Let’s Talk Photography!

Got bored and decided to try taking a picture at night. So here's my birdfeeder with a couple of streetlights. I think this was at f13, ISO 100 at around 25s on a tripod. Sun stars at night!

 

Let's talk phone cameras. And proof that it's not all about hardware...
I have complained about my Moto Z3 Play camera, and how it just doesn't take great photos. They seem over-saturated, not as sharp as they should be, and heaven help me if something in the photo moves. I took most of the photos I've posted in this thread with an iphone - some with a 4S, some with a 7. Of all, I think my 4S was my favorite one, as it seemed to take the best no-fuss reliably good WYSIWYG pictures.
I actually, despite the fact that my cheapo motorola stacks up against the iphone 11 in almost every category, think I'm going to go back to AT&T today and get either a new Samsung or possibly go back to an iphone.
These two pictures were taken moments apart...
This one with my Moto Z3 Play. It has a 12MP laser auto-focus f/1.7 lens:



Forgive my non-level picture please. I have to hold the phone very low to keep the LEDs out of the shot.

This picture was taken with my husband's iphone 8, also a 12MP f/1.8 lens:



Look at the difference!! The iPhone photo is unedited, and I played all around with the moto pic trying to get it to look as good as I could. The fish in the iPhone pic are less blurry, the colors are way more accurate, even after me messing with them. Look at the Blood Parrot...he's so overexposed by the moto that he's hardly recognizable as orange, even if he wasn't completely blurred by movement.
On paper, the cameras on these two phones are very comparable as far as hardware. The moto even has a little more on the bells-and-whistles side, technically speaking. But it seems that, like most things, the iphone takes things that other phones do reasonably well and does them juuuuuust a little bit better.
What are y'all's thoughts....should I go Samsung or re-join the Apple fold?

 

Let's talk phone cameras. And proof that it's not all about hardware...
I have complained about my Moto Z3 Play camera, and how it just doesn't take great photos. They seem over-saturated, not as sharp as they should be, and heaven help me if something in the photo moves. I took most of the photos I've posted in this thread with an iphone - some with a 4S, some with a 7. Of all, I think my 4S was my favorite one, as it seemed to take the best no-fuss reliably good WYSIWYG pictures.
I actually, despite the fact that my cheapo motorola stacks up against the iphone 11 in almost every category, think I'm going to go back to AT&T today and get either a new Samsung or possibly go back to an iphone.
These two pictures were taken moments apart...
This one with my Moto Z3 Play. It has a 12MP laser auto-focus f/1.7 lens:
View attachment 725828

Forgive my non-level picture please. I have to hold the phone very low to keep the LEDs out of the shot.

This picture was taken with my husband's iphone 8, also a 12MP f/1.8 lens:
View attachment 725829

Look at the difference!! The iPhone photo is unedited, and I played all around with the moto pic trying to get it to look as good as I could. The fish in the iPhone pic are less blurry, the colors are way more accurate, even after me messing with them. Look at the Blood Parrot...he's so overexposed by the moto that he's hardly recognizable as orange, even if he wasn't completely blurred by movement.
On paper, the cameras on these two phones are very comparable as far as hardware. The moto even has a little more on the bells-and-whistles side, technically speaking. But it seems that, like most things, the iphone takes things that other phones do reasonably well and does them juuuuuust a little bit better.
What are y'all's thoughts....should I go Samsung or re-join the Apple fold?

My brother has a pretty new Samsung and we've been talking about what features it has. He says that it can shoot RAW files of some sort. Maybe your phone has that option? It won't make the pictures any sharper but would allow for more latitude in editing.

 

The COVID boredom is getting really bad. I want to shoot some photos but just don't have space in the house for what I want to do. SO! I built a PVC pipe frame to hold my backdrop so I can take it outdoors.




Then early this morning I took it out and set up an umbrella and Monica.




Monica says "Be safe!"




Just an exercise, a proof of concept sort of endeavor I guess. It's hot as blazes here right now, was 105 yesterday. so this is still fermenting but I am hoping that I'll be able to get some portrait photos of some neighbors in the coming weeks/months and still maintain a safe social distance. Necessity, mother of invention etc...But there's no getting around the heat.

 

Pescado_Verde I think that is a great shot of Monica. Is the umbrella a diffuser, a reflector, or both/either depending on which way it's facing? It sounds like portraiture is your preferred art form. Have you tried doing any macro work? I always find my muse in flowers and plants. When I need a willing subject they are always there for me

We took a quick overnight trip to the mountains to see my daughter at college, and took the scenic route home yesteday. Here are some phone-shots. I am having better luck with it if I take a little time to set it up first. I guess I was so spoiled by the iPhone doing all the hard work for me before.

