The new photography thread

Fri Dec 20, 2013 8:59 pm

I voted for blank

Sat Dec 21, 2013 2:29 am

Sat Dec 21, 2013 2:30 am

Sat Dec 21, 2013 8:03 am

Bit small Kos! But nice nonetheless when you click on them

Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:03 pm

Not sure what's going on, but when viewing on my ipad every picture is small

Wed Dec 25, 2013 2:19 pm

I bought my little sis a Canon 650d for xmas as shes studying photography in Uni, and so inherited her lumix DMC-FZ100

The quality difference is major

but im not a pro and the lumix is good enough for me.

Some quality pics on here, do you guys use photo editing programmes and if so which ones would you guys recommend?

*Edit*

Heres some pics with the lumix "DMC FZ100"

Canon 650D

As i said quality difference is amazing!

Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:54 pm

Looking for other lenses other than the 18-55mm. Wide angle would be nice.

Camera is a Nikon D3100.

Fri Dec 27, 2013 7:31 pm

Most people use lightroom I'd say. You can't manipulate things as much as you can in photoshop (for example liquify to make boobs bigger) but its a lot bette priced if you buy it legit.

I think theres a free trial version of lightroom if i remember correctly actually!

Fri Dec 27, 2013 8:03 pm

Cook318IS wrote:Most people use lightroom I'd say. You can't manipulate things as much as you can in photoshop (for example liquify to make boobs bigger) but its a lot bette priced if you buy it legit.

I think theres a free trial version of lightroom if i remember correctly actually!

Downloading it now mate!

Thanx

Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:14 pm

Cook318IS wrote:Bit small Kos! But nice nonetheless when you click on them

I think I added the thumbnail links

They should be ok now

Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:20 pm

Some pictures from our farm back home in Cyprus

Sat Dec 28, 2013 3:37 pm

Sanchez wrote:Looking for other lenses other than the 18-55mm. Wide angle would be nice.

Camera is a Nikon D3100.

Any wider than 18mm and the prices creep up fast if you stick with Nikon glass.
Sigma and Tokina do a couple of super wides but at a guess I'd say they'll give a fisheye look at wide.

Have you thought about a prime lens?

Sat Dec 28, 2013 6:26 pm

I'd go prime too Sanchez.

I love using my 35mm Nikon prime, such nice shots straight from the camera even before lightroom. F1.8 is awesome, the colours and depth of field available over the 18-55 are just so much better. Plus it has a proper focus ring not that stupid end of lens one so you can actually use polarising filters.

Sat Dec 28, 2013 7:47 pm

And zooms are for lazy people

Only kidding but a prime gets you thinking about a shot more, composition and all that.

+1 on the 35mm - great lens at a steal.

Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:01 pm

Yeah, I bought the 35mm as a Sigma 30mm (f.14) or 50mm was something like over 3x the cost. At £140 for the 35mm it is brilliant value.

You get so much clarity with a prime it really is a worthwhile change and as you say, makes you compose shots properly rather than just 'I'm too close, zoom out' or 'I'm too far away, zoom in'.

Since I've had it (few months) the 35 has stayed on the camera, I've not seen any need to change lenses (not done any motorsport stuff recently). Only problem for me now is that want more primes, including 300mm+ for motorsport etc.

Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:51 pm

I love that first shot Kos! It's been many years since i've been to Cyprus after my family moved away from there. I'll go back one day I guess.

The quality from a prime can piss all over a zoom lens, but some of the better primes can cost an arm and a leg. And WEX photographics current 0% finance deal is worth looking into if you you want to get a higher end lens / camera body. I've persuaded myself that I don't need a 400mm f2.8 prime on finance

Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:43 am

Cook318IS wrote:I love that first shot Kos! It's been many years since i've been to Cyprus after my family moved away from there. I'll go back one day I guess.

Cheers, I'm guessing it's the fruit tree shot direct into the sunlight ?

The aircraft wing was also shot in Cyprus

You should go back, there are so many things that I want to photograph but bits hard work getting time away from family & friends

When I was last there in June I didn't even bother taking my camera as I knew if have no time to shoot anything and I was right

Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:15 pm

Kos wrote:
Cook318IS wrote:I love that first shot Kos! It's been many years since i've been to Cyprus after my family moved away from there. I'll go back one day I guess.
Cheers, I'm guessing it's the fruit tree shot direct into the sunlight ?

The aircraft wing was also shot in Cyprus

You should go back, there are so many things that I want to photograph but bits hard work getting time away from family & friends

When I was last there in June I didn't even bother taking my camera as I knew if have no time to shoot anything and I was right

Yeah the one shooting through the branches! It reminds me of my uncles friends pomegranate farm that i visited when i was out there! It must be about 10 years since I was last there!

