Photography Questions and Tips

[Rowdy]

Already mentioned it. Canon 100mm f2.8L IS. love that lens to bits. The other shots are from a lensbaby composer pro.. I've amassed quite the kit now. Not on flickr.. but my personal/photography website is out there, and I'm on instagram

[JosephK]

I was way off!!! But that's only because I'm a bit 50mm 1.4 happy these days... bought one a while back and I still haven't taken it off. Now, everything looks 50mm(ish) to me... even this page seems to have a vignette and a shallow DOF.

It's the subject that got me... old cars and the art that went into them. Nice work.

[sky's the limit]

Here are some shots from the ISDE Six Days race in Germany late last month. Was there supporting my best riding/racing friend who was part of the Team Canada Club Team (Not Pro). It was an amazing event, and if anyone is interested there's lots of great videos on YouTube.

Anyway, here's a few from me with the D3:

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[Rowdy]

Fantastically captured as always STL! I particularly like the 5th shot with the smoke!

[Youngback]

Best thing I ever did was mix flying and photography

[Rowdy]

I've decided I'm going to build myself a car rig.. anyone else have any experience? theres a ton of stuff on youtube and what not.. but I havent talked with anyone who has personally done it. Or shot that way...

http://www.diyphotography.net/take-cool ... ed-car-rig

using this as a template... I think I'll pick up a couple clamps and some aluminum piping in the next few weeks. Someone said we should try this off the wing of a 172 on the ramp! hahahahaha right...

Anyways, as below, I've gotten fairly decent at panning shots and statics.. so its time for some new fun.







Ohh.. right.. Heres some airplanes so the mods dont throw a hissy fit (good example of stacking shots for fantastic stills)

[niss]

Some of my favorites from Remembrance Day in Barrie. I really tried to capture peoples emotions. All done on my K1000 with some Blacks 400 and some Fujimax 400 courtesy of Ireason.


Silver Cross Parents by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Silver Cross Parents


Last Post by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Last Post


F1000017 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


F1010002 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


Their name liveth for evermore. by Pilotniss, on Flickr


F1010015 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


Hon. Col Bob McIntyre. by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Hon. Col Bob McIntyre.


F1020007 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


F1020008 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


F1020014 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


F1020017 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


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F1020022 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


021 by Pilotniss, on Flickr


26 by Pilotniss, on Flickr

[Prairie Chicken]

Some nice shots from everyone!

Rowdy, nice lens! My favorite (apart from the standard zoom) is a 105 mm f2.8 Nikkor Micro. Same deal--insanely sharp, and fast enough you can play with depth of field all day. It's also doubles as my favorite portrait lens.

Good photo essay niss. I loved my K1000; it was my first SLR.

[niss]

Thanks! I do really enjoy shooting it. I just got a darkroom kit (no enlarger) from Henry's so now I will start with developing my on B&Ws and maybe just maybe do my own C41 as well.

Does anyone have a link to any good tutorials for doing B&W?

[Rowdy]

Thanks PC! That focal range seems to be a favorite of many! Its always interesting to see that.. even when I shoot with the zooms.. I usually end up either as wide as I can go or roughly at the 35mm, 50mm, 100mm lengths or to whatever the longest reach I have for some of the aircraft shots.

This gives me an idea for a poll!

[sky's the limit]

Been using the Iphone only on this trip... Not too bad.

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[niss]

Darkroom set up!

[sky's the limit]

Sweet Niss. Saw a few of your FB posts on that. I remember those days!

[sky's the limit]

I'm still goofing around with the Iphone:

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[bmc]

Took this at the farm in France.

[esp803]

I by no means consider myself a "professional" photographer, more of an avid amateur. I've recently started a trip geared towards photography, that will hopefully take me down to Patagonia for the off season. As I make my way down I will be keeping a photoblog of sorts and if I end up with a couple keepers will post how the various effects were achieved. There isn't much on the blog as of now, but entering the new year I will hopefully be adding more and more photos. Please feel free to take a look at some of the shots currently up. Unfortunately I do not thing there will be a lot of aviation related photography, but most of the techniques are transferable!

www.elipasquali.com

cheers,

E

[sky's the limit]

That is a very sweet photo. The only tiny little thing missing is some direct light on the Otter, otherwise perfect!

