Nubblies Photography Thread

[Mr. Blonde]

ITT (inspired by Dents post in the Cooking for Assholes thread) we will discuss photography tips, camera/lens suggestions, actual photos, etc.

I'm a relatively amateur photographer, all I own is an old 4 megapixel digital camera, but i'm looking to get more into it. I'm generally not a very artsy person, but i'm told I have somewhat of an eye when it comes to it, despite not having any skill whatsoever in actually taking/developing the pictures. Here is a quick collection of some of the better ones I have taken.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I'd like to get a nicer camera... not anything too top end, as i'll probably break it/ tech will become obsolete in the next year or so, but definitely more quality than a regular silver digital camera. Something with a protruding lens at least.

[tonguegina]

Those are really good, Blonde. I dig photography, but don't have a camera. I did shoot a wedding for my friend about a year and a half ago. Some of them are really cool artsy shots, but most are just wedding photos.

[DDTempest]

I took some photojournalism classes in college and a number of art photography classes in high school. Like most things I really only dabble in photography but here is a picture of Poseidon from the Goshen courthouse and a few random pictures out of the hundreds I took while in New Orleans a few years back.

I'll post others as interest grows but most are still in their full dimensions and its a hassle to resize all of them

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

Originally Posted by DDTempest

I'll post others as interest grows but most are still in their full dimensions and its a hassle to resize all of them

Attach them to your post, then there is no need to resize and we can see the original.

[Dent]

SLR and dSLR
SLR stands for 'Single Lens Reflex' and SLR cameras use a series of mirrors to allow the user to see the view through the lens through the viewfinder. When talking a shot, the shutter will move for the correct period of time to correctly expose the film or sensor of a (digital) dSLR. Many modern dSLRs have a 'live view' function that either constantly exposes either the main sensor or a secondary one to display an image on the rear screen. Most dSLR cameras have a sensor smaller than a piece of 35mm film – crop sensors – and different manufacturers use different sized sensors. The most common crop factors are 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 and to calculate the effective focal range of a lens, it's length should be multiplied by this number (a 50mm lens on a 1.6 crop Canon camera would have an effective focal length of 80mm).

Prime lens
A prime lens has a fixed focal length (e.g. 50mm). Prime lenses are often smaller and lighter than equivalent zooms and have better optical properties (less chromatic aberration), being specifically designed for a specific focal length. Focus speeds are generally high and primes often have lower maximum apertures than zoom lenses, making them ideal for low light photography.

Zoom lens
These have a number of movable lens elements that can alter the focal length of the lens whilst retaining focus on a set point. Due to the complexity of the assembly and the number of lens elements involved, zooms typically have lower maximum apertures than primes. Zoom lenses are named according to their length (e.g. 70-300mm), which also gives their zoom ratio (100-400 equates to 4:1 or a 4x zoom). Superzooms are zoom lenses that have a high zoom ratio, some being up to 10 or 14x. The concept of 'zoom' associated with point and shoot (P&S) cameras does not apply to SLR cameras, for example a 100-400 having a large end focal length (and effective magnification of the subject), but remains only a 4x zoom.

Telephoto lens
The term telephoto is often exchanged, incorrectly, with zoom (although a zoom lens may be a telephoto, it need not be). By default, the focal length of a lens equals the distance between the front element of the lens and the sensor or film. With long lenses, the sheer length and weight of lenses would be a huge problem (telephoto primes are large and heavy enough as it is) and telephoto lenses incorporate a special lens group known as a telephoto group to allow the front element to be closer to the camera than would otherwise be possible.

Macro lens
The point of a macro lens is to achieve a life-size (or as close as possible, or larger) image of an object on the sensor. True macro lenses, therefore, have a ratio of 1:1 (life-size) or higher (e.g. 5:1). Many zooms now have a 'macro' function, which do not allow true macro ratios to be achieved, but can attain around 1:4. Larger ratios can be achieved with extension tubes places between the camera and the lens, close-up lenses placed in front of the normal lens, reversed lenses and with a combination of a reversed lens and a normally placed lens.

Wide angle lens
Wide angle lenses have a focal length shorter than the diagonal length of the sensor or film. Full-frame and film cameras, therefore, have wide angle lenses with focal lengths below 35mm. When the crop factor of a common dSLR is taken into account, in order for a similar effect to be achieved, a lens must have an even lower focal length – many popular lenses being 10-20mm. At low focal lengths, significant barrel distortion is seen in the image, giving a fish eye effect.

