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Hello fellow dorkroom posters. With the future of SA up in the air it would be a shame to lose this wonderful community to the ether, this is my favorite place to post about photography and get dunked on by people who are far more talented than me. To that end there's a new stickied thread and a Dorkroom discord has been made. If the worst comes to pass it'd be a shame to lose touch with all of you fine posters, so please come in and have a chat, or let us know some of your other favorite places to talk about photography. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3929110 https://discord.gg/98XxqMB
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Jun 24, 2020 23:17
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 08:05 |
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WD-40 is not a lubricant, never use it as such. Graphite powder is a good general purpose one that'll work independent of material and not grease up your bag. I'd just use a silicone based lubricant like Super Lube.
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Jul 21, 2020 03:05
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Jupiter Jazz posted:Sure. But gear nerds don't seem to be the best photographers and this factors into why I avoided the technical aspects so long: a dislike for gear nerds. Being enamoured with gear is not the same as being enamoured with the craft. Not understanding core concepts like ISO, Shutter speed and aperture is effectively limiting the vocabulary you use to express your intent. If you don't know how aperture works and how it effects the final image you can't make informed decisions about aperture and instead twiddle and chimp your way to an acceptable photo, not something you can do in the moment. I like Ted Forbes' introduction to photography series, he covers core concepts and settings but also goes into classical composition. Understanding these fundamentals will go a long way to expanding your photographic vocabulary with expressing yourself and discussing why and how a photo you like or dislike works. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGEE7pGLuppT2MB0a7TYgBx_ZHDDHaEr6 e: Apparently I'm a page behind Megabound fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Dec 4, 2020 |
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Dec 4, 2020 02:06
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I have learned to sit on my photos instead of immediately posting them. This allows me to reflect on my themes and catalogue. When I have enough material in a single hopper I'll start posting things out to IG. My backlog is ranges out to about 6 months at the moment but I know other posters here have years of catalogue. That helps you appear cohesive even though your art and expression may range on the day to day.
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May 20, 2021 03:42
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Look at photos you like, think about them, talk about them and try to understand what makes them compelling. Combine that with practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ej4Le3lo9Y
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Sep 30, 2021 21:41
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punk rebel ecks posted:I guess what I should be asking is how far into photography can I go with just an iPhone 13 Pro Max? This is really dependant on what you want to shoot. You won't be birding or doing macro or studio style sessions with flashes and light boxes with it. When you shoot and play around with it you'll find where it lets you down and butts up against your artistic desires. Once you find out what it can't do then you can look into something that can.
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Nov 3, 2021 06:09
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punk rebel ecks posted:I thought Sony made the best mirrorless cameras. From my use of mirrorless cameras I think Fuji do the best ones in terms of ergonomics and getting out of your way. Be aware I do not shoot digital so my opinions are worth a bit less.
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Nov 3, 2021 23:14
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The Plustek Opticfilm 8xxx series are all good, their trim level changes if they can do iSRD and what version of Silverfast they come with, same sensor in all of them. It's worth factoring in the upgrade cost to Silverfast Ai so they have access to true 48bit raw scans.
Megabound fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Nov 4, 2021 |
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Nov 4, 2021 21:31
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When I started or when I get a new camera I do, there's an Android app called Exif Notes that allows you to enter all your gear and then easily select the setting and lenses you use per shot, you can then export it as exif data and attach it to your scans.
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Nov 14, 2021 23:48
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Yeah that's the only reason I note new rolls. I shoot with some fairly old cameras so it's good to diagnose mechanical issues, or even optical issues. Diffraction can settle in early and noticeably on old lenses so it's useful to keep track of.
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Nov 16, 2021 03:46
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Bioshuffle posted:I'm doing product photography against a white background. What's the most idiot proof way to make sure the background is pure white with no patches of light grey showing through? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWXlTSPZMv8
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Nov 16, 2021 23:19
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huhu posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for like an "Art 101 how to consume a piece of art"? As I follow along in the Landscape thread, there are lots of observations that other posters make that I completely miss. I have no formal art education so I feel like I might be missing out. Also, every youtube search brings up some really weird unrelated poo poo so any specific links would be helpful. Robert Adams Why People Photograph is very good and I've heard John Szarkowski Looking at Photographs recommended but I haven't read that myself.
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Nov 22, 2021 22:49
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Not at all, that whole series is effectively about shooting for wet printing using the zone system.
