Top Diaries

If your flashhead can be rotated, the solution to this, and the problem of flash distance, can be solved by bouncing the flash off the ceiling. That will give you sufficient soft bounce illumination in almost all parts of the room, and exposure will be fairly close whether you are standing or crouching.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:12:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Yup, bounce flash off something, (watch for colour casts though), and use the most advanced TTL the camera will give you.

However, you would probably have lost that reflection because the exposure would have been too high for it.

This guy is pretty good for on-camera flash technique.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:16:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Actually it would have improved the reflection in the specs. The face bieng tilted down would mean that it was slightly underexposed from recieving less top light, whereas the reflected object would have been a little brighter.

But of course it all depends on the 'raydiosity' of the environment.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:23:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I hate, hate, hate indoor on-camera flash. If you don't have umbrellas and soft-boxes, flash is almost useless indoors. It's close to being a point source of front-light, and there are very times when a point source front-light is a good thing.

For something like this I'd probably try bouncing it backwards and using the whole back wall as a diffuser. This confuses metering, so sometimes you have to set the exposure manually.

You can also buy clip-on diffusers which work fairly well and remove some of the hard edges, stark shadows and flattening.

Hand held flash can also work. Close the shutter as far as it goes, open it with a bulb setting for a second or two to add some ambience and movement blur, and manually fire the flash off the back wall.

Buying a crossbar support for the flash to move it off the lens axis also makes a bit of a difference. As a last resort you can use loo paper as a very cheap diffuser, but that's another good way to confuse the exposure metering.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:14:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

She's got a D200 and a SB-600: that metering shouldn't get too confused!

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:16:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

But yes, direct on-camera flash is the work of the devil almost always.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:17:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

TTL? Colour casts?
Will take a proper look at the link when I get a chance, it looks good.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:56:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (none / 0)

Step one: read the manual for your camera and your flash. I never read manuals, but I keep both of those in my camera bag now. The SB-600 is a little less capable than the SB-800, but it's still a complicated little machine.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 09:42:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (none / 0)

Oh, the effort! I also have a good guide to using the D200, including flash settings. I find that manuals are more useful once I've got used to some bits and to how I want to use the camera. I will have a go at reading through them.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 10:29:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

If there's no good white ceiling or wall to bounce off, try this. If your flash came with one of those little plastic attachments, you might try putting that over the flash head, tilt the head up about 45 degrees and fire away. You can also tilt the glasses up or down a little (raise or lower the temple pieces on the ears)to an angle that doesn't reflect the flash. Otherwise, get out the Photoshop and go to work.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:22:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

HEY EXPERTS! (4.00 / 7)

"What's all this photography stuff about? I just point and click and I get nice pictures."

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:41:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (4.00 / 3)

Here's a photo I took in raw (f9, ISO 200) and then livened up with photo shop. Note, that in the second photo photo although the building is more alive, I've lost the blue skies. Is this something I avoid by using the layering process in photoshop?

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 11:36:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

You need to create an adjustment layer with an associated mask. In this case you could select the sky using the magic wand or similar too and then use a curves adjustment which would only affect the selected area.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 01:18:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Thanks. It sounds so easy :-)

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 01:25:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

rdf's suggestion is good.

Another option would be to make a copy of the photo [duplicate] as a new layer and then knock out the sky in the top layer, using a mask.

This will enable you to apply curves and effects to sky and building independently.

by Loefing on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 02:21:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Salut Loefing. (none / 0)

Long time no see!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:08:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Salut Loefing. (none / 0)

Salut LEP.

I've been preoccupied with a family member who's not well. :-(

by Loefing on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:26:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Salut Loefing. (none / 0)

Sorry to hear that. Someone back in the U.S.?

