Official Photography Thread

[Hallelujah]

My wife is interested in getting started with photography. How did some of the resident photographers get their start? She has looked into some online classes. Some are free, some cost a little coin but not that bad, and others want $1,000 Any suggestions on some good courses and/or forums that you guys frequent? She has a Sony camera that came out in 2004 that she got from her dad as a gift a year and a half ago. She is as green as green can be when it comes to photography.

Nikon has some training they have been rolling out around the country. I think it's $129 per class. Register to Nikonians.com

[Hallelujah]

She should go out and take at least 50 photos a day for 10 days straight, just to see if its something she would like to do. All kinds of pictures--kids, landscapes, body parts (not that, sickos) photos of the house, close ups of flowers. See if she enjoys taking pictures. I wouldnt spend any money on anything. Just take the photos and download and review them to see if she has a knack for finding new and unusual ways to take pictures of everyday items. If after 10 days she still wants to take photos, then she should borrow some books, (or read online) about how to take artistic photos. After that, technical aspecs. The only book I recommend she buy (after about 6 months, is Understanding Exposure).


Here's a photo of body parts. My sis and BIL.




Here are some everyday objects. They're decorative bottle stoppers that I got in Santa Barbara.

And tell her to think in 'thirds' (horizontal and vertical) as she takes pictures.

[falafel]

Aspen Grove last July. I need to take more pictures.

[Art Vandelay]

Aspen Grove last July. I need to take more pictures.

Taking more pictures is going to increase your risk of one of these women, who are obviously way out of your league, turning you into the police.

[falafel]

Taking more pictures is going to increase your risk of one of these women, who are obviously way out of your league, turning you into the police.

I only take this sort of picture in locations that do not have cell phone reception. :devil:

[Art Vandelay]

I only take this sort of picture in locations that do not have cell phone reception. :devil:

that is a really nice photo BTW, I really like how you framed the picture.

[woot]

Query: I'm in need of a camera that can do high-resolution imaging of close-up stationary objects (fossils and bones mostly). Is there any particular type of camera I should be looking at? Cheaper is better, but it's something that I would ideally use for a very long time.

[Moliere]

Some photos I took during a recent trip to Paris.

1. typical street profile in Paris
2. inside the Paris opera
3. Versailles chapel interior
4. Versailles entrance exterior
5. Louvre courtyard

You are making me home sick with these pictures. I actually forgot what the Paris Opera looked like inside so thanks for posting.

[Moliere]

While in Paris last week, I took (what I thought) were loads of HDR photos. In fact, I had forgotten to turn on the little setting to store both JPG and RAW versions of the images. Oops. But I still have the three different exposures of the images.... but just in JPG format. So I did a little research and found a very handy exposure blending plugin for GIMP that allowed me to blend the three different exposures... it is super simple and easy to use. (I suspect that something similar is available for Photoshop.)

See attached images to compare an original normally exposed image to the same image that is a composite of three different exposures.

cheers.

This photo should be made into a jigsaw puzzle (yes I am a jigger).

[Tim]

While in Paris last week, I took (what I thought) were loads of HDR photos. In fact, I had forgotten to turn on the little setting to store both JPG and RAW versions of the images. Oops. But I still have the three different exposures of the images.... but just in JPG format. So I did a little research and found a very handy exposure blending plugin for GIMP that allowed me to blend the three different exposures... it is super simple and easy to use. (I suspect that something similar is available for Photoshop.)

See attached images to compare an original normally exposed image to the same image that is a composite of three different exposures.

cheers.

Seriously, man................... You're using GIMP? We've all seen pictures of your house, dude. Buy Photoshop.

[tooblue]

Query: I'm in need of a camera that can do high-resolution imaging of close-up stationary objects (fossils and bones mostly). Is there any particular type of camera I should be looking at? Cheaper is better, but it's something that I would ideally use for a very long time.

You may just want a good point and shoot. In the macro setting they can capture some great close-up images:

Check out the Samsung NV7 for about $350

If not a point and shoot I'd buy and entry level DSL and change up the lens to suite your settings. You can now get a Nikon D40 for about $600. You will want to have it on a tripod though.

[tooblue]

I run Linux. Photoshop doesn't run natively on my preferred platform. I supposed I could run Photshop inside of WINE, but I have a fundamental aversion to buying Microsoft Windows licenses for my own personal use. I have a work-issued laptop that runs Windows XP, but I'm discouraged from using it for personal purposes.

GIMP does have it's shortcomings (such as it's clunky set of selection tools), but it works well for my novice level of photography skills: red-eye correction, tone mapping, sharpening, object removal, and now exposure blending. If I ever need to upgrade to a professional-level workflow, I would probably buy Photoshop (and Lightroom) for the Mac that my kids use (or buy a new Mac)... I guess. I'm not really a huge fan of Mac OSX either, even if I have a great deal of respect for its BSD pedigree.

Is there a particular aspect of my photographs that you think would be improved by switching to Photoshop? Right now, I think my lack of skill is holding me back more than my choice of post-processing software.

cheers.

Lack of Photoshop would be the key ingredient to holding you back IMO. Do you shoot in RAW (obviously you do)? The RAW developing environment in Photoshop is fantastic and that's before you even get the image into the software for post developing. What's more, the ability to sharpen an image is fine and all but Unsharp Mask is that much more valuable IMO.

[tooblue]

Great pics Tim -- you artist you. Here are some older pics but also two of my favorites:

[tooblue]

Tooblue,

Photoshop is fine and all (or so I hear), but it doesn't run natively in Linux... so it's not an option. "On this issue," as Poppy says, "there can be no debate!"

I have a confession. I almost never shoot RAW. However, I took your counsel to heart and did a lot of reading over the weekend and downloaded several RAW processing software packages (one of which is bundled with a plugin for GIMP), these include: UFRaw, Raw Therapee, and RawStudio. Of these, Raw Therapee is the most feature-rich IMHO, but UFRaw works right inside of GIMP. I'll probably end up using both for awhile until I get a better feel for them and then pick one or the other.

I shot a picture today, RAW, which I'm attaching to this message. Viva springtime!

(And FTR, I use "Smart Sharpening" tutorial in GIMP... the process involves decomposing the image to extract the value layer and then creating an edge detection mask applied to the value layer. GIMP's "unsharp mask" enhancement filter is then used on the value layer to "smartly" sharpen the edges of the image.)

cheers.

You can also smart sharpen in Photoshop And Steve Jobs is correct when he states Adobe is lazy.

Speaking of Linux I finally solved a little problem I was having with some PHP (where's Tim's when you need him). It was all solved by my collegue (a PHP guru) who informed me that; "time began in 1970!"

Nice pic.

[RobinFinderson]

It has been a while since I have posted any photos here. Lately I have been creating digital pinhole photography. Here are some didactic photos illustrating how I made the pinhole camera. Next post I will show some of the images created by the pinhole lensless lens.