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Forum: Winners' Showcase
09-03-2015, 08:45 PM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 Photo Contest
07-03-2014, 07:20 PM
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Light Motion
Star and firefly trails, the active lights of a long summer night.
This is a composite. The field, stars and lightning bugs were captured over the course of four hours. I left the camera out in the field, taking continuous 30-second exposures, which I combined in Photoshop the same way I would for any startrail photo (Lighten blend mode). It was a nice warm night, so I didn't have to worry about the lens fogging, and I was lucky that no spiders perched blurringly in front of the lens (it has happened before). The final element, myself, holding the lantern, was shot inside, with lights arranged to replicate the direction of the moonlight. The lantern was lit through by a flash. Hope you like it. :-)
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-27-2015, 12:42 AM
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Cute photo! Processing-wise, I feel that each photo goes a little too far, in each direction. Somewhere in between those two would be great!
As for noise....I know you already shot it and Christmas is over, but for the future I agree with jheu02's idea of using a tripod (or anything stable that you can rest the tripod on and use a timer), and do a longer exposure. You don't want it TOO long, or else your model will be blurry if she moves at all, but even going to 1/20th @ ISO 1600 instead of 1/80th @ ISO 6400 will have a huge difference on the amount of noise, and still be short enough, if your model is reasonably still - but you'd still want to have the camera stable, not handheld.
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-31-2015, 07:42 PM
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Thanks, LucaBumble! I wouldn't say I'm super experienced, but I've spent a lot of time looking at photographs and watching critiques from great photographers, and so am learning to analyze photos better. I find it hard to look at my own photos so analytically, but critiquing others' photos does help to see one's own work better. Teaching is the best way to learn. :)
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-27-2015, 12:10 PM
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-26-2015, 11:00 PM
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It's always been my understanding that RAW files were designed to be flat out of the camera - they were never meant to not be processed. Cameras can produce colourful, vibrant JPGs according to whichever preset or custom setting you use in-camera, but if you shoot RAW, these presets are stripped, and the photo you see on computer will be flat... but chalk full of information, like a chunk of marble waiting to be carved into a statue - it's all there, but it takes some work to bring it out. Now, that doesn't mean you have to go crazy with post-production - simple contrast, vibrance, white balance and sharpness adjustments may be all you need, or want - and most programs will let you create a preset that you can use over and over again, to quickly process many files at once. This is essentially what your camera's JPG processor will do, but by shooting in RAW and processing manually, you have much more control over the entire process. :)
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Forum: Pentax K-3 Photo Contest
04-28-2014, 11:18 PM
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The Storm Chaser
Rain and lightning are faked in camera with a spray bottle and pipe cleaner bent into a bolt shape and illuminated off-camera. Minimal Photoshopping (colour tint added to sunglasses, reflection cleaned up a bit), otherwise the usual contrast/colour adjustments, dodging and burning. This is a selfie, so it was tricky to work the spray bottle and camera remote at the same time while keeping the sunglasses at the right angle, but it was a satisfying shoot. :)
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
01-12-2014, 10:30 PM
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Lower Lewis Falls, Washington state. Focus stacked. :-)
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Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
01-16-2012, 09:56 PM
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Some great inspiration to start the new year in this thread!
For me, 2012 has been about lights... Christmas lights, lights on the Parliament, painting with light... lots of fun!
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Forum: Photo Critique
10-20-2011, 11:25 AM
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Nice capture! I would just like to stress how important a straight horizon is. If it's off, or even looks off, it feels a little weird to look at and most people will dismiss the photo right away before taking note of the redeeming qualities, Your fixed version looks much, much better.
It might just be me, or it might be the JPG compression, but the clouds and sky seem a little grainy. Have you tried noise reduction? I think you can get away with much more NR in a scene like this where there aren't a lot of details that will be lost.
I'm not sure if the bush adds to the photo...I might have also tried another shot without the bush (if possible), or changed the POV as others have said, maybe to show more of the bush from further back. In an ideal world the bush would be in perfect focus (you've got it pretty good though considering wind and the length of the shot). To improve sharpness maybe you could have tried focus stacking, or moving back from the bush and zooming in to help with DOF. These are just suggestions and not critiques. I wouldn't think do focus stacking or POV changing myself until I got back home and looked at the photo on the computer. :lol:
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