amateur photo thread.

[Azuremen]

Anyways, I'll be going on vacation soon, so expect sometime in the next week or so for me to be uploading some shots in Cozumel... not sure exactly what to shoot other than a beach, and maybe some lizards. It's a shame really because I wont have that rokinon lens to take with me yet.

People. Take photos of people. And poverty. Which might mean getting out of resort land.

Also, go scuba diving if you aren't already planning to.

 

[Swagger897]

People. Take photos of people. And poverty. Which might mean getting out of resort land.

Also, go scuba diving if you aren't already planning to.

Normally we never stay at the resort but for the last day, so yeah....

I just can't picture myself going into someones face and take their picture.. I remember something that Kai said from DRTV but just can't see myself do what he does...

 

[andrea]

 

[Dennisch]

I took this photo, because in my mind I saw an opportunity, and that was this :

Had to Google how to get this done in Gimp, and I am actually pleasantly surprised how it turned out.

 

[Azuremen]

Was that with a crazy telephoto setup? Also, I prefer the original but would crop it a touch to move the path off center, but really like the low contrast painterly feel to it.

 

[Dennisch]

Was that with a crazy telephoto setup? Also, I prefer the original but would crop it a touch to move the path off center, but really like the low contrast painterly feel to it.

Shot with a 135mm, on a really windy, close to storm, day.

I also prefer the original, but I wanted to give that colour in a black and white picture a try. And cropping shouldn't be a problem with the size of the original. I'll give that a try. 👍

 

[Mike Rotch]

@andrea I really like that shot, both composition and colour palette 👍

 

[Swagger897]

Welp... I'm back... Trip was fun/wet/mildly hot, but I think we all enjoyed it.
I just purchased LR 6 (the standalone, not CC which I think is a rip-off honestly) so hopefully what I see actually gets represented in the pictures. I have only just gotten back and played with it for the past hour, so this is all I got so far...

HDR One by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr
HDR Two by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr
Those two were HDR shots (obviously, it's in the name), and I think turned out well since I stopped down/up two values, only taking three shots. The gradient filter though is unique and annoying in it's own ways. Sometimes I want something in the middle brightend, but the spot touch is too big, and too narrow, too short, and too long for certain occasions, but I still have a lot of YT to watch on it though.

This one though... this was the first edit so I thought I'd go all out... Sorta, post-card'ish..
Overdoing it? by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr
Gateway to the Sea by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr

Overall, the trip was fun. Rained the first two days, and then yesterday (6-3) was the only nice day really. Unfortunately, I missed by far the best sunset I have ever seen. Tuesday, after it had stopped raining and moved on, but with bringing more clouds, my family and I set off for dinner. On the horizon there was this small strip of water, and a fingernail's width of space from the clouds, just large enough (unknowingly) for the sun to completely squeeze through. We go off, and I keep scratching my head saying "I think I should run back to get my camera...." but keep saying no at the same time. Eventually at the end, the sun had set, and the red, orange, and possibly some yellow, bounced off of the clouds that covered from the horizon to the resort, where they thinned off...
Maybe something like this, but the cloud level was about half the distance to the horizon, much more cloud coverage, and a lot more color, that it would look fake if I even tried to edit it... It was that good.

But anyways, the kid side of me got my attention before leaving...
CTO and Go by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr
Close Up by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr
Ready to GO by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr

Overall, good trip, good food, good place, poor weather until the end...
Camera wise, I think I'm starting to notice more and more how grainy the shots are looking, even while adding noise reduction in pp... I'm not sure if it has been the camera, or if it's the lens. It's not that bad when looking at the photos in LR, but when I set the images as my desktop background, that's when I really notice it.

Oh well... That's only a few images to come, there's quite a lot more on the way...

Edit: If you haven't noticed, something I just did was that the grass on the 747 shots aren't the same color... at. all. whoops..

edit 2: so uh... I was going to see what I had left after posting this.... and uh.... (squeezes chin)... yeah, so I guess half of the shots I took last night of the sunset are gone, some that I really hoped I could see edited...

Life's just great...

 

[Azuremen]

Camera wise, I think I'm starting to notice more and more how grainy the shots are looking, even while adding noise reduction in pp... I'm not sure if it has been the camera, or if it's the lens. It's not that bad when looking at the photos in LR, but when I set the images as my desktop background, that's when I really notice it.

edit 2: so uh... I was going to see what I had left after posting this.... and uh.... (squeezes chin)... yeah, so I guess half of the shots I took last night of the sunset are gone, some that I really hoped I could see edited...

