple laps like the previous cycle event I was at you don't get any second chances. Trying to mix up the shots, catch as many riders as possible, swap lenses etc. kept me on my toes, and while I'm not sure I got everything I wanted (for example, the slower climb meant panning wasn't possible, so most of my panning shots are from the later, faster stage) it was definitely a worthwhile day.

One thing I did try which I think helped with the end result was shunting my focus points about. Instead of relying on the centre point, I fired it off to the sides to help compose shots in camera without having to crop heavily - a lot of the shots with cyclists riding in from the left have the focus point off to that side so I can hold them in focus and give them space to kinda ride in to. It's not necessary in every shot, but I think it helped mix up the look of the photos.

EDIT:

Holy shit - the event organiser just shared my photos through their social media channels. My previous max Flickr daily views was around 900 and I've just seen it hit 6,600 in a bit over an hour. That's also well over half of what my total views to date was (10,000-ish) and I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up doing the same number of views today as I've done over the last 9 months or so!

EDIT 2:

Blimey - it cleared 20,000 today. Definitely worth doing the event just for the extra eyes on!

 

[Vazduh]

Flickr

You got some stunning photos with that film. I'm definitely buying it sometime soon.

Since I was at a craft beer festival in Osijek (Croatia) a couple days ago, I took my Praktica with me, as well as two Fomapan 400 films I rated at ISO 800 and developed as such in Xtol. I slightly overdeveloped it since I wanted stronger blacks, so I'm mostly happy with the results (tone-wise).

Craft Beer Festival 2017, Osijek by Ante Prskalo, on Flickr

Craft Beer Festival 2017, Osijek by Ante Prskalo, on Flickr

Craft Beer Festival 2017, Osijek by Ante Prskalo, on Flickr

Dunja playing pt 2 by Ante Prskalo, on Flickr

The view from the apartment window by Ante Prskalo, on Flickr

 

[kazinova]

Experimenting with long exposures. The cheap variable ND filter causes weird gradients, but it's a cheap way to try stuff out.
Chagrin Falls, Ohio by Kaz, on Flickr

 

[Lucky Forward]

Experimenting with long exposures. The cheap variable ND filter causes weird gradients, but it's a cheap way to try stuff out.
Chagrin Falls, Ohio by Kaz, on Flickr

Great shot! It's nice that the people (mostly) stayed still for your long exposure.

I recently shot some cascades in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. I used a polarizer on all of them, but for the last three I added a Lee Big Stopper 6-stop filter because I had some bright sun lit areas in the photos.

IMG_7870 by Lucky Forward, on Flickr

IMG_7653 by Lucky Forward, on Flickr

IMG_8105 by Lucky Forward, on Flickr

IMG_8122 by Lucky Forward, on Flickr

IMG_8164 by Lucky Forward, on Flickr

 

[Chiaroscuro]

Bought an Epson V850 a couple of weeks ago. It's a HUGE improvement over my old V500.
]

Question: I want a new scanner to digitalize old negatives, but V850 is out of my range. I was considering the V550, is it that bad?

 

[Vazduh]

Question: I want a new scanner to digitalize old negatives, but V850 is out of my range. I was considering the V550, is it that bad?

I think you should be more than fine. Iirc with V550 you can scan less negatives at once than with V850, but maybe someone else can confirm that one.

But for scanning 35mm negatives it's always better to get a dedicated scanner. Not those cheap CMOS ones which will give you horrible results, but something like Plustek Opticfilm 7200/8200 or maybe Pacific Image PrimeFilm 7200. Those are slow since you have to move the negatives one at a time, but the scans will always be better than anything you'll get with a flatbed scanner. But if you want normal scans (perfect for archival use/Instagram/Facebook) and not something you'd print in a big format, then V550 will do just fine (and more than that, actually).

 

[kazinova]

Great shot! It's nice that the people (mostly) stayed still for your long exposure.

I recently shot some cascades in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. I used a polarizer on all of them, but for the last three I added a Lee Big Stopper 6-stop filter because I had some bright sun lit areas in the photos.

Just took enough to get one with people mostly still. The only downside was getting constantly misted by the waterfall and strong headwind. That was a lot of contant lens wiping.

If I wanted to move to a rear ND filter system do you like LEE? Do you have their whole holder system? I'm looking to get a real 6-stop filter and I was going between LEE/Nisi and the much cheaper Cokin P stuff. Was looking for some first hand recommendations. Your ability to actually use the color image is making me hate my garbage screw-in variable filter.

