First good day of playing with my DRebel

[homerjward]

Thanks!

I don't think it's a n00btacular question (although I'm going to start using that word! )... I think I used the wrong term. There's a fringe along the right side of the meter where it looks green, almost like a ghost or outline of the meter edge on that side. Part of it was a focusing issue, but the full size JPG on my computer doesn't look nearly so bad.

lol ok, cool. thanks. i didn't notice until i knew what i was looking for

 

[mkrishnan]

lol ok, cool. thanks. i didn't notice until i knew what i was looking for

Drats, I shouldn't have pointed it out, then!

Popping open Dashboard I see that the weather is going to be clear here today. When I get done at the lab, I am definitely going flower hunting again!

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Cool images, I love the one with the rocks in the stone (I'm assuming its limestone/coral since you're in Florida). Is it on the ground? Did rain sweep the rocks into the hole?

Nice stuff and welcome to the wonderful world of DSLRs

D

 

[mkrishnan]

Cool images, I love the one with the rocks in the stone (I'm assuming its limestone/coral since you're in Florida). Is it on the ground? Did rain sweep the rocks into the hole?

Thanks! I think rain might have. Actually, hehe, there was only one in there, which gave me the idea, and I set up the rest. I am not happy with the crop I chose though, and for that image, I really used up a terrible amount of the camera resolution in trying to crop it down... I think I wanted a tighter shot like this:

Here is one other one from yesterday I wanted to post. There was a fenced in basketball court, behind our hospital. These two had it all to themselves as a private parking lot! The children were nowhere in sight. I used to love playing on these when I was a little one....

And speaking of sharpness (and kit lenses!), the original (full-res) was really only cropped vertically, meaning the two hot wheels occupy almost the full horizontal resolution, with the picture taken from about 12-15 feet away, I think. I cropped in on just the decal on the wheel of the pink one, at the 10:00 position. Look at the detail! Not bad!

 

[jared_kipe]

Which of these do you like the best?

They were all shot with my ef 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM. Which is a lens I highly recommend to anyone on a budget that needs a good lens. http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=149&modelid=7442 They can be found on ebay for far less than retail I got mine for 150USD.

 

[mkrishnan]

Which of these do you like the best?

Nice! I'd say, to me, its a toss-up between the first and the third. The first might be a lot better with some judicious cropping, although the pose is better on the third. The balance and symmetry of this one are very nice. I think whatever it is that is on the extreme right of the land on #1 is problematic, though, which is why I wonder about the cropping.

In #3, on the other hand, I think the asymmetry actually works for you, and you definitely have the nicest water surface on that one, and the cuter pose. I'm not sure about the asymmetry vs. symmetry in this case. I can tell you what I think having seen both pictures (that I like the symmetry better, but only if you can crop it in such a way as to clean up the shoreline and still keep the long aspect ratio of the stretch of shore in comparison to the small bench at center), but I don't know how that would impact me if you hadn't shown me both.

But, overall, nice work, Jared!

 

[jared_kipe]

Nice! I'd say, to me, its a toss-up between the first and the third. The first might be a lot better with some judicious cropping, although the pose is better on the third. The balance and symmetry of this one are very nice. I think whatever it is that is on the extreme right of the land on #1 is problematic, though, which is why I wonder about the cropping.

In #3, on the other hand, I think the asymmetry actually works for you, and you definitely have the nicest water surface on that one, and the cuter pose. I'm not sure about the asymmetry vs. symmetry in this case. I can tell you what I think having seen both pictures (that I like the symmetry better, but only if you can crop it in such a way as to clean up the shoreline and still keep the long aspect ratio of the stretch of shore in comparison to the small bench at center), but I don't know how that would impact me if you hadn't shown me both.

But, overall, nice work, Jared!

Thanks, yeah, the trash can ruined the first shot somewhat. Originally I liked the second one, because the huge tree gave some weight to the picture. But the 3rd is growing on me. I had to edit out a horrible dangling branch which wasn't fun either. That was me in the picture by the way, I had to sprint my ass off to get there in time.

EDITED for spelling error that has already been quoted

 

[mkrishnan]

That was me in the picture by the way, I had to spring my ass of to get there in time.

Awwww, you look so cute with your girl on your shoulder. A tripod would definitely be a nicety for my long-term list...although then I guess one has fully crossed over the line into being into photography.

 

[jared_kipe]

Awwww, you look so cute with your girl on your shoulder. A tripod would definitely be a nicety for my long-term list...although then I guess one has fully crossed over the line into being into photography.

If you don't mind me asking, what focal length and aperature did you use on your flower shots? And what ISO is that?

 

[mkrishnan]

If you don't mind me asking, what focal length and aperature did you use on your flower shots? And what ISO is that?

Everything was at ISO 100; the flowers I posted above were all at 18mm f/3.5 because I'm an idiot. I was using aperture selectivity, so that my shutter time was all over the map, but all the flowers were 1/250-300 except for the last orange one, which was more like 1/640.

This is the only flower I took yesterday where I used more normal settings, but I think I did not really get enough DoF on this (55mm f/5.6):

OTOH, I went to another flower bed this evening, and did everything at 55mm at some different apertures. I just pulled them off the cam; I will share later tonight.

 

[jared_kipe]

wow, must have been BRIGHT out, thats the only way I can get good shots at iso 100. I try to shoot mid range flowers at f/8 or 10. If you're going to shoot really really close up, like what my reverse mount is for, then you need that just to get a little window of DOF at those apertures, but even worse wide open. All that I posted (not here, in other thread, I could move them over if you want) were at 200-400. With speeds from 1/50 to 1/200.

