The photography thread

strumjoughlamps

@danishbacon  you shoot very similar to my fave all time photographer Sylvia Plachy 

ThePrettyDamned

@danishbacon real cool stuff there, the 5th image down (portrait of the lady) is excellent...

I've just made some photos for a friend - I wanted to spend more time making photos so I took a camera, a couple of lenses and a flash. 













That last one was shot with the 18-70mm Nikkor. Such a cheap lens (£50 for a mint one), slow (3.5-4.5) and yet when I do bring myself to use it it's more than capable - I think this is my favourite shot of the lot, wide open at 70mm in fairly not-great light (backlit but late evening). The flash was a hard light but I turned it down and gelled it to help it sit more naturally - I don't think it's too obvious a flash was used, but it did help the edit.

They're not earth shattering images, but I am quite pleased with them - I'm happy to be taking photos again for sure. 

boogieman

 ThePrettyDamned said:

@danishbacon real cool stuff there, the 5th image down (portrait of the lady) is excellent...

I've just made some photos for a friend - I wanted to spend more time making photos so I took a camera, a couple of lenses and a flash. 













That last one was shot with the 18-70mm Nikkor. Such a cheap lens (£50 for a mint one), slow (3.5-4.5) and yet when I do bring myself to use it it's more than capable - I think this is my favourite shot of the lot, wide open at 70mm in fairly not-great light (backlit but late evening). The flash was a hard light but I turned it down and gelled it to help it sit more naturally - I don't think it's too obvious a flash was used, but it did help the edit.

They're not earth shattering images, but I am quite pleased with them - I'm happy to be taking photos again for sure. T

That last shot is lovely....really good framing and the colour contrast between the dog and background works brilliantly. Nice and sharp too. Good job sir!

danishbacon

Thanks @benmurray85 @strumjoughlamps @ThePrettyDamned for the kind words. @ThePrettyDamned, that last photo of the dog is ace (actually, all are and they're helping make the case for a new doggo in the household!)

zepp76

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

@thePrettyDamned That last shot is great, pin sharp!

danishbacon

zepp76 said:

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

Sure thing @zepp76. Photos 1-3 were taken with a Nikon Coolpix A, fixed lens, 28mm F2.8 Equivalent (APSC sensor). First one was slower shutter speed. 4-5 were taken with a Leica M6 and a 50mm Summicron on 400 speed fuji superia. Won't know the speeds but likely 1/30 or 1/15 judging by the light. The remaining shots were on various mobile phones, likely Iphone 5s, SE and possibly a Huawei P10, but won't be able to tell without delving into the EXIF. All on auto exposure, picking focus and compensating up or down on light as needed.

zepp76

danishbacon said:

zepp76 said:

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

Sure thing @zepp76. Photos 1-3 were taken with a Nikon Coolpix A, fixed lens, 28mm F2.8 Equivalent (APSC sensor). First one was slower shutter speed. 4-5 were taken with a Leica M6 and a 50mm Summicron on 400 speed fuji superia. Won't know the speeds but likely 1/30 or 1/15 judging by the light. The remaining shots were on various mobile phones, likely Iphone 5s, SE and possibly a Huawei P10, but won't be able to tell without delving into the EXIF. All on auto exposure, picking focus and compensating up or down on light as needed.

@danishbacon Thank you for sharing the info it's most helpful.
Would you say a 50mm prime lens is the right choice for street photography or would a telephoto (75-300) be better for getting close ups without being too intrusive?

boogieman

zepp76 said:

danishbacon said:

zepp76 said:

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

Sure thing @zepp76. Photos 1-3 were taken with a Nikon Coolpix A, fixed lens, 28mm F2.8 Equivalent (APSC sensor). First one was slower shutter speed. 4-5 were taken with a Leica M6 and a 50mm Summicron on 400 speed fuji superia. Won't know the speeds but likely 1/30 or 1/15 judging by the light. The remaining shots were on various mobile phones, likely Iphone 5s, SE and possibly a Huawei P10, but won't be able to tell without delving into the EXIF. All on auto exposure, picking focus and compensating up or down on light as needed.

