The Photography Hangout Thread

^^Nice! Ingot is such a photogenic color. Especially in the evening/night.

zacpounds said:

I'll share some here of mine as well. Been shooting for about 4 years or so now. If you have any questions I'm happy to answer, I always love talking about photography.

Edit: I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm f1.8 STM, 85mm f1.8 and 17-40mm f4l.

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Those pics are awesome. I've been thinking about branching out of my standard lens that came with my T5i, what's a "Must-Have" lens to purchase for specifically car photography?

CompO5.sl0w said:

Those pics are awesome. I've been thinking about branching out of my standard lens that came with my T5i, what's a "Must-Have" lens to purchase for specifically car photography?

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A wide angle lens is good for car photography so you can get the entire car in the frame. For good quality on a budget look at a 35mm f1.8 prime, otherwise look at a short zoom in the 15-60mm'ish range(I don't know Canon lenses). My next lens is either going to be a Nikon 17-50 f2.8 or Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4, budget depending.

Todd15Fastback said:

The pictures look amazing :love::love::love::love:

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DarkSubRosa said:

I love my 50mm F1.4! Nice shots!

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Appreciate it guys! Yeah I haven't had enough money to step up to the 1.4 but I've heard from people with it that it's not much better quality wise and that little bit of additional bokeh isn't worth the purchase but they STM is definitely a step up from the previous f1.8 II.

CompO5.sl0w said:

^^Nice! Ingot is such a photogenic color. Especially in the evening/night.

Those pics are awesome. I've been thinking about branching out of my standard lens that came with my T5i, what's a "Must-Have" lens to purchase for specifically car photography?

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Thank you! It really just depends on what you shoot most. For car shows a wide angle is very useful but if you're wanting something for when you're out for photos and have plenty of space around the car then a 50mm is the best bang for the buck. You don't get much distortion and you get a great blur of the background (bokeh). If you want a lens that would give you a bit of a compromise for both car shows and private photos then a 24mm or 35mm prime lens would work well.

With my old T5i I loved Canon's 10-18mm IS STM for shows and on rollers it was godly. Lol. With it I could stand a foot away from a car and get the entire body in the frame. Haha.

zacpounds said:

Appreciate it guys! Yeah I haven't had enough money to step up to the 1.4 but I've heard from people with it that it's not much better quality wise and that little bit of additional bokeh isn't worth the purchase but they STM is definitely a step up from the previous f1.8 II.

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There's definitely some pros and cons to the 1.4 vs 1.8. There's not some giant difference though. Unless you were stepping up to an L glass it's not even worth comparing. Prime lenses are just so much nicer in general if you're in a controlled environment.

Any of you pro-togs have experience with Sigma's 17-50 f2.8 HSM OS?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sigma-AF-17...005874?hash=item2a4341b432:g:NTEAAOSwe8FTxQN6

The focal range for a DX camera seems like a better fit than say a 24-70 and for the price it seems like it would be easy enough to try.

Heres a few B&W pics....

DarkSubRosa said:

There's definitely some pros and cons to the 1.4 vs 1.8. There's not some giant difference though. Unless you were stepping up to an L glass it's not even worth comparing. Prime lenses are just so much nicer in general if you're in a controlled environment.

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I have to have the 50mm 1.4 for weddings. To many low light situations. I dont like to shoot wide open as you loose a little sharpness. 1 or 2 stops up make a big difference.

GoBlues38 said:

I have to have the 50mm 1.4 for weddings. To many low light situations. I dont like to shoot wide open as you loose a little sharpness. 1 or 2 stops up make a big difference.

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For an f1.4, where do you set the aperture? On my f1.8, I'll set it wide open for still subjects that I can take my time focusing on. I'll drop it down to f2.2 for a slower moving subject like a calm dog or toddler then down to f2.8 for unexpected movement like crowds.

I have taken 7,819 photos with my 50mm 1.4G sin 2013. "Most" of my shots are in the 2.0 to 2.8 range.

I use 1.4 only when I am trying for an extreme bokeh in my shot. It all depends on the situation. Having the 1.4 when you need it is nice.

zacpounds said:

Thank you! It really just depends on what you shoot most. For car shows a wide angle is very useful but if you're wanting something for when you're out for photos and have plenty of space around the car then a 50mm is the best bang for the buck. You don't get much distortion and you get a great blur of the background (bokeh). If you want a lens that would give you a bit of a compromise for both car shows and private photos then a 24mm or 35mm prime lens would work well.

With my old T5i I loved Canon's 10-18mm IS STM for shows and on rollers it was godly. Lol. With it I could stand a foot away from a car and get the entire body in the frame. Haha.

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Thanks for the tip man! Still trying to decipher most of the lens talk, but I'm getting there lol!:cheers:

On a side note, I downloaded Lightroom CC last night and it seems to be a lot better/easier than Photoshop when it comes to just general photo development. Obviously Photoshop is the king at manipulating photos, cropping, adding etc. Going to play around with it a little more tonight.

