Photography thread.

[Quantum Potatoid]

So, a month ago I decided to purchase an SLR, wanting to do more with photography than my point and shoot allowed me to do, so I decided to get a Nikon D5100. It's been awesome so far, and I'm liking the SLR-ness! Much better than my old Cybershot W120.

With that said, what are everyone else's set ups?
Being new to SLR-land, I just have my D5100 with the 18-55mm kit lens that came with it. Though I have heard good things about the cheap 50mm lens.

EDIT: Woo! Page topper! Better celebrate with a photo of a sea critter!
Please accept this obligatory clam siphon. (Which was actually taken with the point and shoot.)

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[Carnildo]

Ducks!

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I prefer ducks:

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So, a month ago I decided to purchase an SLR, wanting to do more with photography than my point and shoot allowed me to do, so I decided to get a Nikon D5100. It's been awesome so far, and I'm liking the SLR-ness! Much better than my old Cybershot W120.

With that said, what are everyone else's set ups?
Being new to SLR-land, I just have my D5100 with the 18-55mm kit lens that came with it. Though I have heard good things about the cheap 50mm lens.

I've got a pair of Pentax K100Ds (it's easier to do stereophotography when you don't need to match color balance between two very different cameras) and a Canon Powershot A520. Lens-wise, I've got old manual-focus lenses in 28mm, 50mm, 135mm, and 500mm catadioptric, and zoom lenses in 18-55mm and 50-200mm. The 500mm is my favorite: it's light enough to hand-hold, with enough reach to take pictures of wildlife without disturbing them -- or astrophotography without a telescope:

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[Link]

With that said, what are everyone else's set ups?

Canon EOS 450D with EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. Yes, it cost me a small fortune (considering I'm entirely an amateur), but it's a damn brilliant set.

For some of the pictures I've taken with it, see http://users.penguindevelopment.org/Link/gallery2/v/photos/.

[Rodion Raskolnikov]

A random assortment of photos I've taken in the last year or so.

Highland Games

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Highland dancers

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Shinty in the rain (Shinty is a Scottish sport, kind of like field hockey)

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River race

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And probably my personal favourite, taken on Remembrance Sunday.

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[Jacque]

With that said, what are everyone else's set ups?

- Argoflex 75
- Fed 5B
- Polaroid
- Canon AE-1 Program (19-35mm, 50mm, 28-80mm lenses)
- Hasselblad 500 C/M (50mm, 80mm, 150mm lenses)
- Nikon D40x (kit 18-55mm, 50mm lenses)
- Canon SD780IS
- GroPro HD (x2)

Being new to SLR-land, I just have my D5100 with the 18-55mm kit lens that came with it. Though I have heard good things about the cheap 50mm lens.

Frist chance you get, buy a 50mm lens and use it exclusively. Though, since you've got a dSLR you have to take the crop factor into consideration. With the Nikon you're looking at a 1.5x crop factor, so that 50mm lens will give you results around 75mm on a short telephoto lens on a film camera. You might consider the 35mm f/1.8 lens to get similar results to a regular 50mm prime lens on a film camera in regards to the angle of view.

[EvilDuckie]

With that said, what are everyone else's set ups?

Canon EOS 40D with a bunch of lenses:
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8
Canon 17-55mm f2.8
Sigma 50mm f1.4
Canon 70-300mm f4.0-5.6
Tamron 90mm f2.8 (this is a macro lens, can focus really close)
Peleng 8mm fisheye (a Belaurussian chunck of metal and glass).
(links are to reviews, not to brag or anything, but it helps to get an idea of what the lens can do)

Took me a while to get this together but I'm pretty pleased with it. The first three lenses are the ones I use the most and they all have the same filter diameter, which makes that bit somewhat easier.

or astrophotography without a telescope

Jupiter with moons? Cool!

[adho]

Wow, these are excellent!
Here are some very old ones that happened to be on my picasa.
Fiji, last year:

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My friend surfing, years ago:

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I didn't take it, but I'm in it and I like it:

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Pentax K200D, 18-50mm & 75-200mm.

[Cloud Walker]

That surfing one is *gooood*.

And I'm jealous of others' lenses here. Well done and keep shooting, folks.