 

[JadedWriter]

Hectic weekend and just catching up on processing my shots. Saturday was full-on - I turned up a couple of hours ahead of the race to get set up and scout out angles, spent an hour or so running around like an idiot up and down rock faces and hairpins to get my shots, then once the last competitor was past I pegged it down the hill and drove round to catch the riders as they headed around the coast to the finish line. Shot loads with my 70-300, 18-140 and a borrowed Tokina 11-16 and managed to get plenty of different angles. Not sure how successful I was, but I did get chatting to the team behind the event and I've got an open invite to upcoming events and they're interested in using a few shots, and I got approached by people on the day looking to buy photos. Really good experience, but because the race was just one lap there really was no room for error - if you missed a rider, you'd be bloody lucky to catch them again. Sun placement was a shit - high in the sky, at just the wrong angle etc. - but I tried to work with it as best as possible to get lots of colour and contrast and avoid the washed-out look as far as I could. Loads still to sort, but here are a few from the day:

DSC_3955 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_3996 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_3863 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_3873 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_4351 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_4489 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_4554 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_4736 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr

DSC_4760 by Cosmonaut X, on Flickr



The next day I took a run out to catch a Spitfire flypast/display at a local WWII festival. Spectacular weather and a great display, but the pilot ran his display pretty high and distant, so close shots were a struggle. I did manage to get a whole sequence of shots from his display though and I tried something a little different, assembling them into one composite image to show a couple of the manoeuvres in full. I think there around 20 images in all in this, and while I extended the sky to fill in gaps it's otherwise not been messed with. Not sure I managed to nail the form of the display properly so it might need tweaked a little, but it was a fun way to try and salvage something from the shoot.

These are pretty good.

 

[Audible Phonetics]

In Boston for work. Brought my 80D with me and my new sigma 18-35 f/1.8 with me

 

[Lys Skygge]

I think you should be more than fine. Iirc with V550 you can scan less negatives at once than with V850, but maybe someone else can confirm that one.

But for scanning 35mm negatives it's always better to get a dedicated scanner. Not those cheap CMOS ones which will give you horrible results, but something like Plustek Opticfilm 7200/8200 or maybe Pacific Image PrimeFilm 7200. Those are slow since you have to move the negatives one at a time, but the scans will always be better than anything you'll get with a flatbed scanner. But if you want normal scans (perfect for archival use/Instagram/Facebook) and not something you'd print in a big format, then V550 will do just fine (and more than that, actually).

Yeah a dedicated scanner is best for 35mm. I scan up to 4x5 film so a flatbed was a must (unless I could fork over $10,000+ for a dedicated scanner that scan up to 4x5).

Question: I want a new scanner to digitalize old negatives, but V850 is out of my range. I was considering the V550, is it that bad?

A V550 seems like a good scanner; I had a V500 for years and I got decent results. I'm finding the V850 to have better sharpness and dynamic range though. But a lot of the benifits of the V850 over the V500 aren't immediately apparent.

If you're only scanning 35mm, I'd go with a dedicated film scanner like Vazduh mentioned. You'll get better results from 35mm than my V850.

You got some stunning photos with that film. I'm definitely buying it sometime soon.

It's definitely become one of my favorite films. My favorite thing about it are the highlights, they just seem to glow. It makes overcast days look great!

 

[Lucky Forward]

Just took enough to get one with people mostly still. The only downside was getting constantly misted by the waterfall and strong headwind. That was a lot of contant lens wiping.

If I wanted to move to a rear ND filter system do you like LEE? Do you have their whole holder system? I'm looking to get a real 6-stop filter and I was going between LEE/Nisi and the much cheaper Cokin P stuff. Was looking for some first hand recommendations. Your ability to actually use the color image is making me hate my garbage screw-in variable filter.

The LEE filter and holder that I have go in front of the lens, I don't any a lot of experience with rear filters. So far I just own the LEE holder and the 6-stop, but I'm pleased with it and find it easy to work with. It's expensive, but it feels like quality which is nice because every time I changed compositions I had to take the filter out to be able to see well enough to recompose.

I've used Cokin in the past and I feel it really degrades the image quality too much.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

These are pretty good.

Thanks! Was a great opportunity, and I think there's some progress from my last cycle shoot earlier in the year - slow improvement, but improvement.

