A thread about photography

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  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator

    Swan on Beveridge Park lake 6-4-15

     

    The coloured version is my laptop wallpaper. Just got a renewed interest in messing with monochrome.

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    Back to monochrome for me, too. This is another one from the same session as above, but I've gone a bit OTT with the Lightroom processing:

     

  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator

    I love the contrast and range of tones you get in your images. Nothing I do in Photoshop gets me close. You'll need to do a tutorial and talk us through your technique, if you wish to share it that is.

    I found a collection of old images I had digitised about 12 to 15 years ago. Many taken with Kodak 127 camera and from contact prints. Most are sh**e but some of the more modern ones are okay. I will have to try and do some work on some of them to see if I can resurrect any of them. This is the earliest I have come across, pretty indicative of the quality of many. It was taken in 1962, I was 13 at the time, and it was the first time I was allowed to use the "family" camera AND with film in it!

     

    Goldie cross Labrador 1962

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    I love that shot Jocko. Often sharpness and composition and perfect exposure come second (third and fourth) to that je ne sais quoi that just hits the emotions. The shot below, by a writer friend of mine called Catherine Edmund,s was by far my favourite shot of the recent eclipse (and I saw hundreds). Your shot of the dog has the same feeling (to me):

     

    I'm more than happy to talk through my post processing process. But it's really nothing special. What I will say is that I was using a 15 year old version of Photoshop and at Christmas I got a copy of Lightroom 5. The difference is stunning. I don't use Photoshop at all now - just a few simple sliders in LR5 on a RAW file, a bit of cropping, and that's it. I think it's the quality of the files from the cameras and the quality of the software rather than anything I'm doing.

     

    Cheers

    Derek

     

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

     

    You'll need to do a tutorial and talk us through your technique, if you wish to share it that is.

     

    This is just a quick and dirty run through of my thinking / process, Jocko.

     

    Couple of caveats - I'm no LR expert. In fact I'm still working through a set of tutorials on YouTube and I've only covered the basics thus far. So don't take any of this as gospel or best practice.

     

    Secondly, I'm really a wannabe artist - in all my photos I'm aiming for a painterly / drawing type approach. A lot of folks don't like this, but it's what I like so...

     

    Finally, this was really quick - literally 5 minutes. All the adjustments are done on sliders in LR, so it's really just a case of trying stuff in various combinations.

     

    http://www.ipernity.com/doc/379145/album/775880

     

    Photo #1 - straight out of camera. It's a failed shot inasmuch as that great long boom spoils everything (even though I did intentionally run it to the corner of the frame). But unlike film days we can shoot stuff like this for free and delete it later. In a way I like the tone and colour better here than what I end up with at the end of this process - which just shows how good the Fuji is.

     

    Photo # 2 Composition is the main thing for me. Above and beyond all else. So cropping is key. Here, I decided to go for the square frame even though it took that boom away from being a diagonal. Also straightened the horizon / levelled the image by 1%.

     

    At this stage I already have in mind what I'm going to try and do with the photo - pastel shades? Contrasty B&W? Bright colours? Sometimes I try all three. It depends on my mood. Here, simply because we've been talking sunsets I decided to see how much colour I could draw out of the original.

     

    Photo # 3 - in LR I choose the Fuji Velvia setting as this gives the brightest colours to start with.

     

    Photo # 4 - run the contrast slider up and down to get the desired results for my mood at that moment in time

     

    Photo # 5 - the real strength of LR: Highlights/Shadows/Whites/Blacks. Here the magic happens - you can recover detail in shadows or blown out areas, and adjust just about everything. All in four simple sliders. Again, very mood dependant, and had I been going for pastel/authentic shades or B&W I would have chosen very different settings.

     

    Photo # 6 Adjusting individual colours. Enables me to create colours in the sky that were scarcely there. Not really happy with what I did here - but bear in mind this whole process was a five minute Sunday morning quickie!

     

    Photo # 7 - Add (or remove) Clarity / Saturation overall. Can't remember - I may actually have done this prior to Photo # 6.

     

    Photo # 8 - I dialled in the tiniest bit of Sharpening and NR. Sometimes this is easy to over do - and it's not ideal with people shots. It's like chilli powder or salt. I try t use this sparingly.

     

    Photo # 9 - just a hint of a vignette at the corners. It is, like everything in LR, just a slider.

     

    Photo # 10 (on page two of the album) I pulled up the exposure just a stop as everything was getting too dark and rich and overly saturated.

     

    And that's it. In this case, I like Photo # 2 the best. But I kept going just to show you the steps that can be taken. I'm sure all of this can also be done in PS.

     

    Cheers

    Derek

     

  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator

    This was my first serious camera. A Halina Rolls. Bought it off a bumboat in Suez. The next day the lens started flapping about. Most of the photos I took were blurred but I knew nothing about exposure and apertures so I don't suppose it mattered. Once I came home I managed to get it repaired and gradually started to gain a bit of photography knowledge.