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:36:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Salut Loefing. (none / 0)

Yes. US. West coast.

by Loefing on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:11:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Salut Loefing. (none / 1)

Bon Courage!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:36:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

There are lots of "little" easy tricks in Photoshop to fix the sky. One easy one is to just do a curves adjustment layer as suggested (click the little half black circle at the bottom of the layers box) adjust the curve until the sky is blue again (don't worry about messing up the lower part). Close the curves dialog and click the mask button at the bottom of the layers box. Now set the foreground color to black by clicking D and then X on the key board until the foreground indicator shows black. Click B to bring up the brush tool. Set the brush density to about 30%. Click on the mask icon you just created and paint over portions of the photo that you do not wish to be affected by the adjustment layer. Alternatively, reverse the mask color and paint on the black mask with a white brush. You could also use the gradient tool to "paint" the mask for you. Sounds complicated as a step by step, but it's not. Do it once and you'll never look back.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:00:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Actually, the curves adjustment autoimatically comes with a mask on the layer, so you can skip that step.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:23:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

By the way, In Wales. that's a very nice photo at the top of the diary.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:38:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (none / 0)

You know what? I hate fish-eye effects. I love wide-angles, but I the distortion from a fish-eye always just annoys me. Don't know why.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 08:50:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Barry Manilow (none / 1)

I was somewhat enamoured of 9mm (for 16mm movie) way back when in the era of freaky visuals, but a view of the world that looks like the view from one's front door peephole no longer appeals.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 09:08:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (4.00 / 5)

I love the shadows on this one. But there's something not right about it...

by Sassafras on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:49:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (4.00 / 4)

First, the histogram is compressed - there are no solid blacks in the image: just using auto-levels in Aperture improves things a bit:

It helps if you incresase the contrast a bit as well.

Second, I think the colour is distracting from the shadows and shapes:

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:02:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (4.00 / 3)

Ok, that's unforgivable jargon speak, isn't it?

Here's the histogram before any adjustments:

The bottom axis is brightness, black to white from left to right. The height axis shows what proportion of the picture is that brightness. So this shows that there are only light tones, no solid blacks or even really dark greys in the picture. This is normally a bad thing. (Except when it's not, of course - that's a judgement to make.)

So, we use auto-levels and get this:

Now there are areas of every brightness in the image, which normally looks more natural: our eyes adjust in roughly that way. How you adjust the levels depends on what tool you're using of course - you can fine tune it with a lot of them.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:12:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Most cameras will display the histogram when you're reviewing a shot, which gives you a way to check how "good" the exposure was. If there's bits missing at either end it might be a good idea to try again ...

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:14:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

There's all sorts of rules about how the histogram should look to make the post-processing easier. I don't know any of them. Anyone else want to try explaining them? TBG?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:27:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

http://www.delicatemonster.com/vol8/joanelliott/album/

This looks good: Using your Camera's Histogram

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:30:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ASK THE EXPERT (4.00 / 3)

I'm going to be accused of being the turn-it-into-black-and-white guy aren't I?

As a rule of thumb, if what's good about a picture is the light and shade, it may be worth trying in B&W.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:16:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

LIGHTING (none / 0)

"LIGHTING"

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:02:50 AM EST

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 8)

My very beautiful niece. My sister got the real good looks and passed it onto her daughters. This was taken at a party and the lighting was coloured giving really awesome effects on the photos. The low light did make it hard to get really clear shots but I liked the way they turned out.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:06:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (none / 0)

That's a good 'un, especially with the colour.

But you just know if you sent that to a film lab it would come back with a QC sticker on it. :)

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:24:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (none / 0)

Always used to annoy me when that happened ...

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:35:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The illiterate stirs again... (none / 0)

QC? That acronym doesn't seem to work on TribExt...

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:08:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The illiterate stirs again... (none / 0)

Quality Control?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:23:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The illiterate stirs again... (none / 1)

Why would a gorgeous picture like that need a Quality Control...?

Unless you're hinting the Brits are really more prudely paranoid than I could ever imagine.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:59:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The illiterate stirs again... (none / 1)

Because of the colour cast. I've had photos come back with little stickers advising me to keep the camera still or use flash. This for a purposely blurred picture of police cars at night during the protests in Mexico City in 2001 ...

