The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[Grahame]

1 hour ago, crappyjones123 said:

@crappyjones123

 

[Knuckledragger]

I dug out and fired up my 30D for the first time in 6? 7? 8? years today.  There were a number of false starts.  I had to set the time (it had only lost half an hour, which is amazing) and it didn't like the first three CF cards I fed it.  Finally, it stopped complaining and I tried some shots with 50/1.4.  Confirming things worked, I immediately reached for my ancient Meyer-Optik Orestor 135mm F/2.8 "bokeh monster."  My purpose was to photograph to old old widgets that belonged to my grandfather.  I had the benighted notion to post the images to reddit's /r/whatisthisthing, but that subreddit has a slew of poorly defined rules and an aggressive AutoMod bot so they can individually and collectively go F themselves. 

With that said, I took a whole bunch of artistically questionable shots of two 19th century objects while making egregious and unnecessary use of a shallow depth of field:

Old East German glass is a hoot.  See more here and more broadly my use of manual focus lenses here.

[Grahame]

Have you ever taken a photograph, that could have been black and white, but wasn't.

[dsavitsk]

9 hours ago, Grahame said:

Have you ever taken a photograph, that could have been black and white, but wasn't.

[Knuckledragger]

I own one of the red ones.  I have never successfully taken a photo with it.

[blessingx]

Not only did I take [a few] photos, I took [a few] photos at headphone gatherings. 

I also got suckered into the Light.io camera. 🤕 Well, basically pulled into all the Valley origin camera companies. Stay strong Foveon! And, I guess, Apple and Google.  

 

[blessingx]

14 hours ago, Grahame said:

Have you ever taken a photograph, that could have been black and white, but wasn't.

Almost on my last trip to San Francisco. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by blessingx

[Grahame]

48 minutes ago, blessingx said:

Almost on my last trip to San Francisco. 

Well that definitely wasn't .

I was thinking of a scene that looks desaturated, but isn't. It just appears that way. It's just the lighting etc. 

An opposite to your photo would be desaturated Santa. 

https://brodyqat.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/desaturated-santa/

 

 

 

 

[blessingx]

Yeah, another attempt at a joke. Near monochrome scene until either someone pissed off another at the artist studios over by the train station, or the drugs took effect. Thankfully one car over, not mine. 
 

In other news TTArtisan not long ago released a really cheap (like $200 new, $170 used) tilt (not shift) 50mm f/1.4 FF lens in a variety of mounts. Not sure how likely I’d use for its intended purpose, but been fun this week to experiment with other ones around the house. 
 

 

[mikeymad]

took this almost b&w photo last year (just a touch of green showed up. I didn't realize it's lack of color until later. 

 

[Knuckledragger]

While I'm not where near my late 00s output, I have begun to take, edit and post photos at a rate that I have not in over a decade.

Just a short walk from my house.  The 17-40L is a bit silly at the wide end (TBH just about everything that wide is) but I end up using it that way more often than not.  I attribute this to a lack of discipline on my part.  Conversely, the 17-40 is actually amazing at 40mm. 

 

Infrared version of a scene I posted earlier (points up.)  IR is never not a PITA.  Out of the camera, this shot looks awful.  I spent over an hour futzing with it.  First I denoised in Topaz DeNoise AI.  Next ran it through Luminar 4 where I made a bunch of changes and applied a lookup table.  I've begun to use L4 for the conversion to B&W.  It's basically as good as (my totally legit copy of) Photoshop for that task.  I also applied a lookup table, which made a fairly subtle difference.  Lastly, I dragged the image into PS, removed some dirt spots and fixed the [gosh darn] horizon line.  I actually quite like the end result.  I've been moving toward "normal" looking IR images (vs freakish alien landscape) for a while now.  Other than the odd tone curve, one might not immediately notice this is an IR photo.

 

Downtown Edgartown.  Similar, but not quite as involved process as above.  Luminar 4 manages to add so much noise to images with its pseudo HDR math (even when I specifically disable most of it) that I have found I need to do both "before" and "after" passes in Topaz.  This is a much more obviously IR shot. I do like the strong beam of light from the late afternoon sun.

 

Edgartown docks.  Less processing than some of the shots above, but I still did a careful B&W conversion and spent considerable time on the levels.

 

Across the street fro my house.  What makes this photo for me is the tiny jet with the contrail between the clouds.

 

I've also been editing some older photos, specifically a bunch from 2008:

Two shots of the late Heidi the cat, surveying her kingdom and ...doing cat stuff, I guess.  Taken with the very good Canon 85mm F/1.8 I borrowed for a few days.  The 85/1.8 is a great lens that forever lives in the looming shadow of the glass Gojira that is its F/1.2 brother.