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Dec 30, 2021 22:27
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Last time someone handed me a camera to use without a viewfinder I kept on reflexively hitting myself in the face with it
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Apr 10, 2022 12:03
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punk rebel ecks posted:So I'm planning on taking a photography class this summer. I don't think either will be too advanced, and they sound like they'll cover the same topics with the travel one actually mentioning composition while the other sounds like "Here's how to use your camera". Are you a particularly self guided learner at all? I always recommend Ted's Basics series, to get you most of the way there, then his composition series, then getting out with your camera and just shooting all the things. Megabound fucked around with this message at 21:42 on May 22, 2022 |
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May 22, 2022 08:06
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The Anime Liker posted:Anyways, op, don't listen to any of these freaks. They're extremely mentally ill and are horrible teachers. The question was why do people still shoot film, not should I shoot film. People weren't saying that they should but giving reasons why they do. I shoot film because it gets the results I want. I don't hum and haw and not know what I'm getting out of a scene because like with anything it's a skill you can learn if you put your mind to it. I pair specific films with specific developers and development techniques to get what I want out of it. I print in a darkroom because I love the tangible connection to my art and the results it produces. I shoot and project slide at home for myself and my friends because nothing else looks as good as projected slide, and you can't replicate that experiance digitally.
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May 23, 2022 22:38
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The Anime Liker posted:Yeah. That's solid advice for beginners. What don't you get about the difference between "hey you're new to this, do this first" versus "oh you've been doing this 70 years and literally wrote the book on it"? Aperture wide open is horrible advice. It's the worst. It goes against literally everything. It's saying "You know the major control you have over DOF? Yeah, don't use that"
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May 23, 2022 22:52
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Here's my advice for beginners: Get your digital camera, put it in aperture priority and go outside and take photos. Mess with the aperture a bit and let the camera correct your exposure settings, it'll do a good job for you. Look at your photos and see how they changed when you changed your aperture.
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May 23, 2022 22:54
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The Anime Liker posted:That famous depth of field for getting blank white backgrounds used in product shots. You know that if you're isolating a subject you're probably pretty close to it right, and the closer you need to focus the thinner you DOF is for any given aperture so you will probably need to stop down to get your product in focus completely instead of being at 1m distance f/1.8 and getting less than 10cm of workable depth. Never mind that your lens is going to be noticeably softer at wide open rather than even stopping down 1 or 2 clicks.
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May 23, 2022 22:57
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No, you're right, if I'm using a 55mm at f/5.6 and getting a liquor bottle in focus I'm going to have to like, 50cm away from my subject max and that's going to give me a nice wide DOF of 1.6cm. More than enough for anyone IMO. e: No one's mad you for being overly simplistic, they're mad at you for giving bad advice and labelling half of the users in this subform freaks and bad teachers because they shoot different to you. Megabound fucked around with this message at 00:27 on May 24, 2022 |
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May 23, 2022 23:07
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The Anime Liker posted:The question: I have a lightbox and a Nikon with a kit lens with a maximum aperture of 5.6, what settings for product photography? Use a DOF calculator. Find out what DOF that aperture gets you at a reasonable working distance then come back and tell me you're still right.
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May 24, 2022 03:18
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Lily Catts posted:Hmm, maybe I should use that DoF calculator. I've been setting the aperture mostly based on feel and it would be great to have some science to back my decisions up. If your camera had the ability then using the aperture preview to take a look at your scene is what I do when I'm not shooting landscapes at hyperfocal.
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May 24, 2022 03:32
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The Anime Liker posted:Show me what you think a kit lens and a lightbox are, because quick mental math tells me about 2.5-3 feet to get a white void backdrop which is exactly the precise point of those little popup lightboxes. You're telling me you're getting a photo that close of a small object using a 55mm lens at 3 feet? That is insane. You are insane. That's a 6cm DOF, 2 inches.
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May 24, 2022 03:45
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Please post one of your own photos taken using this technique instead of photos you've taken of Amazon and say use that technique TIA.
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May 24, 2022 04:22
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Lol his fingers are out of focus
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May 24, 2022 06:56
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You're on a tripod, you can stop down bro
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May 24, 2022 07:05
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Show me a kit lens that can't stop down. Shooting at full open and having your subject out of focus is the exact wrong thing to do, even if you only have a kit lens and a home made light box. Shooting at the aperture where your subject is in full focus and having to do a little editing on the back end is still achievable for someone who is new to the game! Your education stopped at the least you could do, instead of explaining how aperture effects depth of field you just said "Shoot wide open and ignore the results, you don't need to know anything else". A good teacher would help the student make better decisions in their photography, and how to assess the output to define better input, not fob them off with a poorly explained golden rule and let them fail.
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May 24, 2022 07:34
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You want at least 2 skylight filters, a hoya and an urth to filter the maximum amount of sky light.
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May 26, 2022 03:50
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What camera are you using and what format are you shooting in? I imagine lens correction will only apply to SOOC jpegs and would leave RAWs untouched.