Just been having a shufti at your most recent shots - there are some crackers in there, and I really enjoyed the pictures from the party. Some really nice candid photos in there.

 

[JadedWriter]

Just been having a shufti at your most recent shots - there are some crackers in there, and I really enjoyed the pictures from the party. Some really nice candid photos in there.

Oh thanks. Sometimes I really don't know if people actually like what I put up. About a month ago I showed my stuff to a contact I was trying to make. Old photo pro that used to work for the NY Times. Told me my stuff was nothing but "basic" and I've pretty much been a bit down since then. Granted that was before that event I shot any way so I'm clearly still able to shoot with that on my mind, but not something I enjoyed hearing too much.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Oh thanks. Sometimes I really don't know if people actually like what I put up. About a month ago I showed my stuff to a contact I was trying to make. Old photo pro that used to work for the NY Times. Told me my stuff was nothing but "basic" and I've pretty much been a bit down since then. Granted that was before that event I shot any way so I'm clearly still able to shoot with that on my mind, but not something I enjoyed hearing too much.

Ouch :-/ That's not helpful - did he at least explain why he felt that way, or offer you pointers? It's one thing being given feedback that stings but is ultimately intended to help and quite another just to get dismissive feedback that tells you nothing useful.

I've been in the same mood for a while, but the feedback from the cycle event has been a bit of a lift. I'm still not getting quite the results I want, but it made me feel like I was at least making a bit of progress.

I think your candid and street shots are great - I like the more posed/model shots, but images catching fleeting moments, expressions and emotions are a lot more to my taste so that side of your stuff is what I respond to the most.

 

[JadedWriter]

Ouch :-/ That's not helpful - did he at least explain why he felt that way, or offer you pointers? It's one thing being given feedback that stings but is ultimately intended to help and quite another just to get dismissive feedback that tells you nothing useful.

I've been in the same mood for a while, but the feedback from the cycle event has been a bit of a lift. I'm still not getting quite the results I want, but it made me feel like I was at least making a bit of progress.

I think your candid and street shots are great - I like the more posed/model shots, but images catching fleeting moments, expressions and emotions are a lot more to my taste so that side of your stuff is what I respond to the most.

Told me to go out and get some "seasoning." This is a 66 year old man that has covered stuff I'm never going to be able to for 40 years and change so I guess everything is going to be basic and boring to him. Told me there's a ton of competition and that I'm never going to get hired for anything off my website. That's pretty much the gist of what he said. I should have hung up on him once he said he didn't have any sort of source for event photography jobs to be honest.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Told me to go out and get some "seasoning." This is a 66 year old man that has covered stuff I'm never going to be able to for 40 years and change so I guess everything is going to be basic and boring to him. Told me there's a ton of competition and that I'm never going to get hired for anything off my website. That's pretty much the gist of what he said. I should have hung up on him once he said he didn't have any sort of source for event photography jobs to be honest.

Yeah, that's a bit rough. I can imagine someone who came up in the '70s and spent the last few decades shooting is going to have their view coloured by that experience, particularly if they've been attached to a major paper like the NYT. My aviation stuff pales in comparison to the guys who have crazy access - getting attached to squadrons to shoot them, doing air-to-air work - and experience, and realistically I'm probably not going to be able to get near what they do, and I'd imagine even my favourite aircraft shots would be old hat - or "basic" - to them.

I'd love to get into shooting events more professionally, but it's difficult to know how to proceed. I started doing them more regularly this year, but it quickly became apparent that a lot of them had official photographers already, or - with the rally cars - the barriers to getting in were really high (to get on to the best parts of the course, you need to be attached to a recognised press outlet, have safety certificates etc.) and trying to find an in is really tricky. The last couple of events I decided to just offer shots to the organisers as my way in, and I've looked for events that are out of the way as a lot of the local photographers won't travel too far as it's not economical. It isn't a long-term solution - giving out freebies and paying travel costs etc. isn't smart business in the long run - but it might give enough of a chance to get involved and start building from there.

What kind of events are you trying to get in to shooting professionally?

 

[JadedWriter]

Yeah, that's a bit rough. I can imagine someone who came up in the '70s and spent the last few decades shooting is going to have their view coloured by that experience, particularly if they've been attached to a major paper like the NYT. My aviation stuff pales in comparison to the guys who have crazy access - getting attached to squadrons to shoot them, doing air-to-air work - and experience, and realistically I'm probably not going to be able to get near what they do, and I'd imagine even my favourite aircraft shots would be old hat - or "basic" - to them.

