The Nikon Thread

Brett H

No, you're spot on but the subject detail seems better with it set to the centre or the rear.  Reading back through KKs comment and rebooking at the pics I'm inclined now to disagree.  I've always been a sucker for the Petzval look however but not prepared to compromise the reason for the picture... The subject!  The backgrounds after a glass of wine are mesmerising.  Can't wait for some Christmas lights

GeekKopi

Another one to add to my portfolio. Got there early. Tide was out. Sun was coming up. Cloud cover was scattered. An old ship wreck off seaholme vic beach.

Brett H

Great textures!  Love the detail in the shadows too.  Are you going to add these to a 500px Chanel?  Are you sharpening at all in post?

GeekKopi

on 1446931358:

Great textures!  Love the detail in the shadows too.  Are you going to add these to a 500px Chanel?  Are you sharpening at all in post?

ill put these up on 500px someday soon. Not sharpening in post (except for what Lightroom does on default import) but I do apply a some noise reduction for when I bring out the details in the shadows. The details are there but increasing the visibility of them does add some noise so i do some local adjustments. Photo was taken at iso100, 11mm, f11 with a 108second exposure.

Koffee_Kosmo

The calm sky After a massive hail storm KK

Koffee_Kosmo

And this cloud photo from inside the car and through the windscreen

GeekKopi

on 1446947554:

The calm sky After a massive hail storm KK

the best skies KK are after a storm. Great pics. I've got my gear ready and charged and packed to go on stormy days. While everyone runs inside I'm sitting in the car awaiting the storm to pass and then set up for a photo.

GeekKopi

A closeup of the wreckage.

Brett H

Spectacular mate!  The dynamic range of these newer nikons is mind-blowing.  The level,f detail in your shadows is spectacular!

GeekKopi

on 1446955913:

Spectacular mate!  The dynamic range of these newer nikons is mind-blowing.  The level,f detail in your shadows is spectacular!

im amazed too mate. Basically these newer Sony sensors in our camera bodies removes the need for physical GND Filters. Just add a grad in Lightroom and bump up the shadow detail. Much better result. The pic is a single exposure.  All the details were there in the histogram. Nothing was clipped using matrix metering. Brilliant. Less hardware on site means more time spent on composition and getting the shot.

Koffee_Kosmo

Talking about Sony Here is a video review of the A7 R2 Mirrorless close but not there yet ?

GeekKopi

on 1446957541:

Talking about Sony Here is a video review of the A7 R2 Morrorless close but not there yet ?

the a7r2 is a beast of a studio camera. In body stabilisation is killer. It all depends on what you need it for. It's got it's pros and cons but it suits many pro shooters. Just be prepared to spend double that in zeiss glass to get you started.

Brett H

Wow, great video KK.  That was really interesting. I love that sony are such avid agitators.  They keep the big boys honest.  One of my acquaintances is selling all his Nikon gear moving to sony because of the weight and size issue.  He acknowledges that it's not as developed a system for all occasions but is prepared to take the hit for the sake of convenience.  I really enjoyed the brief play with the A7IIR but can't afford to run two lens collections.  Moreover, Nikon owners are usually folk that want access to the very best lenses, Nikon or other.

Brett H

Oh, should add that if I was in the market for my reason to like the Sony, I'd buy the Nikon df which is aimed a street and candid photographers... Which I'm not.

GeekKopi

One more for the calendar I'm producing. A ghostly boat ramp.

admin

on 1447105541:

One more for the calendar I'm producing. A ghostly boat ramp.

wow, fantastic GK! now we just have to put that fantastic photographic talent to work, having you take coffee shots!  8)

GeekKopi

on 1447109989:

wow, fantastic GK! now we just have to put that fantastic photographic talent to work, having you take coffee shots!  8)

thanks admin. The genre is fine-art. Ive taken a few of my home espresso machine while testing out a lens but I haven't taken anything really worth keeping but that's no to say I can't do it. It's all about the composition. The photo from this morning took me the best part of 40mins to compose in terrible light (before dawn) and I took heaps of test shots at extremely high ISOs so I can judge framing. Once i was happy then I configured my settings and filter (and an ISO of 100) and clicked away. What do you have in mind?

FreshCoffee2

on 1447109989:

wow, fantastic GK!...

Me too. And I'd also like to thank all contributors to this thread because at least from my own perspective, it has helped to keep my interest in photography simmering along. I've been taking photos for years (first on 35 mm film SLR's...still have one functional but cant be bothered with film these days), and trying to learn from my own mistakes, and this is the kind of thread that also helps people to examine their techniques and learn from what others are doing.  Otherwise, without belonging to a photography group it can be quite a solitary interest and that slows the process of learning. Way to go, great thread. I am about to add to my own personal development by taking a (long overdue) in depth photography course. It's an interest ! Keep up the great thread fellas.

mycuppa

on 1447118881:

Me too. And I'd also like to thank all contributors to this thread because at least from my own perspective, it has helped to keep my interest in photography simmering along. I've been taking photos for years (first on 35 mm film SLR's...still have one functional but cant be bothered with film these days), and trying to learn from my own mistakes, and this is the kind of thread that also helps people to examine their techniques and learn from what others are doing.  Otherwise, without belonging to a photography group it can be quite a solitary interest and that slows the process of learning. Way to go, great thread. I am about to add to my own personal development by taking a (long overdue) in depth photography course. It's an interest ! Keep up the great thread fellas.

