Official Misc Photography Crew, Part V "Do you even shoot?"

[theACEofSPADES]

lol you went from considering my advice, to owning more lenses than me real quick.

I decided to return my 16-35 for the 24-105mm which came in today. a7iii + 24-105mm will be my new workhourse.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/zgvBPty.jpg[/ig]

I bought what I bought because I got a $3,000 pell grant for school. So I only spent $1,000 of my own money on all that.

I've only taken it out a couple times. Trying to learn as fast as possible

[VmissileX]

I've just started to scratch the surface of going thru some of my pics from going to new zealand about 2-3 weeks ago.

A big regret I've had on this trip was:
1. Not having a good compact tripod which I was willing to travel with...this makes a big difference really with your willpower to carry gear while travelling. I've instead bought a smaller cheap oben carbon fiber (that meets the stiffness test) to travel with in the future...(have a trip to barcelona, Ibiza, Amsterdam in 2 weeks, and then a trip to iceland in october)
2. Being a bit rushed and not having enough time to enjoy sitting down and compositioning my photos as well as i'd like. Unfortunately the weather was somewhat dissapointing for a good portion of the trip (less certain parts...tried to time it the best I could...although the elements were tight).

Here are some pics:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128866...posted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128866...posted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128866...posted-public/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkEPpi7h...en-by=devchatt

[Dominik]

Here are some pics:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128866...posted-public/

Every time I've been to Milford Sound it was raining. You got to see Mitre Peak. Never had that experience. Going next month but Milford Sound is a pretty big detour so unless it's clear I'll probably skip it this time.

It's tricky because unless you stay there you'll be driving back in darkness if you wait around for the sun to go down and that's assuming they leave the tunnel open at night. I had to GTFO of there last time before 5pm when a storm rolled in and there was an avalanche risk.

Landscape photography and travel is always a crapshoot. I've learned not to get my hopes up and if an opportunity doesn't pan out I try to scout the location for next time.

[VmissileX]

Every time I've been to Milford Sound it was raining. You got to see Mitre Peak. Never had that experience. Going next month but Milford Sound is a pretty big detour so unless it's clear I'll probably skip it this time.

It's tricky because unless you stay there you'll be driving back in darkness if you wait around for the sun to go down and that's assuming they leave the tunnel open at night. I had to GTFO of there last time before 5pm when a storm rolled in and there was an avalanche risk.

Landscape photography and travel is always a crapshoot. I've learned not to get my hopes up and if an opportunity doesn't pan out I try to scout the location for next time.

Yeah, honestly I was amazed at how much of a change of climate happens between such a small distance. I stationed at queenstown and just drove back and forth from there...and I think I ran into a mix of snow, rain, greenery, cloudiness and then clear skies at the sound itself. Granted I knew i was climbing up and down mountains...it was definitely an experience...


Some Random pics en route from my cell

https://imgur.com/a/K4zDTYN

[Foques]

I want to get a godox AD600 / flashpoint xplor 600

waiting for it to hit $429 again like he has in the past on slickdeals.

love mine.
Always felt that TTL was a gimmick, but fell in love with the ease when I tried it. definitely saves a lot of time and testing.

[theACEofSPADES]

Finally took my a7iii out for a test run. I'm completely new to all this so I didn't really have a clue what I was doing.

[Cinderblock]

24-105mm F4 is hnnng.

[UrbexBrah]

Need a lens recommendation.

I am seeking a super wide angle lens, strictly for real estate photography. I used the Canon 11-24 and fell in love. I know Sigma makes a 12-24 lens. The 11-24 is wider by 1mm (not a big deal to me or anyone), but does the Canon lens provide superior image quality versus the Sigma version? The cost difference is around 1,000 dollars.

Anyone have any experience with these two lenses? I used a 16-35 canon lens before and was happy. However, I was in a much larger house. I do not want to go with Tamron or Tokina, so please leave those recommendations out. Thanks!

[Foques]

I have a VERY shiity experience with Sigma glass, and 11-24 is part of that experience.
Their **** is soft. Pay the premium and get a quality glass, man.

[iloveus]

Friend let me borrow his Canon Rebel T3.