Exiting a bar on Christmas Eve, 2011.  PowerShot S95 wide open (F/2) 1/13th handheld, ISO200.  I didn't like the photo when I took it, but nearly a dozen years later I think it captures a mood.

 

My driveway after a blizzard, January 2009.  Light source is my house + car's headlights.

 

A few weeks earlier that same January.  Cold sunset over a Stop & Shop parking lot.

 

Back to the present day.  Some odd cloud formations over my back yard.  Moment app on an iPhone 13, with minimal futzing in PS afterward.  I've got a bunch more to post, but this is going to have to do for now.  Flickr has gone "503 Service Unavailable.  No server is available to handle this request." half a dozen times while I've tried to make this post.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Knuckledragger

[blessingx]

Keep sharing! 

_____________________

Something to keep an eye on... 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/culturehustle/abode-a-suite-of-world-class-design-and-photography-tools

 

[Knuckledragger]

Fujifim suspends X100V orders likely due to overwhelming demand, component shortage; raises questions about viability of successor. 

The Fuji X100 series are HUGELY popular with Tik Tokers, which has driven the demand and price of them through the stratosphere.  NIB X100Vs are like $2000 on the used market.  An X100 series has been on my "maybe buy one" list for many years, but at this point I'm looking at a Canon mirrorless and the 35mm F/2 IS.

[blessingx]

Fuji got hit from both sides at the same time - influencers from TikTok and Roger Deakins quite publicly stating he’s using for stills. Hardly anyone mentions Fuji uses the same sensor and sims across same generation cameras so E4 (minus OVF) and X-Pro3 (slightly larger), with XF23, gets you very close. 

[Voltron]

Both of those also show as discontinued on BH Photo and elsewhere. Do you know if there current models that are equivalents?

Also, if somebody here has an X100V they want to offload, let me know. My daughter has been trying to find one and luckily dodged a FB Marketplace scam.

[HiWire]

I've been watching the Fujifilm X-Series cameras for years... the new X-S20 and the older X-T30 II are the kind of cameras at the top of my list. 📷

[blessingx]

1 hour ago, Voltron said:

Both of those also show as discontinued on BH Photo and elsewhere. Do you know if there current models that are equivalents?

Also, if somebody here has an X100V they want to offload, let me know. My daughter has been trying to find one and luckily dodged a FB Marketplace scam.

So those are the rangefinder-style models, but X-T30 II would be the same sensor (and sims, etc.) in a thin SLR-style. So same photos, but a little larger. Appears to be at Best Buy. X-T3/4/5 would be larger still, but very similar. X-S20 too. And X100T and X-Pro2 would have to be bought used, but very close. All those would need a lens. 

[dsavitsk]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:16 PM, blessingx said:

Something to keep an eye on... 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/culturehustle/abode-a-suite-of-world-class-design-and-photography-tools

 

Indeed: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-148_3e04.pdf

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I used the T20 and T30 for a while in a light travel kit for a few years before I ended up with a Nikon Z7 that I got from our good friend Gene.  Those Fuji bodies are probably an ideal size/feature/image quality compromise for most people that want something better than a phone photo, and aren't pixel-peeper nuts like me.  The little 15-45 zoom lens is excellent for its' tiny footprint, same for the 27/2.8 pancake prime. The 50-230 zoom also has great image quality considering the aperture limitations, at a very svelte weight. 

[padam]

4 hours ago, Voltron said:

Both of those also show as discontinued on BH Photo and elsewhere. Do you know if there current models that are equivalents?

Also, if somebody here has an X100V they want to offload, let me know. My daughter has been trying to find one and luckily dodged a FB Marketplace scam.

 

[Grahame]

Re: Fuji

Fix it in post?

https://petapixel.com/2023/03/28/photographer-becomes-online-hit-with-presets-that-mimics-fujifilm-x100v/

[blessingx]

Certainly lots of Fuji presets out there.

Now talk about a camera (that would look awfully nice next to a turntable)...

https://petapixel.com/2023/06/16/you-could-own-the-custom-camera-used-to-shoot-blade-runner/ 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by blessingx

[blessingx]

Reopening casket…

https://www.dpreview.com/site-news/8298318614/dpreview-com-looks-forward-to-a-new-chapter-with-gear-patrol 

 

[blessingx]

I’m neither good at landscape or square format, but when you lug the nearly five pound Zeiss 50mm Distagon, Hassy 500cm, 42307 45 Prism, and CFV II 50c back (forgot the monopod) into a park last weekend, you try. Here are my best Bon Iver album covers. 

[dsavitsk]

Square format is underappreciated.