The PhotogRoophy Thread

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Roo

Roo

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Hampshire, UK
GTP_Roo
I took a brave pill and decided to post some of what I consider my better images. I've largely self-taught myself, asking questions when I felt the need and learning through some trial and lots of error in the meantime. I'll probably by asking some rather daft questions whilst I try to get things to fit in my head in a way I can understand, so please bear with me!

I'll update this thread as and when I can, but it won't be very often. I don't have much time outside of work and other commitments to edit my pictures, so I usually don't do much more than a bit of contrast and cropping, but any comments would be welcome. I edit all my photos on a laptop, which isn't ideal, but I can't afford a decent monitor right now.

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This first set is from the weekend at the London to Brighton Mini Run, a weekend of showing your Mini off and sleep deprevation.

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It's quite hard to manually focus with a light source that's only lit for 1 tenth of a scond in every 7, so I was pleased with this.
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Originally shot in colour, I reduced the saturation to zero as I felt it worked better in monochrome. I've got more fingers than monochrome shots; it's a medium I feel I ought to use more often.
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Had trouble with this one. I needed the low aperture to give the depth of field I wanted, but the amount of light ment 1/4000 was still to slow. I still feel something is something is off with the colours, but I can't figure it out - it's like it's oversaturated and undersaturated at the same time :confused:
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Thoughts?

Edit: might try smaller pictures in future too.
 
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Nice to someone else taking the plunge with a photography thread. 👍

Also, nice shots too! Particularly liking the monochrome one of all the Mini's lined up. Concerning the shot that seems a bit 'off' in terms of colours it's probably to do with the white balance of the image. To me the tarmac in particular seems a bit orange-y, perhaps play around in Photoshop (with either the RAW or the JPEG) using Colour Balance until you can get rid of that orange tinge. It might give the image more natural colours.

Nice beginning set though! Hope to see more. 👍
 
Good effort. I love the 2nd shot :)

What's your gear?

Speedsters point about white balance is a good one, I've only just started playing with it, and it can make a huge tonal difference to the shot.

edit: Also.. that second from last shot.. pretty sure I saw that Mini at Thruxton BTCC the other week...

Roo
Had trouble with this one. I needed the low aperture to give the depth of field I wanted, but the amount of light ment 1/4000 was still to slow. I still feel something is something is off with the colours, but I can't figure it out - it's like it's oversaturated and undersaturated at the same time :confused:
Click to expand...

sorry to double post, but..

That mid ground focused depth of field could also be achieved by standing further back and zooming in as much as possible.
 
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Speedster502
Concerning the shot that seems a bit 'off' in terms of colours it's probably to do with the white balance of the image. To me the tarmac in particular seems a bit orange-y, perhaps play around in Photoshop (with either the RAW or the JPEG) using Colour Balance until you can get rid of that orange tinge. It might give the image more natural colours.
Click to expand...

MatskiMonk
Speedsters point about white balance is a good one, I've only just started playing with it, and it can make a huge tonal difference to the shot.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give that a go. I've only recently (in the last 4 months or so) got my head around white balance, and I'm a bit hit and miss, but I'll get there eventually.

I'm currently shooting everything in JPEG on the largest size and finest detail settings, due to space. I'm only using Microsoft Office Picture Manager for the editing at the moment - I downloaded Gimp, but that blew my mind when I tried to do anything in it - I've got a lot more to learn on the editing side than the shooting side.

MatskiMonk
What's your gear?
Click to expand...

Nikon D40 with the standard 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens, bought in 2007;
Nikkor 70-210mm f4 that's about 24 years old and used to belong to my dad, donated to me as he no longer had a camera to use it on;
Nikkor 50mm f1.4 prime lens, bought last year.

MatskiMonk
That mid ground focused depth of field could also be achieved by standing further back and zooming in as much as possible.
Click to expand...

Although that wasn't possible for that particular shot because of physical space, I'll give that a whirl next time I'm attempting that sort of effect. Ta!
 
Good stuff Roo, I really like the second shot and the monochrome one.

Adobe Lightroom is pretty good and is very easy to use (I can use it!) plus it has nondestructive editing so leaves the original images untouched.
 
Minor update.

Brooklands Double 12, a trials event for classic cars. As I was there as part of the first aid cover photography came second to making sure I was available at a moments notice, but I got a few shots I was happy with. Still not got adjusting white balance on the fly down yet, so had to correct most of the pictures afterwards.

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A DeTomaso has arrived, best get the fire truck ready...
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A shot of my nephew at a family gathering yesterday:

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Not to sure about the colours... some of it seems too red, some too blue... :indiff:
 
My word. An update.

A few weeks back I spent a week in Cyprus visiting family. The Cyprus Rally, the final ever round of the IRC, happened to be on at the same time - not a coincidence - which gave me the opportuinty to shoot my first rally. Rally chasing turned out to be quite a lot of fun - the weather helped; 26°C and sunny > 5°C and raining - but the dust was a problem.

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DSC_4361 by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4426 by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4479a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4540a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4600a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4779a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4804a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4865a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4928 by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4901 by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_4956a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_5070a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_5176a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_5218 by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

Comments and/or criticisms welcome as always.

Unfortunately, my camera didn't survive the dust unscathed. I was using my old 70-210 lens for the last shot, but since that moment my D40 no longer recognises the 18-55mm kit lens, even though that was in my bag at the time. My 50mm prime and the 70-210 both work fine.

In other news, I'm thinking a body upgrade is in order when I can afford it after playing with a few in the airport. Unfortunately the next step up comes at double the price of the current entry-level SLR - the D3200 is the same price as I paid for the D40 5 years ago, but the D5200 is twice that...
 
Lots to update with, but not much time to do it in...

I inherited some money at the beginning of the year and instead of being sensible I spent a chunk on a new body and some lenses. Thus my kit list now looks like:

  • Nikon D40 body
  • Nikon D7000 body
  • Nikkor 18-105mm kit lens
  • Nikkor 70-210mm f/4 (retired)
  • Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II
  • Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 prime
  • Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye
  • Nikon SB-700 flash

Been to a few events since but haven't had a chance to edit stuff to post, apart from the Le Mans 24hr. Hopefully I can correct this terrible injustice.

Last Sunday I tried something new for me - shooting motocross. There's 2 local tracks within a few miles of my house that are used as part of an amateur series based in the south east of England. I really enjoyed it: free to get in, your access-all-areas pass is a hi viz tabbard, and really friendly people. The only downside was the huge clouds of dust, and trying to keep it out of the camera was horrendous.

These were my favourites.

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DSC_8960a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_9279a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_9842a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_9961a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_9964a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_0038a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

I think next time I'll try dropping the shutter speed a bit more for the head on shots.

Comments please!
 
BTCC finale at Brands Hatch last Sunday. The weather was very wet. I knew all the action would happen on the Indy circuit but I have loads of photos from there; the GP loop isn't open so that's where I stayed all day. By early afternoon I was quite wet and rather hacked off with the weather so I just experimented and refined a few shots I'd managed in the past but without really knowing how. Having learnt something I was much happier to shoot into the evening, but that did mean I stopped trying anything new... hmmm.

These are my favourites.

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DSC_1083a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

2 - the very slow shutter speed (~1/30th) thing I hadn't really grasped before, but I feel I've got the hang of it now.

DSC_1338b by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_1717a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

4 - shot through a fence, I was too far away to make use of my own flash. Luckily I managed to steal someone else's...

DSC_2010a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_2153a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_2211a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

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DSC_2238a by GTP_Roo, on Flickr

Rest of the set.

Thoughts?
 

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