Looking Glass Falls near Brevard, NC. The time of day and the crowds made it really hard to get a shot without harsh shadows or "ew, people" in it. This one I didn't actually love at first, but then Google Photos auto-created a B&W that I liked better, so I played with it a bit and came up with one that I thought looked alright:




Then on the way home, we stopped near Chimney Rock and I took a couple dozen photos of the French Broad River. There are some enormous boulders in the river, but again we were there right about noon so the lighting was pretty harsh and the boulders looked sort of flat in most of the shots. I tried framing the shot through the little tree, but even the tree isn't that interesting.



And finally, this one was a one-off. I loved the texture of this tree, and the roots that have been growing over and around these rocks for a very long time to find earth and water. Nature always finds a way, right?

 

Pescado_Verde I think that is a great shot of Monica. Is the umbrella a diffuser, a reflector, or both/either depending on which way it's facing? It sounds like portraiture is your preferred art form. Have you tried doing any macro work? I always find my muse in flowers and plants. When I need a willing subject they are always there for me

We took a quick overnight trip to the mountains to see my daughter at college, and took the scenic route home yesteday. Here are some phone-shots. I am having better luck with it if I take a little time to set it up first. I guess I was so spoiled by the iPhone doing all the hard work for me before.

Looking Glass Falls near Brevard, NC. The time of day and the crowds made it really hard to get a shot without harsh shadows or "ew, people" in it. This one I didn't actually love at first, but then Google Photos auto-created a B&W that I liked better, so I played with it a bit and came up with one that I thought looked alright:
View attachment 727046


Then on the way home, we stopped near Chimney Rock and I took a couple dozen photos of the French Broad River. There are some enormous boulders in the river, but again we were there right about noon so the lighting was pretty harsh and the boulders looked sort of flat in most of the shots. I tried framing the shot through the little tree, but even the tree isn't that interesting.
View attachment 727047

And finally, this one was a one-off. I loved the texture of this tree, and the roots that have been growing over and around these rocks for a very long time to find earth and water. Nature always finds a way, right?
View attachment 727048

The umbrella is reversible. I prefer it as a shoot thru just because I can cram it that much closer to the subject and get really soft light. And yes, portraiture is what I gravitate towards.

I've not really tried macro photography much but have dabbled with it a smidge. I have a 105mm Sigma lens that has a close focus distance of I think 12". I may have to expand my knowledge of macro a bit though, my neighbor creates gemstone and silver jewelry and I'm interested in doing some product photos for him.

 

The umbrella is reversible. I prefer it as a shoot thru just because I can cram it that much closer to the subject and get really soft light. And yes, portraiture is what I gravitate towards.

I've not really tried macro photography much but have dabbled with it a smidge. I have a 105mm Sigma lens that has a close focus distance of I think 12". I may have to expand my knowledge of macro a bit though, my neighbor creates gemstone and silver jewelry and I'm interested in doing some product photos for him.

I think gemstones would be especially challenging. I have a sapphire in my engagement ring and making it look like anything other than a blue rock in photos is really hard! I imagine your flash would be helpful with that.
I love the idea of macro (i may be using the term too loosely since I'm not talking about photos of a single stamen on a flower...) and using it to find beauty in unlikely places, like the tiny wildflowers that creep into everyone's lawn at this time of year, or small insects with the most riotous harlequin costumes on. But I guess the composition/artsy/poetic side of photography draws me more than the technical aspects. I don't know how to do it really, I just know when I finally like what I see. I've always done art backwards.

 

Still haven't gotten around to shooting any more gemstones but I need to do that soon. I did get out of the house this morning to take a trip downtown to the river and the Doris Miller memorial/statue. Pretty moving installation. Anyway, I took this shot among others. Converted it and printed in b&w.

 

Palm Springs Photo Festival, online this year 'cause of the COVID.

Connect 2020: The Palm Springs Photo Festival | THE PSPF 2020 ONLINE LINKS

 

This is one I took back in January. Ran across it this morning and tweaked it a bit, I kind of like rodeo photos in b&w. Now that things are starting to open up a bit I'm hoping that there will be more events like this one. Looking at what I shot then I have a better idea of how to maybe take better pics next time.

 

This is one I took back in January. Ran across it this morning and tweaked it a bit, I kind of like rodeo photos in b&w. Now that things are starting to open up a bit I'm hoping that there will be more events like this one. Looking at what I shot then I have a better idea of how to maybe take better pics next time.

View attachment 736086

I think you're framing on this one is really good!

 

I think you're framing on this one is really good!