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:05:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Holy cow (none / 0)

I'm not sure whether I find this even more baffling.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:15:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Holy cow (4.00 / 2)

Well, the labs dealt mostly with the sort of people who could benefit from a bit of advice, and I guess they just put stickers on anything they thought was the fault of the consumer in order to protect themselves.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:18:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 3)

I like the way the display lighting underlit this museum object.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:07:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 6)

This is a strange one because it reminds me of the light landing on a beautiful old dusty wooden floor, like in a castle or big hall or church, maybe through stained glass windows. In reality everything about it is superficial. It's a modern (possibly) laminate floor and the windows are doubled glazed but designed to look like they are olde worlde. Kind of cheating.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:18:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 6)

August, 2007 at Medieval Festival.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:01:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 7)

A picture of optical cables lighting while demonstrating it's virtues to students :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:39:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 2)

There's something very 'clean' about this shot that I really like.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:33:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (none / 0)

It would have been "cleaner" if those students stopped that bad habit of using cutters directly on tables :-)

I like it too, something like colored B&W... But shot quickly in awful conditions!
In facts, I tend to find that all the "desperate" pictures I have are much better (in my viewpoint) then the more "calculated" ones... Maybe the stress makes me go to the essentials :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 04:40:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 7)

Didn't get the lighting quite right on this, it's one of the pieces that my mother made to obtain membership in the guild of glass engravers.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 09:56:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Winter fair (4.00 / 7)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 09:57:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Fete de Musique Fontainbleau 2007 (4.00 / 6)

Merry go round. From afar and close up.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 12:16:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Fete de Musique Fontainbleau 2007 (none / 0)

The usual cliche is to over-expose fairgrounds to get the blur.

I'll have to try the underexposed minimal version - it makes a change from the usual, and looks like it could produce some very interesting shots.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:45:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 6)

Stansted Airport Exterior Night

Camera held on top of post for stability i.e. without tripod. Manual exposure, based on camera meter readings. The general lighting throughout Stansted is based on strong lights pointed upwards from the base of the spreading trusses of the roof. The light bounces off the white roof elements. During the day this gives a light, airy feeling to the whole space. At night, the concourses are a little underlit, but punctuated by signage and the check-in desk lighting. The feeling is quite relaxing and soothing ahead of a late night flight. Designed by Norman Foster.

Portrait in the kitchen

The kitchen has a roof light - explaining the strong top light, and the direct sun was bouncing off a high white wall to the upper right, and acting is a rear modeling light. There was some soft light from a door window behind me. I often use the same kind of set-up in the studio, because I like the strong sculptural modeling that differentiates between `figure' and `ground'. `Figure' means the key `meaning content' of a picture. The `figure' can be a person/s, an object/s or even just a shape. The `ground' is the context that modifies interpretation of the `figure'. The separation of figure from ground appears to be some basic physiological activity of our visual processing systems. We look for discrete `objects'. One can also play with this `automated' feature of the brain.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 02:28:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 4)

A few summers ago, all windows flung open, I spotted a peculiar sight in the buildings behind me: a man happily ironing at his window. Whaaah!

I scrambled for my camera and took a few unstable pictures hoping to find my tripod before he turned off his iron :-)

I was unlucky in that respect, but blurry or not, I like this picture of the 'ironer'.

by Loefing on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 03:56:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 3)

With apologies to poemless...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 09:37:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: LIGHTING (4.00 / 5)

Just about on-topic:

(Unlit) chandelier at the Hagia Sophia

And lamps at the Spice Bazaar

by Sassafras on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 02:56:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 0)

"PHOTOS AS USUAL"

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:03:19 AM EST

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 9)

Some pillars reflected in the windows of the Swansea Waterfront Museum.

I love the detail on old buildings like this. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:04:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 7)

Lots of construction going on around Cardiff. Sunny days are good for picking out the contrasts. This picture was taken through a fence but I liked the effect of the strips either side.

I wonder if I should have cropped out the bottom third though?

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:09:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 1)

You could have cropped this in several ways - all of them valid. Being a hard-edge fan, I'd probably take out the OOF sides (film script shorthand for Out Of Focus).

If this is how you saw it, then that is how it should be.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:08:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 2)

I like the OOF sides for this one because it shows that I was peeking through something. Usually though, I'd opt for hard edge.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 05:53:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 0)

I like the OOF sides too. I think if there's a problem it's the way the bottom stairs don't include the - er - bottom stair, which possibly makes the composition look slightly incomplete.

If I have time I'll take five or ten slightly different views of a scene like this and keep the one that works best. It's not always obvious until later which one will work - and sometimes none of them do.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:21:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

From estHer (4.00 / 7)

July, 2007.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 04:49:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

freaky cloud formation (4.00 / 7)

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:26:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

sunset val di chiana (4.00 / 6)

sorry in wales, i can't believe i blew that...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:21:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: sunset val di chiana (4.00 / 2)

I wish I had this landscape right on my doorstep!

