Photo Of The Day June 2020

[AlaskaMoose]

Columbine with an oil paint effect, after NIK's "blur":

It does not matter what lens and camera brand one uses. There is an intense cameras and lens manufacturers' market competition, and each outdoes the other from year to year

 

[Steven-iphone]

Triple Rose

Going through my photo archive, this is an older image - Olympus E-300

 

[Steven-iphone]

Fall Tree

Another photo archive Olympus E-300 image - Absolutely adored that camera

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

I finally got around to starting the editing of images captured on camera from my short getaway earlier this week. I forgot that I had turned off image stabilisation on both the body & lens of this kit when I previously had used it for a long exposure, to compare it being turned on & off (of which there was no discernible difference). As a result of working hand-held at & after sunset in extreme low light & darkness some of this first batch of images were not as sharp or noise free as I know the camera is capable of producing when used correctly!

The Boof (Fenna) right at the moment after the sun had slipped beyond the horizon.

I am experimenting with Luminar 4, well I am learning how to use it so as to see if I can break free of the Adobe shackles once & for all. I'm not at the subtle stage of photorealism here, I was exploring the fact that it was after sunset & what I could achieve knowing nothing about using the program. For the main part it is quite similar to Lightroom Classic, but with some special bonus sliders that I have kept away from as I just don't understand what they really are doing at this point in time. I do miss the ease of use that the radial filter offers in Lightroom Classic, but apparently through the use of layers in Luminar you can achieve the same thing!

Sony a7III, Sony 16-35mm f/4, Daylight WB, - 0.7 EV, Handheld
16mm, ISO 12,800, f/4, 1/6

 

[ruka.snow]

I'm sure that when Nikon finally does release its new macro lens for the Z series of cameras, it will be a really nice lens, just as the F-mount ones always were. I just didn't want to wait for however much longer it will be before that lens is available. I've never been interested in Canon and know next to nothing about their lenses, but I have gotten the impression that, yes, both Nikon and Sony are more on top of some things when it comes to mirrorless and their new mirrorless lenses. Yes, it is unfortunate about the grip situation with Nikon, as many shooters prefer to put a grip on their camera bodies, especially one which can permit the use of an additional battery.

Canon wins out on number of lenses out there. Especially going into specialist things like the tilt shift. The 105mm S macro for Nikon is due out this year according to the roadmap. Cooties 19 may push that into early next year, but thats not Nikon's doing.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I finally got around to starting the editing of images captured on camera from my short getaway earlier this week. I forgot that I had turned off image stabilisation on both the body & lens of this kit when I previously had used it for a long exposure, to compare it being turned on & off (of which there was no discernible difference). As a result of working hand-held at & after sunset in extreme low light & darkness some of this first batch of images were not as sharp or noise free as I know the camera is capable of producing when used correctly!

The Boof (Fenna) right at the moment after the sun had slipped beyond the horizon.

I am experimenting with Luminar 4, well I am learning how to use it so as to see if I can break free of the Adobe shackles once & for all. I'm not at the subtle stage of photorealism here, I was exploring the fact that it was after sunset & what I could achieve knowing nothing about using the program. For the main part it is quite similar to Lightroom Classic, but with some special bonus sliders that I have kept away from as I just don't understand what they really are doing at this point in time. I do miss the ease of use that the radial filter offers in Lightroom Classic, but apparently through the use of layers in Luminar you can achieve the same thing!

View attachment 925539
Sony a7III, Sony 16-35mm f/4, Daylight WB, - 0.7 EV, Handheld
16mm, ISO 12,800, f/4, 1/6

I assumed IS disabled itself when doing long exposure, but it’s one area that I don’t practice much. I have too much light pollution where I live, and I’m not at a place in life where I can go far enough away to get the night sky. Heck, last time I even tried here at home, Mrs Darmok locked me out of the house by accident. That tells you how much I get out after dark!

As for leaving Adobe, yes, it can be a challenge. Have you messed around with Darktable? It’s open source, so it’s free. It has a Lightroom-like UI, Once I adapted to it, I kinda liked it, but then a GPU upgrade broke it. If I were to ever leave Apple behind, I’d probably do a Linux build with Darktable as my go-to. My issue is finding a decent cloud service that works as elegantly (and cheaply) as iCloud and Photos. Naturally, it works best with all-Apple hardware, but nothing else feels as seamless, where there aren’t loading screens and buffering as you browse.