@danishbacon Thank you for sharing the info it's most helpful.
Would you say a 50mm prime lens is the right choice for street photography or would a telephoto (75-300) be better for getting close ups without being too intrusive?

You’ll risk looking like a pervert or part of a surveillance team if you’re trying to shoot street stuff with a telephoto. Better off using a shorter lens like your 50 mm and just going for it IMO. I did a street photo course once: you’ll be amazed how many people are happy to have their pic taken, especially if you ask first. Tell them you’re a photographer and looking for interesting faces and a lot of people are flattered enough to just let you go ahead. (If you saw my China trip photos that I posted here, most of the portraits were taken by smiling and gesturing at the camera first, you don’t even need to speak).  Otherwise just pick a busy street and walk straight down it and snap away. 

benmurray85

boogieman said:

zepp76 said:

danishbacon said:

zepp76 said:

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

Sure thing @zepp76. Photos 1-3 were taken with a Nikon Coolpix A, fixed lens, 28mm F2.8 Equivalent (APSC sensor). First one was slower shutter speed. 4-5 were taken with a Leica M6 and a 50mm Summicron on 400 speed fuji superia. Won't know the speeds but likely 1/30 or 1/15 judging by the light. The remaining shots were on various mobile phones, likely Iphone 5s, SE and possibly a Huawei P10, but won't be able to tell without delving into the EXIF. All on auto exposure, picking focus and compensating up or down on light as needed.

@danishbacon Thank you for sharing the info it's most helpful.
Would you say a 50mm prime lens is the right choice for street photography or would a telephoto (75-300) be better for getting close ups without being too intrusive?

You’ll risk looking like a pervert or part of a surveillance team if you’re trying to shoot street stuff with a telephoto. Better off using a shorter lens like your 50 mm and just going for it IMO. I did a street photo course once: you’ll be amazed how many people are happy to have their pic taken, especially if you ask first. Tell them you’re a photographer and looking for interesting faces and a lot of people are flattered enough to just let you go ahead. (If you saw my China trip photos that I posted here, most of the portraits were taken by smiling and gesturing at the camera first, you don’t even need to speak).  Otherwise just pick a busy street and walk straight down it and snap away. 

Absolutely this. I’ve been really loving taking Street stuff and you want to get close. DO NOT be using a longer focal length. It might make you feel better but you won’t get the closeness that makes street photos great and you look like a weirdo!!!

RaymondLin

zepp76 said:

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

Whilst I understand why you ask for settings, the truth is that this won't really help you getting the photo because those settings are for that moment in time, unless you can time travel it is unlikely you will get it to do the same again.  Most of the shots you see, unless it is like a light trail, all you need is something over 1/250th of a second to freeze, aperture is easy to guess (see background), and focal length too (but that's more thinking about framing more than anything).

Instead of asking for settings, it is actually more useful to learn about a photo asking the story behind it.  What were you doing there, were you waiting for that shot, things like that.  

and don't get a telephoto for candids, my observation is a lot of beginners seems to fall into this trap, their first lens is a kit lens (18-55), then 2nd lens is a 50/1.8 for bokeh then they think to "complete" their set up they need a 70-300.  They all do it and you end up taking photos from far away, i mean it's great you get something in focus from far away, and at first it seems amazing thinking your phone can't do that but overtime you will realise (but the truth is most of them don't and as such, they wonder why they are not getting better and ultimately give up) is that candids taken from a telephoto lacks context, it is clear the photographer was not in amongst the action, without context you lose the story and the photo will lack soul.

A photo of a smiling child whilst might be nice to look at, but a photo of why the child is smiling is the story, capture the story.