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:31:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: sunset val di chiana (none / 0)

well, italy is not on your doorstep, but it is down the road...

i have to go over one range of hills to see this view, about 15k.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:04:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

flash under oak tree (4.00 / 12)

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:23:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: flash under oak tree (none / 1)

Thanks! Great photos btw.

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:27:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Wow (none / 1)

That one really grabs my eye somehow.

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:11:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Wow (none / 0)

thanks nomad.

it reminds me of axons, neurons, and dendrites...

or something-

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 03:27:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: flash under oak tree (4.00 / 2)

Gorgeous photo, Melo. I've a friend who is a painter showing in Montreal, right now. Her paintings remind me of your photos.... here's a link:

by delicatemonster (delicatemons@delicatemonster.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 11:54:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: flash under oak tree (none / 0)

thanks dm. i love her work, and am flattered at the comparison.

it's often quite a surprise, which snaps i send in are the most 4'd.

wnadering around with my camera has become much more fun, knowing there's a bunch of folks who like where it goes.

haven't a clue about the tech stuff, but my eye constantly frames things in terms of composition, it can't help itself, any more than my ear looking for patterns in birdsong.

what i like best about this shot is the carbon-grey sky, and the moss on the branches showing up in the unearthly light of the flash.

cheers, and happy snappin'!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Mar 17th, 2008 at 06:58:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL - Where Is It? (4.00 / 7)

All taken in the same city.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:05:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL - Where Is It? (none / 1)

Hmmm, factories, cosmonaut monuments, Lenin, grimey old vehicles... That narrows it down to, oh, any town in the CIS. ;)

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:14:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You're right of course, but I didn't want to make it too easy!

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:28:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Actually, there's a bit of unintended misdirection at work here also.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:33:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hint - it's not in the CIS.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:46:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Kasachstan ?

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:54:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

No, and I think that country is still in the CIS.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:20:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL - Where Is It? (4.00 / 2)

Have they given the jeep it's own fur coat?

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:21:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Mongolia, Ulan Bator ?

by Francois in Paris on Mon Mar 17th, 2008 at 12:59:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 3)

My end assignment for the fashion photography course can be viewed as a slideshow here.

I really enjoyed the course, partially because we had a wonderful teacher. I learned a huge amount about the work process of a big photoshoot etc.

You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes. --More--

by tzt (tzt) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:45:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 1)

Bravo tzt. Very impressive. By the way, if you need someone to hold your camera bag on your next fashion shoot, let me know!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:59:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

poetrait (4.00 / 8)

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:07:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: poetrait (none / 0)

Nice one... Symphony in yellow :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:09:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

part seal, part polar bear (4.00 / 4)

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:17:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

there are those ET's again! (4.00 / 2)

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:28:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

val teverina, evening (4.00 / 5)

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:48:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (4.00 / 6)

Just for a smile- Reychavik, Iceland.
One of the three days of summer.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 12:17:46 PM EST
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Re: PHOTOS AS USUAL (none / 1)

There are 10 types of weather a day, according to the locals. I guess you get summer in daily bursts.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 12:29:03 PM EST
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Le sigh (none / 0)

Don't you just love the sight of a capital without skyscrapers?

Weatherwise, we lucked out in 2000. The sunniest summer of Iceland in a century. Even got a tan.

If we could set loose a batallion of ET photographers upon Iceland, I suspect the results would be beyond the amazing. But well. It helps that Iceland's scenery is beyond the amazing...

by Nomad (Bjinse) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:15:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Here's one (4.00 / 4)

Site of the Reagan - Gorbachev meeting in 1986.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 05:13:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Panorama Warping (4.00 / 6)

Here's a bit of twisting that I did with a recent panorama taken with the swinglens Noblex camera.
The first image is as shot, notice the pronounced barrel distortion which is a characteristic of all swinglens images.

I decided to make the image look more normal, so I ran it through the Photoshop plug-in: Panorama Tools, and set it to unwarp the image. I also did a slight amount of fixing of the tilt. This is a great tool not just for panoramas, but other types of distortions, and it is free.

There is still some keystoning distortion which I didn't correct in the prior step (but I could have if I had wanted to do a bit of trial and error). So I applied some perspective correction to the image in Photoshop.

