** A Picture I Took - 2009 **

Thanks for the critique Pylon. I'm never sure if I'm getting the colors to look good.

 
I redid my one mobo shot.
Uploading it killed the detail, but you get the idea.

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Have I been slacking? Sure...

Here you go.

My wife and my chitlin'
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My nephew
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Hi teammate
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I totally messed up this shot... i'm so mad at myself... I blame the fact that the 70-200 lens is heavy as hell... yeah that's it....
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ben chi(f4) said:
Have I been slacking? Sure...

Here you go.


I totally messed up this shot... i'm so mad at myself... I blame the fact that the 70-200 lens is heavy as hell... yeah that's it....
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Click to expand...

I dont think you messed it up, It actually looks pretty cool
 
That photo can help you explain why you will need to buy the IS version of the 70-200!
But on another not with those slightly OOF pics it is fun to play around with Corel Painter or other painting/ PS programs to turn it into a fun work of art.

I really like the conductor pic by the way, nice lighting.
 
ben chi(f4) said:
I totally messed up this shot... i'm so mad at myself... I blame the fact that the 70-200 lens is heavy as hell... yeah that's it....
4049095022_f5e283a0e3_b.jpg
Click to expand...

Awwww... adorable shot! I didn't even notice the motion blurr 'till I read your note - now I do find it a bit distracting. You need to start using more strobes. Or at least crank the shutter speed up some - just remember focal length x 1.5 = shutter.

ben chi(f4) said:
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Click to expand...

Anothe great shot! I like the composition. You should be able tweak this a lot more in lightroom to get more of an hdr look and not loose so much in highlights and shadows. Crank the fill-light and pull down the exposure, then use the levels editor to pull out the rest.

ben chi(f4) said:
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Click to expand...

Classy! I like this one a lot - wouldn't change a thing. :)
 
I'm too cheap to buy an ND filter, but I've always wanted to try that. Well, that, and any significant body of water is over 5 hours away.
 
Pike Place Market, side alley leading into the lower market.
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Another shot from the long nights in the STL
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Clinton Mill, NJ
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Dressed up for a costume contest at work... first time dressing up in like 15 years :p







 
PC_User said:
What do you mean "too bright"? Could you be more specific?
Click to expand...

I notice a "halo" around the tree myself. Rest of the clouds look like they are exposed right, but the halo section around the tree, the whites are a bit blown out.
 
KodiakStar said:
I notice a "halo" around the tree myself. Rest of the clouds look like they are exposed right, but the halo section around the tree, the whites are a bit blown out.
Click to expand...

I suppose that is it. Though looking at it now - I think it would be very hard to get rid of that "halo" thing, for me at least. :p

As far as the overall iamge goes - I liek it, but again there just seems to be a slight bit too much PP. Can't really put my finger on it.
 
Those cat eyes are sick! Ive tried to take pics of my dogs eyes, but my camera can only get so close before he shuts it lol
 
+1 on Eragon Dragonslayer's comment! You guys rock! That's a one mean cat in your pics stop!theradio :)
 
^ Good stuff Ben! Great color, focus, and very nice personality in the timing.


I'll be going hiking this weekend in NC mountains - hope to get some good landscapes, fall colors, and other outdoorsy type work to post... my goal is to find some water and make my own fog like some posted earlier. :) Love that look.
 
Here is one I took as a 3 part first attempt at HDR. Taken with a Digital Rebel, I don't recall what lens was on it, but this is the 30 second exposure, I kinda like the way it looks, but I do need to finish the HDR of it since some of the colors are blown out. This is my first actual photography attempt, so any advice on it is very welcome.

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^^ cool looking image! I personally wouldn't bother trying to do hdr on this one for a few reasons. The long exposure gives you that cool blurring effect, but it means that if you overlay an image with a shorter exposure, it's not going to line up very well, and you'll get some weird double-image thing going on. 2nd, you really don't have that much blown out here - just the car lights in a few places, and it really looks pretty cool that way.

If it were mine, I'd just tweak the levels a little to pull out as much detail as possible, then crop off some of the dead space across the top of the image, and you're good to go.

Keep shooting! You're off to a good start.
 
HDR techniques that have worked for me:
  • Use a tripod, or rest the camera on a ledge or table.
  • Use aperature priority mode. This will ensure the focus and depth of field don't change.
  • Focus the camera, and then change it to manual focus. This will again insure that the focus doesn't change ever so slightly.
  • Use a smaller aperature like f/8-16, so that more of the image is in focus. HDRs have a habit of looking not sharp and this will help this.
  • Put it on timer mode, or use a cable release. This is in addition to the tripod. We don't want the image moving around. Ideally we wouldn't need to run an alignment algorithm on the images.
  • Try and get exposures from atleast -1,0,+1. What has worked best for me is -2,-1,0,+1,+2. My old camera would only go -1/3,0,+1/3 and they never really looked that good.

I have tried Photomatix and have like it. Just recently, I found Qtpfsgui, and it shows promise for a free program.

Here is an interesting Tutorial using Qtpfsgui: http://garmahis.com/tutorials/hdr-tutorial-free-software/
 
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