Digital Photography

[xHaZxMaTx]

Is that a swaying birdcage taken with an long shutter speed, or do you have really shaky hands? And what's all the stuff in the back and foreground?

[Stereo]

Woooo I'm on a macro frenzy...

Clickyyy

Adobe Lightroom FTMFW!!!! (The menu on the left is a scroll menu, just so you know...)

[xHaZxMaTx]

Vapour trails are totally artsy.
I like the variety of textures and colours in this shot.
It's a spider web. Not much else to say.
This is the only picture I've gotten of my dad's cat (whose name really is Black Cat), and I really like it. Just wish it were focused a little better.
This would be a much nicer shot if the Earth didn't rotate so much in 15 seconds.

[Carcrazy]

Hey, it's only ~250 ft XD

[baumaxx1]

Lol @ black cat break dancing.

[Stereo]

Alright then this should be a more appealing way.

LOL 4 PHOTOZ!

[xHaZxMaTx]

It's a bunch of macro shots of flowers! DX

[Stereo]

The grass and ping pong table arent flowers. DX

Macro pwnz and you know it.

[xHaZxMaTx]

Fine. I actually thought that was a tennis court, at first.



When I take long exposure shots, I usually set a shutter delay of 10 seconds, so the camera has time to settle after pushing the button. Didn't quite time it right and pushed it a bit too late, here - wanted to get the lights from the train across the entire field of view.

I figured if I wasn't zoomed in too far, I could set the shutter delay to only 2 seconds, and there wouldn't me much noticeable blurring from the camera moving, so I was able to get the timing right on this shot. It just so happened that a car was driving up as the gates were going down (which is pretty good timing, considering that road is nearly deserted), and went around the gates, so that was a plus.

This shot is much more vivid on my camera than it is on this monitor; you may or may not be able to see it well on your computer. That's looking back in the direction of town, which is where the light you see behind the hill is coming from.

Not exactly sure what I was doing, here, but it looks cool.

This was taken on my way back home on a long stretch of highway. Also pretty deserted, so setting the camera up in the middle of the road wasn't a problem. You can't really see the road, but you can see - near the vanishing point of where the road is - atmospheric refraction, A.K.A. a mirage; the rays of light from the city being bent by the difference in temperature of the air and the air near the surface of the road. ...Probably should have closed the aperture a bit, in hindsight. The moon just looks like a blob of white. :B

[Zero260]

Stereo, those are some pretty nice macro shots. The grass with the white picket fence in the background is awesome. So is the perspective of the ping pong table with the reflection of some of those trees in the background. Nicely done. Is that your pad? Pretty nice place; looks like an awesome location.

HaZ, first photo definitely would have been better with the lights were going all the way across... Still looks good, though. Second photo is a pretty dang cool with the light trails of the gates and all. The last photo would have been nearly perfect if you could see the road better... You should try that shot again if you ever get the chance and mess with some of the settings. I wonder how it'd look with some headlights on the road.

[xHaZxMaTx]

I don't think it would look as good if the road were populated during the shot. As for being able to see the road, it was pretty dark when I took that shot (obviously). That was a 15" exposure with F2.8, so if I wanted it any lighter, I would have had to turn up the ISO, which would have made it grainy as firetruck. ...I suppose a full-power flash would have lit up the road, some, but only for about 20 feet, or so, and considering the angle of the camera, that would help, like, 0.

By the way, awesome sig.

[Zero260]

Ah, I see. Yeah, flash wouldn't turn out too well. Is the road busy later in the day or around sunset? That could be a cool shot as well. Especially if that's facing west by any chance. I just like the concept of the road leading back to civilization type-of-thing.

And thanks.

[xHaZxMaTx]

It is, indeed, facing West. And the 'leading back to civilization' thing is exactly why I don't think headlights would look good in the shot.

[Stereo]

Haz I think you should consider a DSLR because you've got a really good eye (like thinking of composition and cool ideas). And since you can go to places and take pictures, it'd be your perfect companion...

And flash wouldn't turn out at all. If you turned flash on, you'd either have to go into night portrait mode and have a limited 1/3-1 sec exposure or the road would be lit up and the horizon would be purely black.

[xHaZxMaTx]

Like I said, it was a 15-second exposure. The light reflecting off the road from the flash would remain in the shot, even though it only lasts for a fraction of a second. The rest of the time exposing the sensor would reveal the background. And I really have been thinking of returning my SX100 and getting a DSLR...