I second that statement - well done guys. Despite a whole bunch of challenges that include negative time and some rather severe eyesight difficulties, I thoroughly enjoy your posts and pictures.....just like A......it has also inspired me to look at re-visiting my love of photography which I sort of lost a few years ago.

admin

on 1447110332:

Ive taken a few of my home espresso machine while testing out a lens but I haven't taken anything really worth keeping but that's no to say I can't do it. It's all about the composition. What do you have in mind?

actually didn't have anything specifically in mind GK… I guess there are probably two main types of coffee photography 1) brewing/pour shots [usually close-up] and 2) cafe shots [people/ambience]. don't know if there's enough interest; maybe we should open up a thread for both?

Brett H

That sounds like an excellent challenge and thread to start.  Show us your best coffee photography.  Loving this thread btw.  Also love that we're smart enough to realise that the brand is less important than the endeavour!

FreshCoffee2

A quick question for the conoscienti... My young cousin (14 y o) also has an avid interest in photography and has snapped some very good stuff (he has a good "eye"). He has a small end SONY DSLR with the requisite "kit" 18 - 55 mm zoom lens. The kid is interested in dabbling in night time - astronomy shots. His grandfather (my uncle) would like to buy him a nice suitable lens. I have absolutely no idea about that kind of stuff (and for all I know his current kit lens may be quite suitable...). Any suggestions as to what might constitute an appropriate lens for this, and perhaps it's just a case of buying him a nice fixed prime 50mm...OR...perhaps the money would be better spent on buying him some kind of photography course...? Advice, thoughts?

GeekKopi

on 1447196855:

A quick question for the conoscienti... My young cousin (14 y o) also has an avid interest in photography and has snapped some very good stuff (he has a good "eye"). He has a small end SONY DSLR with the requisite "kit" 18 - 55 mm zoom lens. The kid is interested in dabbling in night time - astronomy shots. His grandfather (my uncle) would like to buy him a nice suitable lens. I have absolutely no idea about that kind of stuff (and for all I know his current kit lens may be quite suitable...). Any suggestions as to what might constitute an appropriate lens for this, and perhaps it's just a case of buying him a nice fixed prime 50mm...OR...perhaps the money would be better spent on buying him some kind of photography course...? Advice, thoughts?

hi FC. I would suggest a lens wider than 18mm. 50mm won't cut it. Not too sure on lenses for Sony but I'm assuming he's got an APSC camera something around the 11-14mm range will suit. What's equally important is the thermal noise the sensor will face during a long night time exposure shooting at a black sky. The camera sensor will experience a lot of thermal noise and will result in hot pixels (red, green, blue, etc). This wil degrade image quality as they will be scattered throughout the frame (hundreds of them). His camera needs to be able to handle long exposures with noise reduction whereby the camera takes a photo with the shutter closed for the equal duration then eliminates noise by subtraction of the black frame from the actual image. This can also be done in post processing as long as a black frame photo has been taken of equal duration and camera settings (eg with the lens cap on) Google "black frame subtraction". Professional astronomy cameras are thermo cooled keeping temps low to avoid therms noise / hot pixels. It's a challenging genre. [emoji108] I haven't delved into it myself but I know about thermal noise as most of my recent photos are with exposures longer than 30 seconds (sometimes 8 minutes). If I don't correct for thermo noise the images are not usable.

Brett H

I'm late to the party and thankfully so... great post GK.  The other issue with astronomy is ensuring he has a suitable tripod. Brand is irrelevant.  Sturdy and able to point skyward with an ability to weight the central column for stability and safety. 

Koffee_Kosmo

The most inexpensive method of taking moon / astronomy photographs is through a telescope I think its called afocal should be able to find info on this method online KK

GeekKopi

on 1447223570:

I'm late to the party and thankfully so... great post GK.  The other issue with astronomy is ensuring he has a suitable tripod. Brand is irrelevant.  Sturdy and able to point skyward with an ability to weight the central column for stability and safety.

great Brett. Yes tripod is a must. I've got a pretty sturdy one for my landscape long exposures but I still weight it down with my gear bag.

GeekKopi

Another thing is post production. Make sure your cousin shoots in RAW and not jpg. I compare jpg to an instant polaroid camera (in camera processing) and RAW to negative film (darkroom processing). With raw you have full creative control. The information in raw is second to none compared to jpg and he will need all the info he can get in post production. So software wise he should invest in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

FreshCoffee2

Thanks guys I really appreciate all your advice. Will pass all this on 

GeekKopi

Chilling at the end of the pier yesterday evening awaiting for some interesting skies as the sun went down. Managed to get some pinks, magentas and yellows in there. Wasn't the best sunset but it was interesting. ISO100, f16, 11mm, 204seconds. Single exposure. 10stop ND. shadows, highlights, contrast, vibrancy and some exposure adjustments in Lightroom. Some of the blacks were clipped on the rail on the pier so I could have exposed longer but I didn't want to blow the highlights in the sky. Nonetheless it's a usable photo and the blacks on the rail are expected as the sun was behind me to the left.

GaryatGala

Have no idea what you said technically. All I can say is that is one damn fine photo worth blowing up and framed onto a wall for all to see. I like the clever use of colors and the converging lines. Nice. Where is that location?