What should I do with it?

[JustThatBrah]

In on sik thread

[Cinderblock]

merica

[Cinderblock]

side question: why tf does imgur explode my image to take up the whole width of the page? I don't want that.

[Burtle1]

Do any of you use the Tamron SP 15‑30mm f/2.8 Di VC???


Thoughts and opinions please

Also, do any of you buy preset photoshop filters to save time editing?

[SpicyCurrie]

Hey guys,

Just started getting into taking pics of people (one person in the photo). Any tips on how to capture a moment better?



Angles, lighting, zooming in/out, etc.

[Dominik]

I am seeking a super wide angle lens, strictly for real estate photography.

Canon 17mm f/4 TS-E would be my pick. Optically as good as anything out there. Wide enough for most interiors with the ability to quickly set your camera to the right height for a comfortable perspective and then conveniently shift down to include more foreground and less ceiling while keeping vertical lines straight. Going wider than that introduces too much distortion IMO.

For wider shots or shooting 360 VR I'd still use the 17 TS-E but on a pano head. I shot plenty of interiors with my Nikon 24mm PC-E and when I needed to go wider I used my pano head. Even for landscapes I rarely go wider than 20mm because I don't like the distortion. The goal is to simulate 90mm on 6x17 film when I shoot landscape panos so I typically stay around 24mm and just use the pano head.

A multi-rail setup allows you to tilt the camera down down without moving the "no parallax point". As you can see my tripod wasn't even perfectly level here because I had to move quickly when the fog cleared. All I have to do is center the camera over the head, level the panning clamp and I'm done. Upper rail position for NPP (no parallax point) for various lenses and focal lengths is worked out ahead of time. I can shoot multiple rows if I want. Typically vertical orientation and 3-5 frames across gives me what I need.

[UrbexBrah]

Canon 17mm f/4 TS-E would be my pick. Optically as good as anything out there. Wide enough for most interiors with the ability to quickly set your camera to the right height for a comfortable perspective and then conveniently shift down to include more foreground and less ceiling while keeping vertical lines straight. Going wider than that introduces too much distortion IMO.

For wider shots or shooting 360 VR I'd still use the 17 TS-E but on a pano head. I shot plenty of interiors with my Nikon 24mm PC-E and when I needed to go wider I used my pano head. Even for landscapes I rarely go wider than 20mm because I don't like the distortion. The goal is to simulate 90mm on 6x17 film when I shoot landscape panos so I typically stay around 24mm and just use the pano head.

A multi-rail setup allows you to tilt the camera down down without moving the "no parallax point". As you can see my tripod wasn't even perfectly level here because I had to move quickly when the fog cleared. All I have to do is center the camera over the head, level the panning clamp and I'm done. Upper rail position for NPP (no parallax point) for various lenses and focal lengths is worked out ahead of time. I can shoot multiple rows if I want. Typically vertical orientation and 3-5 frames across gives me what I need.

I have looked at the tilt shift lenses before, but decided to not go with one because I really would not have the use for one. Now that I am doing real estate, I would strongly consider one.

One thing about that lens is that it is manual focus. I have used manual focus before and really didnt mind it. I will definitely consider a tilt shift

[Dominik]

One thing about that lens is that it is manual focus. I have used manual focus before and really didnt mind it. I will definitely consider a tilt shift

With live view and a static subject like real estate or landscapes where you can magnify every area of the frame to confirm focus it's not difficult at all. The barrel on my Nikon PC-E is incredibly smooth to rotate and well marked and I'd imagine the Canon TS-E would be even better in that regard.

Anyway I'd also keep the pano option in mind for what you're doing because it's ultimately a few extra clicks in software later and you get all the field of view you need without the distortion of an ultra wide.

[UrbexBrah]

With live view and a static subject like real estate or landscapes where you can magnify every area of the frame to confirm focus it's not difficult at all. The barrel on my Nikon PC-E is incredibly smooth to rotate and well marked and I'd imagine the Canon TS-E would be even better in that regard.

Anyway I'd also keep the pano option in mind for what you're doing because it's ultimately a few extra clicks in software later and you get all the field of view you need without the distortion of an ultra wide.

