The Big Photography Thread

[xKnuckles]

[Mike Martin]

On Flickr, there is a small icon that looks like a small box with a curved arrow coming out of it. Click that and choose HTML / UBB code, choose a size no larger than 1024. Copy the code and paste it here.

[xKnuckles]

Fingers crossed...

 

[xKnuckles]

I think I followed your instructions, but it still didn't work...... Not sure what to try next....

[xKnuckles]

Take three........

 

Tree Canopy by xxKnuckles, on Flickr

[xKnuckles]

Scottish loch by xxKnuckles, on Flickr

[xKnuckles]

Lava life by xxKnuckles, on Flickr

[xKnuckles]

Ah.. It finally worked. Thanks for your assistance, Mike. :-)

[KenElevenShadows]

It was worth the extra effort. I especially love the silhouette of the tree. Great texture, strong composition.

[Brettymike]

Good xKnuckles.

(just come back from more meditation at Kens "Easter Moon" )

Cool spider pic Mike!.

 

Brett

[xKnuckles]

Thank you for the encouragement, Ken & Brett. Very much appreciated - especially since this is the first time I have plucked up enough courage to share any of my photos with anyone!....

 

I intend to read through this thread properly (instead of just looking at the pictures), and have high hopes of gaining a few tips and nuggets of info from you all.

[Brettymike]

The tree pic especially is really Great.

I have taken 1 or 2 great photo's in my life (taken on my old Canon AE1 - which was sadly stolen as well) , but they aren't digitized to put up here > http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/Garfield.JPG

 

We are very lucky to have two of the best photographers in the whole world right here - KEN & MIKE , I really appreciate it Thank you ).

 

Brett

 

[KenElevenShadows]

Thanks!

 

xKnuckles, you have really good photos. If you want to ask something, this is a good thread to do it, I think.

 

 

[RABid]

Interesting clouds in Savannah tonight.

 

http://rabj.smugmug.com/Travel/i-t2R64rr/0/L/Savannah%20Clouds-L.jpg

[xKnuckles]

Lovely sky, Rabid. :-)

 

Thanks again Ken & Brett. Have to agree with you Brett, we are certainly incredibly lucky with the talent on display in this thread.

 

I do have a few questions, so if people don't mind I would be interested to know the answers to any of these which you didn't mind giving..... (No worries if you prefer not to) ......... :-)

 

1. What would you say is the most useful thing you have learned about taking good photographs?

 

2. Apart from your camera, which piece of equipment is most useful to you?

 

3. Do you tend to wait for something you see to inspire you to photograph it, or do you have a plan and then make it happen - and which method is more rewarding?

 

4. How important is the editing / processing side of it all to you?

 

[Brettymike]

I will hazard a guess , and see if the experts think I am correct .

 

1. You need the almost mysterious gift of being able to recognise the awesome opportunity for a great photo - pretty hard to explain really - and I swear unteachable.

2.Passion and Patience

3.The better quality of equipment and props - the better is the picture caught.

4.Huge skill with getting the focus , depth of field , and lighting right.

My bet is No.1 is most important.

 

Brett

[Theo Verelst]

 

I lightly processed these images coming from a cheap but very good Sony (latest generation) high definition video cam:

 

http://www.theover.org/Keybdmg/dsc00345bmc.jpg

Orchid closup

 

http://www.theover.org/Keybdmg/dsc00438bmc.jpg

in flight blowup from a moving object zoom

 

http://www.theover.org/Keybdmg/dsc00444bmc.jpg

The Rainbow Warrior

 

I prefer to (almost never) draw in photographs, and to use processing steps that enhance the character, with a fair amount of fidelity to the digital original.

 

T.

[KenElevenShadows]

Lovely sky, Rabid. :-)

 

Thanks again Ken & Brett. Have to agree with you Brett, we are certainly incredibly lucky with the talent on display in this thread.

 

I do have a few questions, so if people don't mind I would be interested to know the answers to any of these which you didn't mind giving..... (No worries if you prefer not to) ......... :-)

 

1. What would you say is the most useful thing you have learned about taking good photographs?

How to slow down and appreciate the beauty around me. This might sound really trite and pie in the sky, but for me, that's what it has done. No matter where I am, if I have a camera in my hand, there's always something interesting to see. And now, even when I don't have a camera in hand, I think and feel that way. I appreciate everything, whether people, nature, buildings, details, stuff that usually goes unnoticed. It's fantastic.

