Official Photography Thread

[Katy Lied]

I have the same camera, but absolutely no photography know-how. I need photography for dummies or something. I love your shots. I would have never guessed you just bought your camera a few months ago. I don't know you, but you remind me of a roommate I once had at BYU -- she could do anything, pick up anything new, and do it all well. I kind of have the feeling that you are like her.

Not at all. I'm a terrible driver. I'm the one that goes 20 mph in a light snow. In fact, I think Surfah flipped me off earlier this week. And I've killed every plant I've ever owned. And I'm only allowed to play on my softball team when they don't have enough players. And then they only let me play catcher. And only if there is a backstop.

Here's Katy Lied's rule for seeming competance:

"In your life, half of everything you try you will suck at. Concentrate on the stuff you don't suck at."

[Surfah]

Not at all. I'm a terrible driver. I'm the one that goes 20 mph in a light snow. In fact, I think Surfah flipped me off earlier this week. And I've killed every plant I've ever owned. And I'm only allowed to play on my softball team when they don't have enough players. And then they only let me play catcher. And only if there is a backstop.

Here's Katy Lied's rule for seeming competance:

"In your life, half of everything you try you will suck at. Concentrate on the stuff you don't suck at."

:swear:

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Generally all I do is crop, but processing is part of photography and my shots would be better if I spent time adjusting them.

Your little girls are adorable, I love the bowling shoes.

[Katy Lied]

I am curious as to how much post processing any of you are doing to your photos. I have a standard set of enhancement stuff that I do (in GIMP) on photos that I wish to publish on-line or send to the printer. For example, see the attached set of "original and enhanced" photos of my daughter at a bowling alley.

Do I just need to take better originals... or what?

TIA.

cheers.

I'm just now figuring out what looks good on my monitor vs. what looks good from Costco processing, and can finally tell Costco not to color correct, but take my submissions as is. But I still am often dissatisfied, and I will redo the processing on a photo several times. For me, flesh tone color correction is very very difficult and I struggle with it a lot. (Any hints out there?)

I assume your bowling photo is taken with your prime lens? Your original bokeh is quite lovely but your post processing bokeh seems blown out. But your daughter looks lovely, in post. Also the picture of the shoes is very nice--it was worth it to climb up on the counter.

I bracket with my white balance as much as others bracket their exposures, because I am still fiddling with my in-camera colors. So in essence I do my post processing "in camera." Here are two examples of no post processing (other than cropping), just the in camera white balance:


White Balance = Shade


White Balance = Tungsten

The more photos I take, the more I gravitate from drenched colors to more natural ones. Once in a while I will still process wild colors for effect, but I am starting to use filters just to add skin luminescence and glow:



Every time I shoot a portrait, I always retouch to make the subject thinner, younger, and to get rid of blemishes, although I strive for a natural look. I'm still learning and hope you guys have tips. (I didnt take the photo below, just retouched it.)

[il Padrino Ute]

And I'm only allowed to play on my softball team when they don't have enough players. And then they only let me play catcher. And only if there is a backstop.

Hey!

The catcher is the smartest player on the diamond. You need to educate your team about that.

[Katy Lied]

Interesting HDR Accident:

So I've been experimenting with HDR, which SpaceGhost told us about here, although its slow going for me because I don't have a good idea of what's going to make a great HDR picture yet.

Anyway, I took some bracketed exposures yesterday at Sugarhouse park. I have to do it manually because my camera doesn't have this ability. While bracketing, a flock of seagulls took to flight in one of the exposures, so I just reshot the picture. Later on when processing the HDR image, I accidentally used the bird exposure:



Merging these two frames resulted in an HDR image where the bird appear insubstantial, almost translucent (although they clearly are not) because they only appear in one frame.



Another happy accident is that I am using the trial version of Photomatrix Pro 3.2, which leaves a watermark on the resulting HDR photo. However, for some reason, the bird photo is different enough from the other exposure that the software doesn't recognize the end HDR pix and doesn't put the watermark on it. I'm still thinking of buying Photomatrix, but not until I can figure out how to make much better HDRs.

[Surfah]

Interesting HDR Accident:

So I've been experimenting with HDR, which SpaceGhost told us about here, although its slow going for me because I don't have a good idea of what's going to make a great HDR picture yet.

Anyway, I took some bracketed exposures yesterday at Sugarhouse park. I have to do it manually because my camera doesn't have this ability. While bracketing, a flock of seagulls took to flight in one of the exposures, so I just reshot the picture. Later on when processing the HDR image, I accidentally used the bird exposure:



Merging these two frames resulted in an HDR image where the bird appear insubstantial, almost translucent (although they clearly are not) because they only appear in one frame.



Another happy accident is that I am using the trial version of Photomatrix Pro 3.2, which leaves a watermark on the resulting HDR photo. However, for some reason, the bird photo is different enough from the other exposure that the software doesn't recognize the end HDR pix and doesn't put the watermark on it. I'm still thinking of buying Photomatrix, but not until I can figure out how to make much better HDRs.

Nice!

[happyone]

I don't have the talent of some of you in this thread, but here are a couple more of my trip to Normandy last year

Horse cart - Utah Beach about 7:00 AM



Unkown Soldier - German Military Cemetery



I didn't put the flower there, but the cracked grave marker seemed to me somehow representive of the German war effort.

[Katy Lied]

I don't have the talent of some of you in this thread, but here are a couple more of my trip to Normandy last year

Horse cart - Utah Beach about 7:00 AM

Unkown Soldier - German Military Cemetery

I didn't put the flower there, but the cracked grave marker seemed to me somehow representive of the German war effort.

Are you kidding? I love both of these shots. They're very sensitive. Show us more.


Here's one for you.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I love this thread.

[Tick's wife]

[Tick's wife]

yes, we were that close.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

yes, we were that close.

Wow great shot, was this in the San Juan Islands?

[happyone]

Are you kidding? I love both of these shots. They're very sensitive. Show us more.


Here's one for you.

I like

[happyone]

This one is at the American Military Cemetery at Omaha Beach