I'd love to get into shooting events more professionally, but it's difficult to know how to proceed. I started doing them more regularly this year, but it quickly became apparent that a lot of them had official photographers already, or - with the rally cars - the barriers to getting in were really high (to get on to the best parts of the course, you need to be attached to a recognised press outlet, have safety certificates etc.) and trying to find an in is really tricky. The last couple of events I decided to just offer shots to the organisers as my way in, and I've looked for events that are out of the way as a lot of the local photographers won't travel too far as it's not economical. It isn't a long-term solution - giving out freebies and paying travel costs etc. isn't smart business in the long run - but it might give enough of a chance to get involved and start building from there.

What kind of events are you trying to get in to shooting professionally?

Yeah I think this is why I'm pretty much just done with trying to get in contact with old dude photographers for sources for events and stuff like that. He's a freelancer for my job but at the end of the fucking day if my job is in an actual pinch for something they call me and not him so whatever. I'm mostly just trying to do corporate events and stuff like that, which is a pain in the ass to find.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

Thanks for he advices. I will go with the PrimeFilm 7200 then.

 

[Vazduh]

Thanks for he advices. I will go with the PrimeFilm 7200 then.

Make sure to use either SilverFast Ai or Vuescan, since apparently those produce the best results.

 

[brerwolfe]

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

These are pretty good.

I hate when you do this, btw.

 

[JadedWriter]

I hate when you do this, btw.

I'm lazy and don't always like A)singling them out cause I don't always get the right ones and B) I don't like deleting every picture out.

 

[brerwolfe]

I'm lazy and don't always like A)singling them out cause I don't always get the right ones

Simple counting would help to de-clutter individual pages.

But if I'm the only person that has a problem with it, then whatever. It annoys me so much that I've unsubscribed from the thread a couple times. But again, do you. I was just throwing out a non-photo critique.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

Make sure to use either SilverFast Ai or Vuescan, since apparently those produce the best results.

Found an used unit but its description says "7200 Reflecta" and its does not have the Pacific Image on top. Is it the same model for a different market or there is any difference?

 

[Vazduh]

Found an used unit but its description says "7200 Reflecta" and its does not have the Pacific Image on top. Is it the same model for a different market or there is any difference?

I'm pretty sure they're the same scanner. If their cases match, then that's it. Reflecta is for the German market, while Pacific Image is for the U.S.

 

[JadedWriter]

Simple counting would help to de-clutter individual pages.

But if I'm the only person that has a problem with it, then whatever. It annoys me so much that I've unsubscribed from the thread a couple times. But again, do you. I was just throwing out a non-photo critique.

You're talking to a dude with a bad memory and attention deficit disorder, I can mess up just about anything. I think I once tried counting and still messed it up.

 

[Astral/H3X]

Told me to go out and get some "seasoning." This is a 66 year old man that has covered stuff I'm never going to be able to for 40 years and change so I guess everything is going to be basic and boring to him. Told me there's a ton of competition and that I'm never going to get hired for anything off my website. That's pretty much the gist of what he said. I should have hung up on him once he said he didn't have any sort of source for event photography jobs to be honest.

Sounds to me like old man yelling at clouds. Guy probably doesn't think anyone is worth a damn unless they fire an unmetered film camera with no viewfinder, blindly pick the best photo from the roll of film without looking, and process it in a darkroom using nothing but your piss.

The point of a contact is to build someone up, not knock them down. Sucks to hear that though.

 

[JadedWriter]

Sounds to me like old man yelling at clouds. Guy probably doesn't think anyone is worth a damn unless they fire an unmetered film camera with no viewfinder, blindly pick the best photo from the roll of film without looking, and process it in a darkroom using nothing but your piss.

The point of a contact is to build someone up, not knock them down. Sucks to hear that though.

Funny enough the lead photographer and photo editors at my job, old dudes too are perfectly fine with my output. They will nitpick, but it seems like what I turn in is usable for the most part. I don't think they'd send me out on shit or cover for them at the last minute if I was shit. I'm representing the company doing this so I have to be doing something right.

 

[snaffles]

Funny enough the lead photographer and photo editors at my job, old dudes too are perfectly fine with my output. They will nitpick, but it seems like what I turn in is usable for the most part. I don't think they'd send me out on shit or cover for them at the last minute if I was shit. I'm representing the company doing this so I have to be doing something right.

