The photography thread

dazzajl

BigMonka said:

@Jimbro66 there's some really nice framing on those shots!
The more I read online about photography the more tempted I am to bail on my Canon DSLR and lenses to switch over to Fuji with some nice small primes. There's no point in having a decent camera if it's too bulky for you to ever have it with you, which means that these days most of my photos are on my phone (an iphone SE so not even a recent one!).

I've become a huge Fuji fan since making the swap you're talking about and despite a massive readjustment and a fair few jittery moments (it's my daily working kit), I have no regrets at all. 

The Fuji way doesn't work for everyone though and if going smaller and lighter are your main goals, you should definitely get your hands on the M43 offerings of Panasonic and Olympus. You still get impressive image quality and a much wider choice of lenses. Including some lovely primes.

A slightly more left field idea might be to keep your Canon kit until you're fully convinced and dip a toe with an X-Pro 1 and a cheap used lens or two. It's a really old and pretty slow camera with comparatively small files but the jpegs straight off the card with the film simulations are breathtaking.

stickyfiddle

Inspiration time. I've been watching Sean Tucker's youtube channel for a while now, but this video with Rachael Talibart is fantastic. She's an awesome photographer, and I'm hoping my own corporate job can at some point give way to something more creative. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN2x2ChobQg

dazzajl

stickyfiddle said:

Inspiration time..........

Well I wasn't expecting to sit and watch a half hour video of a woman talking about stuff but I'm so glad I did. She really is amazing and right on the nose with everything she said.

I appreciate she was in a quite fortunate position to be able to make a sideways career step like that and not everyone can have a lovely studio room and A2 fine art printer. We can all figure out what it is that drives us make images and create a little space in life to be in that place with a camera. 

If you like the wonders within the waves, check out this gallery by the awesome Nicky Gwynn-Jones

https://nickigwynnjones.zenfolio.com/f557926600

stickyfiddle

Yeah, Tucker's vids are always long and "talky" by normal Youtube standards, but muchly the better for it. 

There are two key things in there for me:

1) do whatever it is that you love; that you see yourself doing when you think about what your happy place looks like
2) start small. You don't have to quit your day job instantly and "jump" into it

dazzajl

stickyfiddle said:

Yeah, Tucker's vids are always long and "talky" by normal Youtube standards, but muchly the better for it. 

There are two key things in there for me:

1) do whatever it is that you love; that you see yourself doing when you think about what your happy place looks like
2) start small. You don't have to quit your day job instantly and "jump" into it

And if you're looking to be a Fine Art Photographer (I really wish there was a better term than that, it sounds so pretentious) then building a brand is vital, having that identity and arena to your images that belongs to you. Because if you want to make a living as a snapper without any commissioned work, then you'll need to be selling places on talks and workshops. 

stickyfiddle

dazzajl said:

stickyfiddle said:

Yeah, Tucker's vids are always long and "talky" by normal Youtube standards, but muchly the better for it. 

There are two key things in there for me:

1) do whatever it is that you love; that you see yourself doing when you think about what your happy place looks like
2) start small. You don't have to quit your day job instantly and "jump" into it

And if you're looking to be a Fine Art Photographer (I really wish there was a better term than that, it sounds so pretentious) then building a brand is vital, having that identity and arena to your images that belongs to you. Because if you want to make a living as a snapper without any commissioned work, then you'll need to be selling places on talks and workshops. 

Absolutely. I'm currently looking at a food blog with a gluten free food + travel+ decent photography angle. I'm sure I'm up to it content-wise, but getting hung up on "how do I make it succeed?" when I should just be worrying about each single step in the right order. 
  
I also agree re "Fine Art" [insert vomit emoji]

goldtop

Today, I am mostly loving Olympus...

About a month ago, I bought an E-M1 from a local private seller. Worked fine when tested, but on the first day out (near freezing) it failed on the first photo! Shutter or something that starts up and then some error condition shuts the camera down straightaway. Out of warranty, no purchase receipt or idea of when bought new.

Signed up to MyOlympus, added the camera to my profile, started a repair ticket, got sent a free postage label and sent it off. Waited for the bad news with credit card ready. News never came, just a DHL tracking link by text. It arrived yesterday, image stabiliser fixed and with a slightly wiggly strap lug also fixed. Plus a bonus lens cloth.

Not just for free, but with Olympus having paid for shipping both ways (to Portugal).

I bloody luvs 'em, I do!

dazzajl

I do love stories like that @goldtop ;

a camera is something it’s nice to have that warm emotional bond to in some way and great customer service definitely helps. 

sev112

What AF focus and exposure mode do you use when taking pics in say a  Xmas market where there are lots of faces all over the place to trick the AUTO settings into wanting to put them all into focus?  Ie so that you can focus on a single face and blur the rest (apart from manual focus)

Koa

sev112 said:

What AF focus and exposure mode do you use when taking pics in say a  Xmas market where there are lots of faces all over the place to trick the AUTO settings into wanting to put them all into focus?  Ie so that you can focus on a single face and blur the rest (apart from manual focus)

Maybe try similar settings to the ones you’d use in gig photography. Similar in many ways given the lighting. I’d spot meter on the subject and let everything else follow, manual or AV settings should be best although try a few, see what you get, check results and histogram....then adjust. 

stickyfiddle

sev112 said:

What AF focus and exposure mode do you use when taking pics in say a  Xmas market where there are lots of faces all over the place to trick the AUTO settings into wanting to put them all into focus?  Ie so that you can focus on a single face and blur the rest (apart from manual focus)

You can still use auto focus, but turn face detection off, and either:

1 - move your focus point to the face you want to be in focus, or
2 - stick with centre focus, physically point the camera at your “in focus” subject, half-press the shutter to lock the focus, then rotate the camera to the composition you want and take the picture. 