    Halina Rolls 35mm 27.7.68

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member
    Originally Posted by Derek_R:

     

    Photo # 3 - in LR I choose the Fuji Velvia setting as this gives the brightest colours to start with.

     

    Back in the (film) day I used Velvia almost exclusively for colour slides.  My first SLR was a second hand Nikkormat but being in my late teens and just started work earning £12.50 a week I couldn't afford decent lenses to go with it.  So I built up a collection of second hand Halinas, Tokinas and the like, that were nowhere near as good as the alternatives available these days.  These lenses all seemed to suck the life out of colour shots.  I discovered Velvia, when it first came out, at least gave me some reasonable results.  When I moved on to a Minolta set-up it got a lot better but I kept using Velvia out of habit for slides, and also used it in a film underwater camera with great results.   I still have a couple of Minolta bodies and a bunch of lenses, but moved to Canon for my SLR set-up when I went digital a couple of years ago.

     

    Cheers, Reg.

  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator

    When I was digitising all the old black and white photos my family had taken over the years I was disappointed that some of the people were unknown to me and the people that could have told me who they were, were sadly no longer with us. Many of the locations were unidentified and the dates were anyone's guess. I then found 6 tiny snaps my father had sent home to my grandparents, while he was stationed in Ceylon, and on the rear of each, in tiny immaculate handwriting, was a brief description of who, where, when and even why. This changed my thinking about photography, and every image I take is with the thought that someone may be looking at then when I am long gone. To this end I make sure that the subject matter, location and date is used to title the image. People always read left to right so it would be "Tom, Dick and Harry, Kirkcaldy 13-4-15" or "Queensferry Crossing 6-4-15". It makes for boring titles but hopefully my grandchildren won't be scratching their heads over who are in granddad's old photos.

  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Posts: 355Member

    Excellent write-up of the thought process there, Derek. Mine is similar, again mostly on instinct rather than a defined step of steps that I'll go through. I'll often make virtual copies so I can do multiple processes on a single picture then compare directly.

     

    FWIW I'd have got to #4, then brought shadows up a little and blacks down, increased the exposure just a tiny bit and upped the vibrance while keeping saturation where it is. 

     

    But in any case, this is where RAW is so powerful compared to JPEG. It just lets you control so much after the fact, so you can rescue what might've been a mediocre photo otherwise.

     

    I found that myself with my istanbul pics - they all looked very flat and grey straight out of the camera, so much that I didn't process more than a handful of them for 6 weeks after I returned.

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    Finally got round to replacing my printer that went mammaries vertical a couple of months ago. 

     

    New Canon PIXMA MG 7550, £129.  2 sets of XL original Canon ink cartridges £117.

     

     

    The printer is obviously a loss leader.  In my previous Canon printer I used 3rd party compatible rather than original Canon print cartridges at a fraction of the cost.  I had absolutely no issues with print quality and even won a couple of first prizes in photo comps using the 3rd party cartridges.  However, as the printhead irretrievably failed on the old printer after not a massive amount of use I'm wondering whether the compatible rather than original cartridges skimp on some of the built-in cleaning functions of the ink.  This time I thought I'd stay with originals and see what happens.  However, the differential cost of the cartridges does makes me wonder whether I should just treat the printer as disposable, but that really goes against the grain with me.

     

    One area I'm keen to try is making headstock transfers.  I found the 3rd Party ink in my previous printer wasn't waterproof meaning I had to fix it with spray finish before dipping the transfer in water to apply to the headstock.  This meant a longer exercise in terms of building up the finish and cutting back to make it smooth.  At the time Jocko said the ink he used (can't remember the printer brand) was waterproof.  So I'm interested to see if at least one advantage will be that the Canon original ink is waterproof.  Although again with the differential cost I could afford to get the transfers custom printed!

     

    Cheers, Reg.

  • lancpudnlancpudn Posts: 1,393Member

    Nice one Reg, That's the next PC related purchase for me. I have an old printer with approx. 20 black & coloured ink cartridges for it in the garage that's years old. It has the old style printer port connection that they don't cater for anymore. I'm thinking the ink cartridges will have solidified as they're donkeys years old. 

     

    On a photography matter I've just learnt how to take close up pictures with my Fugifilm finepix S5600 lol, I've only had it about 5 years I threw the manual away & thought yeah yeah I know what I'm doing....D'oh.

  • lancpudnlancpudn Posts: 1,393Member
    Originally Posted by Jocko:

    Yeah Thanks Jocko, I needed to take a close up pic for someone & they were blurry, I now know what the symbols mean & how to take a close up pic now

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    Oh deep joy.

     

    New printer.

     

    I deliberately removed all the supporting software and drivers etc for the previous printer from my PC before I installed the new one to avoid any potential conflicts due to installing the new printer (it has been my experience in the past that new software installation apps don't always account for existing s/w).