 

I do a lot of long exposure and night sky photography. It's really slowed me down and taught me to appreciate things. I'll lie on my back for long periods of time and watch the stars go past while my camera clicks away, doing star trails photography over long periods of time. I'm hyperactive, and so this is a gift. It's forced me to slow down, take a deep breath, and appreciate nature more.

 

This is a quote that I love from night photographer Michael Kenna:

Getting photographs is not the most important thing. For me its the act of photographing. Its enlightening, therapeutic and satisfying, because the very process forces me to connect with the world. When you make four-hour exposures in the middle of the night, you inevitably slow down and begin to observe and appreciate more whats going on around you. In our fast-paced, modern world, its a luxury to be able to watch the stars move across the sky. Michael Kenna in Photographers Forum Interview Winter 2003 by Claire Sykes

 

I share this quote at the star trails/light painting photography workshops that I teach. I really feel this way. It's a total gift. Here...let's read another quote that sums up much of the night sky photography process:

"Photographing at night can be fascinating because we lose some of the control over what happens in front of the camera. Over a period of time the world changes; rivers flow, planes fly by, clouds pass and the earth's position relative to the stars is different. This accumulation of time and events, impossible for the human eye to take in, can be recorded on film. For the photographer, real can become surreal, which is exciting. During the day, when most photographs are made, scenes are usually viewed from the vantage-point of a fixed single light source, the sun. At night the light can come from unusual and multiple sources. There can be deep shadows which act as catalysts for our imagination. There is often a sense of drama, a story about to be told, secrets revealed, actors about to enter onto the stage. The night has vast potential for creativity." - Michael Kenna - in "WRAPAROUND" Interview Fall 2003 / Vol. 1 No. 1 by Anne Telford

 

 

2. Apart from your camera, which piece of equipment is most useful to you?

If we're talking equipment, my wide-angle lens. If we're talking about anything, probably the new knowledge and appreciation stored in my meat computer.

 

 

3. Do you tend to wait for something you see to inspire you to photograph it, or do you have a plan and then make it happen - and which method is more rewarding?

All of the above, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love planning shoots and making it happen. I plan night sky shoots depending on when the moon is out, how the moon will be in the night sky, or when it is not out. It lends itself to different shoots. I like this sort of thing. I can do light painting when the moon is out, then shoot Milky Ways when it is not out. Fantastic either way.

 

But I also like travel photography, being in the moment, photographing interesting people I meet, fantastic places I see, all that. Spontaneous. Not thinking, but reacting. I like taking photos of field trips with my students, parties, fun stuff, concerts/gigs, hikes, and all sorts of things that are spontaneous.

 

I love doing both, and feel it's important and gloriously rewarding to do both. I don't value one more over the other.

 

 

4. How important is the editing / processing side of it all to you?

All my comments here are about serious photography, and not selfies on Facebook with a smartphone or snapshots at a party or things like that. I am not a snob.

 

If we're talking about really serious photography, it's everything. If you are shooting RAW and just tacking it up as is, you are not unlocking the full potential of your RAW image, much in the way that you shoot a nice image on a negative, but you don't really do much when you or someone else is developing the film. So with film, you would take it to a cheap-ass place and any photo, no matter how beautiful, looked like crap, or take it to a really great film lab, and they would unlock the beauty of your photo. It's the same thing with your RAW file. A RAW file...you can do so many things. It stores all information, and should never be thrown away. It should be converted to TIFF after some gentle massaging, making sure the WB is dialed in sweetly, and then some simple massaging, like sharpening, contrast, color adjustments, etc. before an image should ever be shown.

 

And if you only shoot JPG - again discussing serious photography - you're totally locking yourself in to the WB and chucking much of your information.

 

Good processing makes the photo sing. It unlocks the beauty of the image.

 

Bad processing...well, in my opinion, if you overdo it, it looks jagged or over-sharpened, and unrealistic and ugly if too strong if overdoing HDR (which is unfortunately easy to do), etc.

 

By the way, extra brownie points for anyone who can guess when the first HDR photo occurred.

 

Analogies sometimes suck because they throw people off track a little, or it devolves into semantics. But nonetheless, I'll risk it with one of the many parallels between photography and music:

If taking the photo is like tracking during a recording session, than processing the photo is like mixing.

[Mike Martin]

1. What would you say is the most useful thing you have learned about taking good photographs?

Patience. The worst thing you can do is rush. I realize sometimes there is an unexpected moment that you're trying to capture but when you have the time make the most of it. Experiment and try different things.

