Your Own Photography

A few images from a recent trip to Finland.

Just picked up a new lens, Venus Optics 12mm f/2.8 funded by a kickstarter. Loving it, low distortion.

A couple of shots from this weekend:

Some images from around Round Rock and Georgetown TX. Just moved out here, loving it so far.

Here's some more wild flowers on the side of the road.

I fall into this category unfortunately

loudgas said:

I fall into this category unfortunately

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One of the best advices I ever got regarding photography was given to me by a journalist in Edinburgh, and I've been sticking to it 95% of the time since* :

Manual mode : F5.6 - 1/500 ; and work from there. (as well as being locked to 200iso, and shooting in raw, but if you have an SLR, you should already be doing that)
Play with the speed dial first, down to 1/90, after that shutter speed is too slow to shoot handheld.
If you still need a bit more light, open the aperture a bit more (but try to avoid going to the lowest value possible if you want a sharp picture), or try to find a support to stabilize your camera.

If that doesn't cut it, there is no secret : you either need a tripod or a flash (depending on what you are shooting), because what the camera would do next if it was in an auto/semi-auto mode would be to jack up the iso, resulting in a noisy picture (well again, it depends on what you are shooting and for what purpose, if you are not planning on getting large, high quality prints, it's not that important).

*the rest of the time, it means that I have less that 1 or 2 seconds to make the shot, with no time for prep ; so I actually do switch to full auto, but knowing that I will most likely end up not using the picture.

pic tax from my instagram

It really isn't difficult in full manual. It's a relationship of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Each one will affect one another. You typically want to keep your ISO as low as possible (noise as woot said). From there, its getting enough light by balancing your speed / aperture. Just focus on 1 subject and keep messing with the settings. You will begin to see how one affects the other. Then start dialing in tricks like how aperture will affect the depth of field. You just need time to sit with a couple fixed objects and start tweaking the settings.

So I was actually in a photography club in university back in the day, used to have an old 35mm pentax, here's a sample critique away...

Keep in mind this is a scan, and I am not that old that we didn't have color film lol

One more, not sure if this should be in the sexy selfies thread though lol

loudgas said:

So I was actually in a photography club in university back in the day, used to have an old 35mm pentax, here's a sample critique away...
Keep in mind this is a scan, and I am not that old that we didn't have color film lol

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Nice pics, I really like the portrait.
You asked for critique, so let's be constructive !
For the first pic, I would tell you the very same thing I told Drek when he was posting in this thread on the previous site : Do not be afraid of the dark
In your first picture, the whites are grey, the blacks are grey ; there is no black and no white.
(Compare to the self-portrait, the sweater and camera are black, and you can still tell it's embossed, see what I mean ? )
Also for the university shot, personally, I'd straighten it, and cut a bit of the foreground pavement (ask yourself : what does it bring to the picture ? Balance ? not really. Aesthetics ? Nope, it's a white blurry patch, so let's cut it ! wheeeeeeee ! )
I'll just quick go ahead and do a quick edit, what you think ? (Again, this is a personal view, I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" in photography, it's a highly subjective topic)

I see what you mean, thanks it does look better already. Could the same affect have been achieved through exposure settings on the camera, or is this only achieved through photoshop?

loudgas said:

I see what you mean, thanks it does look better already. Could the same affect have been achieved through exposure settings on the camera, or is this only achieved through photoshop?

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If shot on film / analog photography, this would be achieved during the processing of the film, by waiting a bit more when the paper is exposed under the enlarger. That would be the best solution imho (no quality loss by avoiding the extra steps of scanning and computer editing).
You can do it with photoshop too as well, but digital post processing is quicker and much easier if done through Capture One or Lightroom (photo processors).

I did the film processing/and print as well. At the time I was more happy something showed up and less concerned about quality

Any suggestions on an entry level DSLR?

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Awesome shots.

I don't know much about photography, just a dabbler.

Lake Michigan


Elphinstone's tomb, King's College, Aberdeen



View of Birmingham