Ontheropes, very nice. What was the shutter speed on that?
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PHOTO-A-DAY: October 2012
(823 posts) (72 voices)-
Posted 7 months ago #
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AvadheshMalik said:
... I guess every Army has quotes like these ....
PS: a USAR General praising the Marines?Yes, Pershing was quite a character, too. He is another one of those people who never said half the things he supposedly said, however. I don't know the context, but the best shots in the U.S. Military at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century were Marines, and it is likely that remains true today.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Cool info Johnny.
Squamish...that looks pose makes it look zombie like :) Your friend must REALLY like her picture taken.Just some wood here...liked the bend and texture while waiting for my friend to show up for camping.
D5000, 105 F2.8 @ F3.5, 1/40
Posted 7 months ago # -
Nice shots today!
Instead of a bird, A big wet hairy surprise in my front yard
D300 Tamron 90mm 72E
Posted 7 months ago # -
D800 • ZF.2 100mm f2 @ f2.5 • 1/250 • ISO 250
Posted 7 months ago # -
Nice Photos all.
I have been tied up but I had to shoot something. This is what I found.
D800E, 85 PC Micro Nikkor, f/3.3, 7 Stop HDRPosted 7 months ago # -
@benji - I do like it, but a little less PP would have been a little more to me. No criticism, just my personal reaction.
@ontheropes: this is good stuff indeed!@yetibuddah and @RX4Photo: I feel flattered by your comments. Thanks.
Now an appeal to the contributors here that are the portrait specialists (Msmoto and Squamish, I am thinking about you - but there are others): I feel reasonably comfortable with available light photography and when using the extremes of my gear (14mm and 300mm). But I have miles (kilometers!) to go with my portraits. In the next four installments, I will present portraits. I know they are not at the top level. But this gang here is so good-natured in its constructive criticism, that I feel I can dare to post those portraits, and I hope for hard-hitting, yet constructive input. Thanks!
Posted 7 months ago # -
My niece
D700;70-300mm at 75mm, 1/90s; f/4.5, ISO400Please feel free to give me advice to improve my portrait skills
Posted 7 months ago # -
Great portraits Squamish and Meinrad.
D700 + 24-70mm F2.8GPosted 7 months ago # -
On the ropes, I like your fisherman, very well done.
This is a house in the forests around the Vänern in Sweden. Jürgen
Posted 7 months ago # -
I was out eating lunch yesterday with the GIP (Girls in Porsches) and decided to check out the new Zeiss 28mm f/2 for a quick architectural/product shot.
D4, Zeiss 28mm f/2 Distagon, f/4, 1/160, ISO 1800
Super sized: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/8054453707/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Posted 7 months ago # -
Posted 7 months ago # -
msmoto said:
I was out eating lunch yesterday with the GIP (Girls in Porsches) and decided to check out the new Zeiss 28mm f/2 for a quick architectural/product shot.Terrible Msmoto, I am sure you dont want that lens anymore. Will PM you my address, you need to take over the shipping cost though... :-)
Jürgen
Posted 7 months ago # -
Meinrad: I looked at the photo you posted and the other three portraits you have on your flicker photostream. You are doing fine. Here are some ideas to think about which may provide some improvement or at least give you some things to try.
1. To get that creamy bokeh background you see in many of the portrait shots you may need a different lens than the 70-300 because you have to go to a larger aperture than your current lens offers. Many portraits you see are taken around f2 to f2.8. So a moderate telephoto (85mm, 100mm, 135mm) which allows f1.4, f1.8, f2, f2.8 can give you better background bokeh, if that is what you want to have. Try shooting your 105mm at f2.8 instead of the f4 you have been using.
2. That said, many good portraits are taken at f5.6 and f8 because they allow greater depth of field. You just have to be careful about the background. If it is far enough away, it will still blur out. If the background puts meaningful context into the personality or work of the subject it should not be blurred out. So you could give some thought to shooting your subject in his or her "environment" to let the background tell us something about the person. Back off a bit from the head and shoulders shot to include context meaningful to the subject when you shoot at f8.
