Photographers: Photograph a Day

[dp32185]

^ that was such a great lecture. straight-forward and easy to comprehend. thanks

[dean]

^ that was such a great lecture. straight-forward and easy to comprehend. thanks

Since you are kinda new to the dslr world, download this DOF(Depth of Field) pdf document. It will give you a brief understanding of F-Stops and Shutter speeds and how they correlate together. It is really a helpful document. It's mainly pictures with blurbs below so no real boring reading is involved. This should really give you a good understanding once you are finished looking through it. It is 30 megs. Download it.

Right click save as.

DOF .pdf file.

[Jaimecbr900]

Just a suggestion guys.

Let's start another thread and we can go into it deeper and more in detail.

Very good write up Dean.

If we start a new thread, the first thing we need to know to help anyone is what kind of camera they are shooting with. Nikon and Canon are different, although they have the same kind of settings. Very different ways to find it on each.

[Evil Goat]

from todays local autox

[RUSH]

To blur out the backgrounds you are going to need photoshop, do you have it? I can tell you how if you have it.

Wrong, thats cheating.
You need to read Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson, he never edits his photos!

[Jaimecbr900]

Wrong, thats cheating.
You need to read Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson, he never edits his photos!

Imbosile is a pretty good shot from what he's posted on here, so I think he misunderstood the question. Maybe he thought "blurring the background" was the photoshop technique like Jorge uses after the fact to soften the background around the subject. Kinda like what he did to the pic of me and Sam racing.

I'm sure he knows that to do it with the camera you just have to put a little distance between the subject and the background and crank down to a shallow DOF on your cam, right Imbosile?

[imbosile]

Imbosile is a pretty good shot from what he's posted on here, so I think he misunderstood the question. Maybe he thought "blurring the background" was the photoshop technique like Jorge uses after the fact to soften the background around the subject. Kinda like what he did to the pic of me and Sam racing.

I'm sure he knows that to do it with the camera you just have to put a little distance between the subject and the background and crank down to a shallow DOF on your cam, right Imbosile?

Yes, thanks for backing me up, I understand how to do it with a camera but I was referring to photoshop because the guy already posted the finished picture and wanted to know how to blur the background. If the photo is already taken, the only way I know how to blur stuff is through photoshop.

[dp32185]

i know this picture if out of focus due to shake or distance, but is the setting appropriate? anything you would've done differently? centering, WB etc. it was taken this morning in my backyard before heading to work.



shutter speed: 1/250
aperature: 5.6
iso: 200
focal length: 43mm
wb: daylight

[Nemesis]

i know this picture if out of focus due to shake or distance, but is the setting appropriate? anything you would've done differently? centering, WB etc. it was taken this morning in my backyard before heading to work.



shutter speed: 1/250
aperature: 5.6
iso: 200
focal length: 43mm
wb: daylight

What kind of camera? I dont have an EXIF reader at work anymore.

The photo has really good bokeh, I like how most of the subject is still in focus. If it isnt what you intended then your focus bracket was probably at the incorrect spot, happens all the time. Shutter speed is okay, photo seems a little too warm for my taste, but some might like it for that photo. Quite honestly though, its a really nice shot.

[5spdfrk]

Since you are new to dslr's, you might want to try and use Av or Tv modes to see what shutter speed works with what aperture and vice versa, instead of manual mode. This is just a suggestion, because I am in the same boat as you. I am fairly new to dslr's and I tend to get much better pictures in Av or Tv, then in manual where I have to set both (although your settings look fine).

Also, depending on how bright it was outside when you took the picture, you may have been able to bump the iso up to 400 to get a faster shutter speed to make up for any shake or movement.

Edit: George, he has a XTi and you make a good point about the focus bracket.

[dp32185]

that picture turned out exactly the way i wanted... thanks for the good words i was actually focusing on the center of the picture. somehow the focus is on the left side maybe i was a bit too close and the cam wacked the focus to the side. it looks awesome on my camera, but when transferred to the computer...not really the way i wanted.

i'm trying to stay away from the auto, av, tv modes etc., but i could probably familiarize myself with the 'correct' settings on av/tv modes and tweek it here and there in the manual.

I have read the Photographer's Handbook Third Edition by John Hedgecoe. It's a decent book overall with bunch of compared illustrations.

[RUSH]

imbosile..... I wasnt bashing you, the photo you posted is a nice shot, I thought you were thinking to single out the subject you had to photochop it. But I know what you are talking about now. If you havent, you need to read the books by Brian Peterson!

Here are a few Random shots I had...