You will never grow if you just bury your head in the sand. The old guy is right, you are a competent photographer but there is absolutely nothing unique about your portfolio. I don't think he was trying to be harsh on you just honest. You seem to take any comments extremely negatively rather than looking at them for what they are.

 

[JadedWriter]

You will never grow if you just bury your head in the sand. The old guy is right, you are a competent photographer but there is absolutely nothing unique about your portfolio. I don't think he was trying to be harsh on you just honest. You seem to take any comments extremely negatively rather than looking at them for what they are.

Well...yeah true. I think the improvement part is currently what I've been wracking my brain on honestly since I'm not sure what the process even is for that.

 

[Astral/H3X]

Hectic weekend and just catching up on processing my shots. Saturday was full-on - I turned up a couple of hours ahead of the race to get set up and scout out angles, spent an hour or so running around like an idiot up and down rock faces and hairpins to get my shots, then once the last competitor was past I pegged it down the hill and drove round to catch the riders as they headed around the coast to the finish line. Shot loads with my 70-300, 18-140 and a borrowed Tokina 11-16 and managed to get plenty of different angles. Not sure how successful I was, but I did get chatting to the team behind the event and I've got an open invite to upcoming events and they're interested in using a few shots, and I got approached by people on the day looking to buy photos. Really good experience, but because the race was just one lap there really was no room for error - if you missed a rider, you'd be bloody lucky to catch them again. Sun placement was a shit - high in the sky, at just the wrong angle etc. - but I tried to work with it as best as possible to get lots of colour and contrast and avoid the washed-out look as far as I could. Loads still to sort, but here are a few from the day:

Of these, I'd say I like the first one best -- it's the one where the background really adds to the photo, IMO. The rest of them I feel would benefit from tighter composition, some cropping if you're into that (or not Iunno). They have a lot of room around the subjects that don't really seem to add much, in general.

The next day I took a run out to catch a Spitfire flypast/display at a local WWII festival. Spectacular weather and a great display, but the pilot ran his display pretty high and distant, so close shots were a struggle. I did manage to get a whole sequence of shots from his display though and I tried something a little different, assembling them into one composite image to show a couple of the manoeuvres in full. I think there around 20 images in all in this, and while I extended the sky to fill in gaps it's otherwise not been messed with. Not sure I managed to nail the form of the display properly so it might need tweaked a little, but it was a fun way to try and salvage something from the shoot.

I feel like this would be the start of a new style, and I'm interested to see where it goes. Beyond that, creative way to salvage the shoot haha.

EDIT:

Well...yeah true. I think the improvement part is currently what I've been wracking my brain on honestly since I'm not sure what the process even is for that.

It might be a smidge easier for what I do, since it's just me adding more effort and more build up to the photos I take with my figures, but I'm aware of two main ways for improving: Being self critical, and imitating.
If you're self critical of your photos, if you really look at each photo and come up with one thing you hate about it, then that adds to your mental process, and helps you improve on the "technical" side of things. With imitation, you find someone whose photos you really like, and then analyze the shit out of some photos to figure out exactly what they did to make that photo -- and then you go do it. You do it several times, until you've mastered "copying" that photo, and in doing so you sort of add those techniques to your own repetoire. Of course, part of imitating it, will be finding a similar moment or scene like what you're imitating, which will help develop your "eye" on what to find and shoot.

How far these two will apply to you, I'm not sure, but those are the two ways I know of.

 

[sneaky77]

Well...yeah true. I think the improvement part is currently what I've been wracking my brain on honestly since I'm not sure what the process even is for that.

You can play with angles, or post processing options

 

[JadedWriter]

You can play with angles, or post processing options

Sometimes I do actually try the first thing and just don't use those cause my picture is out of focus. Second part I can actually do...easily, I just don't want to put the time into processing 90 pictures differently.

 

[sneaky77]

Sometimes I do actually try the first thing and just don't use those cause my picture is out of focus. Second part I can actually do...easily, I just don't want to put the time into processing 90 pictures differently.

