Let's See Some Photos!

[corkyg]

Thought I'd pop is a couple of fresh pics - spring is fully sprung here in Southern Arizona. I particularly am fond of the Santa Rita Prickly Pear (opuntia violacea). It is distinguished by purplish pads and lemon yellow flowers. Here is ht eoverall plant . . .

purpad1

And this is a cropped closeup of the yellow flower seen in the upper left quadrant of the above plant.

purpad2

Cactus flowers are beautiful - very sweet and waxy. After the flower goes, the prickly pear fruit emerges.

 

[punchkin]

I've done more "toy miniature" pics lately. I searched for settings that would let me maintain a wider band of "in focus" subjects, but yet still give a decent miniature effect, and am finding that it is valuable NOT to use the reflected gradient but to do two separate gradient blurs. However, when you do this you shouldn't over-smear the "out of focus" areas, or it just looks like an extra-bad photochop. Hence it seems to work well with a three-bladed lens blur and something in the 30-40 pixel range.

I am getting to enjoy these, and just hit upon the idea of scouting out parking garages.

An example:

toy miniature

 

[xyyz]

how do you people get such vivid colors in your photographs? when i take em, my colors are washed out making the picture look extremely crappy.


met center
met right
met left
79th st entering central park

 

[Fardringle]

Originally posted by: xyyz
how do you people get such vivid colors in your photographs? when i take em, my colors are washed out making the picture look extremely crappy.


met center
met right
met left
79th st entering central park

It looks like your E510 is trying to compensate for the bright sky by reducing the exposure and that is making the other parts of the photos darker. I did a few quick edits on the pictures in Lightroom to recover the blown highlights in the sky and to fill in the lighting on the darker spots, then I added a bit with the contrast and clarity sliders to make the colors "jump out" a little more. I actually like the coloring of the walls in your shot of the front of the Met better but with just a quick edit to fix the blown out sky and to put some light on the people it brightened up the building a bit too much. Some judicious use of layers could fix that, but I'm lazy and just wanted a quick example. The other two look better to me after the changes, particularly the one with the people on the street next to the Met.

I'm sure other people will have differing opinions (and probably better, since I'm nowhere near the "expert" level) about the steps to fix this type of situation, but when you have a really large contrast range like these samples with a bright sky and dark shadows, I don't know of any camera that will get the whole shot right on its own and you need to give it a little bit of help in post processing in order to get the results that you want.

I made a small gallery in Picasa so that you can see the before and after shots next to each other for easy comparison:

click me

 

[quackagator]

http://picasaweb.google.com/qu...to#5197814196618123714

Sawmill

 

[sindows]

I have one of those "I'm retarded about photography" questions, some of the pictures in this thread have been altered right? By altered I mean, using software or by doing some darkroom trickery.

I can't see reality through my eyes as beautifully as some of the pictures in this thread.

 

[Fardringle]

It's not a bad question. Most "show" pictures are altered in some way since no photographer or camera is perfect. Even if it's just to crop an edge or adjust the lighting a bit, that's still an alteration from what the camera produced. Although many cameras are capable of producing nice photos without any alteration, none that I know of will create "art" like you see in a photo contest without some assistance.

 

[GoingUp]

.

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
Nepal

http://www.cheddarcheesemedia.com/nepal/ccmpictures.php

amazing photos. start a new thread for discussion/compliments.

 

[GoingUp]

.

 

[angry hampster]

Iowa City Bike Trail

Promo shot for my friend's band

 

[ObiDon]

woohoo! i'm number 13!
alright, i joined the AT flickr group... where the heck is everyone else?
i haven't had a chance to look through this thread yet and i only put up a few things on the flickr group so far.
i'm sure i'm a hack compared to a lot of you guys anyway

 

[IeraseU]

Ok, I'll show some of my images from this Saturday (5/24).


All people:

Christen 1

Christen 2

Christen 3

Christen 4

And since I haven't posted on this forum in a while, here are a couple of bonus shots:

Lorena

Amber

 

[GrJohnso]

Nice contributions... Well lit subjects... Yah, that's it... Honestly though, nice work, you did the models justice.

I don't normally contribute much around here, but here are a couple from down in Santa Cruz, CA last month.... Nothing fancy....

Lighthouse at Santa Cruz Harbor

Volleyball, the dig..

Serve Receive...

 

[pennylane]

I'll add some more...

my brother after we saw a moon rise over a hill

my friend and a cactus

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: fanerman91
my friend and a cactus

nice composition

 

[cputeq]

I don't think I've ever posted here, as Anandtech forums don't allow image embedding (booo), but here goes:


Flowers

http://farm3.static.flickr.com...8028291_86eb7268e9.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com...23957_8a8ce3dddd_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com...30090_c388765a3e_o.jpg


Airshow

http://farm3.static.flickr.com...32845_418820d5f6_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com...48062_f3758308bc_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com...31771_b5f887f46a_b.jpg


Animals

http://farm4.static.flickr.com...96045_62c1ed7c13_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...96665_a819a7db30_b.jpg

Nature / Scenery
http://farm3.static.flickr.com...20356_87e36380ea_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com...19938_2daaab8afe_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com...23746_2fbe726828_b.jpg

People
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...14007_5ca578d7d0_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...42976_daf957b716_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com...78968_76242d72c3_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...45490_6bc5331233_b.jpg

Still Life
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...28129_5a2021bb4d_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com...28921_5a043ed9b4_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...41893_1a83baaf26_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com...66445_d1fc33751e_b.jpg

Lots more at my Flickr Account:

http://flickr.com/photos/jl_smith/

Thanks for looking!

 

[soydios]

@cputeq: lots of stuff I like!

 

[joutlaw]

Some pics taken with a Rebel XSi with 50mm f/1.8 prime lens.

Be kind I'm still a noob!

This was the second pic I took when I got the lens. First one was the same but blurry due to me not being using to a Non-IS lens

Our dog, Stella

Flower of some sort... possible a weed

Text

I think this pic would have turned about better if the aperature was higher. It focused on the center of the leaf. I believe this tree is a japanese maple.

Text

Same tree, but just a shot of a branch that was cutoff. I've done this same pic with my 18-55mm kit lens... and the 50mm blows it out of the water.

Text


Out of focus or shakey pic, but tons of bokeh

Text

These next two pics were taken around sunset. I wish the first would have come out bettter... It seems to have focused on the top part of the tree in the picture.

Text

Text

 

[cputeq]

Got my Tamron XR Di LD 28-75mm f/2.8 in today, woot!

Looks like a good copy...lovely lens.

Dragonfly

There's a pic of a dragonfly, 100% crop, no post processing except exposure compensation. Sharp little lens!

 

[astrosfan315]

my favorite pic to start the summer off with...

http://i20.photobucket.com/alb...15/Family/DSCN3797.jpg

taken a few weeks ago at an Astros game with a nikon pocket camera.

My son eagerly hoping one of those guys would sign his ball. In the background are Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, Kaz Matsui, Michael Bjorn, and Brad Ausmus. Unfortunately no one signed it

 

[CurtOien]

cputeq,

I think your dragonfly may be an Eastern Pondhawk (female).

 

[angry hampster]

From my trip to India a couple years ago:

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...ily10.jpg?t=1212851208

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...rvin1.jpg?t=1212851354

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...eter1.jpg?t=1212851363

 

[SieLiebenDich]

Performing Arts:

A horse we saw in FL

Animals:

Red Parrot

This one's a bit blurry

This one's my favorite

Another Horse

Landscapes:

Everyone has to do a sunset

Nubble Light, ME

Just throwing this in for laughs:

I love his hair




Thats enough for now, dont'cha think?