The Photography Thread

[cyberjunkie]

There are many people who can get great results with cheap point and shoots. I was reviewing the Sony A330. It's gone back now

[Cool G5]

There are many people who can get great results with cheap point and shoots. I was reviewing the Sony A330. It's gone back now

Thought so.
Still a DSLR is a DSLR. With great price come great snaps.
You guys are lucky still, you get to handle so many latest products while we have to stick with the one we purchase for a long time.

[cyberjunkie]

"With great price come great snaps." Probably the most ridiculous statement ever. Go to Flickr and find photos from a Canon PowerShot A480 or something. You'll find some seriously impressive stuff from Rs. 7,000 cameras. If you look for cameras over Rs. 2 lakh, you'll also find equally horrible shots..

Then let's see you say ""With great price come great snaps..." :-P

[Cool G5]

Offcourse, I didn't meant it entirely depends upon the camera. I know even low end camera's can shoot great if one shoots within their capabilities.
But then a professional photographer can't reproduce the same photo he took with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon Powershot A480. Can he? No!

Even a low end DSLR will beat a 10k model black-blue, offcourse not considering the poor skill of the shooter. I hope that's clear.

[toofan]

Beetal BOy left Alone!

[izzikio_rage]

@toofan and chirag....thanks guys.....will post some more of the photos I took....
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one of the lake at nainital.....its a beauty by day and is almost unreal by night....
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@toofan: amazing photo of the beetle ......amazing control on the depth of feild....what is the camera and lens that you are using?

@all: An expensive camera helps but the real stuff is the photographer, a good one tends to turn even the limitations of the camera into amazing shots...

[pimpom]

izzikio, that's a beautiful scene. But the tilt is irritating. It's easy to tilt the camera while shooting without knowing it and I sometimes do it myself.

You can rotate an image with Irfanview by any angle in steps of 0.01 degree. Your photo will look better if it's rotated by about 2 degrees to the right.

[pimpom]

Nice picture, toofan.

Now, without peeking at the explanation below, can anyone tell what this is?



It's the stinger of a honeybee. The bee left it behind when it stung my wife and I took it off with a pair of tweezers.

If it had happened during the day, I would have been able to take a bigger and more detailed picture. But it was night time, there wasn't sufficient light and since dinner was already on the table, I didn't want to go to the trouble of arranging some additional lightning. So I had to use the flash. I shot in macro mode, but if I put the camera too close to the subject, the lens housing would have cast a shadow on the subject. So this was the most close-up shot I could take.

BTW, although the sting of a honeybee is not bery painful to most people, some, like my wife, are very sensitive to insect stings. When a bee stings her in the neck, her face swells up like a balloon and she finds it very painful. It can even be life-threatening if the allergic reaction obstructs the respiratory tracts. I always have antihistamine shots and tablets handy in the house.

[izzikio_rage]

@pimpom: thanks, I somehow hadn't noticed the tilt till now.....but its pretty clear once you know its there.....

[toofan]

@ izzikio_rage: That pic was shot from a cannon sx110 IS. Not a DSLR

and the light post which is in foreground of the pic tells us that you have a mind of a photographer.

@pimpom I could not figure out that its a bee sting without the explanation below it. Because no one can think that a bee sting could be photographed

Yes the shadow of camera tends to come over images and it happens with me also many time while Indore shooting.

[toofan]

Pimpom Amazing amazing Pics. I saw them today. You said these were taken form Panasonic FZ30 and some other. Its unbelievable. I also had a Panasonic FZ28.(actually its not mine but i take care of it.)

Can I too take such pics with that camera.
Can SX110IS can also be used.
And how zoom is required ?

[pimpom]

Pimpom Amazing amazing Pics. I saw them today. You said these were taken form Panasonic FZ30 and some other. Its unbelievable. I also had a Panasonic FZ28.(actually its not mine but i take care of it.)

Can I too take such pics with that camera.
Can SX110IS can also be used.
And how zoom is required ?