Jimbro66

Another part of the equation is Robert Capa's mantra "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough".

danishbacon

for shooting on the street it really depends on the type of shot's you're going for. 50 tends to lend itself for more careful compositions, it's not very forgiving as a minor shift in your hand holding can change the framing dramatically, whereas wider that change is a bit more subtle. I won't use anything but a 28 or a 35, and I don't ask for permission either (save for rare occasions), It's better to take them by surprise

benmurray85

@danishbacon another brilliant selection of pics. I love them all. I know we’re not asking about settings and I completely understand and agree as to why but how did you get the pics through the windows and manage to capture the reflections as well as the people inside? 

This is is something I love and have tried but never get it right. Any tips?

danishbacon

benmurray85 said:

@danishbacon another brilliant selection of pics. I love them all. I know we’re not asking about settings and I completely understand and agree as to why but how did you get the pics through the windows and manage to capture the reflections as well as the people inside? 

This is is something I love and have tried but never get it right. Any tips?

Thanks @benmurray85. Reflections are to me one of the more 'magical' facets of photography. You never quite know what you might end up with, and it certainly highlights the camera's nature of 'seeing' very differently to the human eye. Take the following image, for example:



When walking past this scene, I may have seen the three gentlemen to the right having a chat inside a Pret (I'm not sure if gentleman on the left was inside or out). On the upper part of the frame you see the buildings to my back, reflected on the window solely due to bright light shining on them and a deep void of darker area inside the restaurant behind the glass. This is important for two reasons.

Firstly, that's really the only way reflections like this can happen, when there is a disparity of light between what's behind the glass and what is being reflected, effectively creating a mirror and when there is a consonance in intensity of light between the reflected subject (building) and the non reflected subject (gentlemen). From a light standpoint, they both have about the same amount of light hitting them.

Secondly, because the whole thing is effectively two scenes at different focal distances. This means that the depth of field should be able to (roughly) encompass all of it. 

At close distances our vision has very shallow depth of field, so when looking at this scene in real life, your eyes may focus on the gentleman or, if you look up and re-focus your eyes, you will see the buildings. Because of the camera's ability to get a lot of depth of field at once, you end up 'seeing' both scenes at an acceptable sharpness. You're in effect flattening everything. 

Reflections like this happen accidentally enough that I don't actively go out looking for them, but I keep an open mind. They happen, and when they do I'm looking for the same conditions as above, dark void (which can be increased by moving the camera downwards, for example, and getting more of the ceiling as is the case for the example photograph) and bright oposing light.

The following photo, by Alex Webb, was shown to me about 5 years ago and prompted me to study a lot of work by Webb, Stephen Shore, Meyerowitz, Winogrand etc. There is a nice book by Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris-Webb on photography, with a lot of useful insights - they speak very articulately about scenery, composition and feel. Just Plain Love, featuring Henri Cartier-Bresson is another worthwhile watch.




https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/alex-webb-rendering-a-complex-world-in-color-and-black-and-white/

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/capturing-complexity-and-color-in-mexico/

zepp76

@danishbacon Fantastic photos once again, they really are inspiring images and I applaud you! Thank you also for imparting your knowledge on us, it's very helpful.

benmurray85

danishbacon said:

benmurray85 said:

@danishbacon another brilliant selection of pics. I love them all. I know we’re not asking about settings and I completely understand and agree as to why but how did you get the pics through the windows and manage to capture the reflections as well as the people inside? 

This is is something I love and have tried but never get it right. Any tips?

Thanks @benmurray85. Reflections are to me one of the more 'magical' facets of photography. You never quite know what you might end up with, and it certainly highlights the camera's nature of 'seeing' very differently to the human eye. Take the following image, for example:



When walking past this scene, I may have seen the three gentlemen to the right having a chat inside a Pret (I'm not sure if gentleman on the left was inside or out). On the upper part of the frame you see the buildings to my back, reflected on the window solely due to bright light shining on them and a deep void of darker area inside the restaurant behind the glass. This is important for two reasons.

