The *Official Photography Thread*

I waited about 2 hours after sundown to start and it was still slightly twilight to the west. Middle of the night would be best. I cannot wait to go backpacking this summer and get some of these. Packing my tripod and an extra battery is going to bring the suck though.

 

hahaha yea it will!!!


Worth...it...

yea you can do it from dusk to dawn..the photo i showed is like i think almost 500 photos?

 

He does leave out blending the starstax shot with the foreground shot. Can this be done on light room? I don't have photoshop, but Paint.net has layers. I also have photomatix, but I don't think that will help.

 

I was wondering about photomatix myself. I put two different shots in photomatix, it worked, but one shot is almost completely transparent, just looked like a ghost. It was kind of cool, but I dont think it would work. I am buying LR next week, so if that does it cool.

 

LR won't far as i know..

I have done two in Photomatrix..how i go this shot for the first challenge


IMG_6642_3_tonemapped.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

but no idea if that would work with the star photo...might need to get PSE or PS for that

 

The blending is done in Photoshop... you can MERGE in photomatrix but not blend (ie pulling part of one photo to the front and part of another, rather than combinding 50/50)

course... I was wrong once...

 

Try looking into Gimp. It's a free program similar to photoshop.

 

Mountain 1 by dmora874, on Flickr

Had to pull over and capture this sky. Any feedback please and thank you.

 

Just picked up the Manfroto tripod. After more inspection it was missing 2 minor pieces and I knocked it down to $50. Stoked to put it to use.

I also saw this guy looking to be bought. I don't know cameras but buzzards journey to older models is pretty inspiring. There are quite a few old models in the store but this one caught my eye. Worth it? Can probably knock a $15 of the price.

 

Lens looks pretty dented.

 

yea hard fall maybe?

 

Ill have to look at it again to really tell ya. I was in hurry and looking for some other small things. That store really sucks your time though...almost came home with an old bamboo fly rod too haha.

 

as long as it functions properly, it's good. now, if you want to use a filter on that thing...

make sure it focuses nice and smooth and mounts properly, and that it is sharp enough to your liking.

 

Heck yes! IF the little dent doesn't hurt it's functioning properly and you can talk him down a bit (or even if you couldn't) I'd highly recommend it. Careful though haha I've gone through a lot more film than I thought I would and mistakes ain't free like with digital

BTW the SRT 101 is a great camera. very popular. I almost got a 202 but it turned out it wasn't functioning. The 102, 201, 202 etc had a few upgrades but the thing I noted was the viewfinder was a lot better than on my Nikon EM and the shutter release button seemed better. I would definitely pick it up if it's working well.

 

I tried the blending thing in SS but don't think it works as well as doing it in PS.

 

Those Star Trails pictures are pretty cool, I've wanted to try that. When it warms up I will but teens below zero and a high of -8 tomorrow it is going to have to wait! Another long exposure picture I'd like to try is car headlights in one direction and taillights in the other. In Understanding Exposure Bryan Peterson has a full page picture of one he took in Germany that is stunning. If I lived anywhere near a bridge with traffic stacked top and bottom I'd be headed out to try it.

Years ago with film I used to do long exposure at night at the end of the runway at the airport. Set the camera on the hood of the truck and as the planes came in not only did it give light trails as they got closer it would shake the camera the closer it came and give an added touch. Took weeks to figure it out, waiting for film to come back was a couple of days and had to log conditions and settings so you knew what you tried for each shot. I am really liking the instant feedback of digital and metadata stored in the image. Before and more likely even if I go outside and freeze my ass off shooting extended exposure it would be nice to have some things figured out. Using a cheap IR remote from flebay bulb mode is working and it is easy to play around with different settings.

Kind of recursive LOL but have been using a couple of watches with second hands, I wish they glowed in the dark like the minute and hour hands but they don't. 66 sec. in near total darkness this picture looks even more detailed than what it did to the eye. With film I would have been very pleased with this.


Then I hit auto tone in LR which I normally don't because I feel it is too aggressive and damn!


The amount of information these sensors can pick up and store in a RAW image is blowing me away. Over exposure wipes everything out if I go too far. But this is a whole different world I didn't expect, and am liking a lot.

 

yea RAW is sweet

also..cold nights offer the best clarity..so -8..would be awesome shooting weather..just saying haha

 

Just installed Magic Lantern No need for a remote anytime soon now! Intervelometer works great along with everything else! Peeps with canon bodies check it out.

 

I HATE MY STUPID CARD READER!

 

Haha that is the high during the day. Yeah agree, 2 weeks ago I was 7 hours North of here for the week and the nearest town was Thunder Bay, ON. Canada to the East more than a 100 miles away. Was looking forward to some decent Milky Way or Northern Lights shots, it was -32F air temp and wind chill cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. However the full moon provided more light pollution than most cities. Now is the time to get star trails, absolutely!

Fantastic Ben! Congratulations, I know how hard the redtail hawks are to shoot. And as always your BIF pictures are something I am striving to even come close to.

I'm still making lots of mistakes. Have been trying to get a decent picture of a sharp shinned hawk that shows up from time to time. Well today he finally gave me time to take some good shots and I took quite a few.



Then when I looked at the pictures they were all fuzzy. Knew when I shot them my technique was solid what the?? And remembered that the wind was blowing hard and the trees were rocking I should have increased the shutter speed, stupid rookie mistake. Then he flew into some denser trees that didn't move in the wind but he was blocked by the branches for the most part. Except to laugh at me.



The more I try this the more I respect your pictures and abilities. Well done!