Life's just great...

Grain wise that is likely just the image being resized to fit your desktop, which results in artifact. I don't see any real grain issues in your images on flickr at a glance.

Use a recovery program on the memory card and see what you can find. I think I used Recuva while I was in India.

And maybe calm down on the saturation/vibrance sliders. Or maybe the clarity slider.

 

[Boffin]

@andrea that shot is gorgeous!

 

[andrea]

@Boffin Why thank you.

 

[xHACHIK0]

Here's a selection of photos from Sunday. It's the first time I've ever taken automotive photos, but definitely not the last. I'm extremely happy with the photos below. Which I guess is the most important thing for a photographer.

These were taken at Goodwood Breakfast club (Theme - Convertibles/open-tops)

1969 Fiat Dino 2400 GT - Steering wheel

2006 Lotus Exige - Rear lights

Hand-built cobra. Built by it's owner from the ground up to be 99% identical to the Shelby Cobra Super Snake.

2003 Ferrari 360 Spider - Engine

1968 Jaguar E-Type Series 2 - Steering Wheel

Can't remember what car this is. Could someone possibly ID this? It's the bonnet ornament to a classic car.

1958 Chevrolet Corvette C1

Again, no idea what car this was. I had no idea it even existed until I saw it.

 

[Swagger897]

Grain wise that is likely just the image being resized to fit your desktop, which results in artifact. I don't see any real grain issues in your images on flickr at a glance.

Use a recovery program on the memory card and see what you can find. I think I used Recuva while I was in India.

And maybe calm down on the saturation/vibrance sliders. Or maybe the clarity slider.

yeah... looking at it now I did go a bit overboard on the sat slider... I just try to eliminate all of the grey in the photos..

As far as stretching, the images are like 6116x41xx (I think), and on a 1920x1080, I don't see how it could "stretch" really... besides, the picture can't even fit the entire screen, as it's too large..


Edit: Got around to doing this over the weekend, forgot to upload them till now.
Night Life by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr
Wings Up by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr

 

[carfanatic45]

@xHACHIK0 the picture of the hood ornament is probably an old Rolls Royce. That's their "Flying Spur" emblem. I think the last picture may be an Old Mercedes, but it's really hard to tell. Your pictures are gorgeous, keep it up! 👍

 

[xHACHIK0]

@xHACHIK0 the picture of the hood ornament is probably an old Rolls Royce. That's their "Flying Spur" emblem. I think the last picture may be an Old Mercedes, but it's really hard to tell. Your pictures are gorgeous, keep it up! 👍

Thanks!!

Found a photo of the full car for the last shot. It's an Overland

 

[Azuremen]

yeah... looking at it now I did go a bit overboard on the sat slider... I just try to eliminate all of the grey in the photos..

As far as stretching, the images are like 6116x41xx (I think), and on a 1920x1080, I don't see how it could "stretch" really... besides, the picture can't even fit the entire screen, as it's too large..

Stretch wasn't the right word, but there is some artifacting from them being downsized by Windows for the wallpaper, and probably some distortion since the images are 3:2 and your desktop is 16:9. I'd say crop one you want to use down to 1920x1080 in Photoshop, or temp crop to 16:9 in LR and export at 1920x1080.

And grey isn't inherently a bad thing in images, nor are muted tones as that is often how the feel in real life, despite how much of an impact those colors make. I don't find myself staring at a sunset because its got crazy saturation, but rather the subtle nature of the gradients and tones as they spread across the sky.

 

[Swagger897]

Stretch wasn't the right word, but there is some artifacting from them being downsized by Windows for the wallpaper, and probably some distortion since the images are 3:2 and your desktop is 16:9. I'd say crop one you want to use down to 1920x1080 in Photoshop, or temp crop to 16:9 in LR and export at 1920x1080.

And grey isn't inherently a bad thing in images, nor are muted tones as that is often how the feel in real life, despite how much of an impact those colors make. I don't find myself staring at a sunset because its got crazy saturation, but rather the subtle nature of the gradients and tones as they spread across the sky.

Yeah... gotcha..

Another question (after I found out how to resize via pixels), since I'm resizing it from 6xx6 x 4xx4 pixels to 1920... should it be decreasing quality since it's loosing pixels? Just wondering because that's what's happening, seems like common sense though..

 

[Azuremen]

Another question (after I found out how to resize via pixels), since I'm resizing it from 6xx6 x 4xx4 pixels to 1920... should it be decreasing quality since it's loosing pixels? Just wondering because that's what's happening, seems like common sense though..