     

    Wish I'd had the common sense (not actually that common it would appear) to write down all the printer settings I had in place before I deleted it all that ensured an acceptable level of correlation between original photo, Photoshop Elements 11, monitor, and final print that is pooed out the printer.

     

    I recall it took me weeks of research to get it all set-up previously and I can't remember the settings.  Plus of course the menus aren't exactly the same with the new printer.

     

    I seem to recall I needed to turn off all the colour rendering within the printer and let it act as a slave to Elements.  I thought I'd managed to do that last night but was getting a conflict such that Elements got all stroppy and said it wouldn't talk to that new printer because it was being a bit of a prick (I can't remember the exact error message, but that was the gist of it).  So I now need to work out how to get them to kiss and make up.

     

    It also occurred to me that I was trying to print a shot taken with our new camera that I'd not previously tried printing a shot from.  So I probably need to delve into the depths of the camera menu (more deep joy) to work out what colour gamut it's using (and what options are available) so I match that up through the process.

     

    Why the hell is this all so difficult?  It's only a collection of bloody ones and zeros.

     

    Of course I know why it's so difficult in reality.  While I'm trying to sort this out I'm consuming large quantities of Canon's very expensive ink (see previous post) and their photo paper isn't the cheapest either.

     

    Canon must have a corporate orgasm every time some idiot like me buys their products!

     

    Cheers, Reg.

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    Took me about two hours the other day just to get my printer to print, let alone to get it to print nicely. It had been working fine, as well. Just suddenly decided to start playing up. Darn plug and play devices!

     

    Did a bit of work on another shot from last week's session ready for tomorrow night's class. This is my old buddy and band mate Mark digging into a blues:

     

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    Really nice shot Derek.  Really captured the atmosphere.   Not sure I'd enjoy your mate's hand round my neck in the way it looks like he's strangling his guitar neck!

     

    Cheers, Reg

  • lancpudnlancpudn Posts: 1,393Member

    I think I've just gone off printers This internetting malarkey gives you headaches lol

     

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    Two more from lunchtime. These are all wrong - bright sunlight at the middle of the day - yet I couldn't resist. I'm tending to take the Fuji with me all this time. Here I was on the way to Costa and couldn't resist grabbing a couple of shots of my old hometown:

     

     

  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator

    Two nice photographs. Looks kind of quiet!

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    Derek's old home town is Chernobyl.  I never realised it had a Costa though.

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    Yep, that's what prompted the shots. It was about 1:00 lunchtime and clearly not heaving! Who'd be a bricks and mortar shop keeper these days?

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

    You'll get me started on one of my rants about the demise of the High Street if you're not careful!

  • lancpudnlancpudn Posts: 1,393Member

    They'll need gates at either end of town soon to stop the tumbleweed blowing into the next town. pretty much sums up our high street. you know its bad when the co-op & lidl stores up sticks & move.

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    Just one keeper from this morning's cycle ride round the lanes:

     

  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Posts: 355Member

    Demoed a Fuji X-T1 with the 18-135 lens today. Crikey that's a good camera. Absolutely perfect for my next upgrade I think but not at the current price!

     

    the 18-135 for weatherproof travel kit and maybe the 27 prime for day-to-day would make for a brilliant kit. I need to get saving...

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    Yep, that's on my mind for my next camera, too, Sticky. But, like you say, the price is a tad high at the moment. Meantime, I shall keep using those I have and telling myself I don't really need another...

  • JockoJocko Posts: 7,107Member, Moderator
    Originally Posted by Derek_R:

    I shall keep using those I have and telling myself I don't really need another...

    Going by the results you produce I don't think you need another. My wife tells me that about my guitar collection!

  • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member
    Originally Posted by Derek_R:

     

     

     

    Originally Posted by Derek_R:

     

    I see a theme emerging here Derek.

     

    "The Dead Centre of Town."

     

    I'll get me coat.........

  • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

    If it had happened in London, or New York, or maybe even Tokyo, things might have been different. Although most people were unaware of it, the authorities - several of which most people had never heard of - ran regular practiced drills and war-games for times such as these. But the fact that it happened out in the west country caught everyone by surprise. It gave the dead time to rise in their masses before anyone even realised.

     

    Rutherford was the first person to notice.

     

    "Bloody 'ell," he said. "Never seen so many people at one of my gigs before. Good looking lot, too. Not."

     

    That's how it started.

     

    ***


    Rutherford finished tuning his guitar and looked out around the pub.

     

    "It's great to have things back to normal," he said. "The last few months have been hell."

     

    The barmaid said, "One punter would have been nice, though."

     

    That's how it ended.

     

     

     

  • Ninja_RebornNinja_Reborn Posts: 124Member

    I've not been out with the camera at all this year - so just took a local walk yesteday - wasn't much happening, but got this one - container cranes at Thamesport

     

     

    cranes

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