Here's the final image with some added cropping.

The image looks "normal". As far as I'm concerned this is all legitimate. I'm just correcting for image distortion. Before the digital era we used to do similar things by tilting the easel when making enlargements, but the warps were beyond our capabilities.

I sometimes prefer the original look, just because it is different, and sometimes I go for the conventional one. It's nice to be able to have the choice. I've go some other examples in the tips section of my web site, with more detailed explanations.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 01:16:21 PM EST

Re: Panorama Warping (none / 1)

Interesting. I have some Noblex shots that a friend took during a mountain climbing misadventure. I don't recall them being so distorted. Yeah, I just dug them out. The panarama prints measure 14x5.5 inches and I don't see such large distortion as you experienced. Maybe because the targets (mostly mountains) were more distant.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 06:16:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Panorama Warping (4.00 / 2)

The eye is very forgiving when there are no obvious straight lines. As long as the horizon is in the middle of the frame most landscapes look fine.

I have lots of other examples of Noblex (and stitched 35mm panoramas) on my main web site. A few are even 360 degree interactive.

There are also a bunch of photographic techniques in the tips section.

http://robertdfeinman.com

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 07:55:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Panorama Warping (4.00 / 2)

Great web gallery! Love the opening Maui Plantation shot. I'll have to go back and look at the tips section. A dog that's too old to learn is a dead dog.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Mar 14th, 2008 at 08:33:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Paris by night (4.00 / 7)

Rive D., pont de l'Alma

A 'centrist' is someone who's neither on the left, nor on the left.

by nicta (nico＠altiva․fr) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 05:06:09 AM EST

Re: Friday Photography Blog No.26 (4.00 / 8)

Cat close-up (possibly not one of my more successful efforts):

Studio fun with EL wire:

Portrait:

Trees:

(You can't see the rave which was happening behind me in the other direction from this view.)

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 01:54:58 PM EST

I love the portrait. It's striking.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 02:35:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Apparently my current mid-life crisis is manifesting itself as an urge to use more and more basic cameras. I just bought one of these on eBay:

- a scale-focused camera with a 15mm lens and viewfinder. You focus by guessing the distance and setting it on the lens. Not a problem with wide angles, but almost certainly a sign of insanity on my part.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 05:52:32 PM EST

Buy a tape measure. All old movie cameras mark the focal point of the lens, and some even had a hook to attach the tape measure to ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 07:34:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Heh. That'll help with candid street photography!

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 08:27:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

For several years I used a Nikonos V as a main camera when motorbiking (weather proof :-) ), with a 28mmm and a 35mm.
You had to guess the distances too :-)
After some first rolls not being great, I got used to that "guessing" thing... Of course, f5.6 was the lowest I would go !

With that one it shouldn't be to hard :-) But then I've never went so wide on film !

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 07:43:40 AM EST
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That can't have been easy with a 35mm!

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 08:27:44 AM EST
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Mind you, right now, I'm trying to work out why this is happening:

That's the second roll where I've managed to fog up the negatives at some stage, probably loading the film.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 08:31:32 AM EST
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Those of you who were just about to say that the fixer was exhausted or mixed wrong are of course right. Sorted now.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 10:13:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Well, it makes for an experimental solarization :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 04:42:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Refixing in new solution sorted it out: I must have mismixed the fixer in the first place.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 04:43:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I have the bad habit of being in hurry when developing negs. As I use powder chemicals (ID 11), they are mixed at a temperature, and sometimes, to cool them down more quickly, I put the opaque, thick plastic bottle in the fridge !

Once, I even put it in the freezer part... For what I thought was few minutes. At the end of the developer pouring in the tank, I heard and felt a "thunk"... Looking in the bottle, there was a white pancake of the active solution that couldn't go through the bottle neck... The film was already wet with something that was mainly water!!!
In a frantic move, with a screwdriver, I broke the pancake to smaller bits, took them out, shoved them in the tank (in full dark), agitated... And invented on the spot a development time that neared tin-foil nerdism !

Those negatives was an important work and there was 6 rolls in the tank... Some time after, and after the fixing part, I got the negatives out with trembling hands... And they were far from perfect but usable under the enlarger (with some work) !