 

[ruka.snow]

I assumed IS disabled itself when doing long exposure

IS does aye, otherwise it would get a bit crazy. If the body doesn't switch it off for long exposures you should do this yourself.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

I assumed IS disabled itself when doing long exposure, but it’s one area that I don’t practice much. I have too much light pollution where I live, and I’m not at a place in life where I can go far enough away to get the night sky. Heck, last time I even tried here at home, Mrs Darmok locked me out of the house by accident. That tells you how much I get out after dark!

As for leaving Adobe, yes, it can be a challenge. Have you messed around with Darktable? It’s open source, so it’s free. It has a Lightroom-like UI, Once I adapted to it, I kinda liked it, but then a GPU upgrade broke it. If I were to ever leave Apple behind, I’d probably do a Linux build with Darktable as my go-to. My issue is finding a decent cloud service that works as elegantly (and cheaply) as iCloud and Photos. Naturally, it works best with all-Apple hardware, but nothing else feels as seamless, where there aren’t loading screens and buffering as you browse.

It appears that for the Sony a7III, it does indeed disable the IS in both the body & lens, as there were no discernible differences in the few six minute long exposures I captured. I'd be lucky if Mrs AoO noticed me missing at night! I quite often pop to the park next door to test various light painting tools, or other toys tools.

I'm glad it does with this camera body as I have a star-tracker that I want to try out now, for three to five minute exposures at base ISO for better & deeper Astrophotography.

DarkTable is the program I teach my Mindful Photography participants to use! I am a big advocate for it, as it has the library & editing tools one needs to accomplish good organisation & editing abilities; plus it has the bonus of being free!

IS does aye, otherwise it would get a bit crazy. If the body doesn't switch it off for long exposures you should do this yourself.

That depends on the make of camera body & lens being used, they don't all do it instinctively. With my old Canon 6D & L series 24-105mm it didn't! I always had to turn IS off on the lens before taking long exposures.

 

[Clix Pix]

I finally got around to starting the editing of images captured on camera from my short getaway earlier this week. I forgot that I had turned off image stabilisation on both the body & lens of this kit when I previously had used it for a long exposure, to compare it being turned on & off (of which there was no discernible difference). As a result of working hand-held at & after sunset in extreme low light & darkness some of this first batch of images were not as sharp or noise free as I know the camera is capable of producing when used correctly!

The Boof (Fenna) right at the moment after the sun had slipped beyond the horizon.

I am experimenting with Luminar 4, well I am learning how to use it so as to see if I can break free of the Adobe shackles once & for all. I'm not at the subtle stage of photorealism here, I was exploring the fact that it was after sunset & what I could achieve knowing nothing about using the program. For the main part it is quite similar to Lightroom Classic, but with some special bonus sliders that I have kept away from as I just don't understand what they really are doing at this point in time. I do miss the ease of use that the radial filter offers in Lightroom Classic, but apparently through the use of layers in Luminar you can achieve the same thing!

View attachment 925539
Sony a7III, Sony 16-35mm f/4, Daylight WB, - 0.7 EV, Handheld
16mm, ISO 12,800, f/4, 1/6

Nice image, Alex! Beautiful lighting! Fun to see Fenna again!

Back in the summer of 2018 I purchased Luminar 3 and liked it for a lot of things but then in the fall of 2019 discovered DXO Photolab 3 and really prefer that program for most of my editing now. I still do hop into Luminar 3 for some occasional last-minute fine-tuning touchups, especially if there are things which need to be gently erased from an image, as I prefer the way Luminar handles this. Never got around to Luminar 4 and probably at this point won't bother since I am using DXO most of the time now anyway.

 

[kallisti]

Hopefully, that's not a hen house!

No, our backyard shed .

