The Photography Thread !

rravikantt said:
#Brendon Great capture. Lovely colors, reflection and clarity.
#apollyon Wow loved all the Pics. Malabar Gliding frog is just stunning and bleeding details. Which Lens?

One from me.
My 1st pic of Flickr Explore Flickr: Explore interesting things from 10th July 2012

Never stop chasing your Dreams by Ravikanth K, on Flickr
Click to expand...

The photo looks great ! The added sky is pretty well done and matches the colour and tone of the image but the shallow DOF and sharp sky does make it look like a composite image. Maybe if the sky was softened a bit it would look more natural. But still overall a fantastic photo and congrats on the explore. :)
 
Brendon said:
The photo looks great ! The added sky is pretty well done and matches the colour and tone of the image but the shallow DOF and sharp sky does make it look like a composite image. Maybe if the sky was softened a bit it would look more natural. But still overall a fantastic photo and congrats on the explore. :)
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Thank you Brendon. Even I too felt it unnatural. The dramatic feel of the pic was lost when I tried softening the sky, so just left it like that. Wish I had another image of dry grass in focus.
 
apollyon said:
some captures from a recent visit to Amboli
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Great captures! For the 1st one, could you please share how long a shutter speed it was, as well as time of day & whether you had to use a ND filter? Would also appreciate if you could share how the rest were taken - how close were you, whether it really was that dark or is it due to having a fast shutter speed, flash settings etc. Thanks!

Brendon said:
Nope, used a 3 stop hard edge GND filter. Am attempting to avoid shooting HDRs henceforth as I find the output a bit too unnatural. However not all shots can be done with a GND filter (especially city scapes with an uneven transition from sky to ground. A soft edge filter can work but HDR can give better results.)
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Thanks for the insight. Funny how you're deliberately trying to avoid HDR, while I'm HDRifying practically everything! Guess it's simply a matter of evolving tastes, with you being much higher in the food chain as compared to a newbie photog like me, :). & strangely, I tend to like both the natural as well as over-the-top HDR treatments.

& to further drive home my point, a few of the HDRs of the Gateway of India at Mumbai which I'm quite pleased with-

GatewayHDR01_P1050727_28_29_30_31_32_38-1.jpg


GatewayHDR02_P1050607_8_9-1.jpg


GatewayHDR02_BW_P1050607_8_9-1.jpg


GatewayHDRP1050757_59_65_66_67_68-1.jpg


GatewayHDR04_P1050751_2_3_4_6.jpg


GatewayHDR05_BW_P1050802_3_4.jpg


GatewayHDR05_P1050877_8_9.jpg


All shot with a Panny LZ8. Processed in Photomatix & PS. Taken between 6 to 8 am on a Sunday morning.

Any critique is most welcome, :).
 
kidrow said:
Great captures! For the 1st one, could you please share how long a shutter speed it was, as well as time of day & whether you had to use a ND filter? Would also appreciate if you could share how the rest were taken - how close were you, whether it really was that dark or is it due to having a fast shutter speed, flash settings etc. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Shutter speed for the first photo was 2s, there was a thick forest canopy over the stream so light was pretty bad already. I'd forgotten my filters at home :p Missed my CPL, the water was crystal clear :( didnt see the need for a ND. For the macros I was about 10-12 inches away from the subject, the photos are dark since I used a flash and all the photos are shot between 11pm-2am in the night. SS was 1/200 is guess, flash mode was ettl
 
kidrow said:
Thanks for the insight. Funny how you're deliberately trying to avoid HDR, while I'm HDRifying practically everything! Guess it's simply a matter of evolving tastes, with you being much higher in the food chain as compared to a newbie photog like me, :). & strangely, I tend to like both the natural as well as over-the-top HDR treatments.
Click to expand...

Actually the reason I avoid HDR has little to do with my preferences but more to do with my camera not supporting it readily. :p

My Sony A55 does a max bracketing of just 0.7 EV when 2 EV is the minimum required. Of course using a tripod and doing manual exposure bracketing is easy to do but in that case I would prefer to use a GND filter for a more natural look.