Acronyms
IS (Canon), VR (Nikon) and OS (Sigma) etc
Image stabilisation. A mechanism in the lens detects and counteracts camera shake, reducing blur in handheld shots at slower shutter speeds. Sony, Pentax and Olympus offer an alternative to lens-based stabilization by incorporating image stabilization into the camera body.

USM (Canon), AF-S (Nikon) and HSM (Sigma) etc
Virtually silent piezoelectric motors provide the best focusing speed and responsiveness when autofocusing.

UD (Canon), ED (Nikon and Olympus), APO (Sigma) and LD (Tamron) etc
Special glass elements are used in the lens that reduce chromatic aberration (colour-fringing of objects and reductions in sharpness).

Aperture, shutter speed and ISO

Although there is no substitute for experimentation and trial and error, understanding the basics of aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity is a good starting point. These three factors control the exposure of a photo. For greater depth, Bryan Peterson's 'Understanding Exposure' is a good buy and various guides can be found by Googling – some of these are in the 'courses and tutorials' part of the 'useful links' section, above and are well worth a read.

The aperture is the opening in the lens that allows light into the camera, its size being controlled by the diaphragm. The aperture of the lens is expressed as an 'f number', the ratio of focal length to aperture diameter. Understanding that this is a ratio helps to explain the apparent paradox that the largest apertures have the lowest f numbers (e.g. f/2.8 is a wide aperture, allowing a lot of light in) and the smallest apertures have the highest numbers (e.g. f/32, allowing very little light in). Lenses have pre-set 'f stop' values that can be selected often in thirds of a stop. Although it is not that important to know, a single whole stop increase (e.g. from f/2.8 to f/4) corresponds to a factor of √2 decrease in the size of the aperture. More importantly, this will halve the amount of light entering the lens. A single f stop decrease (e.g. from f/5.6 to f/4) corresponds to a factor of √2 increase in the size of the aperture and will double the amount of light entering the lens.

Apart from controlling the amount of light entering the camera, the other main effect of aperture is in controlling the depth of field. This is the distance in front and behind a subject that appears to be in focus and is controlled by the distance of the subject, the focal length of the lens and the aperture (f number) being used. Larger apertures (e.g. f/2.8) give a shallower depth of field, smaller apertures (e.g. f/18) giving a larger depth of field and making more of the image appear to be in focus. A useful DoF calculator can be found here.

Shutter speed is the duration of time for which the camera exposes the sensor or film. In lower levels of light, the shutter has to remain open longer than in higher levels of light for the same amount of light to enter the camera and for a set level of exposure to be achieved. Shutter speed is important, therefore, as longer shutter speeds mean that camera-shake and vibrations within the camera and lens can blur a photo. Controlled blur can often be the intent of a photo, however, for example when panning with a car to achieve a sense of movement. As a rough guideline to ensure a reasonable hit rate of acceptably sharp photos is to use a shutter speed of 1/focal length. This means that for a 50mm lens, a shutter speed of 1/50 seconds could be used and for a 300mm lens, 1/300s. With practice, sharp photos can be achieved with shutter speeds lower than this but with some longer lenses, you will never get a fast enough shutter speed using this calculation to allow you to easily hand-hold the camera and lens whilst shooting. To reliably achieve sharp longer exposures, monopods and especially tripods help massively. To a more limited extent, image stabilisation (either built into the camera or lens) also allows use of slower shutter speeds. Shutter speeds can also be increased by use of wider apertures (allowing more light into the camera) and by use of a higher sensitivity (see below).

ISO (or sometimes ASA with film) is the sensitivity of the film or the sensor to light. Higher sensitivities mean that less light is required to reach a set exposure level and faster shutter speeds can be used. As above, this has the effect of reducing the impact of camera shake and allows sharper images to be achieved. Within the exposure times capable of most cameras, there is a relationship that doubling the sensitivity (e.g. ISO 400 to 800) of the film or sensor and halving the exposure time (through doubling the shutter speed) will give the same exposure. A side effect of increasing sensitivity is an increase in image noise, that can be seen as an increase in the 'graininess' of an image. Many digital cameras have settings to reduce image noise when taking long exposures and grain can be reduced relatively effectively in post-processing. Nevertheless, there is no substitute for using as lower ISO as possible in order to avoid image noise in the first place.
Filters

It is generally accepted that there is no substitute (in the form of post processing) to getting a photo right in the first place. With both film and digital photography, manipulation can help, but can never truly bring out parts of an image that are simply not recorded correctly (through under or overexposure). Filters can help massively in this respect and there is likely to be a filter for virtually every occasion. The most commonly used filters for digital photography include polarising, UV, neutral density, graduated neutral density and warming or cooling filters.

