Drawar Forum: Photography

Photographer hangout

Causalien — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:48:12

Hi,

I am looking for a forum where photographers hang out and discuss techniques. I am particularly interested in one that gives out monthly assignments or topics of research so I can read and participate in. Is there such a place?

Interested in Photography

rb060470 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:05:48

I just recently moved to NY and I have become interested in photography. Everytime I walk outside I see a million images I would love to capture on camera. I don't have any kind of experience with photography and I was just wondering what kind of camera should I purchase to start this new interest of mine?

Nikon D40x lens question

slightlysurly — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:31:53

i've been playing around with my Nikon D40x and i cannot for the life of me take any decent action shots in low light. what i've been specifically trying to get shots of are local concert shots. i've tried messing with the shutter speeds, using a higher ISO, and i'm still not getting anywhere. i think i need a different lens to get anywhere, but being a total amateur, i have no idea where to start. can anyone point me in the right direction?

New DSLR Tips

carmodyarc — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:48:02

So I've been thinking about diving into photography as a more serious hobby. I have a decent point and shoot camera with some SLR like features (Cannon Powershot G9), but I think I'd like to pick up a decent DSLR to learn on.

Do you guys have any suggestions for where I should start as far as the body, the lenses and additional equipment I should have?

Quofda: What is your favorite picture?

Scrivs — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:02:22

Today's Quofda asks what is your favorite picture? This doesn't have to be a picture that you took, but one that overall you can always go back to and know that is the picture you will always like.

As for me I don't have the one that I want to show available so I will give you my fallback favorite...

Yes sir.

How do you convert color to B/w

tylerc66 — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:39:26

I was woundering how other photographers convert there color photos to black and white. For a while now I have been using the Gorman BW Action in photoshop . Below is a shot where I used the Groman action

Photo Question

tylerc66 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:40:29

I just got back from my trip to CA and took this photo of Pidgin point light house. My question is do you think i added to much saturation to this photo?

My camera is more broke then Owen Wilsons nose!

Jbot6000 — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:21:11

My friend accidentally broke my camera and now I have to cancel my first real photoshoot.

I just began my portfolio and now I can't even go out to the city and snap some shots with my model friend like I been planning. This sucks very very much. I just posted about it, but I don't think that's really helping me get a new camera :(

Can someone give me a hug? Ooor a new digital SLR? Either will do fine.

Organising WordPress Archives Alphabetically Question

Ollie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:47:49

A quick question for the WordPress/PHP/MySQL gurus among us:

How would I go about organising my category view so that when I click on a category and get taken to ..mydomain/category/asides/, the posts are shown in alphabetical order according to the first letter(s) in the title/permalink?

It probably sounds like a "huh?" question, but I have a reason for wanting to know if this is possible, and if so, how.

(Must have mis-clicked the community, feel free to move.)

Lunar Eclipse 2008 Pictures

Ozone42 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:23:47

Anyone else here out shooting pictures tonight? I'd love to see what other people got. My tripod is junk, couldn't really get anything sharp at slower than 1/2 second shutter.

more of my pictures from the event

Post your Valentine's Day Creations!

azharc — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:12:31

Events like these always bring some awesome work to photoblogs.

Here are mine for this year :
Roses | Valentine's Never Burn
&
Cats | Someone Somewhere

Post yours!

Releasing photos under Creative Commons

Ozone42 — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:14:36

I've decided to start releasing the bulk of my "print worthy," photography under a creative commons license.

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. I do get paid for my work, but I never seek out paying jobs--I simply don't have the time. I will do a wedding here or there, or events, when someone refers people to me. I never use the money for anything other than upgrading or getting new photo gear. I give away prints to friends... so what was stopping me?

Well nothing now! This morning I'm releasing my first CC photo. This is a panorama of the west Texas landscape I drove through a couple weeks back.

I'm releasing the full resolution pano (13674x1903 px,) as well as a couple wallpaper crops.

Visit my website to download large versions of this file.

When I find the time I'm going to be going through my portfolio and releasing high res versions of all my favourite prints. I'm anxious to see people use them in their own works.