[bam]

Shot all of these with my phone. Getting started with photography and should be getting a real camera soon.

Most of these are from hiking in Washington state.

Cool wildflowers:

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Trees:

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A small lake:

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Sunlight shining through the trees:

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Sunlight through oak leaves (one of my favorites):

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On the road from Bellingham to Bothell:

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View of the Puget Sound from Bellingham:

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Panoramic shot (yes also taken with my phone camera) at Rattlesnake Lake:

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I'm shooting with the new Mytouch 4g Slide. 8mp camera with lots of cool features, an awesome camera phone.

[Cloud Walker]

I can tell!

[podbaydoor]

@adho: on that surfing one, that is some great timing. Congrats on the composition too.

Here's one from me at the state fair:

Midway carnival by MoGov, on Flickr

[adho]

Shot all of these with my phone.

Those are damn good, especially considering they were taken with a phone!
Podbaydoor, cheers. I really like that fair shot...do you mind if I steal it for my computer background?

It was 1am, I was home alone so I got on the roof:

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[wannabe]

Taken a few years with a Cannon G-Shot on my trip to England:

Bath:

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Stonehenge:

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Mind The Gap:

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[podbaydoor]

@adho, sure, go right ahead! I'm flattered.

[adho]

Speaking of phone-tography:

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[jawdisorder]

Out of curiosity, what kind of altitudes were you at for that?

[adho]

Low. I'm in Australia, that's the Snowy Mountains. Bit under 2000m (6500ft), not even a mountain according to the Europeans Fun snowboarding though.

[jawdisorder]

Wow. I would have guessed it was quite high from the picture.

[podbaydoor]

IMG_0205 by Lazaefayre, on Flickr

[F117Landers]

I'm quite jealous, and I think I need to get out more.

Moon

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Nighttime Moon by F117Landers, on Flickr

Dove

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Symbol of peace by F117Landers, on Flickr

Mosque (Kabul)

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House of worship by F117Landers, on Flickr

Russian Tanks (Kabul)

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Relics of a Bygone War by F117Landers, on Flickr

Football Game

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Getting Dirty by F117Landers, on Flickr

Hiking in Afghanistan

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Climbing Chengay Ghar by F117Landers, on Flickr

Flower Petal

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Blooming Petal by F117Landers, on Flickr

Louisiana Sunrise

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Greater Sunrise by F117Landers, on Flickr

Camera specs:

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Primary Camera: Nikon D3000
18-55mm Nikkor
55-300mm Nikkor

Secondary Camera: Nikon L18 Point and Shoot (No kidding)

[adho]

F117, you must get out relatively often, those are from some pretty far flung places.

Skating, late afternoon so the light sucked. Going back there in sun sometime though. I tore my jeans.

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[F117Landers]

My job is near Tokyo, but I'm deployed to Afghanistan. Other than that, it's just luck.

Skating looks fun. Any other photos?

[adho]

Ah. Makes for some interesting photos though.

Skating is fun. It seems to have a big social stigma attached to it, but it's really just like surfing or snowboarding. Skating downhill is like nothing else for me. The only moments when I really switch off everything else. I have a lot of photos (not to mention videos) so I'll spoiler some.

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Taken out of a car:

[podbaydoor]

My job is near Tokyo, but I'm deployed to Afghanistan. Other than that, it's just luck.

Nice photos, man. My favorites are the moon, the football game, and the flower. Those stand out the most for clarity, good composition, and good lighting. The old tanks picture looks like it could be the background of some post-apocalyptic period.


IMG_0212 by Lazaefayre, on Flickr

[F117Landers]

Nice photos, man. My favorites are the moon, the football game, and the flower. Those stand out the most for clarity, good composition, and good lighting. The old tanks picture looks like it could be the background of some post-apocalyptic period.

Dōjeh. I took the photo of the tanks while rolling into Kabul.

Missouri looks fun. Next time I'm in the south, I'll have to head that way.

[Quantum Potatoid]

The Puget Sound photos above is really awesome!
Besides the 50mm, I'm also looking at filters. Being new to SLRs, are there any that you more experienced SLR-ers would suggest me getting? Specific brands/models? Brands to avoid?

Some D5100 photos!

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Dahlia.

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Skippers are ridiculously cute butterflies.

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Jellyfish at my feet!