Filters are either circular and screw onto the front of the lens or are square or rectangular, sitting in a frame in front of the lens. In comparison to a front filter, a screw-on filter will, naturally, only work with a lens of a certain diameter (e.g. 77, 58 and 52mm). Screw-on filters can also introduce vignetting on wide angle lenses if they are not thin enough.

Common manufacturers of screw-on filters are B+W, Canon, Cokin, Hoya, Nikon, Sigma and Tiffen. Common manufacturers of front filters are Cokin and Lee. These are simplest to view and compare on-line and it is obvious immediately that the prices vary considerably. With filters, as with all aspects of photography, you generally get what you pay for. Well-respected brands are B+W and Hoya (the Pro range) from the screw-ons and Lee from the front filters. Naturally cheaper alternatives can also be excellent, but the cheapest may introduce some colour casting or impair the contrast of an image.

UV
UV filters, whilst probably the most common filter a type around, are a throwback to the days of film SLRs. Film is sensitive to UV light and its presence can dramatically reduce the contrast of an image recorded with film. It was necessary, therefore, to eliminate this element of light from entering the lens using UV filters. These are clear and are should not noticeably effect an image recorded on a dSLR, although cheap UV filters have the potential to cause flare, reduce sharpness and contrast and introduce a colour cast to an image. As lenses nowadays have UV coatings on the lens elements themselves, the only real reason for these filters is protection. Their effectiveness here is highly debated – some would always use them, some never would.

Polarising
Circular polarising filters can be used with a dSLR to reduce the amount of reflected light that passes into the lens. These have the effect of reducing the contrast between land and sky and will reduce glare and reflections. The polarising effect depends on the time of the day (the position of the sun in the sky) and the direction in respect to this in which the photo is being taken. The polarising effect will be strongest when the direction of the camera is perpendicular to (at 90° to) the direction of the light from the sun. It should be noted that polarisers greatly reduce the amount of light entering the lens (so camera shake needs to be taken into account) and that on wide lenses, sky colouration can be uneven.

Neutral density (ND) and Graduated ND (GND)
These filters reduce the amount of light entering the lens, increasing the exposure time that could otherwise be achieved. This may be to smooth water movements in a river or waterfall or when achieving a shallow depth of field in bright light, for example. Graduated neutral density filters blend from light to dark, allowing the top and bottom of an image to be exposed differently. This is useful when correctly exposing images with high levels of dynamic range. With RAW images recorded by digital cameras, a similar effect can be achieved in Photoshop (through exposure blending or by creating a high dynamic range (HDR) image), but this does not give the flexibility of using a filter. GNDs may be soft-edged (a gentle blend) or hard-edged (a harder blend from light to dark) and although soft-edged GNDs may be more versatile, for scenes where changes in light are harsh (e.g. a sea-scape), hard-edged GNDs are more useful.

Amount of light reduction .................................................. .......................
f-stops .......... fraction .......... Hoya, B+W and Cokin ......... Lee and Tiffen .....
.... 1 ................ 1/2 .................... ND2, ND2X ..................... 0.3 ND ..........
.... 2 ................ 1/4 .................... ND4, ND4X ..................... 0.6 ND ..........
.... 3 ................ 1/8 .................... ND8, ND8X ..................... 0.9 ND ..........
.... 4 ............... 1/16 ................. ND16, ND16X .................... 1.2 ND ..........
.... 5 ............... 1/32 ................. ND32, ND32X .................... 1.5 ND ..........
.... 6 ............... 1/64 ................. ND64, ND64X .................... 1.8 ND ..........

Warming and Cooling
These filters alter the white balance of the light reaching the sensor and can be used to correct a colour cast or create one. With dSLRs, these are not as useful as they once were, as much white balance work is done in-camera or in post production with a RAW image. However, in situations where there are very unusual colour casts that dramatically effect the white balance (e.g. underwater), these filters massively help reduce the amount of work required in post processing.

What to consider when buying?

What type of camera is best for me / Do I actually need a dSLR?
This is always the first question when buying a camera. How are you going to make use of the features presented by a dSLR? Does the convenience of having a camera that you can put in your pocket appeal? It must be recognised that a dSLR is more of an investment than an instant fix and there are many advantages and disadvantages of them. To achieve the versatility of a good bridge camera in terms of macro and telephoto function with a dSLR requires a large amount of money!

Some advantages and disadvantages:

... Greater versatility offered by interchangeable lenses. Most dSLR systems have a huge range of lenses available to them that are optimised for different budgets and tasks.

... Better image quality. At a given resolution, dSLRs will basically always give a better quality of image. This is more pronounced at higher sensitivities (ISO numbers).

... Better performance. Typically, digital SLRs have faster autofocus systems, shorter shutter delays, faster continuous shooting and bigger memory buffers.

... Better design. dSLR cameras are designed with usability in mind – there is no point having a camera that starts up in a blink if you have to flick through complex menu systems to set up the camera to take a shot.

... dSLRs are generally heavier and larger than alternative cameras. The mirror box and sensor size of a dSLR impose a limitation on the minimum size but materials are also generally better and more durable, which adds weight.

... Increased complexity. Although most dSLRs have automatic settings, the restrictions imposed by lenses mean that they will never be as versatile as some alternative cameras without changing the lens. Complexity of settings (ISO, shutter speed and aperture, for example) can take some getting used to.

... dSLRs have a higher price tag than alternative cameras – especially when extra lenses have to be bought.

... dSLR cameras require maintenance. Unless you're planning on never changing the lens on your camera, then over time, dust will get inside. Dust on the sensor can be visible on images (especially at higher aperture values, such as f/18) and requires cleaning.

What to look for in a dSLR?
As new cameras are being brought out all of the time, it's difficult in a sticky to keep on top the different ranges, so I'm not going to be talking any specifics here, rather general ideas and thing to think about.

When buying a new dSLR, the advice of many would be to stick within the two main camera manufacturers of the moment – Canon and Nikon. The two systems provided by these manufacturers give the user the greatest number of accessories and lenses (either from these manufacturers or third-party). There is little to choose between these systems and any advances made by one are relatively quickly matched and surpassed when the rival releases new updates to their lines. Most manufacturers have lines of cameras that cater for all user levels (e.g. in the Canon system, xxxxD < xxxD < xxD <x D, with massive advances being seen across the range).

However, manufacturers such as Pentax, Olympus and Sony are emerging / re-emerging in the camera market and increasingly have better support by the third party manufacturers, such as Sigma and Tamron, as well as having increasing numbers of accessories available. Some of these have features such as in-built image stabilisation, which are obviously worth a look.

Features and performance numbers to look out for:

... Resolution. Ranging from around 6 megapixels to 21MP, although this isn't necessarily as important as many make out. If you're only going to be printing at A4, you don't need 10MP above an 8MP sensor that might give better image quality.

... Frame rate. Ranging from about 1.5fps to around 10fps. Sports shooting might require the ability to rattle off shots, but if you're into landscapes, then what's the need?

... Burst depth. There's no point having a high frame rate if the cameras buffer can only take a few shots. The number of shots able to be stored and written at a time depends on the format, but varies greatly.

... Autofocus speed and tracking. This is hard to quantify but there are wide gaps in the AF performance of current digital SLRs, especially when tracking moving subjects. The top-end sports cameras are designed to out-perform the rest, but you pay for it.

... Ruggedness. Things to look out for here are the materials – either plastic or often a magnesium alloy metal frame – and weather sealing. Though I wouldn't advise it, you could use the professional Canon and Nikon cameras in crowd control probably more effectively than a truncheon.

... Viewfinder coverage and brightness. When framing a shot, it's important to be able to see as much of the scene as possible and as clearly as possible. Cameras range from having around 87% viewfinder coverage to 100%, where the whole image to be captured can be seen through the viewfinder.

... Viewfinder information. This varies widely but the more information you can see without taking your eye away from the viewfinder (e.g. ISO, shutter speed, number of frames left in the burst), the better.

... Start-up, playback, and mode-switching times. It depends on your settings and what sort of formats you're working with, but cameras range from being virtually instantaneous to taking a couple of seconds to get around to obeying.

