The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[blessingx]

Where's the restart button? 

 

[Knuckledragger]

https://petapixel.com/2019/05/08/canon-unveils-the-rf-85mm-f-1-2l-its-go-to-mirrorless-portrait-lens/  Bruh. I'll take two of them.

I just spent 20 minutes looking for my blower before giving up and going straight to the sensor swabs.  I gave my IR 5D it's first proper cleaning in years.  I was supposed to be out walking 90 minutes ago.  SMH my head, as the kids say.

[Jon L]

Canon RF 85 f/1.2L looks like a great lens, but $2700 ?! ☹️

[tyrion]

Some shots from the 17th floor on the beach during last weeks Air Show in Fort Lauderdale.

[Voltron]

Nice shots! They practice all around SF leading up to Fleet Week and I used to stare out my office window at them. Amazing pilots. 

[tyrion]

Thanks Al. I took so many shots I was bound to get a few good ones.


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[Knuckledragger]

Gah.  I can't find my M42 to EOS adapter anywhere.  As I continue to blow the dust off 15 years worth of photography equipment, I've now unearthed my not insubstantial collection of mid 20th century manual focus M42 lenses.  I want to mount my E. Ludwig Meritar 50mm f/2.9 to my IR 5D.  It's a quirky lens, and fantastically slow by the standards of 50mms.  I've shot film through it, but never mounted it to a full frame DSLR.  I actually have a bunch of M42/EOS adapters, but they're more or less permanently attached to my (as of, say, 2009) preferred lenses.  The adapters are secured to the lens via a set screw, which is nontrivial to remove.  The weather is perfect right now, and if I can't find the adapter I want, I may be forced to dig out a micro screwdriver.  

Also I have a bunch of photos to post here.  Later.

[padam]

The new Canon lenses are great. All of them. This was taken with the RF 28-70mm f/2 lens.

The EOS R is a bit quirky but also very powerful, overall I like it and I can also recommend it (or the RP which gets a lot of unwarranted hate) with the RF 24-105mm f/4 IS lens, which was also great.

[Knuckledragger]

I have no idea how to embed photos with links on the current version of HC.  This is a warm up to a future, much larger post:

Photo desc from Flickr:

Quote

Cool Story Bro time: In 2012, I purchased a Canon EOS 5D (an ancient, but full frame DSLR) that had been modified to shoot infrared.  It cost me less than the price of IR conversion, which is why I bought it.  Also, I'm an IR nutjob.  I went to Haven't Halloween with m IR5D and an IR hammerhead flash (yes, those are a thing, yes I have one) and attempted to take IR nightclub photos.  It didn't work out terribly well.  The 5D had a great deal of trouble focusing in Diva's, and the hammerhead flash lacked an AF-assist beam (something many Canon flashes have).    

I was backing up my photo archive and happened to revisit the infrared Haven set.  I did a (not so) quick perusal and reached the same conclusion I have at every other instance: with a precious few exceptions, the photos are not very good.

All of this said, this shot caught my eye.  From a technical perspective, it's terrible.  The 50mm lens I was using backfocused (as it is wont to do) and got the background in razor sharp focus.  The subject in the foreground is a blurry mess.    The slow shutter speed makes her even less clear. 

Yet, somehow it works.  The technical flaws of the photo (which are legion) convey a sense of movement and separation, in the opposite of how a shallow depth of field does normally.

It ain't a good photo, but I like it.

 

[blessingx]

We need more of these.

 

[Knuckledragger]

Flickr is doing a major hardware upgrade.  It's been, uh, running a bit long: https://status.flickr.net/

[Knuckledragger]

So over the last month I've begun a slow return to photography, after 5+ years of near complete inactivity.  I started with digging out my old camera gear, blowing the dust off and charging my batteries.  Said batteries are all over a decade old at this point and very quickly it became clear they didn't have the moxie to keep my DSLRs happy.  They could keep my ca. 2002 IR-modified PowerShot G2 running, however:

Taken with a 17 year old, 4 megapixel point & shoot with a wide angle adapter that was meant for (SD) video.  

 

Slightly thereafter, I placed several orders to AMZN and got my IR-modified 5D up and running..

My initial adventure wasn't very far ...my side yard.  I used my EF 50mm F/1.8, the vintage 1987 Mk I iteration (which is mechanically superior, but optically the same as the plastic "nifty fifty.")  Converted to black & white with an blue filter and then duotoned in Photoshop.

 

Taken with my EF 35mm F/2, which has a wonky AF motor but usually works on the 5D.  Converted to black & white with a blue filter an duotoned in Photoshop.  I pulled a tick off me shortly after taking this photo.

 

Straight out of the camera.  No edits at all.

 

[Knuckledragger]

The previous post was supposed to be longer, but I'm having some issue posting multiple images from Flickr to HC.  Yes, the irony of that statement is not lost on me.

 

The stream at the edge of my property.  I spent considerable time framing this shot.  35mm F/2 at F/8, 1/60, ISO200.