3. I noticed your subjects are all "looking away." There are sort of two types of portraits: a candid moment of the subject thinking of something else or doing something else totally unaware of the photographer and a subject who is interacting with the photographer and therefore seeming to be willing to interact with the eventual viewer. Such a subject looks into the camera with penetrating or friendly eyes which draw the viewer into the frame. Try some of these. Get the subject to interact with you when you take the photo and capture very sharp eyes in focus.
4. There are sort of three types of lighting: soft glow, strong and dramatic (which means many shadows or dark areas in the frame). A soft glow is often good for children and women. Strong light is often good for an executive portrait. Dramatic lighting is often good for impact. So you can think of the emotion you want to associate with the subject and then try lighting which will enhance that emotion. Looking at your other photos on your photostream I see you have an eye for a dramatic image but that eye for the dramatic is missing in your portraits. Try making some portraits with just one source of light, such as light from one window or from one off camera flash set at the "Rembrandt Angle" (60 degrees from the camera). Exposure will be more tricky since you want the face exposed correctly but other areas underexposed. If you are using matrix metering or CLS flash try using minus exposure compensation which gives proper skin tones on the face and lets the rest of the image go dark.
Just some ideas to consider since you asked for ideas. While on your photo stream I looked at some of the rest of your images and they are very good in my opinion. You have talent.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Portrait skills...Look at some of the wonderful books on models by a ton of great fashion photographers in the past. Note the characteristics of fluidness and flow of the female figure.
Before the shoot, talk to the model for thirty minutes before the shoot. You both decide what the image is to be. Then, shoot and always keep up a positive banter. Encourage the fluid movement. When you see a really nice shot... hold it, go back to it, move and come back to it... reshoot about ten or so shots of what you really like with each pose..
After a hundred or so images... edit to about ten. Finish in your PP and then edit again to five. Send these to Flickr....
Amazing, but the attitude of the photographer is what determines the final outcome...assuming the technical wherewithal.
Posted 7 months ago # -
I'm generally more of a lurker than a poster, but I liked how this one came out.
D90 f/4 12-24 ISO 400 f10 1/200s
Posted 7 months ago # -
@RX4Photo - Yeah, she's very fun to dance with since she is always up for doing ridiculous things like that. Her whole family (including her recently-married sister's husband) consists of some of the best dancers I know!
I should have some "new" stuff to post from late June / early July after today. Home internet has not been functional since Monday, and I've been working outside until today.
Also I will try posting some of the B&W prints from class, either scanned there or "scanned" with my D800. I am satisfied with the results I have been getting... having plenty of experience with DSLRs gives me a great feel for what I can do with each of my lenses. The light meters on the EL2, FG, and especially the F5 are reliable and give me consistent good exposures. The F5 is especially wonderful, for use of all the modern G lenses and using VR. The huge 100% finder is also great... with that camera I get exactly what I'm trying to get, every time.
D800 - AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR1 - 75mm - f/11 - ISO 400 - 1/25sec
Posted 7 months ago # -
Great macro Coastalconn, nothing like spiders up close and personal very cool! :)
This guy looked a little bit bothered, but I got a smile and a nod and I was on my way.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Really excellent photography!
Eagle on a piling, Birch Bay, Washington:
Posted 7 months ago # -
Meinrad I think the DOF and everything looks fine on it. The lighting seems like it might could use some work mostly. Colors/lighting look a little blah to me, but overall the portrait looks great IMO. Could maybe benefit from a different lens with better bokeh like the 105 F2.8 that was suggested or 85 F1.8.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Posted 7 months ago # -
@Kanuck, Proudgeek, coastal : great shots folks !
........ awesome work everyone ! .....
I am too happy to post anything today :)Posted 7 months ago # -
My grandson dropped by the lab while I was photographing some imaging equipment, so I couldn't resist a snapshot. I don't think he liked all the lights.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Solitude
Posted 7 months ago # -
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