The Photography Hangout Thread

[Digital_Synapse]

It's best to get familiar with your lenses and what they do under different circumstances. Those calculators are a decent starting point, but inaccurate. All lenses perform different, and even variation in performance with in the same lens production. It's best to learn what your lens does. Shoot in manual and tweak one thing at a time. Shoot the same scene so you can see what changes. No all lenses are the same.

For example, my 24-105 f4L kit lens is sharpest at f8, even more so than at F 16 or 22. And sharpest image quality on a 24-105f4 is sharper than a 24-70f2.8, and it has more reach. Just not as fast. It all depends on what your goals are.

What's better, an f150 or a mustang? Well, are you running the quarter mile or pulling a boat? ;)

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[Digital_Synapse]

To be honest, I almost always shoot cars at the lowest f stop. Here are a few things to keep in mind when shooting with a lower number fstop (ie <=2.8). The closer you are to your subject vs the background the more it will exaggerate the Depth of Field. For example, if you hold your finger in front of your lens and focus on it, it will completely blur your background, versus if you take a picture of someone across the rooms finger. Then the back ground will be almost completely in focus. If your park a car right next to a brick wall and take a photo you will have a a harder time getting the wall to blur than if you park the card 40 ft. away from the wall (while keeping the same distance between you and the car) and then take the photo. Same principal as the finger example.

As Grimace427 mentioned Lens focal length also plays into this. The wider the lens the less DOF you will have. If you shoot something with the same framing composition with a 200mm lens vs a 24mm lens you will get more bokeh with the 200.

As you mentioned though, a lot of it has to so with experience, and experimentation. Hope this helps.

This is spot on, these images posted earlier showcase this point.

 

[Nathanbrummer@SCS]

This is spot on, these images posted earlier showcase this point.

Prefect Examples!

 

[Diego Narwhal]

A really good resource for getting a handle on DOF is the dofmaster web site. It's got a calculator where you enter in your particulars and it in turn gives you the range of the scene that will be in focus given your setup.

http://dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

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[uglygun]

Great shots.

Are you responsible for the images or somebody else?

Any idea of how much manipulation went through those images to get the color saturation and other effects?

Pretty much the kind of photos I want of my 95, 05, and 15. I have been out for soooooo long that I am basically starting over. And to try to play around with image processing is beyond my skill set.

My curiosity is if there is anyone on the forum I can send a couple RAW/NEF files to inorder for them to see if they are able to be worked/manipulated for a similar feel.

 

[GoBlues38]

The only thing standing out in uglygun's pix to me that is a little over done is the filter he used to darken the sky.

Other than that, it looks pretty natural.

 

[RyStang72]

Great shots.

Are you responsible for the images or somebody else?

Any idea of how much manipulation went through those images to get the color saturation and other effects?

Pretty much the kind of photos I want of my 95, 05, and 15. I have been out for soooooo long that I am basically starting over. And to try to play around with image processing is beyond my skill set.

My curiosity is if there is anyone on the forum I can send a couple RAW/NEF files to inorder for them to see if they are able to be worked/manipulated for a similar feel.

You can send me a RAW or 2 - [email protected] not sure if they will come through to my email ok due to size?

 

[uglygun]

You can send me a RAW or 2 - [email protected] not sure if they will come through to my email ok due to size?

Yeah very possible problem.

Might throw them into a low loss tif or something. Found out costco cannot print from RAW and it sounds like many editors need to go into some kind other than RAW.

 

[uglygun]

The only thing standing out in uglygun's pix to me that is a little over done is the filter he used to darken the sky.

Other than that, it looks pretty natural.

Those were cell phone pics. *Depending on how I angle the phone it will either expose for sky or expose for foreground. * *Sadly the damn cell phone makes it so easy these days I have largely forgotten my days where I shot film 20 plus years ago.


I have some RAW pics from a DSLR that are in NEF. * *Was bracketing to expose for the sky so the car went a bit dark. * If I get into a raw editor and bring out the exposure for the car I lose the background. * Basically it is black car problems....


I gave my files to my mom to play with her photoshop editor a bit to color correct. * I am gonna print a test print or two with them to see what I can get as a baseline then edit from there. * Problem is I do not have a high enough quality monitor to get an accurate reflection of the image for color and exposure correcting.


Main reason I sent the images to my mom is that my monitor was such a poor resolution POS that it got difficult to even tell if the photos were in good focus. *720p TV as a monitor is no bueno.

I have a better CRT monitor in the house but then I have to move things and play around with other crap just to fire up the program and have my eyes cross and spend hours playing with sliders and crap.

I downloaded GIMP and a RAW viewer/exporter but not very useful with a crap monitor.

 

[ks_s550]

Not sure if you guys have heard, but last week Google made their Nik Collection available for free (normally about 150). Its a set of really powerful editing tools that you use in conjunction with Photoshop or Lightroom.

https://www.google.com/nikcollection/

 

[CompO5.sl0w]

Thanks for the tips and insight guys! A lot of knowledgeable people in here. :cheers:

 

[GForensic]

I take ton of pics but I am a total amateur. I love particular angles on this car so that is what I tend to want to shoot.

All of this is with a Canon T1i and most with a 50mm 1.8

Dizzle,

If I can ask why do you choose to use the 50mm 1.8 most of the time? What do you or anyone reading this see as the main benefits of a prime lens? I'm considering a 50mm 1.4 so I am looking for information.

Thanks!!

 

[zacpounds]

Dizzle,

If I can ask why do you choose to use the 50mm 1.8 most of the time? What do you or anyone reading this see as the main benefits of a prime lens? I'm considering a 50mm 1.4 so I am looking for information.

Thanks!!

It's got a good focal length and produces little distortion but also gives a great blur and is extremely economical for the results you get. The focal length is a good balance of distance and closeness so you can get a good blur when shooting a full body shot of the car but also great for detail shots. The main benefits of a prime lens is the wide aperture that allows for the bokeh, most zooms do not get wide apertures unless they are really expensive.

 

[GoBlues38]

Dizzle,

If I can ask why do you choose to use the 50mm 1.8 most of the time? What do you or anyone reading this see as the main benefits of a prime lens? I'm considering a 50mm 1.4 so I am looking for information.

Thanks!!

#1 is price. In general, a prime lens is cheaper then a zoom. You can get an idea of what focal length you like to shoot at and go find a prime in that range.

#2 creativity. Because primes are "fixed" focal length. It forces the photographer to be a little more creative. You can't just go to a spot and adjust the lens to the shot. You have to think about how you are going to compose the shot and get into that position. Your legs are your zoom.

#3 primes are faster. Even the most expensive zooms are 2.8 max aperture. Basic primes are 2.0 and 1.8. Higher end primes are 1.4 and 1.2. The just allows more low light shooting and more creative options.

A 50mm prime on fx, 35mm prime on dx, should be every ones first prime lens. Those to focal lengths most closely match the human eye for field of view. So you can truly show the world how you see it through your photographs.

 

[RidetechJosh]

I've been playing around a little bit. I'm looking at some new lenses right now but haven't made a decision.

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