The TPU Darkroom - Digital SLR and Photography Club

[Kei]

Two more shots a bit more recent...

First one is my current desktop wallpaper, I was bored one day I wanted to make a new wallpaper so this is what I came up with. No photoshop just creative lighting used. I thought about photoshop to take out one thing I didn't like, but left it straight from the camera instead. After the photo the ram went back in my PC to develop the photo haha.

The second one is from the H2Oi event I mentioned just before I bought the Tamron lens, this is just one of the ones I liked from the wekend. A quick conversion to a different color tone was used on this one.

Kei

[chris89]

Well just got myself a Nikon D200 (second hand) with the Battery grip and a 18-70 DX lense.
Got memory cards comming tomorrow and Tripod (Manfrotto 055PROXB + 804RC Head) sometime latter the week.

Will post some pics taken with it soon.

[TheCrow]

Originally Posted by selway89

Samsung NV7 OPS.... Compact camera with a big lens (7x optical zoom with image stabaliser)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sams...ges/NV7_3q.jpg

Bought it originally for University assignement work and some of my fav shots were taken for that purpose:






Some of these images have been manipulated in Photoshop CS3 (espcially the night shot of Lincoln Cathedral, removed allot of background and moved water reflection closer), other shots had the same photo taken at differnt exposure settings and bracketted together using layer masks.

Also used to have a Canon EOS 300V SLR (film) with 35-80mm lens and 80-200mm, and Speedlight

Cool pics! Your obviously at lincoln uni! I live in lincoln too!

[TheCrow]

TheCrow
Camera: Nikon D50 & Canon Ixus 500
Memory Cards: 3x 2gb Sandish & 4x 512bm Misc SD Cards
Lenses: Nikon 18-55, Nikon 50mm F1.8, Sigma 70-210mm
Bag: Lowerpro Slignshot 100AW

Some of my shots!















I've also had some of my pics stolen and printed in the local paper!







Thats about all for now lol!

[Lillebror]

Woah dude! How do you take those pictures of cars and moving objects, where its in focus, but everything around it is blured out? Ive always wanted to learn!

[mikek75]

I bought my Canon EOS 450D with an 18-55mm image stabilised lens a couple of weeks ago, and I've just recieved a 55mm-250mm IS lens. This picture is taken at Avebury in Wiltshire, UK and is an ancient site about half a mile from Silbury Hill, the largest man made hill in Europe.


This one I took with my Canon Ixus 860 IS about a year ago.

[Kei]

Originally Posted by Lillebror

Woah dude! How do you take those pictures of cars and moving objects, where its in focus, but everything around it is blured out? Ive always wanted to learn!

The technique is easy to learn but depends on your handholding technique can be very difficult to master.

The photos shown are nice and I imagine the shutter speed is down to around 1/1xx or so to achieve the look he has. Maybe the speed is even higher than that as I don't know the available light on that day.

Anyway in order to achieve an effect like that you would be using a technique called "panning" which is simply achieving focus on whatever you want to shoot and following it with the camera.

In order to get a proper pan shot you need to decide first on what shutter speed you will use by figuring out how much speed/motion you want to portray. For something moving very fast it's easier to do because you can use a higher shutter speed. The slower the object the slower the shutter speed you'll need to use and the smoother you'll need to be panning the camera to follow that object.

For best results you will be using a small f-stop of say something like f/16 so that you will be able to use the slowest shutter speed possible without overexposing the photo.



Here is an example of a shot I snapped a long while back.....

Weather Conditions: Sunny without any cloud cover at around 1600hrs (4pm or so).
Car: Mazda RX-8 Metallic Blue in color extremely reflective

In order to get the shot I knew I'd need a very small aperature to keep the photo from overexposing, of course I'd also be using a relatively slow shutter speed because my position on the track was very close to the starting point so the car wouldn't be going hugely fast.

I decided that I'd be using 1/90s shutter speed because I was using a digital body and thus my lens was more like a 315mm lens meaning I'll need a higher shutter speed since I'm hand holding the camera. I have pretty good hand holding technique so it makes it easier holding at slower speeds (I was down to around 1/60s for a while shooting at 300-400mm) especially while standing unbraced.

I prefocused on the car well before the point I wanted to actually shoot the car at which is CRUCIAL otherwise you may never achieve focus anyway. As soon as I achieved focus I panned my body and the camera at the same speed the car was going as smoothly as possible. Making sure to keep the car in the frame where I wanted it to be once the car was in position I released the shutter and snapped a few shots (3-5 was plenty) making sure to keep following the car PAST the point I want to shoot at.

You have to remember that doing this is just like a sport or thowing a punch ALWAYS FOLLOW THROUGH! You will get much better shots and have less mistakes because you're following through. You'll also likely see things you wouldn't have seen if you just snap a single shot and put the camera down.


As for technique that's it, you're done.



If you want more motion then slow the shutter speed down even further, and make the aperature larger. In plain terms that would be say going from 1/90s @ f/16 to something slower like 1/60s @ f/24.