EDIT: Ahh, but then again, reverse mounting at f/8 is like a normal lens at like f/16 or something. Which just makes sense because you're taking light from something small and making it big. Jared needs a macro flash thing.

 

[mkrishnan]

In Florida, Jared my dear, it is usually quite bright outside. But I think that the larger issue is that your reversed lens just isn't able to collect that much light, given that the collecting lens is so tiny (having been designed for imaging onto the CMOS sensor...).

Here are three flowers from today...all taken in evening light. The third one seemed a little surreal to me, so I jacked up the contrast by about 30% to milk that for what it was worth , but otherwise, all are slightly cropped but haven't had much else in the way of post-processing.

 

[mkrishnan]

As the sun started to get clipped by the trees, I wanted to try and get a picture of the shade playing over this nice grassy little clearing on campus. I took some pictures after the two women had left with their dogs, but they seem to add a little anchoring, and I liked it better with them there. Cropped to get the long aspect ratio.

 

[tech4all]

Which of these do you like the best?

I kinda like the second and third one, mainly on how the couple's head are resting on each other. Gives a nice silhouette feeling. But I like the third a lil more because it's a bit more of a close-up.

Nice job

 

[Deefuzz]

Which of these do you like the best?

Second and third ones definitely...But if I would have to pick one I would have to say the second one

 

[jared_kipe]

Sorta... but thats how macro works, it isn't about "collecting" light its about making something small that gives off a certain amount of light, much much bigger. If you take something and you spread it's light out over a big distance, then you obviously spread its light out too, so it becomes dimmer.

 

[jared_kipe]

Second and third ones definitely...But if I would have to pick one I would have to say the second one

Any reason?

 

[jared_kipe]

Ah ha, forgot to post link. http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/mp-e-65.html this is a specialty canon macro lens. Notice it has a very small front element.

And I quote
"the viewfinder gets dark as you rack it out to 5X; the nominal maximum aperture is f/2.8 but that is a mythical aperture not even available at 1X. At 1X, the effective wide-open f-number is 5.6. As you rack the lens out to 5X, the effective viewing aperture is f/16."

 

[mkrishnan]

Sorta... but thats how macro works, it isn't about "collecting" light[...]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I agree with that. I'll have to think about it. In any event, you take excellent photos...which is rather more important that a stance on what a lens should look like. I hope to get there too.

BUT, anyways, does anyone have any input on the hot wheels, or the re-cropped rock nest? And are the flowers from day two any improvement over day one?

 

[Deefuzz]

Any reason?

I like how you two seem to be a little more silhouetted than in the third one.

I also like how the trunk of the tree takes up the left border of the picture. With that and the ground it seems to form somewhat of a piece of an off-center frame for the two of you.

Also interesting to see the break in between the leaves of the trees pretty much above where you two are sitting.

It's a great shot IMO!

 

[jared_kipe]

Recrop rock nest is better...as for the resolution on the hotwheels, it isn't bad. I think it may be a little soft, but I think I could have excepted a little more. Throw on some USM and repost it, or better yet, give a link to the full size and I'll compare it to mine.

 

[jared_kipe]

I like how you two seem to be a little more silhouetted than in the third one.

I also like how the trunk of the tree takes up the left border of the picture. With that and the ground it seems to form somewhat of a piece of an off-center frame for the two of you.

Also interesting to see the break in between the leaves of the trees pretty much above where you two are sitting.

It's a great shot IMO!

Thanks a lot!! That was why I liked it best, plus the boats in that one, but everyone else likes the 3rd one. I think I convinced myself I liked that one better too. Now I just don't know. But thanks for the reasons.

Oh, and if you would like the full res, just take the 2 off the images, so it becomes 1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg

 

[mkrishnan]

Recrop rock nest is better...as for the resolution on the hotwheels, it isn't bad. I think it may be a little soft, but I think I could have excepted a little more. Throw on some USM and repost it, or better yet, give a link to the full size and I'll compare it to mine.

I was wondering more about the composition of the hotwheels than the sharpness. That was an aside. But I should noise reduce it... What does "throw on some USM" mean? None of the acronyms for USM that I know seem to apply here.

 

[jared_kipe]

I was wondering more about the composition of the hotwheels than the sharpness. That was an aside. But I should noise reduce it... What does "throw on some USM" mean? None of the acronyms for USM that I know seem to apply here.

Composition was fine for me, but I'm not one to speak of matters like that. USM= un-sharp mask, sharpening in photoshop. I assume you put the hotwheels there, why not put some kids on them... or a full grown man. Reminds me of my favorite photo ever, Paul Newman on a little tricycle. And as a side note, wtf is up with macrumors the last few days. Takes me forever to get to one thread or another.

 

[mkrishnan]

Composition was fine for me, but I'm not one to speak of matters like that. USM= un-sharp mask, sharpening in photoshop. I assume you put the hotwheels there, why not put some kids on them... or a full grown man. Reminds me of my favorite photo ever, Paul Newman on a little tricycle. And as a side note, wtf is up with macrumors the last few days. Takes me forever to get to one thread or another.

I will look up Newman on a tricycle. Especially since he was elemental in starting the camp that has become one of my favorite places in the world!

Anyway, with regard to the hot wheels, thanks for the comment. Actually, no, I didn't pose them. That was the whole point. They were in a fenced in basketball court, and I couldn't even reach them (well, without hopping the fence). I was just struck by the care with which they were parked. Especially since they were his and hers.