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It's good stuff! I need to get back to shooting for myself a little. We have been so busy with client stuff... We have real jobs, the photography is our side gig.
Here is one of my favorite macro shots because I had no idea the spider was there until editing. And if you look closely, the dragonfly has been eating Cheetos. :tiphat: http://www.the370z.com/members/beach...-dragonfly.jpg http://www.the370z.com/members/beach...ous-spider.jpg |
Love the shot
I have been waiting forever to get a proper macro shot of a dragon fly Photography is also one of my many hobbies lol I sell insurance and the only photography involved in that is photo inspections with a POS point and shoot lol |
Thanks!
I hear ya! I am not permitted to have a camera anywhere near my day job. :) |
Beach and nick really good stuff guys! Haha the spider below the dragon fly is epic.
haha and im really just a few days into the whole thing. Ive owned decent cameras in the past but never really got into it. Yeah some of the ferry shots had some noise, many of the close ups also. But im sure the canon 55-250 at full zoom will have some noise. Maybe it will improve when i have a tripod or better lens for such things :tup: |
I agree that a lot of shots (of mine) inherently have noise/grain in them. I usually take it out in light room.
And I noticed that shot of the seagull you posted, you were using your camera set at F/9. I wouldn't really use the 250mm end of the lens past 8 and the 50mm past 5.6. Those are the optimal F stops(for that specific lens) before you actually lose picture quality. |
is there a list or general guideline for optimal or max f/stops you want to be looking at for lenses?
i guess my eyes aren't trained enough yet, i don't see a lot of noise in those pics. and mine have noise, but i usually go light on post processing so meh. it's all still a work in progress. |
Every lens is different, if you wanna be really anal about it you can look up specific MTF charts online that show the optimal F stop sharpness of a lens. But generally the rule of thumb is...Whatever the open F stop of a lens is add 2 to it and that should be around optimal.
obviously this rule doesn't work for everything. macro for instance needs a very high F stop to get a clear photo since you're focusing so close. But that's the rule I follow for most lenses and it generally works. For example... My 1.8 prime would be optimal around 4.. etc |
wow nick! you da man. :tup: nice shots.
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beach- nice! that dragon fly has come nice colors... i lol'ed at spider. :D very impressive shots.
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quick question for those of you who take picts of cars. where exactly are you placing the focal point? in my shots i want to get the entire car in focus so usually focus on the front fender just aft of the headlight and use f/10 or higher.
any recommendations? thanks! :D |
Depends on the shot I want to take. Front three quarters if that makes sense I use the side marker and a high f stop.
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My contribution for the day...
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/avryan/flag.jpg http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ahamahouse.jpg |
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...4/DSC_0719.jpg
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...4/DSC_0698.jpg minor edits. can't get the bike one to not look faded. it looked okay on my LCD too. meh. alchemy - beautiful flag silhouette shot. |
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How far away are you generally standing from the car? http://www.parkerphotog.com/photos/i...-nXXcdrG-L.jpg That is at 2.8 at 24mm... Standing roughly 10-15ft from the car I would say. Now it does change things a little when the car is more at an angle. Here is a link to a larger version if you want to look a little closer. http://www.parkerphotog.com/photos/i...nXXcdrG-X3.jpg *edit* I didn't actually make my point... haha. The further you stand back.. the more you can fit into your focal plane. |
Parker- thanks! Thats a nice shot. On the vw did u focus on the door where it meets the side window?
I'm usually standing about 15-20ft from my car using my kit lens at 22-35mm f8 or higher number. if I was taking a pict like your sig pict ( your blue Z on an angle) where should I put focus? When I stand too far back and zoom in, my car looks too flat in the picture like part of the background... I cant seem to get a good focus throughout the car. Is this me or limitation of my setup? :confused: |
22-35 on a crop sensor IMO isn't wide enough compared to a full framed camera. You just don't get that same effect with auto photography.
And i def wouldn't go any higher than F8. Also, when you zoom it seems flat due to the same reason I suggest using a wider angle lens. I'm no pro though just some of my observations |
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So wat lens would u recommend for car shots? Basically im only going to be taking shots of my car and mods mostly. :D |
Well, if you want to get an idea of crop vs full frame think of it this way. Generally speaking the crop factor is 1.6 times. So if you're shooting with the canon kit lens at 18mm that would be equivalent to a full frame camera shooting at roughly 28mm. So the full frame gets a much wider shot than the crop camera without having to have a super wide lens in terms of the mm.