The above shot was at 1/90s @ f/24 at 315mm with no photoshop or editing. You don't have to worry about having a large aperature like f4 in order to get the background details to blur because you're panning and the background is stationary. If I was to do the car sitting still with the exact same settings then every little drop of that photo would be RAZOR sharp because the aperature is so small (f/24). In order to get the background to be out of focus I'd have to change the aperature to around f/5.6 using that same 315mm lens. I'd have to then change the shutter speed up to say 1/250s to get the photo exposed properly. However the motion would be perfectly still which would be very boring at this angle.

I hope this helps you understand how to perform shots like these. If you want practice then I suggest finding somewhere discrete and maybe shooting cars at a distance. If not you can also try shooting birds in flight which less people will be suspicious of. If you do shoot cars driving by make sure to be discrete but don't hide completely because then you will look 100 times more suspicious and could run into trouble.

Why not have a friend drive back and forth for you to practice?

Kei

[DanishDevil]

Nice guide Kei! I think I'm linking the first post to it.

If anybody else would like to write up something similar that pertains to digital photography, I'd be happy to link it in the first post

[Kei]

Thanks Danish,

If anyone has any other questions regarding techniques I'd be glad to discuss them here if I can help you out.

Kei

[DanishDevil]

I'm hoping to get into a Digital Photography class this Fall, so if I do, I'll be posting lots of helpful stuff up on here

[Kei]

Danish, do you have any background in photography or are you starting out straight with digital? Even for fun I mean either way doesn't matter. Is the class you're taking stricktly digital or is it a photography class in general?

Kei

[DanishDevil]

I had a few little digital cameras, and I've recently gotten a Nikon D60 with the 18-200mm VRII lens, so I never had a film photography background (I'm only 19, so most of my teenage to adult life we've been in digital). The class I'm taking is titled "Digital Photography" so I assume it's going to involve shooting and editing pictures.

[Lillebror]

Woah Kei! Thanks for the guide! Im sooo gonna try do it

[Kei]

Good deal, the D60 is a nice little camera! I'm still amazed at how small some of these cameras are getting these days with still amazing quality. The first time I saw a D40 I didn't know what to think...it's like 1/3 the size of my D1H body and still takes amazing photos. I of course still prefer my trusty D1H over those because I love the sensor and like the handling better of the pro body cameras.

I have been thinking about picking up a D40 or D60 to tote around in a little pack which would be awesome.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the class, but never forget the best feature about digital cameras. It costs you NOTHING to shoot as many photos as you like. Your best learning will come from not reading but hitting the shutter button so don't be afraid to take "bad" shots as even they will teach you a lot if you pay attention.

Grab that D60 and get you butt outside!

Originally Posted by Lillebror

Woah Kei! Thanks for the guy! Im sooo gonna try do it

No problem, glad to help. Make sure that when you start off you begin with a higher shutter speed so that you develop the technique easier and can see progress. Don't just jump straight down to 1/30s and get discouraged when you see crap photos. Start at around 1/120s or so and work your way down slowly so you can understand how the aperature relates to the shutter speed when it's so low as well as how to pick the right shutter speed for what you want to show.

Also depending on what lens you're using will change the depth of field shown at each aperature and the limits you're able to go to selecting it. Just as not all lenses will allow you to go down to f/2.8 not all lenses will allow you to go up to f/24. Add to that the fact that shorter lenses will make slow shutter speeds much easier to hold and you can get creative with it and learn better perhaps. Try not to use ANY photoshop on the photos until you get the technique down pat as well.

Last thing before I shut up with all this technical mumbo jumbo...remember that your lens will have a sweet spot for the aperature and if you go outside that the image quality will not be as good. That's the other compromise you have to remember because just because your image isn't tack sharp doesn't mean you messed up. It's not very likely that f/24 will be super sharp on anything other than a dedicated macro lens. You'll eventually see when it's the lens itself just not being 100% or when it's technique that needs work.

Kei

[DanishDevil]

Oh I've taken about 40GBs worth of photos and I really like maybe 15 of them?

[MightyG80]

Some shots i took a while ago ( about a year ago actually ) from the Acropolis, here in Athens. My camera is a 7mp Sony model.. nothing fancy.























And a shot of Athens, below.


Hope that you liked them.

[DanishDevil]

Ooh I love the last one. What a great vantage point for photo shooting.

[MightyG80]

some more images from the same collection:





Something ( ancient ) written on the floor.... Maybe ancient graffiti ?

[chris89]

Nothing Special, But heres my first pic with my D200, I've got tomorrow off from college so lot of practising and got a Manfrotto tripod arriving soon.

Of my cat 'Hendrix' A British Blue who is 11 years old this year.

[mikek75]

Heh, gorgeous cat bud, one of my favourite breeds. Cats make great models don't they! Heres my moggy, he looks pissed off but actually he's mid-yawn, lol

[TheCrow]

I wouldn;t wanna get on the wrong side of your cat mike!

[mikek75]

Aye, he has some formidable gnashers, lol! Fortunately he's a very chilled cat, unless you happen to be next doors cat.

[mikek75]

Climbing the walls here, have a Canon 50D body on order...Bloody slow delivery from the etailer though, he estimates 10 days. Best price I found on the net though, £754. Thats about £80 less than Amazon, and £500 less than Canon's official price!

[Triprift]

Just keeping the yawning cat theme going my cat Turbo in his fav spot ontop of the couch.

[mikek75]

LOL, gotta luv those lazy little buggers!