Depends on the software is easy enough to copy paste adjustments, so don't need that, but even if you deliver to the company the usual photos, you can just take 1 you liked and play around with it, try different things, find a guy you like and see if they have any youtube videos, I don't know, I do it for fun and I am not great so just throwing stuff out there lol

 

[JadedWriter]

Depends on the software is easy enough to copy paste adjustments, so don't need that, but even if you deliver to the company the usual photos, you can just take 1 you liked and play around with it, try different things, find a guy you like and see if they have any youtube videos, I don't know, I do it for fun and I am not great so just throwing stuff out there lol

Ok, I might want to try singling out a photo or two to experiment with, I usually just batch process everything. I tweak the tone curves of every picture cause not everything has the same exposure, but that's about it. Based on what I shoot who should I even look at for inspiration. I actually like Joe McNally for example, but I don't think I can replicate anything he's done.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Of these, I'd say I like the first one best -- it's the one where the background really adds to the photo, IMO. The rest of them I feel would benefit from tighter composition, some cropping if you're into that (or not Iunno). They have a lot of room around the subjects that don't really seem to add much, in general.

Cheers, and yeah, I think some tighter crops would probably help them. I got about 150 usable shots on the day and I've used tighter crops on a few and kept all my RAW files, so I can go back and mess with them again when I've had a bit of time to stew (the Stephen King "stick 'em in the drawer and come back to them later" approach! )

I was trying to capture something of the landscape as well as the riders, and I think I've likely managed to fall somewhere between the two in a lot of instances - too much space around the riders to get the best framing, but not always enough of the valley to make sense of where the riders are in it, if that makes sense?

I feel like this would be the start of a new style, and I'm interested to see where it goes. Beyond that, creative way to salvage the shoot haha.

Yeah, I'm thinking that there might be something to this that's worth exploring. Most airshow/display photos concentrate on getting tight shots of key moments in the display, and while I love those I wonder if trying to nail the display as a whole like this might be worth thinking about too. I've got an airshow late in the year which will have two days of displays with a lot of repeat performances, so I could afford to take a day with a long lens shooting tight shots, then take the second day to go wide and get some context shots and parts of the display sequences to try and build more of these kind of images.

Necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose - if I hadn't been forced to try and salvage something, I likely wouldn't have tried this. It might not be quite there yet, but I think it's worth another few tries.

 

[sneaky77]

Ok, I might want to try singling out a photo or two to experiment with, I usually just batch process everything. I tweak the tone curves of every picture cause not everything has the same exposure, but that's about it. Based on what I shoot who should I even look at for inspiration. I actually like Joe McNally for example, but I don't think I can replicate anything he's done.

since you do mostly people, maybe some street photographers, that's usually a lot of b&w so I am not sure if that's your thing but you can always play around a bit with curves, colors and contrast

Cheers, and yeah, I think some tighter crops would probably help them. I got about 150 usable shots on the day and I've used tighter crops on a few and kept all my RAW files, so I can go back and mess with them again when I've had a bit of time to stew (the Stephen King "stick 'em in the drawer and come back to them later" approach! )

The shots where really good.

 

[JadedWriter]

since you do mostly people, maybe some street photographers, that's usually a lot of b&w so I am not sure if that's your thing but you can always play around a bit with curves, colors and contrast

Yeah I mess around with tone curves, saturation, vibrance and contrast a lot to be honest, I just don't want to over do it though because then the picture just starts looking unnatural. I don't always want to shoot in B&W either though, I do it when I think it'll enhance the picture or the colors are monotone enough to the point where they don't even add anything to the picture.

 

[Astral/H3X]

Ok, I might want to try singling out a photo or two to experiment with, I usually just batch process everything. I tweak the tone curves of every picture cause not everything has the same exposure, but that's about it. Based on what I shoot who should I even look at for inspiration. I actually like Joe McNally for example, but I don't think I can replicate anything he's done.

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to -- take a photo he's done, dissect it, and go from there.

For example, with this photo -- http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/index/I0000STpHcHnXfwk -- he's done a (kinda) long exposure with a rear sync'd flash. So grab your girlfriend, get her in a dress, and take some shots until you can mimic that. After you've mimic'd that, find another one. You won't directly replicate the exact photo, but you want to really pull in whatever process he was using to take the photo.

Also, street photos are ripe for B&W -- usually there'll be harsh shadows or similar, and black and white thrives in that.

 

[JadedWriter]

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to -- take a photo he's done, dissect it, and go from there.