 

It's just a bunch of trees.   Converted to black & white in Photoshop using a high contrast blue filter, then duotoned.  I also tweaked the curves a bit and then cropped it to 5:4 (which has been my favorite aspect ratio for a decade now.)  The vignetting is organic, and not done by a PS plugin.  It's an artifact of how the EF 50mm F/1.4 USM transmits IR. F/8, 1/100 ISO 160.

 

17-40L at 17mm, F/7.1, 1/100, ISO50.

 

17-40L at 19mm, F/6.3, 1/80, ISO50.

 

Moar later.

[Knuckledragger]

17-40L at 17mm, F/5, 1/60, ISO 100.

 

17-40L at 19mm, F/6.3, 1/180, ISO 50.

 

Pure silliness at this point.  I attatched my Nikon 75-150mm F/3.5 E to my IR-modified 5D and did a "macro" shot of a plant growing in my front yard.  The lens was wide open and I shot in aperture priority mode (as one does with fully manual lenses most of the time.)  I then processed the image in Photoshop ...twice.  The first time I did some basic contrast adjustments.  The second time I converted the photo to black & white using a high contrast filter then duotoned it with a quad tone.  Then I did some further levels work (I can't really call it "correction" at this point.)  Finally, I combined the two images at about a 25/75 ratio.  Why?  I dunno, it's just how the work flow went. 

[MexicanDragon]

Loving that you've gotten back in the game, Knucks! 

13 hours ago, Knuckledragger said:

17-40L at 17mm, F/5, 1/60, ISO 100.

I particularly like this one.

[Knuckledragger]

Thanks.  It's been a slow process getting back into it.  

Currently I'm trying to figure out what is the current iteration of the Canon PowerShot S series.  I found the really nice S120, which has a lens that's F/1.8 at the wide end.  It was released in late 2013.  There's also 2014's S200, which is a step down from the 120 (wat.)  I'm worried that SMRT PHNES have killed the premium point & shoot market.  

17-40L at 17mm F/7.1, 1/100, ISO 50.

 

35mm F/2 at F/5, 1/200, ISO 100.  Converted to black & white with a blue filter and then duotoned.

 

17-40L at 29mm, F/6.3, 1/4, ISO50.  Converted to black & white with a high contrast filter, then duotoned in Photoshop.

 

17-40L at 25mm, F/5.6, 1/60, ISO50.

[Knuckledragger]

...and this is why I can't find a good point and shoot.  Currently looking for a clean used PowerShot S120, which came out in 2013.

[blessingx]

Magnum’s Square Print Sale is on for the next few days. Shows up a couple times a year and good to check out if you like the Magnum photographers. I picked up a couple prints the last two rounds. 

https://shop.magnumphotos.com/

[blessingx]

For those shooting film, Acros is back. Also I'm gonna fall asleep to Ted's voice again. Yeah, man. 

 

[Voltron]

Is Ted also a porn actor and / or AMSR producer and / or serial killer?

[blessingx]

Speaking of Acros (first)... well, an Alien Skin simulation for Fuji users applied to a Leica DNG... still struggling a little with the M240 output, but love shooting with it. Here with a Voigtländer 35 f/1.7 Ultron. Finished in Snapseed for viewing on phone. No child was injured in the taking of these photos. 

Edited June 19, 2019 by blessingx

[blessingx]

A couple more from the M240 combo above (with Richard Serra sculpture). Then a couple treatment experiments from the Sigma sd Quattro H (with 50 Art). Assuming these are being viewed on phone so finished in Snapseed. 

[Knuckledragger]

More or less at the end of my rope wit Adobe's bullshit.  Officially in the market for new editing software.  Currently considering Affinity Photo: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

It's cheap. $40, or about what one month of Adobe's SaaS bullshit costs.  Also looked at Corel's PaintShop Pro (a problem I last used in the early 1990s).  It's slightly more expensive at $65, but it's Windows only.  (The actual fuck.  What kind kind of inhuman monster edits photos on WINDOWS?!?!?)  

I already have GIMP (FLOSSy AF, screwball UI, but it is free.)  The new freeware kid in town is Krita: https://krita.org/en/  I have downloaded it but not installed it yet.  That's going to be tonight's project.  

I've been editing photos in Photoshop on and off for 25-30 years (not an exaggeration, really.  I learned PS on a Macintosh II.)  It feels weird to be dumping an app that is muscle memory to me, but ADBE seems intent on being as evil as a tobacco, oil or chemical weapons manufacturer so F the MFers.

[blessingx]

Tough call. Since I switched to Capture One from Lightroom, I do more local adjustments/edits there (supplemented a bit with Alien Skin Exposure). So end up in Photoshop only when I need to do the most detailed tweaks, say removing a complicated object, where Photoshop's intelligence still outperforms Affinity. Affinity is  close and it's improving, but then again so is Photoshop.

 

 

[dsavitsk]

An exciting young player, but posted here for being a spectacularly well framed and timed photograph.