The photography thread

[exoslime]

wow, great sky!! love it!!

 

[LeSedna]

in Montpellier I used to have this kind of sunset every fucking day for half the year, from red to pink !

 

[StayTrue]

Took these this past Fall

 

[Joematthews]

Middle shot is stunning! Amazing weather and location

@Soultrash, great shot! Very nice bokeh and razor sharp where it needs to be.

My whip, not just for hipsters, some of us like the way they ride

 

[arv_foh]

I took the new promo photos for The Faceless. Hopefully I'll be able to post them soon.

 

[kramer1309]

kind of generic, but i like the picture:

 

[Ermz]

Some great shots guys! Awesome!

I'm looking for a wide angle lens (not necessarily zoom, but it can be a bonus) for my 550D. Currently I've got these two candidates:

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/tokina_12-24_4_n15/
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/nikon_16-35_2p8_vr_n15

Got any suggestions for me?

 

[NNotN-ENN]

Get the Tokina. The Nikon is ... err a Nikon and won't fit your Canon without a converter.

The two Tokina wide-zooms are generally regarded as better than anything offered by either of the two big brands in the crop-sensor format, cheaper too.

 

[LeSedna]

I'm considering going D700 + 24-70 f/2.8, any suggestion ? I wanna jump on the fact there are now many D700 sold everywhere cause of the D800, and new ones are cheaper than before. The D800 seems so appealing but I can't justify the difference in cost, although the ISO sensibility has increased as well as the sensor (30mpxl is maybe overkill but the fact you can chose to work in lower resolutions makes it very nice).

Should I consider the Nikkor a life investment or should I take into consideration the Sigma 24-70 which is half the Nikkor's price for a "comparable" result, or even the Tamron 28-75 which is a fourth of it ? Seems like those other options (all f/2.8) are bigger bang for bucks, but at the same time, I read more stories of quality problems (on the sigma, seems like 1 out of 3 need to be sent back to them cause of front/backfocus very obvious in lowest f settings or other quality issues). Although, it's maybe too bad investing so much into a body if it's to put a low-cost lense (tamron), while it's the most important part of a camera.

Should I even consider the 24-200 ?

D700 used if possible, and I'm considering buying the 24-70 new because it's the kind of lenses you keep your whole life. It's also hard to find any used one because of that same reason anyway, at least here.

Would probably be for summer though

 

[arv_foh]

I'm considering going D700 + 24-70 f/2.8, any suggestion ? I wanna jump on the fact there are now many D700 sold everywhere cause of the D800, and new ones are cheaper than before. The D800 seems so appealing but I can't justify the difference in cost, although the ISO sensibility has increased as well as the sensor (30mpxl is maybe overkill but the fact you can chose to work in lower resolutions makes it very nice).

Should I consider the Nikkor a life investment or should I take into consideration the Sigma 24-70 which is half the Nikkor's price for a "comparable" result, or even the Tamron 28-75 which is a fourth of it ? Seems like those other options (all f/2.8) are bigger bang for bucks, but at the same time, I read more stories of quality problems (on the sigma, seems like 1 out of 3 need to be sent back to them cause of front/backfocus very obvious in lowest f settings or other quality issues). Although, it's maybe too bad investing so much into a body if it's to put a low-cost lense (tamron), while it's the most important part of a camera.

Should I even consider the 24-200 ?

D700 used if possible, and I'm considering buying the 24-70 new because it's the kind of lenses you keep your whole life. It's also hard to find any used one because of that same reason anyway, at least here.

Would probably be for summer though

It's a great camera, and the 24-70 is a great lens, although I think the canon 5dmkii is a better camera for about the same cost. Too bad you live in France, I'm probably going to be unloading my d700 this year for the d800

 

[Joematthews]

Got any suggestions for me?

Tokina 11-16mm unquestionably.

I have the 12-24mm which is a superb lens, but I think the 11-16mm has the same construction, is wider and faster (being f2.8) so is better in practically every way.

Most of my favorite shots were taken on the tokina at 12mm, I think you'll only really use it at it's widest setting. Amazing for interior and exterior shots, architecture and landscape. Shit for portraits

 

[Ermz]

^ That lens is just over $600 AUD too, so it's quite affordable! Very tempted.