Same Bird

I stumbled across this the other day, thought it was pretty neat

A sunset in cozumel

[imbosile]

^^ sweet, i love the waterfall one, and the sunset

I havn't tried any of moving water yet, hopefully I'll get a chance sometime

[Nemesis]

Took this tonight, trying to make a new wallpaper for my home PC.

No photoshopping , except for a resizing and signature addition.

No added blur, just pure bokeh from the prime.

[dp32185]

took this last night in front of the car garage. any suggestions for an improvement?



is this glare due to my factory canon lens being the way it is? or photographer error? i took more pics with the lights on and the glare exists in all angles!

[imbosile]

^^ I get that a lot also, but mine are more like little rings. It's quite annoying, I'm not really sure how to fix it other than some type of settings.

[Nemesis]

^^ I get that a lot also, but mine are more like little rings. It's quite annoying, I'm not really sure how to fix it other than some type of settings.

Lens flares are 99.9 percent of the time attributed to glass quality, not user errors. When I was in the market for a wide angle lens, I purchased a Sigma 15-30mm (Around $400). It was okay until you got anywhere near a light source, then it was flare city. The blue spheres were not something I wanted to clone stamp out of every shot. I decided to see what the next higher up model , the Sigma 12-24 HSM would perform, and its 97 percent flare free. But it cost me 200 more in the end.

[imbosile]

Lens flares are 99.9 percent of the time attributed to glass quality, not user errors. When I was in the market for a wide angle lens, I purchased a Sigma 15-30mm (Around $400). It was okay until you got anywhere near a light source, then it was flare city. The blue spheres were not something I wanted to clone stamp out of every shot. I decided to see what the next higher up model , the Sigma 12-24 HSM would perform, and its 97 percent flare free. But it cost me 200 more in the end.

Ahh ok, I didn't know that. I guess I'll deal with it for now, hey did you ever get any of those photos printed?

[YokotaS13]

To blur out the backgrounds you are going to need photoshop, do you have it? I can tell you how if you have it.

buy a 50 1.8 and you wont have to do it ghetto
or any low aperature lens for that matter

[YokotaS13]

Lens flares are 99.9 percent of the time attributed to glass quality, not user errors. When I was in the market for a wide angle lens, I purchased a Sigma 15-30mm (Around $400). It was okay until you got anywhere near a light source, then it was flare city. The blue spheres were not something I wanted to clone stamp out of every shot. I decided to see what the next higher up model , the Sigma 12-24 HSM would perform, and its 97 percent flare free. But it cost me 200 more in the end.

thats why im about to get a canon 10-22 ..no lens flare!

[imbosile]

buy a 50 1.8 and you wont have to do it ghetto
or any low aperature lens for that matter

Read my post responding to that, I know how to not do it "ghetto". I was just telling him how because I figured he wanted to blur out the background on the picture he already had taken.

But yes, I would like to get a 50, 1.8 sometime.

[ATCLen]

Here's a Pic I shoot with my Pentax 100mm micro lens. It's called

"Sunshine"

[DrivenMind]

Pic I nabbed of Jun's 86 the other day just after getting the new lens.

[imbosile]

[Nemesis]

What keeps me entertained through boring days.

[Nemesis]

Another

[speedminded]

Another

Ha! Just picked up that issue last night.

[changaroo]

[Jaimecbr900]

Helen this past weekend.

[RUSH]

Good job Jamie, that fall is very uniform and clean!
My kind of photography

[dean]

Pic of my daughter using some studio strobes with a large softbox and reflector. The ghey outfit was made by my wife's mom's co-worker. I had to take one with her in it.

[Jaimecbr900]

Good job Jamie, that fall is very uniform and clean!
My kind of photography

Thank you sir.

[imbosile]

Helen this past weekend.

wow those are incredibly sharp, nice

[Nittanys1]

Jamie your pic is so sharp...yet your name/watermark in the second pic is blurry. Looks as if you have two names on top of each other and just a little off one another

[DrivenMind]

[DrivenMind]

oh, p.s. I fucking hate jpegs. That picture looked infinitely better when I pulled it off the card.

[Jaimecbr900]

Jamie your pic is so sharp...yet your name/watermark in the second pic is blurry. Looks as if you have two names on top of each other and just a little off one another

I just noticed this.

Travis, that's probably because you're right.....I screwed up on that one. I guess my finger was a little too fast on the mouse....

[speedminded]

something a lil differant...

[Nittanys1]

^^^ My dog tried to get the screen!!!

[speedminded]