[iflyforpie]

Lovin the film stuff niss. I'm going back to film as well. Unfortunately my Minolta XG-1 leaks light and the meter is off, and my Canon EOS 3000 is slower than molasses making up its mind to take a shot.

Just wondering if anybody knows if anyone in Canada does mail in processing for E-6? i know that there are mail in places in the states. I decided to take my Canon EOS 3000 down to California with some Provia 400X and Velvia 50. I even scored a Kodak slide projector on eBay for $25.... only to realize that Velvia is going out of production and the local photo shop out in the styx only does C-41.

[esp803]

Well I needed a break from the Marijuana threads so I thought I would whip a quick piece on my techniques for shooting things in water... ie Floatplanes. I unfortunately do not have my files with me so I can't use the previous shot of the otter as the examples.

Firstly since you are a floatpilot/dock hand you will most likely be at the dock every sunrise and every sunset. This is Good! The best light can be had just as the sun is rising and setting, that's when you get those awesome reds, oranges, purples. The down side of course is a lack of light, fortunately all modern digital cameras handle this much better then ANY film of yesterday. I'm not saying that great shots can't be had at highnoon, it's just you WILL have more keepers at dawn and dusk.

The Gear:

What ever camera and lens you have at your disposal can produce great images.

Tripod: VERY VERY useful for enabling you to shoot at slower shutter speeds. But this only works if you use proper technique. By proper technique, I mean of course using mirror lock/up and a remote to get rid of ALL vibrations. Jamming your finger down on the shutter release with the camera hooked to a gorilla pod ain't going to cut it. If you don't have a remote then consider using a 5 second timer.

The main reason I'm writing this is to talk about filters that I use when in close proximity to water. Firstly the Circular Polorizer and secondly the Neutral Density Filter. I'll start with the CPOL.

The CPOL filter is the single most useful tool when shooting water. It controls light acting 90 degrees to it. In simple terms it allows you to control how much reflection you get. Not only can you control reflection, but you can also deepen skies and increase contrast. The only down side of the filter is you loose about 1 stop of light entering your lens (Half as much light).

These shots were taken within a few minutes of each other. Both are about a 1 second exposure at F/8 and both have a CPOL filter Attached. The difference is in the shots comes from the rotation of filter. On the left, reflection has been minimized but also the color has been reduced a little from not having so much contrast. The one of the right is much more vibrant and you can see the reflection is much more prominent.


The ND Filter is good for smoothing water. The two shots below were taken one after the other, one without any filters attached. One with an ND400 filter attached. The one on the left is "Au Natural", the ripples are visible from the light wind and the reflection is heavily distorted from this. On the right the ND400 let's in FOUR HUNDRED TIMES less light and allows for a 2 minute exposure during midday. It has the effect of smoothing the water into a painterly effect. Be warned though, the floatplane with be blurry if you do this.


I hope that some of you go out and grab these filters, and come next float season start posting some awesome shots of the lakes, rivers and planes you fly!

E

[Ceòl Beag]

Some nice pics in here! Thanks for sharing!

[Prairie Chicken]

Great points ESP, and the lovely illustrations make your points well.

May I add another and lasting benefit of using a tripod religiously? Composition. Using a tripod forces you to compose your image carefully. Even better, if you have used a tripod extensively you will have developed the habit of conscientiously composing and checking borders for every image.

Please keep on with the info. I've never looked at some of this side by side on a screen and it is very useful.

[niss]

Some more film goodness. Some are even airplanes!


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F1010025 by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Nothing overly special about this one. I just like how it seems like a tunnel, and you get the sense of the walls rising up.

These ones also aren't fantastic in my opinion, but I thought they were just kinda neat.


F1000017 by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Too grainy, but I do like the contrast between the wall and the contents in the window.


F1000008 by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Same idea as the above, these little guys in their booth of light in a sea of darkness.....selling hotdogs.


F1000001 by Pilotniss, on Flickr
Just my buddy welding.


F1000018 by Pilotniss, on Flickr
A little off the top.

[niss]

Yes, yes, yes. I know my photos were so good most of you feel there is little point in posting more since mid august. Out of fear that they will but pale in comparison. But I encourage you guys to keep doing it.

Did I seriously kill a thread?

[niss]

Boom! First post in a year!

I AM BECOME NISS, DESTROYER OF THREADS!

[iflyforpie]