Yes, you can take good pictures of the moon with an FZ28 or an SX110. The lens of my FZ30 is somewhat better than these in terms of quality (not zoom range), but the lenses of those two cameras are also not bad at all.

To take photos of the moon, you will have to experiment a bit. I'll give you some hints as starting points.

1. Use manual focussing if possible. If you can't get the focus right with manual focus, set the camera to spot focus. This makes the lens try to focus on the center of the picture.

2. You have to use manual exposure settings. It's very difficult (though not impossible with some cameras) to get proper exposure in automatic exposure setting. This is because the moon is a small bright object in a vast black background. In auto setting, the camera tries to compensate for the dark background by increasing exposure. The result is that the moon is overexposed and comes out as a blurry bright white object.

Set the control dial to M (manual). Also set ISO to 100, not auto. Start by setting aperture to, say, around 5, and shutter speed to 1/250 sec. The required exposure depends on atmosperic conditions, so these values are only starting points.

Take a trial shot. If the moon comes out too bright, decrease exposure by increasing the shutter speed in steps - 1/320, 1/400, and so on. If it's too dim, increase exposure by changing the shutter speed to 1/200, 1/160, etc.

Keep on shooting and change the exposure until you can see details of the moon's surface clearly in the picture.

3. Use maximum zoom for either camera. This will give you the biggest picture in pixels. The SX110 has a somewhat shorter lens (360mm) than my FZ30 (420mm), so you'll get a slightly smaller image. The 9 MP sensor wil partly compensate for this as this is larger than my FZ30's 8 MP. So the resultant image will be only slightly smaller than my shot with the FZ30.

My earlier FZ20 was 5 MP with a 432 mm lens, so the SX110's image will be bigger than that of the FZ20.

The FZ28 has a higher MP and a longer lens (486mm) than the SX110, so you'll get a much bigger image. The lens quality is also better. (Panasonic has the best non-SLR lenses, even better than most SLR kit lenses, and rivals many expensive SLR lenses. Panasonic's weakness is a high level of noise).

4. To avoid camera shake and get a sharp photo, use a tripod whenever possible, and use the self-timer even if you're not going to be in the picture. Avoiding camera shake is particularly important at long zooms. Most cameras have a choice of 2 or 10 seconds delay. 2 secs is enough for the vibration to die down after you've press the button.

5. The moon shots I posted were somewhat enhanced with Irfanview and Photoshop, so don't be disappointed if your shots don't come out looking as clear as those. OTOH, don't rely too much on post-processing. Too much processing can result in an unnatural look.

Also remember that no photographer, including those much better than me, can get a perfect shot every time. Keep on shooting, learn from the results and enjoy the good shots.

[toofan]

Thanks for these detailed tips. I will try to get some shots tonight.

And One good thing happened to me. I had bought a Vivitar Tripod last weak and now time for its real test.

[Cool G5]

^Which one you got? VPT-1200 or VPT-1800 or VPT-3600 or any other?

[toofan]

Its VPT 2400 available for RS 1800.00 in my city.

[izzikio_rage]

@toofan: an SX110; amazing work dude....

[toofan]

Thanks Izziko.

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Now this is the pic I had taken from Panasonic FZ28 at full 18x zoom.

f/5.0
shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 100

a little bit adjustments and cropped in Photoshop CS4.( I am learning PHotoshop these days. Its quite huge to learn)

pimpon and others please tell what improvement I need to do next time.

[pimpom]

Now this is the pic I had taken from Panasonic FZ28 at full 18x zoom.

f/5.0
shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 100

Great, congratulations. See, you can do it.

This is a better time to capture an interesting shot of the moon than at full moon. That's because sunlight is still slanting on many parts of the moon's visible surface and creates interesting plays of shadow and light on the ridges and craters.

Of course, I'm not against shooting the full moon and I've done it quite a few times. But at full moon, we are looking at surfaces where the sun is directly overhead and the features are not as interesting as at other times.

One personal viewpoint: Many others with better equipment and skills have shot pictures of the moon. They use high-end DSLRs with high-grade telephoto lenses of 800mm, 1000mm and even 2000mm. The lenses alone can cost $2000-10000. Such photo gear can capture details that are not possible with cameras like ours.