What is your most interesting Flickr photo?

publicenergy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:48:08

We recently had What is your most viewed, how about posting the most interesting (you can find that out on your "popular" page). None of us really know how the interesting thing works on Flickr, so it might turn up some strange ones!

Please write a few words to go with your picture and tell us about it too.

This was taken at Back Tor in the Peak District National Park in the UK. It was taken on a little Canon Ixus with an infrared filter attached. I'd been up there mountain biking and this place marked a dead end where I had to turn around and go back. For some reason at this point, the bridle path where you're allowed to cycle turns in to a footpath. The footpath later turns back in to a bridle path - so it's a bit of an odd place where you don't get that many people on bikes as a result.

Shutterpond had its first winner!

joeylomanto — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:15:14

We've been up for about a month now and the winning photo is a great b&w shot of a closeup of hands molding pottery. Check it out.

Who is your favorite photographer?

HelenWalker — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:26:35

There are so many talented photographers out there we don't know about... And their art could make somebody's day better.

Let's share the URLs or names of the ones you admire!

Most beautiful female photography

slaips — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:44:05

Comment is superfluous

D40x zoom lens (70-300mm) question

RobM — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:03:12

Hi all, I have a question about 70-300mm Nikon zoom lenses. I own a d40x and would like to buy a 70-300mm zoom lense for it. I know that the camera does not have an internal auto focus but I seem to remember seeing an older nikon lense (70-300) that was AF. I also see alot of new 70-300's selling in the 450-500 dollar range and some older model 70-300's selling for between 150-300. My question is did Nikon make an older 70-300 AF lens that will work on a d40x and if so should I buy one of those and save some cash or should I save up and buy the newest AFS version? Thanks in advance for the help!

What is your most viewed Flickr photo?

peroty — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:35:31

Ever since Flickr released stats for pro account holders I've been fascinated with them (as I'm a big of a stats junkie) so I'm curious.

According to Flickr, what is your most popular photo based on views.

Here is mine.

It only has 809 views, which is probably far less than most people's most populars. But it amuses me that this snapshot I took, walking on a beach with my (then new) phone continues to be my most popular.

I've shown you mine, now show me yours. :)

PMA 2008!

azharc — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:15:40

The PMA 2008 show (CES for Photography basically) is coming up.

Anybody lucky enough to go? Anybody luckier who will have their hands on newly released cams soon?

Visit the PMA 2008 Website

Great coverage at DPReview

New Member - See my blog posts - need critics

Amitay — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:14:28

I have joined the community with my blog about photography by the Yaro Starak advice. I am glad to be a member. :-)

Where have you just been (photos)

publicenergy — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:35:56

I thought it might be nice to get a bit more action in the photography category by starting a thread where people can post a photo from a recent day out, trip or holiday, so that we all get to see things we might not see otherwise.

Please only post one photo per reply and don't flood the conversation with lots of replies to give it a real mixed up feel. It'd be nice if you write a few words about the picture and where it was taken at the same time.

Remember, it doesn't have to be exciting or unusual, what a lot of people don't see is the every-day stuff, so if you've been out and about and taken some photos, post one here!

Ok, here's the fist one to get things going...

It's taken on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, UK. I was there yesterday walking with a friend, the walk was about 10 miles long but it felt like hard work due to lots of snow, ice and mud and a final descent on a rocky path made even harder by end of day fatigue.

I was so pleasantly surprised to find a lot of snow - there wasn't any where I live (about 30 miles from here), or at the bottom of any of the hills and roads near the walk.

This picture was taken at the point furthest away from the start, and we were about to go up that path to the left and get in to the low clouds. Despite how it looks, it didn't feel that cold, but then I guess I dress for it to make sure it doesn't!

If anyone has got a photo from this weekend to reply with that'd be great, if not, please reply soon!

Site Review

joeylomanto — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:28:35

Hey guys,

This is a site I have been working on lately and I could really use some reviews/opinions etc..

Anything at all would help :)

My favourite photo from 2007

publicenergy — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:23:48

If you look back at the photos you've taken in the last year, which one are you most pleased with - not necessarily the best technically, but just one photo that is a favourite from the year for what ever reason.

Yesterday I went through the photos I'd uploaded to Flickr during 2007 and posted some blog entries about my favourites on a month by month basis (I uploaded about 1300 photos during the year).