Coming to your photos, I personally didn't like the first three very much (pure personal opinion) but the last 4 were pretty good especially the last one. :)

Some HDRs from my previous camera -

dsc08000rw.jpg


dsc08000bwr.jpg
 
apollyon said:
Shutter speed for the first photo was 2s, there was a thick forest canopy over the stream so light was pretty bad already. I'd forgotten my filters at home :p Missed my CPL, the water was crystal clear :( didnt see the need for a ND. For the macros I was about 10-12 inches away from the subject, the photos are dark since I used a flash and all the photos are shot between 11pm-2am in the night. SS was 1/200 is guess, flash mode was ettl
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Thanks for the response. Now I appreciate those night time photos even more! How do you mange to walk around in a forest(?) at night, & spot such creatures? & isn't there a risk of treading on something that might not take it too kindly? & shooting snakes from a foot away..... You must know your snakes well! I'm also wondering if there's any trouble with regard to focusing, & how you handle that.

Brendon said:
Actually the reason I avoid HDR has little to do with my preferences but more to do with my camera not supporting it readily. :p

My Sony A55 does a max bracketing of just 0.7 EV when 2 EV is the minimum required. Of course using a tripod and doing manual exposure bracketing is easy to do but in that case I would prefer to use a GND filter for a more natural look.

Coming to your photos, I personally didn't like the first three very much (pure personal opinion) but the last 4 were pretty good especially the last one. :)
Click to expand...

In that case though, I'm just curious why you wouldn't set the shutter speed manually & get that 2EV difference rather than only relying on auto bracketing? & any particular reason why you're aiming for a 2EV difference specifically? I always assumed it would depend on the lighting situation at hand & the contrast. Also, I tend to shoot 7-9 exposures even, though at a difference of 1EV. Do you think it's better in those cases to shoot 3-4 exposures at a 2EV difference?

Thanks for the input on the photos. I suspect you like the latter more because of the more natural feel as opposed to the 'illustration' look of the former.
 
After flickering through all your fantastic pics and great art for over a year, finally I am uploading two of my first few shots. Was clicking pics for a couple of years from my old DigiCam, but wasn't gr8 enough to share (with few exceptions). Just bought my first DSLR (Canon 1100D) to take my fotu enthu to next level.

First, a basic Macro.
IMG_0152_ss.jpg

Second, the Sunset over Metro
IMG_0162_ss.jpg

Both shot with 18-55mm bundled lens (no other option as of now). Done some PP on second pic.
All critiques are welcome. Infact, I request all the gurus here to ponder some tips. :)
 
kidrow said:
Thanks for the response. Now I appreciate those night time photos even more! How do you mange to walk around in a forest(?) at night, & spot such creatures? & isn't there a risk of treading on something that might not take it too kindly? & shooting snakes from a foot away..... You must know your snakes well! I'm also wondering if there's any trouble with regard to focusing, & how you handle that
Click to expand...

Midnight is the only time you can get to see snakes/frogs and other critters in Amboli. Most of them are nocturnal so finding them in the daytime is almost impossible. I am very scared of snakes :p but while shooting them I found out that most of them are very peaceful and cooperative. Also I had gone with two other photographer friends who had prior snake handling experience. Locating them is the skillful part and so for our first trip we had a local along who helped us. We used to shine a small LED torch on the subject so helping us focus easily
Amboli is like heaven for macro, theres a lot to shoot :)
 
kidrow said:
I'm just curious why you wouldn't set the shutter speed manually & get that 2EV difference rather than only relying on auto bracketing? & any particular reason why you're aiming for a 2EV difference specifically? I always assumed it would depend on the lighting situation at hand & the contrast. Also, I tend to shoot 7-9 exposures even, though at a difference of 1EV. Do you think it's better in those cases to shoot 3-4 exposures at a 2EV difference?
Click to expand...

You CAN set the shutter speed manually but since you are capturing multiple photos and handheld you can easily mis align the photo. A quick exposure bracketing minimized any shifts in the 3 different photos and also minimizes ghosting due to objects in motion while you are clicking the photos. So exposure bracketing is the best method if you are shooting handheld or even on a tripod. I have tried 5 - 7 photos bracketed but did not see any noticeably better results so I have stuck with +/- 2 EV as that's simply the easiest. However now I have decided to take less photos and strive for better quality of photos. So stuff like HDR, which is difficult to control and visualize the final result, is slowly loosing favour to GND filters where the results are instantaneous and more natural to look at. :)

Of course GNDs can't be used always especially without a clear demarkation of sky and foreground (like the bike photo I clicked above and even in all your photos that you clicked as the gateway of india is mixing with the sky) so HDRs will have to be used from time to time and I am liking the in camera HDRs as they look more natural to me.

Here is one for reference.

DSC02366r.jpg
 
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