[Cloud Walker]

The Puget Sound photos above is really awesome!
Besides the 50mm, I'm also looking at filters. Being new to SLRs, are there any that you more experienced SLR-ers would suggest me getting? Specific brands/models? Brands to avoid?

Hoya makes really good filters. I've spent a lot of money on Hoya filters. And I'm starting to think it wasn't all necessary. Spending more money on filters usually gets you two things: clear/"neutral" glass and multi-coating.

Clear (for UV filters, say) or neutral glass (for neutral density filters) doesn't change the color of the light. A good UV filter will only filter UV, and a good ND filter won't filter any specific colors as it darkens the light. However, these things, if they exist, are usually so slight that they aren't noticeable or can be corrected in post processing. Not to mention that some cameras change the colors anyway with their "color modes" or whatever.

Multi-coating keeps your filter cleaner and keeps dust and stuff from adhering to it. However, if you do happen to get it dirty, it's a bitch to clean. I dropped a $100+ multi-coated filter in some lake runoff a couple months ago and I still haven't been able to get it completely clean. On the other hand, single-coated filters are easy to clean; just use some distilled water and a micro-fiber cloth.

I recommend going with cheap filters and seeing if you don't like them. I've used Zeikos filters without any problems. Always get a UV filter, because it's actually more for the protection of your lens. Scratch the front of your lens, and you gotta shell out hundreds of dollars for a new one. Scratch the filter, and you gotta sacrifice the cost of dinner out that night (at least if it's your UV/protection filter. . . either way, it's cheaper).

[Quantum Potatoid]

Thanks for all the tips! I'll keep those in mind! Yeah, I was looking into UV filter for extra protection for my lens. Do they mess with photos quality a lot?

I don't usually take pictures of people, but I loved capturing this moment of when my first nephew was born:

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I was looking back and saw this. Photogasm right here.

[EvilDuckie]

@podbaydoor Cool dragonfly!

@F117 that football game looks pretty intense, great action shot. What's with the water bottle though, is that a Trailer Park Boys reference?

Yesterday was Redhead Day in the nearby city of Breda:

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2011 Redhead Day by hans905, on Flickr


2011 Redhead Day by hans905, on Flickr

A great event for redheads (which I am not) and amateur photographers (which I am) and despite the forecasts the weather was pretty nice, sun came out for the big photoshoot in the park.

[F117Landers]

This event happens every year, doesn't it? It's unusual, but not a bad idea.

As for the water bottle, there was a slight break where the team member went to take a drink, and the ball moved to his location. The caps in his other hand, and he forgot about the water.

[EvilDuckie]

This event happens every year, doesn't it? It's unusual, but not a bad idea.

It's an annual thing, yes. Always the first sunday in september. This was the third time I went to it and it seems to get bigger every year.

[Carnildo]

Thanks for all the tips! I'll keep those in mind! Yeah, I was looking into UV filter for extra protection for my lens. Do they mess with photos quality a lot?

If you're only looking for lens protection, get a clear/blank filter. Digital cameras are almost totally insensitive to UV, so you don't need the extra cost and complexity of a UV filter. Other things a digital camera doesn't need are skylight and other color-shifting filters. The camera can handle white-balancing internally, and intentional color-shifting is better done as a post-processing step.

The filters I use the most are a circular polarizer (adjusts the relative brightness of the sky, and the strength of reflections), a three-stop neutral density filter (slows down shutter speed, allowing long-exposure photographs in broad daylight), and an infrared filter (usually not for its intended purpose of taking near-infrared photographs, but as a ersatz ten-stop neutral density filter. I really should stop procrastinating about buying the actual ten-stop filter.)

[Sungura]

I use a Nikon D60 above ground, I have the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II lens, 50mm f/1.8 lens, and a really old Vivitar 1 series lens that has odd numbers like 18-117mm and it's pretty nice glass but was ubercheap as something is messed up and it's stuck in f/2.6 but that's why I wanted the lens...something with a zoom range with a low f/stop.

Below ground I don't dare risk my dSLR so I use an old Nikon P60. Very faux manual abilities, but better than a simple point and shoot. I say faux because it says there is a manual setting, but you can only get up to 8 second exposure, no bulb setting, the f/stop is one of two choices that is "computer" rather than actual aperture changing, the manual focus is you can select where you want it to focus on the screen with a grid selection you don't actually control it yourself. But, it's small and compact and was $50 on ebay.