I'm looking at getting some photos of mine printed (finally!) Where do people get high quality prints from? I can't remember the last place i got a couple done.

Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:34 pm

There's a load around online.

I use Digitalab.co.UK
Never an issue with there quality.

Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:41 pm

Yeah I know theres a few, but I got 2 photos printed from one place and it took just over 2 weeks to arrive - much rather go with recommendations

I may have used digital labs before actually.

Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:54 pm

Well I've used them for 2 years now for canvas and large prints and never an issue.

What is it your printing Paul? Automotive?

Mon Dec 30, 2013 10:57 pm

I should print some off. A mate who's just opened a Greek restaurant wants some of my Cyprus images to put up in the place

Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:00 pm

Kos wrote:I should print some off. A mate who's just opened a Greek restaurant wants some of my Cyprus images to put up in the place

That's awesome.
About time you sort out a watermark hey!

Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:02 pm

I need to to get it done ASAP

Mon Dec 30, 2013 11:04 pm

sunnyr83 wrote:Well I've used them for 2 years now for canvas and large prints and never an issue.

What is it your printing Paul? Automotive?

Mainly automotive. But a couple of portraits, couple of animals, couple of starry night pics. I'm getting myself an editing workspace sorted with my new apple cinema display and want a range of my photos + publications on the wall. I've picked out 80 photos so far haha!

Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:24 am

Managed to find that I used photobox last time. Went with them again and wasn't happy with the prints at all. The bigger one is from photo box, the little 6x4 is one i got done at boots to prove a point.

Turns out they have an auto enhance for amateur photographers which you have to disable in your account! Which is weird because the last set i had done were fine. Got more prints on the way now.

I've not been particularly well either recently, so in a bit of retail therapy i've ended up buying a pocket wizard tt5 and two plus III transceivers. Need to setup the hyper sync on the tt5 and go and play i think!

Tue Jan 14, 2014 2:04 am

A quick test shot with my recently purchased 50mm prime

Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:04 am

Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:10 am

I voted for Blank, thats in the lead at the moment.

Sun Jan 19, 2014 4:17 pm

I posted this one in the last thread also, quite proud of myself so I'm posting it again :p

01.jpg by Brendan Joziasse, on Flickr

And here's another I liked from the same place only outside. I was just setting up the shot and the owner walked into the scene and drove of. So I only got this picture of it and just spent awhile editing out the 2 people walking into the scene.

02.jpg by Brendan Joziasse, on Flickr

Anyone headign to Berlin be sure to check out the place if you have an interest in cars as it's packed full of great stuff!! http://remise.de/Classic-Remise-Berlin- ... ummary.php

Have more pics from what I spotted in Berlin here: http://s577.photobucket.com/user/Jozi_E ... t=9&page=1

And a panning shot I liked from last year:

08.jpg by Brendan Joziasse, on Flickr

Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:00 am

Kos some lovely work in the last few pages..

sunnyr83 wrote:
Sanchez wrote:Looking for other lenses other than the 18-55mm. Wide angle would be nice.

Camera is a Nikon D3100.
Any wider than 18mm and the prices creep up fast if you stick with Nikon glass.
Sigma and Tokina do a couple of super wides but at a guess I'd say they'll give a fisheye look at wide.

Have you thought about a prime lens?

I'd definitely go down the prime lens route. Not only is it nice to work to the discipline of restrictions on each fixed lens. But the clarity of the glass is so much better. With that it handles shallow depths of fields so much better, with less colour shifts throughout the focal planes.

Its good I think just to start with a zoom, when you buy a camera, to get some grounding. But then to move onto primes.

As for sigma vs canon/nikon there's certainly a difference in cost. You get what you pay for. However, I think for the bulk of keen amateur photographers the cheaper of options suffices well enough.

Places like Calumet, I would have thought you can go into and compare different lenses before you buy. Robert Whites in Bournemouth are a great help, as are Teamwork just off Oxford street in London.

Worth keeping an eye out for cash back deals with canon products, I'm sure nikon do the same. Wex normally advertise when cash back options are available.

As for software.. Light room is a great affordable platform. Which as already mentioned have a 30day free trial. Capture One is another (more expensive) software for editing, its more commonly used in the professional industry, however, I think they offer a 60 or 90 day free trail currently. So thats several months of free editing.

If using software such as the above, its advisable to shoot RAW files as opposed to jpegs, so you can adjust files more freely before processing into jpeg's or tiff's.

Canon also offer a free raw capture software (as do nikon i should imagine) which is downloadable. Its a bit cumbersome but you can get the same results.

Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:10 am

G-Bear wrote:Kos some lovely work in the last few pages..

sunnyr83 wrote:
Sanchez wrote:Looking for other lenses other than the 18-55mm. Wide angle would be nice.

Camera is a Nikon D3100.
Any wider than 18mm and the prices creep up fast if you stick with Nikon glass.
Sigma and Tokina do a couple of super wides but at a guess I'd say they'll give a fisheye look at wide.

Have you thought about a prime lens?

Tokina 11-16 is a beast of lens, much sharper than than its canon and nikon equivalents, its really only for cropped sensor cameras, (not familiar with the d3100), it creates vignetting on full frame cameras between 11-14mm but after that its all good.

It also the fastest zoom you can get at 2.8 so good in low light as well.

Although the range is only 11-16 it gives you a little bit of play, also no fisheye effect at the widest on crop censored cameras.

they are cheap now, seen them on ebay for £350ish I payed closer to £500 for mine, this lens is always in my bag, used it on 4k film cameras for broadcast work as well so it really does stand up to the test.

Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:16 am

dusty23 wrote:
G-Bear wrote:Kos some lovely work in the last few pages..

sunnyr83 wrote: Any wider than 18mm and the prices creep up fast if you stick with Nikon glass.
Sigma and Tokina do a couple of super wides but at a guess I'd say they'll give a fisheye look at wide.

Have you thought about a prime lens?

Tokina 11-16 is a beast of lens, much sharper than than its canon and nikon equivalents, its really only for cropped sensor cameras, (not familiar with the d3100), it creates vignetting on full frame cameras between 11-14mm but after that its all good.

It also the fastest zoom you can get at 2.8 so good in low light as well.

Although the range is only 11-16 it gives you a little bit of play, also no fisheye effect at the widest on crop censored cameras.

they are cheap now, seen them on ebay for £350ish I payed closer to £500 for mine, this lens is always in my bag, used it on 4k film cameras for broadcast work as well so it really does stand up to the test.

Not too familiar with Tokina lenses. I assume it was a digital lens when there were no full frame chips about? Do you still get the two different lens to cater for the different chip sizes.

Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:20 am

Lenses for hire have 50% off this month if you wanted to try a lens out without committing to buying it first

Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:40 am

^^^ I don't use primes these days as my work tends to be fast shooting, but I still think they are great to have in your kit bag- I'd like to get a prime and go shoot some personal stuff, but I like to fill my spare time with no camera!!

Personally I think it's good practise to start with a prime when learning, to teach oneself composition and positioning, before moving on to the technical aspect of shooting with a 'zoom' lens.

Soooooo many people make schoolboy errors shooting with a 'zoom' that they just don't realise due to not learning the distortions a particular focal length will give in certain situations. Learn with a prime first and get the basics down and then when that is in your head, start to experiment with 'zooms' and read up on what they do and their effects.

Re: lens', no point shelling out for pro-glass or expensive glass unless your work dictates it. Same with buying new if you are a keen amateur! LCE have a secondhand dept. that offer 6mnth warranties so that is a good starting point.

Sigma Vs. Canon/Nikon... good debate this, as Sigma quality is good. Image quality and build quality on their EXDG range is close to Canon's but at half the price. Ok the Sigma's aren't quite as good as Canon own but Canon is def not twice as good to warrant the double price tag!
The EXDG range is Sigma's top flight lens range and will fit both crop and full sensor Canon (can't speak for Nikon as Canon user) although if you are shelling out for a 5D MkIII then you really should be shelling out for Canon pro-glass to make the most of it. The Canon image stablisation on their pro-glass make it a worthwhile investment.

No need for a keen amateur to warrant a 5D MkIII though as that's pro-kit and rather overkill!

So wide Vs. ultra-wide: wide is good, ultra-wide is awesome if you know how to use it! Fisheyes are great but you really have to know how to use them to get the best out of them due the massive distortions! Sigma do a great 10-20mm that gives awesome effects and they also do fisheyes which give the expected barrel distortion one expects from a fisheye lens.

You choose your glass on the style of subject you shoot- focal length/speed etc. Don't go and buy a fisheye if you want to shoot people or cars (although great to have in your kit bag for the occassional shot) in the same way as don't buy a 200mm for landscapes! Pick your glass to suit your style and requirements.

Editing: if you're serious about post-production then yes raw gives far more scope over JPEG. I haven't shot JPEG for years as the compression is hideous! If you're a clueless f*ckwit then practise with JPEG and learn from your mistakes. Raw just gives so much more control for editing. Lightroom is a very good platform for editing but Adobe Raw (part of P.Shop) does the same thing. Lightroom renders faster which can be usefull if you plan on editing 100's at once.

Any questions class?