2. Apart from your camera, which piece of equipment is most useful to you?

Like Ken I was going to say the lens. I believe in many respects the glass you're shooting through is as important if not more than the camera that is capturing the image. The fact is that the quality of most modern digital cameras these days is rather remarkable. It is the lens that will give you the ability to see things in different ways and hopefully capture it too. Second most important thing - my camera bag. I take it everywhere.

 

3. Do you tend to wait for something you see to inspire you to photograph it, or do you have a plan and then make it happen - and which method is more rewarding?[

 

Unlike Ken, I don't often have the time to really work on a big plan. To compensate, I take my camera everywhere and actively look for things everywhere I go. The time I have spent out on nature walks, looking for birds or other things to photograph has been highly rewarding from a mental and physical point of view as well.

 

4. How important is the editing / processing side of it all to you?

 

It is huge. Shoot RAW and get a program like Lightroom. The ability here to save a missed exposure or make an image POP using its tools is remarkable. It is the modern day equivalent to a darkroom and can allow some amazing and creative possibilities.

[Mike Martin]

In an effort to take pictures every day this week, I stopped just after I left work and snapped a few pictures.

 

IMG_1359 by Mike M Martin, on Flickr

[Brettymike]

Great information! , and Great flower photo especially Theo.

A good friend of mine was saved by the Gods years ago , when he stepped off the original Rainbow Warrior , about 30 minutes before she went KAA-BOOM! from those secret assassins.

 

Brett

[xKnuckles]

Thanks for answering my questions, Mike, Ken & Brett. You all seem in agreement about quite a few things. What surprised me most was what you said about the importance of processing. I had no idea that you would think it was so crucial! I somehow thought that processing would only be applied if there was something which needed correcting, or on occasion if it was to be used as an artistic tool to add an extra dimension. It sounds like you process every picture? I suspect it is quite an enjoyable part of the process. Does it take long? Are there ever times when you look at a photo and think: "this cannot be improved"?

 

Did you process your beautiful flower, Mike? Looking at it, I would have said that you hadn't, but I guess that probably just means that you did it very well (if you did).....

 

[Mike Martin]

I don't process every picture but I take the time to make some minor changes to most. It could be a minor change in white balance or a tweak of highlights and shadows.

 

In the case of the flower picture above there's actually quite a bit happening. The overall exposure is a bit brighter, highlights are reduced so the petals of the flower aren't totally blown out. Blacks are decreased (creating a little more contrast between the background and the flower). Blue saturation was reduced, while green was increased (making that background richer). Some subtle sharping.

 

Here is before and after:

Before-after by Mike M Martin, on Flickr

[Theo Verelst]

Choosing a light mapping curve/technique to go from High Dynamic Range (usually more than 8 bits resolution per Red Green and Blue component) to a reasonable-looking standard bit depth (.tiff 8 bits, .gif with some color space, 4:2:0 or 4:4:4 .jpg) image isn't necessarily much "processing", depending on how realistic the mapping is done.

 

I usually draw the line at drawing, un-realistic color changes, and pixel roundings that go further than a few pixels and aren't done technically reasonable, but I tend to High Definition filming, which is harder but more rewarding to me.

 

[RichieP_MechE]

1. What would you say is the most useful thing you have learned about taking good photographs?

 

2. Apart from your camera, which piece of equipment is most useful to you?

 

3. Do you tend to wait for something you see to inspire you to photograph it, or do you have a plan and then make it happen - and which method is more rewarding?

 

4. How important is the editing / processing side of it all to you?

 

1. Hmm, this is a tough one. I'll get back to you when I think of a good answer!

 

2. It's a tie between a tripod (crucially important for good landscape and long exposure photos) and a LensPen!. A clean lens is a happy lens.

 

3. More often than not, my trips to take pictures are spontaneous. The weather's nice and I have some time? Let's head out and find something. My approach then is to sort of pick a direction and start driving. Once I see something interesting, I'll pull over and grab a picture. Sometimes, I like to start out on a familiar road, then go take a turn onto a road I've never traveled before, and continue driving on unfamiliar roads, looking for interesting things. Usually I'll wind up at a familiar place (and if I get lost, I have a smartphone with google maps to help me out.)

 

4. As you've read from Mike and others, it is really important. Think about it this way: something as simple as making a black and white film print requires a contrast filter in the enlarger, cropping, and maybe burning and dodging for getting proper exposure. This all carries over to digital photography.