If anyone has ideas for a compact p&s size camera with REAL manual abilities especially for focus, gets longer exposure than 8 seconds (bulb setting would be awesome), shoots in RAW, would like a better wide angle with less distortion (the P60 is 38mm at widest and quite a bit of distortion) that does well in low light/no light sort of situations as is found miles underground that would be great. I am drooling over things such as the Panasonic Lumix lx series, Cannon G series, the newer Nikon P stuff, and the Ricoh GXR. And I just found the M4/3 format too but have yet to see one in person so it's hard to get a size/weight idea. In particular I like the GXR as dust and moisture in the air isn't going to get into the lens or camera body and destroy it. Cave photographers easily go through a camera a year. Sure, keep it in a waterproof crushproof case but as soon as you take it out, BAM it's exposed. Bonus if you know of anywhere to find such camera cheap, or an old version type thing. I'm rather skint at the moment but have some once-in-a-lifetime type trips coming up and would like a better camera to take underground.

And...that being said would welcome ideas on photography itself. I know I'm getting better but I'm nowhere near a Nathan Williams or Robbie Shone! I recently acquired an old flash gun and slowly getting the hang of it.

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Buddha Cave 05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Buddha 08 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Shiloh 11 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Roberts 05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr

Lightpainting photos

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Buddha Cave 02 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Buddha Cave 12 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Buddha 11 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Shiloh 05 by Sunguramy, on Flickr


Roberts 03 by Sunguramy, on Flickr

[podbaydoor]

I like the last one the best. You've got good lighting, your details are sharp, I like seeing the textures and different surfaces in the caves. The final thing you could work on is composition. Everything seems to be pretty straightforward snapshot-style composition, which isn't that visually exciting, to me...the last one is the only one that does anything different.

For easy solutions, you could try crouching, getting down low to a subject, getting really close, or alternatively drawing way back (like in the last photo). Try getting unexpected angles or framing. I get the sense that most of your photos appear to be taken at head height standing at a middle distance away from your subjects, the kind of pose that most tourists use. A photo like Shiloh 11, the running springs one - you could crouch really low and get some close-up shots of that water, or something like that.

[Sungura]

Some angles are definitely harder than others, passages are often constricted and half the time I frame things blindly. Being in water (and I'm not dragging in a regular size tripod, which wouldn't stand in the flow anyway) often limits low shots and as for high angles..well...how to get up there? haha. depends on the cave though. Laying on the ground, squatting, and standing are often my (only) options for height range and I use all of them.

Interestingly the one you pick out as varied and interesting was just set on the ground about 3 ft from the formations, it's a panoramic stitch of 2 photos and probably the easiest shot of that whole group and what I have done the most with - I am getting *tired* of those shots! I have so many of them! The others were branching out with techniques used to capture and varied angles so I am amused at how what you saw, not knowing that, is the complete opposite of what I did. I guess maybe I shouldn't try as hard? I mean things like my avatar now (it's my silhouette) that ceiling is *barely* over my head, I had to be careful not to knock formations with my helmet, but it looks tall due to the angle I set up my camera at.

When you say you want more varied angles, is this what you are talking about?

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This is rimstone

Buddha 17 by Sunguramy, on Flickr

A swiss-cheese like stalagmite

Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave 14 by Sunguramy, on Flickr

Stalactites with tiny helectites growing off of them

Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave 20 by Sunguramy, on Flickr

[modularblues]

I feel like I need a better camera than Kodak DX6440. But my limiting factor is perhaps my lack of willpower to go out on a limb for fantastic shots...

[Izawwlgood]

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These were taken on Ilford B&W, and over developed to thicken the negatives. The negatives were rubbed with dirty ethanol and allowed to dry, and scanned. I like them, I think they're moody.

[Sungura]

I lovvvvvveeeee black and whites, and I really like that first photo
Makes me want to get a film camera...

[podbaydoor]

Sungura, yes, I like those photos much better.

[podbaydoor]

Bumped with my favorite Archon photo.


IMG_0193 by Lazaefayre, on Flickr