Thanks. I wish I were able to claim I shot it that way, lol, but no, that's been cropped.

I've purchased a printer (Epson XP-15000) and about 20 different types of photo paper and so as part of learning the printing process I'm looking to "help" the shots look better with creative cropping. It's pretty rare for me to get a shot framed just right in camera, unfortunately. And being that I shoot with crop sensor it's not leaving a lot of pixels to work with! For posting on this low-res internet they're okay but to make good prints... need lots and lots of pixels.

 

That is the truth! One of the downfalls of internet storage as well is the huge amount of loss.

 

I dug around in the sofa last week and found some loose change and now I own a gently used Nikon D500. Unless I ever make the leap to mirrorless cameras I think I'm done with the gear acquisition. This isn't a significant upgrade over the D7500 that I've been using because that's a fantastic camera body imho but it has a few features I'm really looking forward to using, namely the edge-to-edge focus points, its reputed low light focusing ability and it has an optional vertical grip which I also bought. It does weigh a good bit more with a battery installed in the grip but I don't know that I'll be using it for its battery as much as I will for the vertical controls. Twisting my arm/hand around in an awkward way was never fun when shooting vertical and now that is a thing of the past.

I'll probably end up trying to learn the controls this weekend and not actually taking pictures with the thing, lol. Such is life with digital gadgets.

 

Got to say the D7500 has so much stuff on it. Very confusing. And it does seem like the picture quality is lost when transferring it onto the internet. I think I need to take a class on how to use it . The iPhone is still the go to. An iPhone pic of a Manhattan sunrise

 

Got to say the D7500 has so much stuff on it. Very confusing. And it does seem like the picture quality is lost when transferring it onto the internet. I think I need to take a class on how to use it . The iPhone is still the go to. An iPhone pic of a Manhattan sunrise View attachment 737907

haha, I have a D7200 and it's a never ending learning process. There's definitely a huge photo quality loss when posting on fishlore. En lieu of the fall season here's a few recent fall shots with the D7200 18-150mm from around the area.

 

WOW!!!

 

I became aware of this thread due to the new post. I particularly enjoyed the posts about WWII reverse-viewer cameras at the beginning. I did own a Lubitel (cheaper version of the Yashica's) that you had to put on your belly and look from the top. You had to eyeball how much you wanted to advance the film. You could expose the part of the film over and over (sometimes deliberately, sometimes forgot to advance I think I might still have it.

Fish photography definitely deserves its own section. Is there a dedicated fish photography section here?

 

Got to say the D7500 has so much stuff on it. Very confusing. And it does seem like the picture quality is lost when transferring it onto the internet. I think I need to take a class on how to use it . The iPhone is still the go to. An iPhone pic of a Manhattan sunrise View attachment 737907

Pretty shot.

Digital cameras remind me of Microsoft Office, what with all the available options and the seemingly endless ways they can be configured and customized. And the truth is most folks just want to send a quick 2 sentence email/take a simple picture.

It's sort of like buying a set of Snap-On tools. You can get the basic socket set or you can spend more and get enough stuff to equip a NASCAR pit crew. It just depends on what you are wanting to accomplish and you still have to know how to use those tools. I'm still at the screwdriver and pliers stage BUT! I have lots of options, lol.

 

My Greg Gorman retrospective book arrived today and it's about 10 pounds of glorious. Highly recommend.

 

Wanted to play guitar, realizes she doesn't have hands.

 

I was waiting on a friend and sitting in front of the hotel trying to take a snapshot of some sculptures across the road but the cars kept whizzing by and then it hit me - try to take a shot panning the car to get motion blur. I wasn't very successful as the distances weren't optimal but I messed with it enough that I think when I have time and go out with intent to create such a shot that I can probably get a pretty good result. Anyway, here's probably the best I got just sitting there and messing with the idea.

 

Wanted to play guitar, realizes she doesn't have hands.

She looks devastated about it!

 

Is there a good resource to learn how to use my camera?? I have a rebel 5, but I really don't know how to use most of its functions. I can get some decent shots, but I feel like I'm missing more than I'm capturing. I know fish are hard, but how do I increase shutter speed or get a decent fish picture??!! Is it my lenses? Probably just basic kit lenses, idunno...

It's intimidating. Poor thing lives in a case, never comes out. Lol.

 

Is there a good resource to learn how to use my camera?? I have a rebel 5, but I really don't know how to use most of its functions. I can get some decent shots, but I feel like I'm missing more than I'm capturing. I know fish are hard, but how do I increase shutter speed or get a decent fish picture??!! Is it my lenses? Probably just basic kit lenses, idunno...