Anyway, I think this is my overall favourite. It didn't get much attention when it was uploaded on to Flickr - but my favourite photos aren't always the ones that everyone else seems to like.

This one was taken on Kinder Low in the Peak District, UK. It feels like the ideal place for faking moon landings up there. It's an infrared shot with a trig point visible on the horizon. I have a few photos of trig points - especially infrared ones - I think the thing I like about them is that they look out of place.

So, please post your favourite and tell us a bit about it.

Photo Essay: The Assasination of Benazir Bhutto

Scrivs — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:12:57

NYT has a great photo essay depicting the events leading up to the assasination of Benazir Bhutto. I can't say I know much about her besides that she was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, which to me is beyond impressive.

The photo essay goes to show how truly powerful images can be and since I am not well-versed in World News I didn't know about this until I saw the photo essay and realized that if I had read about it, the impact wouldn't have been as great.

Nikon Vs Canon

tylerc66 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:46:03

Hey everybody, okay this is my dilemma. I currently own a Nikon d50 with 3 lens (2 tamron and one nikor). I want to upgrade to a better camera one with hdr, faster fps, ect. I have been looking at the Nikon d300. It looks like a great camera and it has everything im looking for. The problem is that everyone is telling me to switch to Canon. The photo place I get my prints done at keeps on telling me “all the pro’s are switching to Canon digital” they said the color is a lot better. Plus all my friends shoot Canon. So now I have been looking at the Canon 40d and it looks great as well. I guess my question is if it’s a total waste of money to switch to Canon since I already have some Nikon lens. Thanks for reading this any input would be appreciated. Thanks

Whats is Photography according to you...

azharc — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:34:26

This may seem a bit lame but here me out.

I finished applying to my universities to pursue a degree in photography. Over the course of the entire thing I found such an amazing bunch of people and was lucky to chat with a few of them.

Many people look at photography in different ways and use/admire it for different reasons. Personally for me, its all about the story, but for others, some like to call it painting with light.

So I'm curious,
What is photography, according to you?

What digital SLR camera to get?

karmatosed — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:24:39

I'm looking to get a digital SLR camera after farting around in point and click land with my cybershot for far too long. I did my art degree in photography but previously before the cybershot was in non-digital land - although I do miss developing by hand I think it's time to bite the bullet and get a digital SLR. I'm not really wanting to break the bank on this one but I do want one that I can 'grow into' as in get decent lenses and not have to swap out in a short amount of time.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I do love doing macro photography so really being able to have lenses is a must and decent ones at that. Beyond that I'm not up on which ones are really any good and wandered what were people's recommendations. Be interested where are the good places to get also - bare in mind I'm in the UK though so shipping probably won't be worth it if it's a US only thing.

Geocache Photos

publicenergy — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 02:18:28

In July 2004 I placed a geocache in Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, UK. I put it in part of the park that wasn't that obvious as a walking route but when you saw it it looked funny - it was in a little island of trees in the middle of a field with a footpath heading towards it. The location is only obvious if you already knew where it is.

Anyway, inside this geocache, I placed a disposable camera with instructions to take a photo when you visited and to leave a note on the geocaching web site when you logged your find if you thought the camera had run out of film.

Since then, I've collected 5 used up cameras and had the film developed.

You can see the photos by clicking on the image above.

TTV Photography

davekoen — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:19:28

Has anybody here on 9rules tried TTV photograhy? In simple terms, have you ever taken a digital camera and pointed it through the viewfinder on an old camera?

Here is a small example of what I am talking about...

If you have, do you have any tips or tricks to take better pictures with this method?

your favorite b&w?

tmcdaily — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:45:29

Post your favorite black & white image (shot by you, o'course!)

Wedding Photography

veronique — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:10:53

Have you ever done it?
For a family member or as part of a contract?
Were you first or second shooter?

I'm going to be phographing a wedding this coming Sunday for another wedding photographer who wants to concentrate on marketing and business rather than creativity from now on. So he's "trying me out" this Sunday. He says what he expects from me is to bring creative composition and decide how to place people for group shots and/or planned shots.

I'd like to hear experiences from anyone who's ever done wedding photography before. :)

Flickr apathy

seriocomic — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:58:22

I've wanting to write this article for some time, but since my own blog is purely for photos (until I get around into inserting a traditional blog back in there somehow) I thought why not vent/rant here.

If you are a big fan of Flickr you might want to change the channel now.

For what ever reason, maybe my slight anti-social (as in wallflower as opposed to people-person) personality or possibly my snobbish view of photos vs snapshots, but I can't help but despise Flickr.

I can get past the cutesy web 2.0 name, and I am all for community websites. But I can't understand the popularity of the damn thing. The sheer number of crap photos (probably 80% of the 2 BILLION) that are there, for me makes it such a diluted pool of junk.

I guess that its because I live inside my own little bubble that I can't understand why people, if they are serious about sharing their photos, that they don't have their own website for them. It's either that or its that community sense of averageness that binds the members. (Sure there are a number of spectacular images, but they make up less than 1%).

Perhaps I am looking at Flickr through my own expectations and standards. But I feel the same about Flickr as I do about MySpace - and the fact that are both equally popular means that a large proportion of the population care little about quality.

Chime in with your thoughts - I've got a thick skin so let me know either why you like Flickr so much or why you think I have no clue :)

Geotagging Photos

publicenergy — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 04:34:33

Does anyone else geotag their photographs?

In the past I have done it - I used to take a GPS with me on cycling days out and it would record a tracklog - you could then match this up using the time with the time your photos were taken and work out where each photo was taken and stamp it accordingly.

I've also manually added some photos on to the right place on Flickr using it's tools, but that's difficult because most of the bits of the UK I'm interesting it have really crap maps.

So, the other day I got a little GPS tracker thing that I can just chuck in my camera bag and it records a tracklog.

This is a screenshot of my walk around Clumber Park earlier today - all of those little markers are where I took photos...

It'll be nice when mainstream cameras have this kind of thing built in by default.

Photographic equipment you take everwhere

publicenergy — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:32:45

I've had periods where I think I carry too much stuff around. When I was out walking in the hills, I'd have my normal backpack and also my photo bag slung over my shoulder but this wasn't the most comfortable way of doing things, so I ended up buying a Lowepro backpack with loads of compartments for lenses and other paraphernalia and then that has another backpack attached to it for the other stuff like food, drink and clothes. I even had days out in cities wearing that thing before I thought - this is getting out of hand. (the big bag is the one pictured above - quite some time ago with different equipment in there including a bicycle pump for some reason - don't remember why now!)

So, I got a Crumpler that allows (forces) me to take a limited selection of stuff - and most of the time I can get away with that. I knew that I didn't really need to take 3 digital cameras and 3 film cameras everywhere along with enough film stock to last for weeks.

So, the limited selection that I take everywhere consists of:

Nikon D50
18-55mm lens
70-300mm lens
50mm lens
10-17mm fisheye lens
Gorillapod SLR
two waterproof camera and lens covers (I like in the UK!)
Some Cokin filters and adapters (grads and ND's)
Moo cards
dust blower
lens cloths
batteries (3 for Nikon but they last so long I struggle to exhaust one in a day)
memory cards
IR remote

I think that list is my complete list of comfort items. Sometimes I lose the filters and pack my Fuji S5600 which has been modified for infrared use - and that is primarily because I'll be having an infrared day (something I need to do again very soon).

So, what's your list of comfort items you can't leave home without?

Lenses for the Nikon D40 HELP

emmyj — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:23:08

Hi I posted by mistake this question as a response to someone elses question. Sorry if you are reading this twice. Anyway, I am new to photography I am purchasing a Nikon D40, I was told this is a good camera to learn on. I was wondering if anyone can tell me what is the correct lens (lenses) to use when photographing people? Mostly for close up shots. Also I am a bit confused about actions? I came across a website that I LOVE. jottephotography.com she sells a b&w action. I will probably buy it but I was wondering if anyone can tell me how she makes the color in her photos pop so much? Is it with an action? If so any suggestions on what to get? I hope this isnt messed up of me to ask about her secrets!! She does offer workshops but not anywhere near where I live, plus its $1000 for two days. THANKS for any suggestions.