 

I too shoot in RAW which helps you get a bit more out of an image than JPEG. But you don't have to shoot in RAW. You can still make white balance corrections and exposure adjustments on a JPEG, however the range of adjustment will be smaller.

 

It sounds like you process every picture? I suspect it is quite an enjoyable part of the process. Does it take long? Are there ever times when you look at a photo and think: "this cannot be improved"?

Processing an image sometimes takes me minutes, other times much longer. As I've gotten more experienced, I can make adjustments more quickly as I have an in-depth understanding of how all the functions work, and am better able to get the effect I desire. One thing I sometimes I obsess over is cropping an image, which can majorly effect composition.

 

I process every photo. Shooting RAW gives you a very flat image (which you can see in Mike's before shot) so usually some adjustment is needed to get the colors or contrast more accurate. I've taken some photos that haven't needed any improvement, but still will make some minor adjustments, based on the nature of the RAW image as I mentioned.

[Mike Martin]

LensPen!. A clean lens is a happy lens.

 

I've never seen that. Thanks for the tip.

[KenElevenShadows]

Thanks for answering my questions, Mike, Ken & Brett. You all seem in agreement about quite a few things. What surprised me most was what you said about the importance of processing. I had no idea that you would think it was so crucial! I somehow thought that processing would only be applied if there was something which needed correcting, or on occasion if it was to be used as an artistic tool to add an extra dimension. It sounds like you process every picture? I suspect it is quite an enjoyable part of the process. Does it take long? Are there ever times when you look at a photo and think: "this cannot be improved"?

 

I talk about this with a lot of professional photographers. Our feeling has almost unanimously been that we have never seen a RAW file that cannot be improved through processing. For reasons that would take a while to describe, a RAW file does not some massaging to realize their full potential. Without that, they tend to look a bit drab.

 

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/03/19/how-to-process-raw-images-the-right-way/

A shot may look like it has little detail in the shadows and suffers from a blown-out sky, but thats like criticising an undeveloped negative.

 

When you shoot in your cameras raw format, the image is crammed full of information regarding the scenes colours and tones.

 

Only by processing your raw format files in Photoshops Adobe Camera 
Raw (ACR) editor can you really assess the quality of the images and create a perfect picture.

 

The latest incarnation of Adobe Camera Raw boasts a number of powerful new processing tools, making your digital darkroom even more effective.

 

You can coax colour and texture from apparently blown-out skies thanks to the new Graduated Filter, the selective Adjustment Brush lets you dodge and burn specific areas, and the Spot Removal tool clobbers ugly sensor spots into submission.

 

It sometimes takes a very short while, while other shots, particularly ones such as night sky shots, can take considerably longer. It's really difficult to answer. And if you are doing complex things like stacking or stitching together photos for panorama shots, that can take a really long time. The sky's the limit.

 

Each year, I learn considerably more about processing. What to do, what not to do. It's several lifetimes worth of stuff, I think. I don't consider myself very proficient at Photoshop, but I think the stuff I do, I'm reasonably good at.

[KenElevenShadows]

I don't process every picture but I take the time to make some minor changes to most. It could be a minor change in white balance or a tweak of highlights and shadows.

 

In the case of the flower picture above there's actually quite a bit happening. The overall exposure is a bit brighter, highlights are reduced so the petals of the flower aren't totally blown out. Blacks are decreased (creating a little more contrast between the background and the flower). Blue saturation was reduced, while green was increased (making that background richer). Some subtle sharping.

 

Here is before and after:

Before-after by Mike M Martin, on Flickr

 

Excellent example, Mike.

[KenElevenShadows]

Choosing a light mapping curve/technique to go from High Dynamic Range (usually more than 8 bits resolution per Red Green and Blue component) to a reasonable-looking standard bit depth (.tiff 8 bits, .gif with some color space, 4:2:0 or 4:4:4 .jpg) image isn't necessarily much "processing", depending on how realistic the mapping is done.

 

I usually draw the line at drawing, un-realistic color changes, and pixel roundings that go further than a few pixels and aren't done technically reasonable, but I tend to High Definition filming, which is harder but more rewarding to me.

 

Very cool.

[KenElevenShadows]

LensPen!. A clean lens is a happy lens.

 

I've never seen that. Thanks for the tip.

 

This works much better than microfiber cloth, in my opinion. I own two of these. I'm not sure how that happened, but I have two.