It's intimidating. Poor thing lives in a case, never comes out. Lol.

Youtube is frequently your friend for specific camera model questions. As for general camera/photography knowledge, if you're not yet familiar with the exposure triangle I suggest that as a good start. Also, just google the heck out of things, really any question you might have. As poorly worded as it might be, simply because you don't know what you don't know, it will get you started. B&H and Adorama are a couple of the larger retailers and both have websites with extensive help videos available and they also have Youtube channels.

Good luck!

 

Another try at panning. Better than my first attempt but the arc in my pan is pretty apparent. Might be better using a tripod, this was handheld at 1/40s.

 

More panning, this time con caballos. 1/80s, f1/8, ISO 400, 85mm.

 

Took the old gal out to the park today, a sort of proof of concept trip. It was getting late already and I didn't bother to try and really get a good exposure/match the ambient. I just wanted to tote her, the flashes, couple stands etc... and see how much of a pain it would be. Wind did blow my umbrella over once but I had that coming, didn't weight the stand as soon as I opened it up and yep, that happened. Got it folded back up but it's not exactly pristine anymore. All the gear fit in my sling bag and one gym bag. It's a bit much but not undoable at all.

I thought she'd enjoy the fresh air but nope, not impressed at all. McKayla Maroney got nothing on her for snobbery

 

Lol that just freaks me out. Now you don’t push her around in a baby carriage do you?

 

Lol that just freaks me out. Now you don’t push her around in a baby carriage do you?

Nah, she's just barely a torso and head. Head comes off and the whole rig fits in a gym bag. It's the only way to practice. She doesn't eat, complain or take up much room. I got the idea from reading a book by John Cornicello on portraiture. He used a couple wig heads to demonstrate different concepts and it sure makes things a lot easier than trying to take selfies for practice. Her name's Monica by the way.

Next step is to start taking pics with her in front of local landmarks. Kinda like roaming gnomes but creepier.

 

Lol my buddy puts his bicycle in landmark pics. Yeah but if I had that torso I’d have it in a baby carriage and would be talking to it in between sites. Probably get a lot more free space that way .

 

Put up the Christmas lights yesterday and so today I figured all that work ought to be put to some good use so I stuck "Monica" out there tonight for a photo op. A little photoshop and voila! Greeting cards!

I exposed for the Christmas lights and the window, used a very light blue gel on the flash on her to give a chilly moonlight glow and then used a snowy weather downloaded layer to complete the little project. Some text for a seasonal greeting was added and now "we" just need to print and mail.

 

Met this gal yesterday at a yard sale.

 

Nothing says "Happy New Year!!" quite like a gym membership that'll never get used.

 

Rodeo was back in town and for the most part I missed it. Work, work, work, work, work. Got to see a little bit of the roping so that's what I got.

 

A fountain + a strobe.

 

You cannot get away...

 

We had a full moon so I tried my hand at a shot of that. Used an app called PhotoPills which told me exactly where and when the moon would appear based on the subject I selected and my location which it knew. That worked like a charm! Now I just need to find better landmarks with good viewing locations - those are in small supply. But, it's a start.

 

Got invited to go take pictures of a baseball player by the guy who was scouting him. It was challenging. The light kept changing and of course the background did too and it played the devil with my settings. I got a few semi-decent shots but man, it was a steep learning curve. I made a few into a collage and printed that for the scout to give to the kid (family friend) and printed one single shot for the scout himself. Had a lot of fun but it wasn't my best outing ever photographically speaking.

 

Taking photos of animals are harder than people, but easier than landscapes.

 

Hi there. Just stumbled across this thread. I have been doing photography since the early 90's, and recently just finished the Commercial Photography program at our local college. I like shooting product, still life, abstract and sometimes portraiture. I'll try to shoot dome fish stuff soon.

Until then...here's a few from recent projects.








And a couple more...

 

I wish I kept up with this thread, some serious skill here.


Some old film shots from me.

 

Oh man, I didn't know this thread existed. I started photography in 2015 when I moved out to the mountains. I was a city girl previously and mostly just took photos of friends and concerts I was at.

I mostly focus on landscape, wildlife and night skies, as I used to be an aurora chaser

 

Oh man, I didn't know this thread existed. I started photography in 2015 when I moved out to the mountains. I was a city girl previously and mostly just took photos of friends and concerts I was at.

I mostly focus on landscape, wildlife and night skies, as I used to be an aurora chaser

You have some excellent images there. Very nice indeed. I particularly like the sun through trees and the starscape .

 

You have some excellent images there. Very nice indeed. I particularly like the sun through trees and the starscape .

Thank you so much. I took those this year on a camping trip.