Well yeah, you are effectively resampling data down to smaller sizes. Resizing from 6000x4000 to 3000x2000 means every 4 pixels (2x2 square) are now only 1 pixel, and so on. But of course it isn't nearly this simple because algorithms also check adjacent pixels to maintain how the image "appears," but different algorithms yield different results. Thus, Windows resizing something look different than PS, and Facebook resizes different than Flickr, etc. If you wanted, I'm sure more then a few thesis statements by doctoral candidates exist on resizing algorithms and optimization.

In the real world, quality is subjective. A 6000x4000 pixel image isn't very meaningful if it is being viewed in on a site or in a browser that resizes it to fit in the window, on displays that often top out at 1920x1080. Higher resolution images do look nice on high density displays, like Apple Retina devices, but they are still far away from the original size of most digital cameras. Most of my images are exported at 2100x1800 or 1800x1200, for two major reasons - I don't care to have full res images online and exporting hundreds of full res jpegs would devour my storage.

Sure, you can print from high res jpegs, but you really should be processing print files different to profile for printer colors. Which is another reason I don't worry about exporting full-size jpegs - all my print files are processed through PhotoShop (I like everything just so when do poster sized prints) using the printer profile to proof.

 

[Ameer67]

Taking pictures from a (kind of fast) boat on the lake can be quite hard, but it is not impossible.










And one more...

https://flic.kr/p/utuNGv​

 

[phillgt2002]

Starting up a photo website sometime soon. Going to gather locals in the Bay Area and see if they're interested.

That morning was somewhat magical.

Something went wrong when editing this photo.

 

[Swagger897]

Taking pictures from a (kind of fast) boat on the lake can be quite hard, but it is not impossible.










And one more...

Nice stuff. Now I see the reason why to get a tilt/shift lens though.
And as much as I hate to say it (while wearing my Penguins polo), I'd like to see Chicago win because why on earth does Florida even have a hockey team...

Starting up a photo website sometime soon. Going to gather locals in the Bay Area and see if they're interested.

That morning was somewhat magical.

Something went wrong when editing this photo.

These are still pretty good. The first one I think I'd like the door shut more, but either way it looks great.
The second one though, did you mean the city is too dark?

 

[Crash]

Night Life by Jacob Buchanan, on Flickr

You should rotate that picture slightly clockwise so that it is flat. That part is throwing me off a bit.

 

[Swagger897]

You should rotate that picture slightly clockwise so that it is flat. That part is throwing me off a bit.

Really?

I just threw it back up in LR and hit auto, and it only shifted it by 0.12, barely noticeable when i switched between the two...
The pool did go further back to the right and the building isn't dead on with the corner, so that may be the reason why it feels off balance, but I put the focus on the row of lights, and they lined up well with my viewfinder.... I dunno, I don't really see it, and if I do anything manually in LR, it looks too high on the left than it was...

Remind you, this is Mexico...

 

[Machate-man]

Technically anything you're not paid for is considered un-professional, so these are too...

Straight from LR

 

[Swagger897]

View attachment 388581 View attachment 388582
Technically anything you're not paid for is considered un-professional, so these are too...

Straight from LR

Are both of these HDR?

 

[Machate-man]

Are both of these HDR?

Clarity +100, highlights -80(?), shadows&blacks +100, contrast +100

My lazy way of editing automobiles.

 

[Swagger897]

Clarity +100, highlights -80(?), shadows&blacks +100, contrast +100

My lazy way of editing automobiles.

Lol, good enough, used to be what I did.... (still somewhat)..
The first shot made me think HDR for some reason (not those pungent and nasty ones when you google it) but the second one had me thinking, because the front of the car came out quite well for the light coming from behind the car..

 

[Azuremen]

You should rotate that picture slightly clockwise so that it is flat. That part is throwing me off a bit.

I believe it is the curve of the pool causing the issue, as the vertical elements seem vertical. Composition just isn't appealing and a better position would've been ideal, @Swagger897.

 

[Machate-man]

Lol, good enough, used to be what I did.... (still somewhat)..
The first shot made me think HDR for some reason (not those pungent and nasty ones when you google it) but the second one had me thinking, because the front of the car came out quite well for the light coming from behind the car..

Shadows pulled the front out pretty well I think, even though it was partially lit from the front by street lights

 

[Swagger897]

right where the dot is in the pool, just under that there are two huts, the one on the left is roughly where I shot it at. I'm not sure how I would get a better composed image by moving, as on the right you see some of the rooms, each with a really bright light, and on the left were some empty chairs and a big wall...