... Ergonomics. Different people prefer different things and different manufactures makes grips of different sizes and buttons in different places. Even if you don't buy on the highstreet, go and try before you buy! Don't underestimate the usefulness of a portrait grip – either on the camera or as part of a battery grip that can be bought separately.

... Image stabilization. With respect to the final photo produced, it makes no difference whether stabilisation systems are in the camera or in the lens. Image stabilization has the advantage of letting you see the stabilized version while you're looking through the viewfinder, which can be crucial, but putting the technology in the lens generally results in more expensive lenses. On the other hand, mechanical (sensor-shift) stabilization will work with any lens you buy, making it a less-expensive long-run solution. However, this will not provide stabilisation of the image you see through the viewfinder, as it only works on the sensor.

... Image formats. Commonly supported file formats are JPEG, TIFF, RAW and DNG. RAW and DNG (Adobe RAW) allow greater flexibility in post-processing, but are generally larger files, so you get fewer on a memory card.

[TwoBlackEyes]

TL;DR

[Mr. Blonde]

But thanks anyways. I'll read it when I get home.

[Dent]

^ thats taken from a forum, which was taken from another forum.
Depending on price range take a look at the canon d numbers, d350/d400/d1000

saw this today which just ran out of stock, real good for the price.
https://secure.fujifilm.co.uk/shop/c.../finepix-s8000

few I took around birmingham with my old camera






Edit : fuck you all for replying before I could upload my pics, its well worth reading, just to get an idea, photography is stupidly complicated.

[Dent]

south africa, shitty image quality 'cause of facebook. and the lens used sucked.

[Mr. Blonde]

That's awesome dude. You go anywhere else in Africa?

[SittinOnDubsWGW]

Dent, your pics are awesome.
Going to S. Africa is on my to-do list, particularly to get in a cage and see Great Whites. A safari while I'm there should be in th mix as well. Going to Egypt would be prety sweet too.

Also, Blonde, your pics are pretty cool.

I suck at taking pics.

[AcTivE]

Blonde, if you knew me in real life..you would kno I don't mean this in a mean way...but I think you spend too much time on Nubblies.

Nice thread..and nice getting participation...but why the fuck do you care about this site so much? Why does everyone actually for that matter? All you fuckers spend so much time on here.

I did for a few days..when I was fucked..and it made me realize how crazy all of you fuckers are..looking for approval from each other basically. Such a sad existence. Nubblies has basically stolen your souls.

All day long..srsly...bunch of nut case turd eaters.

Which is cool I guess.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

hey active, how many hours of world of warcraft have you logged today?

[AcTivE]

honestly..prob about 70min. dont actually like playing it much anymore.

do u have any pot btw? i wanna get high!!...i can hit u up this coming monday!..be my friend

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

i say no to drugs

[AcTivE]

holy shit, pefect example, response in a min..u must suck a lot of cock

[DDTempest]

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

Hey Active, you just responded it less than a minute too. wat a looooser.

edit: fuckna u beat me to the punch

[AcTivE]

its not irony..ive been on the site for like 10min. fuk u tho..u just missed out on best 25 sec of yer life

[AcTivE]

ID--going to upstairs pub..will be there for like 40min or so at least..we should be gay together..meet me there.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

some other time sweetpeet, I've got class tomorrow morning.

[Ugly Bastard]

Like I get why there's a war against drugs now. An otherwise perfectly normal little boy born in the midwest is now, thanks to drugs, worth virtually nothing to the world.

[f3lix]

Originally Posted by Ugly Bastard

Like I get why there's a war against drugs now. An otherwise perfectly normal little boy born in the midwest is now, thanks to drugs, worth virtually nothing to the world.

A person who can fall victim this easily would have fallen to something else.

[theMerciless1]

anyways... i just got a nikon D60 with the 18-55mm vr af-s lens. still lkearning how to use it.

i refuse to learn how to post pics here so heres some links..

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...k/DSC_0089.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...DSC_0185-1.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...k/DSC_0182.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...k/DSC_0047.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...k/DSC_0058.jpg

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...C_0056-1-1.jpg

[Ugly Bastard]

I'm not out to hurt feelings here or anything, nor am I going to name names and make it personal... I just want to say... from a general standpoint... that most of the pictures in this thread are completely average and look like something my 12 year old niece could probably take with the $100 WalMart digicam she got for Christmas.

I hope this doesn't evolve into a bunch of dick-sucking about great photographers we all are.