Thats a good point. I will take a look at that. My next real estate job, I will rent the 12-24 sigma and see what I think. I may like it more than the canon...or I may not.

[BlueSasquatch]

Finished processing the bulk of my California trip photos.

Phoenix for wife's doctorate degree ceremony, then Sacramento to Calveras Big Tree State Park; Yosemite Nat Park; Lassen Volcanic Nat Park; Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park; Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park; Redwoods Nat Park; Humboldt Redwoods State Park; Highway 1 down coast; Golden Gate Bridge; Muir Woods; Point Reyes National Seashore.

520 Pictures, 90 worth processing (Maybe half being graduation/family shots, some pictures of the kid at these parks weren't great but processed because it's my kid) and maybe 15 that I would consider worth uploading to a portfolio. So almost 3%

Photos looked good in lightroom, synced it with the mobile and downloaded them onto my phone and everything looks way darker than I was shooting for, whats the deal with that? I know computers and phones can display images a bit differently but this is much more noticeable than I thought it would be, anyone else have these issues? Have Lightroom on the laptop but trying the creative-cloud trial based thing, having all devices synced seems pretty nice, how many people do the subscription verses just the program? Worth it?

Lost my old lightroom catalog, so have to re-process and go through all my pictures from the last 10 years, only about 8,000 so it shouldn't be all that bad to do, learned alot about processing in lightroom this past year, so should be able to improve most of my top shots from the past 10 years. Been on a Peter McKinnon kick lately on Youtube, guy puts out some cool stuff. Never been into cinematography but his channel makes me want to throw together a quick 2-5 minute video on restoring an axe from the start, to using it in the woods and ending with a fire. Looks better in my head than I'm sure I would be able to do.

How do you guys use ******** albums? Before I processed pictures, I would just sort and upload 90% of my shots to an album for a particular trip, pictures taken were not always composed shots but just photographs of who was with me, what we were doing and what we saw along the way, this is different than the composed, processed purposeful photographs. Friends and family tend to want to see all of the images, not just the 1% but now that I take my top shots and process them, do you upload them separately or mixed in with the unprocessed basic pictures?

Two of my favorite shots.








I like this shot, but the sky is uninteresting, and it's a common photo, hauled a.ss from the loop below to the top of this peak, caught the trail-end of the sunset, when you travel with a wife and a 1 year old, you don't always get to do what you want, when you want.





Wish there was more water in this shot, or a horizon, but first time seeing seals in the wild, pretty shy critters.




Have two road shots, one is a much darker shot, not sure which I like best.







This isn't a great shot but the seal floating in the bottom was cracking me up.



Reminds me of

[theACEofSPADES]

Do any of you leave the ISO on auto?

If not, how do you go about deciding how low or high to set it? On bright days I use nothing higher than 100. I heard you want to keep it as low as possible

[Dominik]

Photos looked good in lightroom, synced it with the mobile and downloaded them onto my phone and everything looks way darker than I was shooting for

Desktop display might be too bright. What are you calibrating it with? I use one of these. Used a more expensive profiling system before but was having software issues so switched to the i1 and never looked back.

Do any of you leave the ISO on auto?

If not, how do you go about deciding how low or high to set it? On bright days I use nothing higher than 100. I heard you want to keep it as low as possible

Auto ISO has its place. In situations where the light is constantly changing like if you're moving between indoors and outdoors, full sunlight and shade, etc., then it can react rapidly and deliver consistent results provided it's set up correctly. With flash of course leave it off. Nikon has an Easy ISO setting for Aperture Priority mode which is often a good compromise since you can just flick the rear dial.

What it ultimately comes down to is the minimum shutter speed you can get away with and/or the widest aperture you need either for creative reasons (shallow DOF) or because available light is low. Of course outdoors on a bright day in full sunlight you have the opposite problem and at f/2.8 ISO 100 with a 1/4000 max shutter you're probably close to overexposure so you're forced to stop down or use an ND filter.