However, the majority of those shots come out making the moon look like a dull dead rock. Of course, the moon IS a dead rock, but it doesn't look like that from the earth. So I usually try to make the moon look like a shining globe in my shots. This needs adjusting image parameters both in the camera and in post-processing.

a little bit adjustments and cropped in Photoshop CS4.( I am learning PHotoshop these days. Its quite huge to learn)

pimpon and others please tell what improvement I need to do next time.

Yes, Photoshop is powerful but needs a lot of effort to master. Personally, I have a limited knowledge of Photoshop. In any case, you don't need Photoshop for cropping, adjustment of brightness, contrast, gamma, colour balance, etc. Irfanview can do all of those and is much easier to learn.

I suggest you use Irfanview for the things it can do and use Photoshop for things outside the scope of Irfanview.

[toofan]

Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/320
Av (Aperture Value) 4.5
ISO Speed 80
This image is taken form Cannon SX110 IS on the same night as above one.


I had tried to add some extra brightness and contrast to it so that it may look a bit live. If the brightness or the contrast is over or less, then please tell me.

[pimpom]

Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/320
Av (Aperture Value) 4.5
ISO Speed 80
This image is taken form Cannon SX110 IS on the same night as above one.

I had tried to add some extra brightness and contrast to it so that it may look a bit live. If the brightness or the contrast is over or less, then please tell me.

I'd say the contrast is a tad overdone. It might be OK if you were trying to show off how clear you can take a picture of the moon, and some people may admire it this way. But it will look more natural if you had increased the contrast by a smaller amount.

One thing you might keep in mind: Your first serious attempt to shoot the moon just happened to be at a time when the moon is at apogee (when it's farthest from the earth). This makes your image look smaller than it would be if it were taken at other times. The exact time of apogee was at 4:35 PM last Monday (31st August).

Now, for another kind of shot, you might try a shot like this when conditions are right -


This is a bit trickier than taking a shot on a clear night. Of course it's possible to produce this kind of picture by overlaying two shots with an image processing software, but the satisfaction wouldn't be the same as taking an actual shot of a real scene. This one is without any processing except for a slight adjustment of brightness.

[toofan]

thanks pimpom. And I will try to have some such shots.

This is how the sunset looked last weak from my place. There were very very strong colors in the sky and its very difficult to find the right exposure. But a trial and error method worked for me.
But still I am not sure this is the right pic to post.

Only a little touching has been done to decrease the color temperature and saturation to fix the brightness of the colors.

[Cool G5]

Amazing shot toofan
Simply awesome!

[toofan]

Thanks dear.

[Cool G5]

A question for you all.
Do you print out photos(not of any occasion but random shots you feel are splendid. e.g. The shot above my post) & preserve them in an album?

[pimpom]

I seldom print my photos. Not because I don't want to, but because of a combination of lack of time, cost and laziness

[toofan]

I will print my appreciated Pics. but this time I am collecting them so that a mass printing order can be post of 100 pics or something.

How is snapfish.com? has anyone tried it. What is the quality of prints they offer.

their rates are cheaper then the rates in color labs of my city.But I don't have a credit card.

[Cool G5]

I haven't anytime tried snapfish.
Toofan, how much do you pay for 5*7 size prints? Which city you reside?

[pimpom]

There's an online photo printing service called picsquare.com based in Bangalore. I have not tried them but they have the lowest rates I know of. 6x4 = Rs.2.99, 5x7 = 9/-. Shipping charges will add to that and will be economical only for a fairly large number of prints.

You can check out details at http://www.picsquare.com. Their rates are on the right-hand side on the "Order Prints" page.

[toofan]

5 x 7 inch prints costs Rs 8.00 per print.
4x6 costs 4 to 5 rs per print.

I am from (Haldwani) Nainital.

[swordfish]

guys you are rocking now a days.. I am of photography because of tight schedule and other work
toofan, I like your macro shots.. I love macros ..