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May 26, 2022 05:49
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Toalpaz posted:Just got my 20d charged and up to speed. This is my first time in manual mode, and I've tested some settings on nearby potted plants and I'm coming for technical advice on what kind of shutter speed/aperture I'm looking for in daylight and dim light. Inheriting a 17-85mm EF-S, and 55-250mm EF-S telephoto. This is difficult to answer, in order to get a quick reading on what manual settings I should be using I look at shadow definition. Indoor lighting is a difficult beast to assess by eye, your eye is really good at compensating for lovely lighting! But I also thing it's the wrong way to go about it. A lot of people on the internet say that real pros only use manual, they're wrong. Manual mode is a tool to use when any given auto mode fails to provide what you want out of an image. Start in Aperture priority mode, that's Av on the control wheel. In this mode the camera is going to chose what it thinks is the best exposure for the aperture you have chosen. Half depress your shutter and you should see a read out of the shutter speed it selected, take the photo and look at the output, primarily you want to look at the depth of field, that's what your aperture is controlling. If your depth of field is too narrow then close down your aperture, too wide then open it up. After that's OK we can look at the exposure. From here if my photo is under or over exposed I still wouldn't turn to manual, instead I'd use the exposure compensation feature, that's the line that goes from -2 to +2 on the display here:  The exposure compensation dial will allow you to override the cameras decision, and tell it that you want up to 2 stops more or less exposure. If this still isn't enough (you're shooting a dark subject on a very bright background) I'd then switch to manual, keep my aperture the same and fiddle with my shutter speed until I'm getting what I want out of the image. I do 95% of my shooting in aperture priority, it's almost always the tool for the job. Toalpaz posted:I think the Bottom one is the best image. It's mostly accidental because it has a more closed aperture, but I also believe I turned on image stabilization in tandem with a longer exposure time brightening it all up. I think rather than increase shutter time I should have upped the iso to 1600 in the dim lighting. This is correct, for indoors shots that you want to handhold you should increase your ISO, this will result in a noisier image but at least it won't be blurry. The general rule, before image stabilization became a thing, is that the limit for a sharp hand held shot is the reciprocal of your focal length. If I'm using a 50mm lens, that'd be 1/50th of a second. A 100mm lens would be 1/100th and so on. If I'm shooting indoors handheld there's no way I'm not having stabilization on to give me some more leeway into slower shutter speeds. Toalpaz posted:Another issue I'm having with the Lens and Camera is that, the auto focus is having difficulty obtaining the correct focus. It only selects the dead center square, repeatedly attempts to achieve focus while failing, and settles for the wrong focus setting. Auto focus has a hard time in 2 situations, when it's dark, and when what you're focusing on in a single solid colour. If you take the camera out in the sun and give it a crack and it focuses quickly and decisively then you'll know that either one of those was your issue. You can always point your camera at a more contrasty part of the scene, half depress the shutter to lock that focus in, reframe and then finish depressing the shutter. The same is also true for metering your exposure. Point the center of the viewfinder at the thing you're exposing for, half depress to lock in the exposure, reframe and finish pressing the shutter. Megabound fucked around with this message at 02:10 on May 31, 2022 |
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May 31, 2022 02:03
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It's not a new thing, you even do it in traditional printing by tilting your focus stage and your baseboard until it looks alright: Which is to say, any editing is fine if it gets you to your intended image. The more you get right in camera the less work you give yourself the editor. If you see a photo you like in this forum it's almost certainly been dodged, burned, clone stamped, perspective corrected, exposure tweaked or any other number of things. There are limits of course, most people don't want their photo to look obviously manipulated, but that's up to you the artist. If you have a particular image you're concerned about pop it in here and we'll give you some feedback.
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Jun 10, 2022 05:54
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Yeah, that's why, if you're doing centre point focusing its going to try to put whatever is in the centre in the middle of your exposure range, which, if that's a shadow, will push your higights up as well and blow them out. If I was metering for that scene I'd probably use a lit tree trunk.
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Jun 11, 2022 01:52
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If the dust is visible like that it's always sensor dust. Your lens can get filthy but mostly what you'll see is a loss of contrast or if it's really bad, some softness. You can get sensor cleaning swabs and they do a good job. You won't need to do it very often at all.
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Jun 17, 2022 00:18
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Probably Todd Hido https://inexpensiveprogress.com/886/todd-hido-roaming/
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Sep 29, 2022 02:36
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Me?
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Sep 29, 2022 03:07
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I spent some time trying to track that one down but couldn't remember the name. Those photos rule.
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Sep 29, 2022 05:43
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If C1 syncs my edits to my phone and vice versa I'd jump, but my workflow and how I view my images is inherently tied to LR right now and I'll pay for that convenience
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Nov 28, 2022 00:32
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bellows lugosi posted:absolutely stunning portfolio from the author of that one Windows log in screen rear end photos
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Jan 4, 2023 05:25
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Looks like a fancy box brownie. I doubt you'll find any service manual but I'd start my exploration with those 4 screws holding on the faceplate.
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Jan 12, 2023 07:09
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 08:05 |
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Just shoot black and white, problem solved
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Jan 20, 2023 11:19
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