If you're shooting sport in the afternoon or indoors and still need over 1/500 for a sharp image then you have no choice but to use a fast lens and crank the ISO. No one is going to object to that noise from a modern sensor in an 8x10" or at web resolution but they will definitely notice a blurry subject.

Over time with experience you'll get pretty good at guessing so when you walk into a situation with the camera in manual you've dialed in the correct ISO as a starting point before you compose the shot and you're not fumbling around.

[BlueSasquatch]

Desktop display might be too bright. What are you calibrating it with? I use one of these. Used a more expensive profiling system before but was having software issues so switched to the i1 and never looked back.

I'm using a 10+ year old Panasonic Toughbook, not really calibrating it at all, just making sure I don't have any extreme light in the room, so probably set to bright.

[Dominik]

I'm using a 10+ year old Panasonic Toughbook, not really calibrating it at all, just making sure I don't have any extreme light in the room, so probably set to bright.

This might help you dial it in.

Adjust the brightness until you can differentiate the dark squares. Adjust the contrast control to differentiate the light squares.

[BlueSasquatch]

This might help you dial it in.

Adjust the brightness until you can differentiate the dark squares. Adjust the contrast control to differentiate the light squares.

Thanks Dom!

The majority of my shots are done with a 10-24mm but I had fun switching to the 35mm for half of the Redwoods, can't easily fit a whole giant tree in frame, but made for more interesting compositions I think. Haven't thought about a wide angle prime, but watching some James Popsys photography blogs or whatever on YouTube, and he made a comment about getting a prime in your most common range as a decent idea. Unfortunately I don't see many D7100 compatible wide primes that aren't $$$

[Cinderblock]

Had to change my phone wallpaper to this morning's shot. mirin how it came out.

[Dominik]

The majority of my shots are done with a 10-24mm but I had fun switching to the 35mm for half of the Redwoods, can't easily fit a whole giant tree in frame, but made for more interesting compositions I think. Haven't thought about a wide angle prime, but watching some James Popsys photography blogs or whatever on YouTube, and he made a comment about getting a prime in your most common range as a decent idea. Unfortunately I don't see many D7100 compatible wide primes that aren't $$$

That is the weak point of the DX format — they need more primes.

Edit: just had a look at their range. All the DX bar a fisheye are 35mm and up. They expect you to drop $1900 for an ancient 14mm 2.8 FX (equivalent of 21mm)? Only a fisheye in 16mm and it's a grand. Pathetic.



Not affordable by any means but I've probably shot 90% of my landscapes with a 24mm PC-E prime. After 10 years the shift knob has finally stopped locking into place so I've had to retire it for now and I'm using a 2.8 zoom in that range. Bought Japanese (JIS) screwdrivers to try and fix it myself but I swear Nikon put red Loctite on the threads because even with some heat they won't budge. Have a trip coming up and I'm bummed I won't be able to use it.

Anyway 24mm on FX is the sweet spot for me. With DX the equivalent is 16mm. It's a shame they refuse to offer one. A 16mm for DX is long overdue.

[Dominik]

You probably know about these but worth mentioning for anyone who hasn't. A couple of third party wide options for Nikon DX. Manual focus is easy with live view and after a while you'll know exactly where to line up the index marks on the barrel.

24mm equivalent: Rokinon 16mm f/2.0 ED AS UMC CS Lens for Nikon F Mount
15mm equivalent: Rokinon 10mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS CS Lens for Nikon F Mount

Both under $400.

[LieutenantGains]

Took a day trip to NYC last weekend, going to be back there in a couple weeks. Didn't realize B&H closed so early on Fridays so I'll have to hit it up early next time.


NYC Subway by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr


The Oculus at the World Trade Center by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr


Broadway St - New York, New York by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr


Broadway St at night - New York, New York by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr

[UrbexBrah]

Took a day trip to NYC last weekend, going to be back there in a couple weeks. Didn't realize B&H closed so early on Fridays so I'll have to hit it up early next time.


NYC Subway by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr


The Oculus at the World Trade Center by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr


Broadway St - New York, New York by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr


Broadway St at night - New York, New York by Gary Hebding Jr., on Flickr

B&H is legendary! Very overwhelming tho. Interesting way their store is set up.