CompO5.sl0w said:

Thanks for the tip man! Still trying to decipher most of the lens talk, but I'm getting there lol!:cheers:

On a side note, I downloaded Lightroom CC last night and it seems to be a lot better/easier than Photoshop when it comes to just general photo development. Obviously Photoshop is the king at manipulating photos, cropping, adding etc. Going to play around with it a little more tonight.

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No problem.

I'll give you a little info on lenses. The F1.8, F4.5-5.6, F4, etc. stands for F-Stop. It tells you how open the aperture is set and how much light the lens is letting in. The wider the aperture, the more light you're letting in through the lens and this allows for a faster shutter speed and sharper images (less camera shake). It also tells you how much of the photo will be in focus. So the lower the F-Stop, the less you will see in focus. The part of the photo that is out of focus is called Bokeh.

Prime lenses are ones that do not zoom and because of that, they have a really low F-Stop which a lot of people like because they are good in low light settings (indoor) and they allow for separation of the subject and background. Getting separation of your subject to me is key because it makes them/it stand out and that is the whole point of a photo.

Wide angle lenses give you a wide view and often causes distortion that, depending on the angle and subject, can make a photo look weird or bizarrely cool. Wide angle lenses are great for tight spaces where you want to see everything but don't have the room to back away from the subject you're shooting. This is why they are good for car shows. Wide angle lenses fall anywhere from about an 8mm-35mm focal range.

On Canon lenses EF, EF-S, and EF-M tells you the kind of mount that the lens has. EF lenses can fit on any Canon DSLR and EF-S lenses are specific to Crop Sensor cameras. EF-M is a mirrorless camera mount. IS stands for Image Stabilization and the letters that fall after that (USM, STM) tell you what focusing motor is in the lens. USM is the quietest of them and stands for Ultrasonic Motor and STM stands for Stepping Motor which is still pretty quiet compared to the basic motor they use on occasion and it doesn't have an abbreviation that is listed on the lens.

Sorry this got so long.


Lightroom is awesome, I prefer it over Photoshop when it comes to processing RAW images but I use both Ps and Lr about 50/50 in my post processing.

Couple of mine of the Mustang. Nikon D700 old Nikon 180mm f2.8... The car is on its winter wheels.


One more I took with a 58mm 1.4 voigtlander on the Nikon D700


I'm not all that great with shooting cars but I try. I really got to get out and shoot more of the Mustang. I have tons of shots of the Z28 but I've also had the Z28 for 12 years.

I'm not an average guy when it comes to photography. I shoot Nikon and have 2 D700's, and film SLR's and still carry around a Nikon FE with B&W loaded all the time. I don't own any zoom lenses and have a ton of Classic Nikon Manual Focus and a few AutoFocus lenses. I learned on film SLR's back in the 90's. I shoot in RAW format and only use Lightroom to process photos and don't have photoshop,. Its all Manual mode for 90% of shooting. I also hate that modern lenses don't have aperture rings! For shooting cars I tend to give the car room in the frame and use longer lenses like a 105mm or 180mm. If I'm going to a busy car show I grab something wide like a 24mm to get quick shots without having the need for much distance between me and the car so you are not working to stop people from walking in your shot as much. If its not as crowded I'll use my 58mm 1.4 for the creamy backgrounds or my 50mm 1.8 AF lens.

I shoot a lot of product type detail stuff and take really clean close up and detail shots all the time. I use between 1-4 Nikon SB 600 or SB 700's and various lightboxes, umbrella's or whenever I need to control the light.

Stock Ecoboost engine. D700, 24mm 2.8 manual focus lens, 2 SB 600 flashes shooting through unbrellas on either side of the car.


similiar setup here but I believe this one was with a 60mm close up lens. Possibly the 58mm

GoBlues38 said:

I have to have the 50mm 1.4 for weddings. To many low light situations. I dont like to shoot wide open as you loose a little sharpness. 1 or 2 stops up make a big difference.

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More power to anybody that has to deal with shooting weddings!

CompO5.sl0w said:

On a side note, I downloaded Lightroom CC last night and it seems to be a lot better/easier than Photoshop when it comes to just general photo development. Obviously Photoshop is the king at manipulating photos, cropping, adding etc. Going to play around with it a little more tonight.

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Learn lightroom 1st. Then photoshop.

Lightroom is just what the "darkroom" was to film in years past. It's target audience is for people who shoot RAW. It is also intended as a catalog for your work.

Photoshop can do everything lightroom can do, but lightroom streams down the work flow for you.

Personally, I use lightroom for 99% of my shots. 1 in 100 then gets imported to photoshop to do "creative" edits like removing a lamp post or making a fat girl skinny.

I asked this in my new camera purchase thread, so I will ask here, too .

Where do you all host your images that you share online? Photobucket? Imgur? Or?