The client was happy and I learned a lesson :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 04:56:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

My first camera was a Russian
FED-4

It definitely wasn't cool. But it was a real camera for more-or-less the price of the fixed-focus, fixed-exposure plastic boxes my friends had.

I definitely got better pictures than they did. But as I became a short-sighted and glasses-averse teenager, my speciality-and priority-became adjusting the settings to get maximum depth of field...

by Sassafras on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 08:57:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Not at all crazy. Given the price of Leica lenses these days (actually, they've always been expensive), plenty of Leica M users have a pocketful of the nice little Voigtlander lenses--especially the wide ones.

I'm still saving for an Elmarit 24mm ASPH, but at the current rate I'll be dead first...
http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/lenses/2179.html

by asdf on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 12:52:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

They could have choosen a better example then the leaning bridge one :-)
What do you have, as a body, to put that lens on ?

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:01:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

My main camera is an 0.58x M6TTL, and I use an old Summilux 35mm lens almost exclusively. I fall squarely in the camera fondler category.

It looks very much like item 19 on this list (although the picture is of an M4).
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.leicaphiliosis.com/Leicap21.jpg&imgrefurl=http ://www.leicaphiliosis.com/thecollection.htm&h=591&w=816&sz=40&hl=en&start=4& tbnid=sbINjMoadDYDEM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsummilux%2B35mm%26gbv%3D2%26h l%3Den%26safe%3Doff

by asdf on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 06:36:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yes, I had the older non TTL version and at x0.72 :-)
The 35 summicron, the 50 summicron and the 90 summicron !

I had to sell all of it at that time, as it didn't cover my needs ( macro, reproduction, models, etc.) and I got an F4s Nikon (big change in size).

Now I'm more in the M mood (or Bessa or...), but, even if I had the money (ah, those grown-up kids and their studies :-) ), I would still hesitate between an MP or an M8, i.e. between a film or digital variant !

I still need to have the pictures for work quickly and in a digital format, not to speak of the sheer quantity of "out of interest" pictures of a building or of a site, to keep track of details for future work...! A P&S would do it too, but then I would loose the habit of having a "good" camera with me and would revert to sloppy pictures (I'm already lazy enough :-) )!

My seasoned D200 is good with my old lenses, and I'll keep it that way until something changes (Loto, prices going down, unexpected inheritance, etc.) :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 07:20:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I have been resisting the change to digital, simply because with film I'm forced to have an archive in the form of the original negatives. I know way too many people who have huge collections of digital photos on the computers and not backed up anywhere. Just recently a friend lost 2 year's of digital images due to a disk failure--and he's pretty paranoid about backups. (Not paranoid enough, though.)

I get my pictures developed at the local drugstore, which does a fine job of developing the film, a mediocre job of printing, and a barely-adequate-for-the-web job of scanning. But at least I have now a good backup. So my shoeboxes full of unsorted pictures from last week and from decades ago are sitting there in the closet waiting for me to get some enthusiasm for sorting.

Where will everybody's digital pix be in 30 years?

by asdf on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 07:45:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I think I'd rather buy a Voigtlander body - an R2A I think - and the Leica glass.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:22:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Have you seen the Zeiss Ikon reviews ?

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:35:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yes, but it's much more expensive, isn't it? I'd really rather keep money for glass: so long as the camera meters accurately enough, mounts the lens properly and keeps the light out of the film, I'm not too pushed.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:38:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

R2A is £295, Zeiss Ikon is £840, Leica M7 is £1826.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:41:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Quite a difference, indeed ! :-)
Better to put it in glass, you're right !

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:45:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Now to persuade Sam that because I'd saved all that money on not buying an M7 I could spend it all on lenses...

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 01:48:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Didn't I see an approval wink :-)

"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman

by margouillat (hemidactylus(dot)frenatus(at)wanadoo(dot)fr) on Sun Mar 16th, 2008 at 04:35:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Or you could find an old M6, which will do all the required metering, and still have money for a lens. It's a tough tradeoff. I was only allowed to buy a new lens when we had a new child, so the struggle was even harder. That's why I only have two "new" lenses (plus the old ones I inherited from my grandfather and the one I had before I met my wife)...

by asdf on Mon Mar 17th, 2008 at 10:07:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Have you seen the prices for M6s? They're not much less than an M7.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Mar 17th, 2008 at 10:45:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]