[Stereo]

Well anyways, you could choose Canon, but they're just overrated. They're good, but they cost too much and so do their lenses. If you want a cheap but good camera, get a Pentax K100D Super or Olympus E-510. They both have internal stabilization and sensor cleaning. The E-510 has live view (LCD view) but it has a shutter delay when you use that. Mine's the K100D Super. Your best off with that, because it's really cheap for a DSLR and it has all the features you would need, even internal picture editing. (Sepia/B+W/Soften/Tone/etc...) The standard lens costs around $80 or so.

Meh... Or you could get the new K200D. It's got an improved version of the standard kit lens and new things like a RAW button on the camera so you dont have to go into the menu and change the shooting mode from JPEG to RAW.

[Danyutz]

I like the one with teh cat, is it stalking? or scared?

[xHaZxMaTx]

Behold, the first photos taken with my new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. (Taken with the stock 18-55mm lens (55-250mm is still shipping) and UV and polarizer filters.)



...Huh. I didn't notice how many of those were vertically-aligned.

[Stereo]

Just so you know, you should get something like a 16-45mm lens or similar, because kit/stock lenses just don't cut it when it comes to top quality. That's what I'm getting, and also a prime 40mm. I suggest you get an infrared filter because those are the SHIZNIT. Best filter I've seen. Just look up infrared photography on google or something.
I'm wondering... did you buy a used camera? Because unless you took 3000+ shots, I think it was used. (IMG_3***)

HERE'S A HUGE TIP: When resizing in Photoshop, use Bicubic Sharper for the resize mode or whatever. Your images will come out much, much sharper.

Do you notice that giant cloud penis in shot 8?

Hey I have a story related to photography! My dad went to buy a Sony A100 at Circuit City, because he had a rebate. When he took it, he said that it felt like it was a little heavy, but the cashier said it was fine. When he got home, he opened it up and found a brick lying in the box. The camera and lens and everything else was gone. He paid $500 for a brick... Circuit City still doesn't believe him. That's enough of CC for me...

[Zero260]

Freakn' A. I hate you.

The last two are the awesome. Especially the one with the two tracks. And I don't blame you for taking those vertical shots. You gotta take advantage of those blue skies with cool clouds.

Well go take more! I wanna see what that thing is made of. I was planning to eventually get a digital Rebel.

[Stereo]

Sadly enough, I live in a boring place and I can't drive, so my photo opportunities are quite limited... The only good place I can think of is this wheat-looking field in a swampish area, and the trees are far away. In fall, the wheat stuff is golden and the sunsets are amazing. Other than that, I dunno...

Anyways, here's some sky photos.


The orange one was oversaturated for a reason. I love that orange color.
The blue one is edited (much) specially for this effect. I think it looks cool. I dunno how I got the fish-eye effect in the lens, though...

EDIT: More pics (taken during night)



There were taken at night (Around 9PM / 21:00) The first one came out just the way I wanted it to. Aperature was set to 32 with a 20 sec exposure.
I don't have any more, because my lens can't open up any more to get enough light. The last couple pics were pure black. I'm in dire need of a prime >_<

[xHaZxMaTx]

Just so you know, you should get something like a 16-45mm lens or similar, because kit/stock lenses just don't cut it when it comes to top quality.

I plan on getting more lenses, but I need the $$, first.

I suggest you get an infrared filter because those are the SHIZNIT. Best filter I've seen.

I've read about infrared photography; I thought it was a separate sensor, or a sensor attachment that was used, as opposed to just a filter.

I'm wondering... did you buy a used camera? Because unless you took 3000+ shots, I think it was used. (IMG_3***)

If it was used, whoever had it before me took really good care of it.

HERE'S A HUGE TIP: When resizing in Photoshop, use Bicubic Sharper for the resize mode or whatever. Your images will come out much, much sharper.

That seems to be Photoshop's default, but thanks, anyway.

Do you notice that giant cloud penis in shot 8?

wut?


Anywho, it was all cloudy and rainy and stuff, here, Saturday, which isn't terribly common, so I went out with the camera.


I had only gotten out of be at 5 PM that day (3-day weekend \o/), so I was wide awake at 2 in the morning. Figured I'd go and take some night-time shots of the oil refineries around here, which I'd been meaning to do for a while.

[xHaZxMaTx]

Don't really have a comment for this, though it's one of my favourites of the shots I've taken so far. I really like the colours reflected on the bricks.

[boganbusman]

Heh, the colours remind me of NFS:U. Nice.

[xHaZxMaTx]

...Great. Now I'm going to think that every time I see it. Thanks.

In other news, this is the best photo I have ever taken. Don't you agree?

Edit:
Not terribly fond of this (came out a little blurrier than I had hoped), but it's not bad. Those are stars in the background, if you couldn't tell.