Firstly, that's really the only way reflections like this can happen, when there is a disparity of light between what's behind the glass and what is being reflected, effectively creating a mirror and when there is a consonance in intensity of light between the reflected subject (building) and the non reflected subject (gentlemen). From a light standpoint, they both have about the same amount of light hitting them.

Secondly, because the whole thing is effectively two scenes at different focal distances. This means that the depth of field should be able to (roughly) encompass all of it. 

At close distances our vision has very shallow depth of field, so when looking at this scene in real life, your eyes may focus on the gentleman or, if you look up and re-focus your eyes, you will see the buildings. Because of the camera's ability to get a lot of depth of field at once, you end up 'seeing' both scenes at an acceptable sharpness. You're in effect flattening everything. 

Reflections like this happen accidentally enough that I don't actively go out looking for them, but I keep an open mind. They happen, and when they do I'm looking for the same conditions as above, dark void (which can be increased by moving the camera downwards, for example, and getting more of the ceiling as is the case for the example photograph) and bright oposing light.

The following photo, by Alex Webb, was shown to me about 5 years ago and prompted me to study a lot of work by Webb, Stephen Shore, Meyerowitz, Winogrand etc. There is a nice book by Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris-Webb on photography, with a lot of useful insights - they speak very articulately about scenery, composition and feel. Just Plain Love, featuring Henri Cartier-Bresson is another worthwhile watch.




https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/alex-webb-rendering-a-complex-world-in-color-and-black-and-white/

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/capturing-complexity-and-color-in-mexico/

Thank you. Wiz duly awarded

zepp76

RaymondLin said:

zepp76 said:

@danishbacon fantastic photos! Could you possibly say a little about what lenses you used and your settings please?

Whilst I understand why you ask for settings, the truth is that this won't really help you getting the photo because those settings are for that moment in time, unless you can time travel it is unlikely you will get it to do the same again.  Most of the shots you see, unless it is like a light trail, all you need is something over 1/250th of a second to freeze, aperture is easy to guess (see background), and focal length too (but that's more thinking about framing more than anything).

Instead of asking for settings, it is actually more useful to learn about a photo asking the story behind it.  What were you doing there, were you waiting for that shot, things like that.  

and don't get a telephoto for candids, my observation is a lot of beginners seems to fall into this trap, their first lens is a kit lens (18-55), then 2nd lens is a 50/1.8 for bokeh then they think to "complete" their set up they need a 70-300.  They all do it and you end up taking photos from far away, i mean it's great you get something in focus from far away, and at first it seems amazing thinking your phone can't do that but overtime you will realise (but the truth is most of them don't and as such, they wonder why they are not getting better and ultimately give up) is that candids taken from a telephoto lacks context, it is clear the photographer was not in amongst the action, without context you lose the story and the photo will lack soul.

A photo of a smiling child whilst might be nice to look at, but a photo of why the child is smiling is the story, capture the story.

@RaymondLin  Wis'd, thank you for the advice. I read in one of the many books I've ordered that seeking the story is of upmost importance so I'll try and take that on board.

The only reason I ask for settings is to learn about the structure of an image not to try and emulate it. Just knowing what aperture an image was shot at helps me to understand about DOF at differing focal lengths, I'm just trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible to help me in my photography journey. Practice is of course the only way I'll truly learn but it seems since purchasing my equipment I just don't have the time to get out, it seems like all my spare time has been eaten up!

danishbacon

@zepp76, if you (or any other FBer) are down in Swansea give me a shout, would be happy to spare a couple of hours and chat photography over a pint.

hungrymark

I've recently gone full-frame (Nikon D750), really pleased with the results, it manages the light so well.

https://flic.kr/p/MQsU1S

https://flic.kr/p/N2DwyL

zepp76

danishbacon said:

@zepp76, if you (or any other FBer) are down in Swansea give me a shout, would be happy to spare a couple of hours and chat photography over a pint.

@danishbacon ;That's very kind of you, thank you.