Do you think it would be good for my wanky gear shots that I constantly do, like these?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/MixRoom/Bog-PRS.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/MixRoom/Marshall-JVM.jpg

 

[NNotN-ENN]

This group on flickr might help you out:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/tokina11-16mm/pool/with/3321071451/

 

[NNotN-ENN]

Here's a bunch of semi-recent skateboarding shots that have only just made it to the web (waiting for print publishing etc.). Apologies in advance if they're too big for your monitor/internet connection!


Matt Cheney, kickflip by NNotNENN, on Flickr (published in Slam magazine, issue 184)


Todd Baker, crooks by NNotNENN, on Flickr


Olly West, 5050 by NNotNENN, on Flickr (published in Slam magazine, issue 186)


Todd Baker, 5-0 by NNotNENN, on Flickr (used in Half Arsed zine, issue 5 in an ad for Shifty's skate shop)


Olly West, front board by NNotNENN, on Flickr


Ben Derome, ollie by NNotNENN, on Flickr


Reece Warren, gap crooks by NNotNENN, on Flickr (published in Bolts magazine, issue 2)

 

[Joematthews]

Sick as usual man! Nice use of flash, soooo crisp and sharp

One from my recent visit to oxford, such beautiful weather.

 

[Carlsman]

Awsome shots! I need to start shooting some skateboarding also, seems fun!

 

[LeSedna]

It's a great camera, and the 24-70 is a great lens, although I think the canon 5dmkii is a better camera for about the same cost. Too bad you live in France, I'm probably going to be unloading my d700 this year for the d800

Care to elaborate why you prefer the canon over the nikon ? On paper the nikon seems to be superior to me (except the video obviously, or the colours although that's more of a preference I guess)
Oh yeah too bad

Sick as usual man! Nice use of flash, soooo crisp and sharp

One from my recent visit to oxford, such beautiful weather.

Cool,

just as a tip cause it reminds me of my shots when I was still learning my D80 : it looks a bit dark, it's either you used the P mode (I used it for a long time before I started shooting manual and I almost always ended with such pictures with the basic settings), used too dark settings, or used too much contrast in post production. At least in my case I remember I liked extreme contrast settings (just like we like extreme EQing when we get into production)

I had very often the same dark blue in the sky, affected colours, and black/dark contour lines because of too much contrast. I posted on a photography forum and they opened my eyes about all that

I then started shooting 100% manual, controlling better the light that gets to the sensor, increasing the range (finding the sweet sport where only the whitest part of the image is burnt, and if possible where the darkest part is black at the same time), which makes the picture "breathe" if ever that makes sense. Not saying I became expert-of-photography, some of my best pictures are still from before I changed my habbits, but since then I realized some of my best pictures (I'm talking technically here, not artistically) didn't even need much post-treatment, if any because technically they were as far as the camera could get me.

I'm not a pro but I thought it was worth sharing cause this pic reminds me so much of my first 3 or 4000

A few old pictures, not too happy (technically, my own remark could apply to some of them!!) of some of them but I liked them nonetheless :

 

[LeSedna]

Almost forgot, had a cool encounter yesterday on the way back from the canaries islands, we were at 34 000 feet, blocked because another aircraft (same type, same speed) was at 36 000. In the end we overtook him cause we were .01 mach faster probably, and we ended being exactly under him, so I took a few crap pictures and videos (my iphone 4's lense is broken or blurry, so the pictures are really bad). I wish I had my camera to take a few zoomed pictures, we were only 2000 feet under a flying 737 !

EDIT : the pics are not resized so I'll just give the links :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/a%20supprimer/video%20cockpit/IMG_1369.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/a%20supprimer/video%20cockpit/IMG_1370.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/881054/a%20supprimer/video%20cockpit/IMG_1372.JPG
Vidéo 1 (50mo) : link
Vidéo 2 : link
Vidéo 3 : link

 

[Soundlurker]

Trying out my brother's D7000. I barely have any experience with DSLRs so I had no idea what I'm doing most of the time

 

[Joematthews]

I've been shooting full manual for nearly 2 years now, and that image was exposed to deliberately darken the sky. Agree to disagree, although those are possibly useful tips to beginners. The biggest problem with that image is that I forgot to stop down enough to get the background sharp, which is a noob mistake haha.