Themed Free Study Side Challenge - Post Here

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

01/03/2008 10:50:48 AM · #30

Welcome Andrew! I'm looking forward to your participation.

I'm finally getting back into the flow after the holidays and hope to get some more photos for my project soon. Maybe this weekend I can get out.

CWelch

Nikon D40X

01/03/2008 10:24:53 PM · #31

I'm having some problems..I think I'm the problem...but anyways...All the shots that I'm doing for this side-challenge are being taken at my work...now the lighting SUCKS,and the dogs don't look at the camera and say CHEESE..so it's a bit hard..but my problem is the pictures are turning out TERRIBLY..I don't know if it's a setting on my camera that I need to change? I've attached a picture from today (it's not for this challenge,I'm starting a before/after grooming portfolio)
[thumb]628935[/thumb]
Any advice on what you think I need to do would be great:)
Thanks so much

basssman7

Nikon D500

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

01/04/2008 03:47:25 AM · #32

Hey CJ,

From what I can see, it looks like you are shooting on automatic mode. Is that correct?

Try going to manual mode on your camera. Set the aperture to an fstop # of about 8. Set your shutter speed for 1/125 sec or 1/160 sec, and then use the pop up flash.

What I see as a possible problem is that in auto mode, your camera is setting your aperture and shutter speed to try and expose the shot without the flash, and just using the flash as fill in. (if you are even using the flash) The data I see from the sample pic shows an aperture of f4.5 with a shutter of 1/30 sec and no flash being used. The biggest problem is that the 1/30 sec is way to slow of a shutter speed for handheld shots, especially of a slightly moving subject like an animal. The next problem is that the colour is coming out a bit odd because without using the flash, the camera is taking in light from both the windowlight (daylight balanced obviously) and also the indoor lighting in the store (likely flourescent, which is a different colour "tinge" of light) so the colours in the shot look off a bit.

If you try the manual mode with a higher shutter speed and higher fstop it will eliminate the blur and also give you more depth of field to work with. (more area of the photo in focus)

That should solve your problems I think. ;)

U E

Message edited by author 2008-01-04 03:48:27.

01/04/2008 11:20:33 AM · #33

Hey Courtney basssman7 has some good advice especially regarding the 1/30 sec shutter speed for those moving pets. I think you would be fine hand held at 1/30 depending on where you had your 18-55 lens set on the focal length. According to the exif you shot it at 32mm and the typical rule of thumb is to not go below the focal length with your shutter speed. So for example if your lens was zoomed to 50mm you wouldn't want to go below 1/50 on the shutter speed (hand held). So...the blur you see is subject movement. For a fidgeting dog you could probably get away with 1/60 to 1/100 second..for a moving dog you would have to go faster.

With the lighting you had, I think 1/125 at f8 would be pretty much entirely flash lit which from a pop-up flash would kill all the modeling light and texture and would give your subjects a "deer in the headlights" look. If I were using the manual mode method of flash exposure that basssman suggests then I would set your lens at 18mm bump the ISO to 800 and set the aperture to 1 f-stop above maximum for you lens (f 4 or 4.5). I would set the shutter speed to 1/60 and get in close to your subjects...maybe the pop up flash would be a little more balanced then and not be so flat. You should have plenty of DOF at 18mm even at f4.

Something that you might also try is make you some sort of diffuser for that pop up flash. I have used all sorts of things from hankies to paper towel rolls bent in all kinds of weird shapes to bounce the flash off the ceiling :) I would put the camera in P mode which should set shutter speed to 1/60 and it will choose the aperture and balance the flash for you. The good thing about P mode is that you can set your ISO, WB, and other settings manually but it will set shutter and aperture automatically.

In regards to the white balance I think you should set a custom white balance for your work area. All you have to do is get a big piece of something white (paper, sheet, etc..) shoot it with your camera in any mode (make sure the white covers the entire frame of the photo), choose custom WB and select that photo. Setting white balance for your work area will solve any problem you have with the orange cast in your example that resulted from the lower temperature of the incandescent lighting (probably less than 3000K).

The last option is to purchase a good fast prime lens that is sharp wide open and shoot without flash. Is there a cheap nikkor 50mm equivelent to the canon 50mm 1.8 lens? That lens is less than 100 bucks and will greatly improve your indoor shots.

01/04/2008 03:53:20 PM · #34

Originally posted by jasonlprice:

In regards to the white balance I think you should set a custom white balance for your work area. All you have to do is get a big piece of something white (paper, sheet, etc..) shoot it with your camera in any mode (make sure the white covers the entire frame of the photo), choose custom WB and select that photo. Setting white balance for your work area will solve any problem you have with the orange cast in your example that resulted from the lower temperature of the incandescent lighting (probably less than 3000K).

Jason,

The white balance situation may be more complicated than that. If he is getting two very different sources of light the camera cannot adjust for both. If he is getting dominant fluorescent in part of the image and dominant window light in another part of the image, the camera has to choose one or something in between the two. Using a manual white balance setting ends up with something that is ok only where he has the the WB card. I prefer to find a way to first try to get it down to one dominant light source whenever I can.

01/04/2008 04:13:37 PM · #35

I agree that mixed lighting can be tricky for the white balance, but in typical working conditions (and what looks like the case with the example photo above) the lighting if pretty even looking on the dog. I have a feeling the lighting above isn't mixed, but all incandescent. Anyway lets say you have a certain amount of natural light coming through a window at 5500k and it mixes with the cool 3000k incandescent lighting..the result will be a WB setting somewhere in between them at the subject. If Courtney set her custom white balance where the dogs would be then she will get very good balance...If there were two dogs and one was really close to the window and the other really far away and lit with a cool light source then she would definately have different WB settings.