I own a tamron 17-50mm 2.8 and I love it to death as far as zooms go. Sharp as a tack. But if I were you and I'm assuming you're using the 18-55 kit lens, I'd probably be shooting it at 18mm F/5.6 and then adjust the shot accordingly by moving backwards and forwards instead of zooming. Standing closer with a wider angle will get you way better pictures for cars than zooming into the car further back. |
I don't claim to be a pro at car photography, because to be honest it's one of the areas I spend the least amount of time. I took these at a local car show. I don't exactly remember the settings off the top of my head, but I'm sure they were at 17mm and F/4(wide open being 2.8). I just had them uploaded on facebook, straight out of camera with no editing, so a lot of the quality was sucked out of them by that god awful site.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._1514487_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._3607983_n.jpg https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...4_565666_n.jpg |
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yah, i really like the 18-20mm but depending on how close i am to the car it would put too much emphasis on the center like a fisheye look. in some shots i prefer that, in some shots the image is too distorted as far as straight/veriticle lines. Quote:
so my other question was about focus point. where exactly are you focusing on your car images at f/5.6-f/8? do you take the center plane of the car or do you aim at the headlights or middle of hood, or emblem, or ... (?) im a pretty confused kenchan.. :rolleyes: |
Aperture setting should have no variable in the photo being blurred, a wide open aperture takes in more light, so if anything it should be less blurry since you need a slower shutter speed. Rule of thumb is.. Whatever the mm you're shooting at should be your minimum shutter speed. So if you're shooting at 50mm your minimum shutter speed for a non blurry photo should be AT LEAST 1/50 and so on.(I usually end up doubling if I can)
In those photos I was using a center focusing point, when you're shooting at a higher F stop the sharpness starts at the middle and progressively gets sharper towards the edges as the f stop increases, so really the whole picture should be sharp with the center shot being the sharpest. Placement in the photo I'd also would say has to do with your general composition that you're looking for the photo overall. Rule of thirds, etc. Do you own an external flash for your camera? |
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huh, i thought apeture would determine DOF so a higher number was preferred if i wanted to get a big object like an entire car in focus..(?) maybe im mis-understanding the depth of say f/5.6 with 20mm lens 3meters away would be 1.325m near focus limit... ohhh.... DOF is infinite. it's when im using more like 23mm+ i need to worry about the rear focal limit. (kenchan using DofF calculator on his droidx... :icon17: ) so the shorter the lens the less i need to worry about DOF... ok ok.. thanks for that! :tup: i will shoot f/5.6-8 18mm-20mm from now on. :) thanks for the focus point. im starting to understand this. so there's actually 2 areas the camera can focus on... DOF plane + within that plane, the actual focal point using the camera's artificial RED DOT focal point. is that wat you're saying? :) |
^ i was debating to myself for a bit to invest in an external flash or not. i've generally gone on the presumption to not use flash for anything yet, as i'm still learning the ropes, but i've taken more than one shot where i wish i could bounce some light off the ceiling or get some good fill.
and aperture does control DOF, ken. i think nick was pointing to that later in his post, as your f/stop increases, the sharpness also starts crawling out towards the edges. |
When you shoot wide open, you get more of a DOF so the center is in focus but as you move away from the center you begin to get out of focus. So if you're shooting wide open at say.. 1.8 as you move away from the center it will begin to lose sharpness and if something is further away you'll get the blurring(bokeh) in the photo. So if you take that same lens and boost the F/ to 4 more of the image will be in focus including things that may be further away from the focusing point. The mm of the lens itself does not really effect DOF. If you shoot at 90mm with 2.8(like my macro shots or at macro 1:1 with a higher F stop which is a totally different lesson lol) you're getting that same DOF effect.
IMO an external flash increases picture quality 10 fold. But natural light I find better obviously in situations like shooting cars. |
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The focal length of a lens does effect its depth of field. 200mm at 2.8 will have a much shallower DoF than 24mm at 2.8. |
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lol let's leave the telephoto lenses out of the discussion for now :rofl2:
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here's wat the calc says based on me standing 3meters from the car using f/5.6 18mm near focus limit 1.17m DOF: infinite /far focus limit is infinity 20mm near focus limit 1.33m DOF: intinite /far focus limit is infinity 23mm near focus limit 1.53m DOF: 65.18m /far focus limit is 66.72m that's a lot of dept of field i can use at f/5.6 with a short lens. on the contrary if i use a 55mm setting... 55mm near focus limit 2.56m DOF: 1.02m /far focus limit is 3.594m Quote:
forgot to reply on your question about flash. i dont have external flash, just the one that pops up on my D3100. i dont intend to go deep into photograpy. i already have another expensive hobby (music) besides my car which not only eats at my wallet but my time and determination as well. :D photography is more like just a icing on the cake for my car hobby. :p |
i'm about ready to enroll myself in a photography class now :facepalm:
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It still makes a difference though, Just saying. Like 18 vs 55 at the same aperture, you will see a difference but not like you would with the comparison I made. |
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remember now, kenchan did not know how to mount lens to body 3wks ago. :tup: |
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i'll snap some shots later this week. :p |
i was about to say how happy i was that my music hobby doesn't cost me anymore...i already have a piano / keyboard i love to use. but then ken goes and says he plays a keyboard / piano...:wtf:
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I recently bought a subaru by selling my leftover live sound equipment and some instruments. So i guess I'm kinda into music....
Sent from my iPhone |
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im into composition so digital piano (yami CP1) is the way i play... :) this will last me another 8yrs before i get me a new one and a RhodesMk7 88Active. :yum: Quote:
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No, it's me moving away from sellout status :)
Sent from my iPhone |
Nick, another quick question for you...
tripods... what brand/model should i be looking to get? i have an old one wife and i bought for our video camera long time ago but im not sure how long this thing is going to hold. i want to get a real short one for low-angle shots and a standard height. :) |
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