I have to agree, the American black duck is a great shot, I love how you can see every detail in his feathers. What speed were you shooting at?


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new-fangled science stuff

This happens to me all the time!

You guys should also look at the focusing modes. The D5100 has three servo modes.

AF-A (automatic)
AF-S (single)
AF-C (continuous) for action shots

You then also have the AF area modes:
-Auto
-Single point
-Dynamic
-3D

I'm not 100% sure but the Live View has a few different focus settings on it's own like facial recognition that may mess with what you're doing. If you're not able to fire the shutter, it might still be searching for a focus point.

Thanks for the kind words! This was shot with my D300 and a Nikon 300mm f2.8 VRI plus a 1.4x teleconverter. ISO400 ~ f5.6 ~ 1/4000 ~ EV-0.67

a couple from my road trip
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...04440349_o.jpg
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...78774527_o.jpg

Amazing! Thx for sharing :)

RandyD, the white balance of your shots is great! That dish is f'ing awesome too!

this^

:iagree:

Can't really add to what was already posted in reply, but from an astrophotography perspective, night shots can be tricky, especially in metropolitan areas. I had all sorts of trouble trying to get a good shot of Comet Pan-Starrs a couple weeks ago from my deck and truely dark skies are a long drive away from me. Definitely pick up a remote trigger if you don't already have one and use the bulb setting for exposure length.

I used this shot to establish where the comet was since it was still fairly light out and the thing was already low in the sky, it's roughly centered above the trees: 28mm lens f/4.5 ISO 800 4-ish seconds.


Once I knew where it was, I switched to my 70-300mm and zoomed in: ISO 800, f/5.6, 2 seconds. I would have liked to have gone longer but at that level of zoom I would need a tracking mount....someday!


This one is a good illustration for getting out to the sticks. Car is a little out of focus but I was mainly wanting the stars in focus and the aperture setting I wanted couldn't get both. I was in a fairly dark rural area outside town and the nearby city lights still ruined the sky on exposures as short as 7 seconds like this one. I used an amber filter on my speed light and fired it manually a couple times to light up the car and foreground, the rest is light pollution. Also, I didn't see the powerlines at all until after I parked and my eyes adapted, definitely invest in a red flashlight so you can somewhat see in the dark without ruining your night vision: 28mm lens, ISO400, f/2.8, 7.5 seconds

^^^ Nice work, Mr. Titan.

Thanks! I'm wishing Nikon made a competitor to the EOS 60Da, too much $$$ into Nikon now to defect...

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...xx/animals.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...x/animals2.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...x/animals3.jpg

Nice work. :tup:

Just wanted to let you guys know I'm pretty sure I figured out the problem I was having (for the most part). My camera has three different options for metering, and I had it set on Matrix Meter, I set it on the next one Dow which I can't remember the name, but I think it was Center-Weighted Meter, and it had no problem focusing after that.

I still haven't fully understood what metering is or what it does, but I've also been too lazy to research it lately lol.


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new-fangled science stuff

In a nutshell, "metering" is measuring how much light is available in the shot you're seeing through the view finder, which then determines how you should set your shutter speed, aperture and ISO relative to each other to achieve a proper exposure.
The different metering modes tell the camera where to measure the light to guide you to correct exposure. For example you might want to consider the whole frame or just one single spot in the view finder. In the case of of center-weighted metering modes, you're giving priority to the center area of the view finder while still taking the outer edges into consideration.

This is why you're awesome. Thanks for the explanation!


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new-fangled science stuff

From a recent cruise. I ended up liking this one a lot.

http://stfoto.smugmug.com/Cars/Velos...MG_9677-XL.jpg

:tup:

Yay for natural lens flares.

So a couple of months ago I decided to switch from my D90 to a D7000. I was so excited to finally have nice weather out a few days ago so I took my niece to the Bronx Zoo. I took over 300 shots and was about to post a few of them here for you guys, but then.....womp, womp :/

After reviewing the pics on the computer, I was really disappointed. I don't know how I missed this, but the damn thing is back focusing on every shot. It's way, way off and pretty terrible at anything below f/8 on my 35mm lens. Just as bad with the 50mm f/1.8 and the 105mm f/2.8. I kind of noticed it when I first got it, but I honestly thought is was all in my head or user error. It's partially my fault for only looking at the lcd instead of downloading to the computer.

After doing some searching, I found out this isn't all that uncommon. Mine seems to be way out of calibration though and I still can't get it to be reasonably accurate with the AF fine tuning (still oof pushed -20). Thankfully, Nikon's HQ in Melville is about 20 minutes from me.

If I had a nickle for every time I thought my shots came out great only to find out they were ********... man I'd be rich.

You and me both.

See, I don't have this problem.

:bowrofl:

me 3 :ugh2:

Maybe 95% of my shots look horrible lol. I chalk it up to beginner error.


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new-fangled science stuff

:tup: just dawned on me. Many of my shots over exposed. I was thinking i should be center weighted off the Z because it is so dark?!

I usually aim for the headlights or tail lights...then switch to manual if I have to. Black is always tricky to expose properly unless it "pops" in scene.

Good idea ...try that today. Ty!

I find shooting a white car just as tricky!
It can depend on the lighting conditions, but I usually set the camera to meter the whole frame when shooting the whole car in a scene. When I'm just shooting a detail part of the car, I use spot metering.

Shooting your car in a scene might be a good time to set up brackets or manually take the shot at -1, 0 and +1 on the exposure meter and see what you like best.
When I tweaked the picture of your car, I actually brought the exposure up, but introduced a little more contrast to the whole shot. If I really wanted to spend more time with it, I could use a graduated filter or the brush to darken the background or lighten the car so it pops more in the shot.

I played with it a bit more but it's a bit difficult to recover the roof line with the glare and reflection. It's just too blown out in that spot. I'm at -100 highlights.
Working on a small .jpg doesn't help either ;)
But here's a little more contrast and colour and depth to the shot:

http://www.modachroma.com/the370z/BCZ2-.JPG

I think a polarizer might help with that.

My new canon 85 1.8 front focuses and its annoying, but fiddling with the microadjusment on the go helps tremendously, it just take time to get used to how much to adjust. Gotta zoom in the LCD to see it though. My old 50mm did the same thing too. I guess its very common which sucks:mad:

Ah. I need to add one of those to my bag.
Circular or...?

:tup: as creative as you are prob both the circular and (linear) don't remember what the other one is called. I do have a circular one...i did not have it on the camera the day i took the pic you tweaked.

:tup: it would have IF i had used it ;) :p

Steve, what spoiler is that on the black one? I love it. Which means it's probably about $1200... :(:icon14: