The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[mikeymad]

Return of Kaiman Wong. After leaving DigitalRev

 

[Torpedo]

A couple iPhone shots I took yesterday morning after the shift on Xmas Eve

 

Pretty heavy fog.

[Jon L]

Snapped with my cell phone when saw this guy on top of my sneakers..

1226161415ba by drjlo1, on Flickr

[crappyjones123]

Night time in NYC.

[padam]

 

 

[crappyjones123]

Fantastic images padam. Care to divulge how you managed to get the first one so parallel? A stitch is what I'm guessing but I've never been able to get the lines to go straight like you have been able to. Or did you just crop the image before things started distorting?

[padam]

No, that was one shot only at 11mm, so no stitching required (ok bracketed HDR)

Minor correction using Lightroom (Transform/Guided), no cropping at all, also no lens profile correction, because I liked better without it.

The second one was shot handheld with an old 28mm, the A7II is a terrific tool to make handheld panoramas with the stabilization and level indicator in the viewfinder, and the DR is still excellent at ISO3200.

Something else from yesterday

Edited January 10, 2017 by padam

[crappyjones123]

The distortion is slightly more apparent on my desktop monitor. On my phone it looked near perfect. 

[padam]

[Knuckledragger]

For the first time in ...for-fucking-ever, I'm actually taking some photos, editing them and posting them online.  Wrangling Flickr for the first time in years is an amusing and frustrating experience.  I've hated the "new" UI for years now, and I find accomplishing fairly basic tasks with it to be a right royal PITA.  Several of the large groups where I was a member have disappeared completely (RIP the hugely active Macintosh group).  I barely remember how to embed images via Flickr at this point.

IMG_1505 Edit 2

Infrared photo I took 5 years ago almost to the day, with my IR-modified 5D and my 35mm F/2.  The 35 has a broke AF motor, but that has never stopped me from using it.  I spent ages converting this image to black & white with a high contrast blue filter and then duotoning it in Photoshop.

 

IMG_1852

Ancient historical of a ferry boat ...in the spring of 2016.  As I have been doing a bunch recently, I converted this image to black & white and duotoned it in Photoshop.

 

IMG_1848 Edit 2

One of my old favorite tricks, taking the law of thirds to its illogical end.  Lots of ocean texture.  Mangled heavily in Photoshop to make it look like a historical remnant.  

 

IMG_1853 Edit 2

Faux Large Format Shot: The Shenandoah, as photographed from a ferry.  Converted to black & white and duotoned in Photoshop.  Cropped to 4:5, which is still my favorite aspect ratio.

 

IMG_1917 Edit 1

The most recent shot of the bunch, I took this last May during my previous visit to MV.  I only got around to editing it this week.  Converted to black & white using a yellow filter and then duotoned in Photoshop.

Edited December 2, 2017 by Knuckledragger

[Knuckledragger]

Being doing some more editing and non-editing of photos:

IMG_0042

First attempt at a panorama with my iPhone.  Strictly speaking this was the first photo I've ever taken with an iPhone.

 

IMG_2070

I re-lamped (replaced the bulbs) both of these lights.  I used a faux vintage LED bulb on the art nouveau lamp on the right.  It is supposed to emulate carbon strap bulbs from the 1920s.  I used a "vanity" LED bulb for the art deco lamp on the right.  The bulb was too tall the interior space inside the globe, so I had to remove the plastic dome from it.  That involved me twisting it off with an oversized pair of channel locks.

 

IMG_1936 Edit 1 3-2 2

Jernegan pond, converted to black & white and duotoned.

 

IMG_2029

An idyll, or the appearance thereof.

 

IMG_1958 Edit 2

Sweetened Water Pond in early December.  Converted to black & white and duotoned in Photoshop.  I spent considerable time mucking around with this image.  I'm still not 100% happy with it.   

 

IMG_3405

Infrared study I did over two years ago, with my IR-modified 5D and a Nikon 75-150 F/3.5E push-pull zoom.

 

IMG_3362

17-40mm at the wide end on my IR5D.  Straight out of the camera with no edits, which is a rarity for IR.

[Grahame]

Meanwhile ...
Add on iPhone lenses review
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/30/moment-lenses-the-dslr-killer-a-review/

[Knuckledragger]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/04/20/smugmug-buys-flickr-verizon-oath/537377002/

Fuck me with a 300mm F/2.8

[Knuckledragger]

Well, that sure sucks.  Especially as DXO owns Nik's plugins.

[Grahame]

Meanwhile ...

Also ...

 

Any other HC-er's drone enabled,  or merely drone curious?

[Jon L]

I think Nikon hit one out of the park with the Z7.  I can almost feel the Canon exec's sweating bullets, as Canon is supposed to unveil their own mirrorless full frame camera soon, which I doubt is going to be as capable as Nikon's version.  

As for me, I am going to use my original Sony A7R into the ground as its svelt size and portability is unbeatable, as newer mirrorless full-frame cameras continue to get larger.  

Sony A7R vs. A7R III size

 

Sony A7R III vs. Nikon Z7 size

Edited August 24, 2018 by Jon L

[padam]

One XQD slot, that's annoying. Since Nikon is in the memory card business now, it's been done to 'encourage' users to get more expensive cards and have no backup at the same time. (They could have added an SD card alongside like the D500 or D850) The camera itself does not seem to benefit at all from the insane card speed (the buffer is small).

Apart from this, it is certainly the 'cool' camera for the moment, the pricing of the bodies are aggressive. Quite an investment, if one doesn't own any Nikon glass.

 

I don't think this is a big problem for Canon with their huge ecosystem, where all of their cameras from very cheap entry level DSLR to professional camcorders use the EF-mount (we can also add RED cameras, etc.) Plus, these lenses have proven to be very reliable, not sure about these new all-electronic mirrorless lenses, I think that having a mechanical focus linkage is just nicer and the AF doesn't seem to be inferior.

I am in the same boat, still using the original A7S (got it at a big discount), after ditching the A7 and A7II, The silent mode is something really special, an early and kinda rough implementation, but still works. Trouble is that the logical upgrade would be the A9, but the price is a rip-off considering it still has many Sony things that haven't been fixed. (Unfortunately, it is easy to catch the smartphone syndrome with mirrorless...) My biggest issue is the color and the general look, sometimes good, sometimes quite a struggle.

I have bought a Canon 5D Mk1 for fun (YT hype), and I can recommend it to anybody starting out for fun over a crop sensor, if video is not needed. It certainly does feel kind of big and ancient, so I don't use it as much, but the images are really lovely, the colors are a whole lot better than any Sony, this is something you can't measure on DXO.

 

[Jon L]

2 hours ago, padam said:

My biggest issue is the color and the general look, sometimes good, sometimes quite a struggle.

I have bought a Canon 5D Mk1 for fun (YT hype), and I can recommend it to anybody starting out for fun over a crop sensor, if video is not needed. It certainly does feel kind of big and ancient, so I don't use it as much, but the images are really lovely, the colors are a whole lot better than any Sony, this is something you can't measure on DXO.

Colors are a problem with Sony.  I would never use out of camera colors from my Sony A7R, but I have gotten used to carrying my Colorchecker passport, at least a grey card.  

Colors out of my Canon 5D III are much nicer out of camera; however, they are still not neutral enough for any serious work IMO, so I end up using Colorchecker anyway.

[padam]

4 hours ago, Jon L said:

Colors are a problem with Sony.  I would never use out of camera colors from my Sony A7R, but I have gotten used to carrying my Colorchecker passport, at least a grey card.  

Colors out of my Canon 5D III are much nicer out of camera; however, they are still not neutral enough for any serious work IMO, so I end up using Colorchecker anyway.

That's good to hear, so it may not be me being utterly useless in post-production. Looking back at images, I am struggling to get a grip on a constant style.

I guess it is down to taste, I like 5D III colors as well as they are, maybe more so than the 5D IV but the latter seems a bit more accurate and subdued. And generally the adjustments work differently (better) for me on Canon.

I got a Color Chart (not the pricey XRite one) and so far I haven't figured out how to make a good profile out out it, simply recognising it in a DNG Profile Editor without further adjustments makes it too flat and lifeless(similar to the Adobe Standard profile which is flatter than any of the Camera Profiles). I haven't tried it with the Canon yet, but will do it some time later one, I wonder if it does the same thing.

I took pictures with both cameras and tried to match it by hand, it was difficult to do but works reasonably well with natural right, so that's what I use some of the times. With artificial light though, I couldn't do it, this is where the Sony has the most problems, even with a grey card I couldn't set a white balance that I was happy with.

[CarlSeibert]

I just got back in touch with my inner 500mm mirror lens. 

I've had a 500mm f/8 Reflex Nikkor since, basically, forever. For years, well decades, it rode around in my trunk. Eventually - like twenty, twenty-five years ago - the old mirror lens was supplanted by more "practical" long lenses, like a 400mm 3.5, and a 300mm 2.8, then a 500mm 4, 400mm 2.8, and a 600mm 4 when I needed it. You get the idea. The old mirror lens eventually moved from my trunk to the back of my camera cabinet at home.

Which I am now trying to civilize. I'm selling old and stupid stuff, putting things in order, getting stuff repaired - the kind of thing you do every ten years or so, whether it's needed or not.

And I pulled out the old mirror lens. So I marched outside to the creek with it and sat on the bank and photographed whatever happened by for five minutes and six seconds (according to the Exif data) And this thing is just so damned cool! It used to be that you had about three choices for exposure level for any given film speed (1/500th, 1/1000th, and 1/2000th. Well, and 1/250 most of the time.) Neutral density filters made the lens unfocusable. On a modern digital camera, you've got two more shutter speeds and four more instantly changeable ISOs. The lens fits in a bag, weighs nothing, and is hand holdable to an easy-ish 1/250th. Close focus is very reasonable. It's sharp and contrasty. Not 400 2.8 sharp, but 300 4.5 ED IF sharp, easily. It's "practical" all of a sudden! And now with everybody all about bokeh, those annular highlights are the bee's knees. 

I checked on eBay. You can grab these things for less than $300 (for the newer series no less) 

Mr ibis here was shot at 1/250th, handheld, at ISO 400. 

I don't know if anybody else will find this intriguing, but I'm all (re)excited.

[shellylh]

 I am very tempted to get the new Nikon full frame mirrorless Z6.  Just worried about kinks that might need to be worked out.  I have a lot of Nikon glass that I would use with the adapter for now until they develop more Z glass.  Thought?  Wait for the next edition? 

Edited November 30, 2018 by shellylh

[blessingx]

If you get the Z6, make sure to get this Ikelite underwater housing (even if you never take it near water). It's gotta have special powers. 

 

[shellylh]

It’s got to have special powers with all those red and blue buttons!

[blessingx]

As I may have helped pause this thread, a few shots from a recent Amsterdam trip to unpause. First two iPhone XR. Rest Fujifilm X-Pro2 with XF 35mm f/2.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by blessingx

[Voltron]

Nice shots Ric.