For example, with this photo -- http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/index/I0000STpHcHnXfwk -- he's done a (kinda) long exposure with a rear sync'd flash. So grab your girlfriend, get her in a dress, and take some shots until you can mimic that. After you've mimic'd that, find another one. You won't directly replicate the exact photo, but you want to really pull in whatever process he was using to take the photo.

Also, street photos are ripe for B&W -- usually there'll be harsh shadows or similar, and black and white thrives in that.

Ok...that looks pretty cool. Also I'm single, on top of that tripod? I'm trash at hand held long exposures.

 

[Astral/H3X]

Ok...that looks pretty cool. Also I'm single, on top of that tripod? I'm trash at hand held long exposures.

I mean, everyone is trash at hand held long exposures.

Wait do you not have a tripod? And regardless, it was mainly an example of a process to analyse what someone did to get a look to a photo, and then practicing it to internalize it.

 

[DOWN]

Ok...that looks pretty cool. Also I'm single, on top of that tripod? I'm trash at hand held long exposures.

I don't think hand held long exposures is a thing

 

[JadedWriter]

I mean, everyone is trash at hand held long exposures.

Wait do you not have a tripod? And regardless, it was mainly an example of a process to analyse what someone did to get a look to a photo, and then practicing it to internalize it.

I don't have a tripod that would trust putting a gripped D810 on top of with a 2.8 70-200 attached to it. I know how Matt Granger fucked up one of his cameras, I'm not repeating it.

I don't think hand held long exposures is a thing

You know what I mean. Anything below 1/80th is a bit sketchy for me depending on focal length and that McNally pic is probably 1/15th.

 

[Astral/H3X]

I don't have a tripod that would trust putting a gripped D810 on top of with a 2.8 70-200 attached to it. I know how Matt Granger fucked up one of his cameras, I'm not repeating it.

You know what I mean. Anything below 1/80th is a bit sketchy for me depending on focal length and that McNally pic is probably 1/15th.

Well, don't use a 70-200 then. :x That photo is on the wide side anyway, grab a prime and go to town. It's also low to the ground so you'd pull the legs wide out for a lot more stability anyway. If you can topple a tripod with the legs outward then.... uhm yeah dunno what to say.

 

[JadedWriter]

Well, don't use a 70-200 then. :x That photo is on the wide side anyway, grab a prime and go to town. It's also low to the ground so you'd pull the legs wide out for a lot more stability anyway. If you can topple a tripod with the legs outward then.... uhm yeah dunno what to say.

Well yeah that works, though I do want a more stable tripod. I have a rather light one that I wouldn't trust with a beefier camera. To be honest what really impresses me about Joe's stuff is his flash usage and lighting. That man definitely knows his shit.

 

[Lys Skygge]

Three more scans from my roll of 35mm ADOX CHS100 film.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

Make sure to use either SilverFast Ai or Vuescan, since apparently those produce the best results.

Sorry to come back to this again, but none of those softwares come with the scanner, right?

SilvelFast seems to be very expensive, Vuescan license is $70. I suppose there is no student license...

 

[Vazduh]

Lys Skygge, I love those shots! You're really selling that film well with your photos.

Sorry to come back to this again, but none of those softwares come with the scanner, right?

SilvelFast seems to be very expensive, Vuescan license is $70. I suppose there is no student license...

PM'd you just to avoid chatting up the thread so I'll explain more there!

 

[sneaky77]

I haven't shared any photos here in a while, but there's a couple I took this weekend I really like so I figured I would post them

05-2017-Myrtle_b-01 by Iker, on Flickr

05-2017-Myrtle-13 by Iker, on Flickr

05-2017-Myrtle-03 by Iker, on Flickr

 

[Groof]

I haven't shared any photos here in a while, but there's a couple I took this weekend I really like so I figured I would post them

05-2017-Myrtle-13 by Iker, on Flickr

Yo this is absolutely gorgeous!

Went hiking last week to try and get some landscape shots, but the pollution was so bad we could barely see anything. Tried to salvage through post processing but now it just looks... post processed. Also first time using an A7 with proper 50mm, was a big adjustment from using the 50 on a crop sensor.

Bugaksan by Christian, on Flickr
Bugaksan by Christian, on Flickr
Bugaksan by Christian, on Flickr
Bugaksan by Christian, on Flickr
Bugaksan by Christian, on Flickr

 

[vern]

Seoul

I like the last two, they look kind of dreamy with the haze.

If you haven't been to Seoraksan yet you should go there for a weekend trip of hiking. It's gorgeous.