(If 2, most DSLRs and Mirrorless  also let you lock the focus with a press of a different button on the back so you don’t have to half-hold the shutter button)

goldtop

stickyfiddle said:

sev112 said:

What AF focus and exposure mode do you use when taking pics in say a  Xmas market where there are lots of faces all over the place to trick the AUTO settings into wanting to put them all into focus?  Ie so that you can focus on a single face and blur the rest (apart from manual focus)

2 - stick with centre focus, physically point the camera at your “in focus” subject, half-press the shutter to lock the focus, then rotate the camera to the composition you want and take the picture.

Yes, that. (Although I've never been happy about my photos at markets.)

robgilmo

stickyfiddle said:

Inspiration time. I've been watching Sean Tucker's youtube channel for a while now, but this video with Rachael Talibart is fantastic. She's an awesome photographer, and I'm hoping my own corporate job can at some point give way to something more creative. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN2x2ChobQg

Is that porthcawl? Ive seen very very similar photos posted on a photography forum receantly.

Jimbro66

As I mentioned in my Christmas market post above, it is very difficult getting clean well-framed shots in a dense jostling market crowd.  You are lucky to have time for more than grab shots and theoretically ideal camera settings are often just not achievable. It's more a case of seat-of-the-pants intuitive shooting. I posted about a dozen images above just to give a flavour of the market but plenty more shots were binned because heads appeared from nowhere or someone shoved their way past.

In those circumstances I do mainly use @stickyfiddle's method 2 but it can result in missed targets in the split second available. That happened, for example, in the shot of the two women in the hat stall but in terms of just conveying the atmosphere of the market it's OK. For more critical purposes it would have been binned.

The advantage of the dense crowds is it's easier to be inconspicuous and not spook your subjects.

zepp76

Any tips on macro photography please, now it’s fungi season and there’s hopefully some frost on its way in these parts I’d like to get out and give this style of photography a go. I have a Sigma 105mm Macro EX DG OS lens, tripod and remote switch, anything else I need except for a good amount of skill (which I really don’t have!). My camera isn’t anything special (Canon EOS3000D/Rebel T7 import) and I’m worried this is going to trip me up when it comes to quality macro shots. I will mainly excuse the pun, be focusing on different types of fungi as this has interested me since I was a kid but also frost patterns if that’s possible with my lens and camera? Any helpful hints and tips or recommendations for other needed kit would be much appreciated, thank you.

stickyfiddle

robgilmo said:

stickyfiddle said:

Inspiration time. I've been watching Sean Tucker's youtube channel for a while now, but this video with Rachael Talibart is fantastic. She's an awesome photographer, and I'm hoping my own corporate job can at some point give way to something more creative. 

Is that porthcawl? Ive seen very very similar photos posted on a photography forum receantly.

English south coast, I would assume. They’re Rachael Talobart’s shots, and she’s based near London, so I’m assuming the majority of her output is that direction. 

goldtop

@zepp76 ;

For fungi where the interest is in their 3D shape - does your software allow focus stacking?

For frost patterns, staying parallel to the object's surface, you should be able to deal with a tiny DoF without stacking.

Interested to see how you get on. I've just bought some cheap extension tubes for my M43 system to have a go.

goldtop

For 3D fungi - does your software allow easy focus stacking?

For frost patterns, and staying parallel to the object, you should be able to get a good DoF without stacking?

zepp76

goldtop said:

@zepp76 ;

For fungi where the interest is in their 3D shape - does your software allow focus stacking?

For frost patterns, staying parallel to the object's surface, you should be able to deal with a tiny DoF without stacking.

Interested to see how you get on. I've just bought some cheap extension tubes for my M43 system to have a go.

Here in lies the problem, I don’t have broadband at the moment so can’t download the software. I am able to use a friends though and will probably go for Affinity which does allow focus stacking.
 I’ll try and get out some time in the next week, I just have to choose where to go as I have a fair amount of woodland to choose from! I’ll shoot raw and jpeg so I can easily stick up a few photos if I do Make it out.

ThePrettyDamned

zepp76 said:

Any tips on macro photography please, now it’s fungi season and there’s hopefully some frost on its way in these parts I’d like to get out and give this style of photography a go. I have a Sigma 105mm Macro EX DG OS lens, tripod and remote switch, anything else I need except for a good amount of skill (which I really don’t have!). My camera isn’t anything special (Canon EOS3000D/Rebel T7 import) and I’m worried this is going to trip me up when it comes to quality macro shots. I will mainly excuse the pun, be focusing on different types of fungi as this has interested me since I was a kid but also frost patterns if that’s possible with my lens and camera? Any helpful hints and tips or recommendations for other needed kit would be much appreciated, thank you.

1. Tripod - use it. 
2. Learn macro stacking. Practice making tiny, manual incremental adjustments to focus distance. Even at f/64, nothing is in focus. 
3. Aim to shoot between 30 and 100 shots per image, at base iso. 
4. While photos hop can macro stack, it's not the best in the world and does take a fair bit of manual input. I used to use a piece of dedicated software, but can't remember what it's called. 

Obviously, big shroomies (say, 5cm and bigger) need fewer shots (maybe only 1!). Mold slimes and the like will need many more. 

Don't be afraid to stop down for a hair extra depth! I find macro lenses are sharp to f/16 and sometimes f/32.