I agree 1 dominant light source is the way to go if possible, just not if the one dominant light source is the flat and harsh on camera pop up flash.

01/04/2008 05:21:11 PM · #36

Today I managed to get out today to do some more barn hunting. Unlike the past week where it has been too cold or too cloudy - just chilly and clear. I did get up close and personal with a couple of the barns.However, I am going to post the images over the next few days in the sequence that I took the images. That will make it easier to make sure I don't skip one along the way and give me some time to process the other images.

This barn I had to get across the field. Most of the barns are set a ways back from the road to make them more centrally located on the farm for the benefit of the farmer. With the hay stacked outside I'm guessing that it is now being used to store hay. There is very little tobacco grown in this are anymore.

01/05/2008 10:56:08 AM · #37

This barn is located next to the one I posted the image of yeastday and seem to be in very good shape.

01/06/2008 05:55:40 PM · #38

You are makeing great progress on your barns Larry! I gotta get busy with my project, just hadn't had much time lately to go driving around the country. I'm glad you are waiting out the weather and getting those great blue skys...I know it is tempting to just go out and shoot..

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

01/07/2008 05:36:45 PM · #39

The next image in the sequence.

With three doors on the right hand side of the barn I suspect it is being used for something other than tobacco drying. Note also the hole in the roof - so despite what the sides of the barn look like it need some upkeep.

The next couple of images in the series will get us up a bit close to one of the barns.

karmat

Apple iPhone 7

01/08/2008 11:04:50 PM · #40

Got a shot today for my "Desperado" series. May save it for the January Free study though. :)

Will try to comment some tomorrow.

01/09/2008 10:20:08 AM · #41

Awesome Karma! I look forward to seeing it Feb. 1st!

Larry, where are those close ups???? I'm looking forward to seeing those.

01/09/2008 05:19:34 PM · #42

Here you go Jason - up close and personal. This barn is about ten feet from the road and I was standing right in front of it with the wide angle. In fact from across the road the wide angle is still need to get an image of the entire barn. This one is still in very good shape.

The next image will be a close up of the same barn, then I'll show one of the entire structure.

edited for spelling..............

Message edited by author 2008-01-09 17:20:07.

Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Macro ED Zuiko Digital

01/10/2008 07:10:02 PM · #43

This is the same barn as in the previous image. This time I am laying on the ground right in front of the structure with the lens at a very wide angle to catch the shape of the roof line of the barn. The next image will be of the entire barn.

slaakso

Olympus E-510

01/11/2008 02:35:14 PM · #44

I lost the thread so I have not been posting anything here. Now I have a couple of possible shots for my Power of Water series of 36. Let me know what you think.

Lumahai - The waves were between 15 and 20 feet today.

Anini Beach near the edge of the reef. See the little wave inside the reef and the monster wave outside. I need to get a clearer shot.

Lumahai and the Power of Water that is constantly reshaping the beach.

Lumahai once again.

Message edited by author 2008-01-11 14:48:51.

01/11/2008 05:25:13 PM · #45

With this image I am officially one third of the way to completing the project. This is image number ten of the thirty that I am planning on doing.

This is the same barn as was in the previous two images. This time I was standing across the road from the barn and I still had to use the wide angle to get the image. I really like the tree as part of the image, and having it cast a shadow on the barn helps. As you can see this barn is in very good shape.

I took a couple of pictures of this same barn in the fall a couple of years ago. If you want to see them they are over at my photo blog here and here.

If you look closely there is another barn mostly hidden to the left of this barn. That is the subject of the next image. There was a third barn at the same location way back in the field under some high tension lines. That one I did not get an image of this time out. But an old image of it is posted here.

01/12/2008 09:48:06 AM · #46

Today I have two images of the same barn. This is the one that was hidden behind the barn I showed the images of for the last three days. I prefer the landscape view in the first image and that is the one that will make it into the final collage. The second image provides a closer view of the barn. That was with a purpose.

I want to point out the vertical slat on the side of the barn. It is hard to find a barn any longer with any of these slats open. The entire side of a tobacco barn is made up of a series of these slates. They were all opened in the fall and early winter as the farmer hung the harvested tobacco to dry - or as I believe the proper term is "to cure." They provided open air circulation around the drying tobacco without letting it get wet from the rains. I suspect that it also prevented excessive humidity and moisture as well as darkness within the barn that would have encouraged either rot or fungus to effect the drying tobacco.

01/13/2008 08:46:28 AM · #47

I was playing around with overlays last night using the barn image I posted the other day. The February overlay side challenge seemed to be getting a head start so I had to throw one into the hopper. So I thought I'd post it here as well and see what reactions I get. I'm not counting this one towards my 30 images for this side challenge.

Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Macro ED Zuiko Digital

01/16/2008 05:15:38 PM · #48

I'm beginning to wonder where everyone is. I skipped a couple of day, mainly because I didn't want to run out of images and have to sit for a week or two. I didn't find time to get out last weekend so I'm still working with the images I took back on January 4th. I did get one image today that I think will work.

Anyway for today I have a barn is clearly not being taken care of. Sorry, but I could not get any closer to this one. It was up on a hill in the middle of the farmers field. But given the shape it is in I wanted to capture it. There is a hole in the roof, it looks as if plants of some type are growing on the roof (perhaps this is an original green building). In addition the barn is clearly leaning to the side. I'm not sure how much longer it will remain standing.

slaakso

Olympus E-510

01/17/2008 02:52:16 AM · #49

I am wondering what happened to all the people that signed up for this side challenge and have not posted anything. Maybe they are out gathering images and will deluge us with the results very soon. I hope this side challenge is not forever lost and forgotten. Thanks for letting me hang in here with you

fixedintime.

Message edited by author 2008-01-17 02:53:23.

sherpet