A little backstory: We recently "camped out" in our backyard with my 5 year old son. He loved it and thought it was amazing. I took some pics of the tent and of him inside it to share with family and friends. Many tongue-in-cheek replies about how that isn't really camping out. One friend said that the tent with the air mattress inside was better than some hotels he's stayed in. Another friend asked if we were worried about foxes and coyotes. Which prompted me to recall a series of pics I took of a fox in our backyard last November.

All of the pics of the fox were soft and none really stood out to me at the time. But the comment reminded me of the series and I looked at them again. This pic was the best of the bunch. I ran it through Topaz Lab's DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI which did a very nice job of removing noise artifacts and also sharpened it up to acceptable levels without introducing new artifacts in the process. It was shot through a window with a screen and some of those artifacts are still there, but I don't find them too distracting.

Sharing a JPEG of the unaltered original NEF file. Nikon D850, Nikon 300mm f/4, 1/125th sec, f/4, ISO 1600.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Nice image, Alex! Beautiful lighting! Fun to see Fenna again!

Back in the summer of 2018 I purchased Luminar 3 and liked it for a lot of things but then in the fall of 2019 discovered DXO Photolab 3 and really prefer that program for most of my editing now. I still do hop into Luminar 3 for some occasional last-minute fine-tuning touchups, especially if there are things which need to be gently erased from an image, as I prefer the way Luminar handles this. Never got around to Luminar 4 and probably at this point won't bother since I am using DXO most of the time now anyway.

She's so photogenic, we are just about to go hit up a local storm water system that is full of graffiti as the first trials of my new 8K 360 camera. She looks perfect in amongst graffiti, junk yards & old ruins & she loves to be there with me as I explore! ?

I trialled a promo version of DXO Lab quite a few years ago, but couldn't get my head around it for some reason, so settled with the Adobe photographers package, I also trialled On1 too, but it wasn't quite there yet at that stage. I hear good things about both of these nowadays though. I've just been watching a few video's showing Luminar being used quite professionally & it looks to be more than capable of achieving my end game to not have to pay an endless subscription fee!

 

[peter329]

My sun and his girlfriend.

 

[Hughmac]

Not a fantastic photo of a mother Moorhen and chicks, but I am still revelling in being able to get out amongst the local wildlife with a long lens...



Cheers

Hugh

 

[Apple fanboy]

Not exactly wildlife, but the colours of this fly really popped!

 

[stillcrazyman]

Three turtles

 

[anotherscotsman]

A rose by another scotsman, on Flickr

 

[tizeye]

Heard and saw online that the park was open. YEAH! Looking for a place outside to go. Got there and the only thing open was the parking lot and the main gate allowing access to the parking lot and picnic tables. All buildings, including the fort and the gate to the adjacent pioneer village preserving original homesteads were locked. BOOOO!

 

[Susurs]

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Mostly out of the shell now. Shortly after this photo, both she and her husk fell off our brick wall, which is not the normal process! Normally those husks stay attached for 6 months or better, as you’ll still find them well into winter time. By then, she had enough strength to scurry to safety to finish the process.

 

[Clix Pix]

That has been fascinating, seeing this transition and emergence in photos! Bet it was even more fascinating when watched in person.... Glad you were able to capture the series and glad that she wasn't injured when the husk fell off the wall.

 

[firedept]

Where I will be hiking today. It's about a 3 mile hike down into a valley to find this gem. It will be in the mountains near Lake Cuyamaca about 40 miles east of San Diego, CA. Happy Father's Day to everyone who is a dad.

 

[Clix Pix]

 

[boswald]

Where I will be hiking today. It's about a 3 mile hike down into a valley to find this gem. It will be in the mountains near Lake Cuyamaca about 40 miles east of San Diego, CA. Happy Father's Day to everyone who is a dad.

View attachment 925664

Absolutely beautiful!

 

[firedept]

Mostly out of the shell now. Shortly after this photo, both she and her husk fell off our brick wall, which is not the normal process! Normally those husks stay attached for 6 months or better, as you’ll still find them well into winter time. By then, she had enough strength to scurry to safety to finish the process.
View attachment 925634

I have enjoyed you series of photos. You have inspired me to now do a series on one of my tarantulas molting. It's interesting to watch.
[automerge]1592753295[/automerge]

Absolutely beautiful!

Thank you! Enjoy the day!

 

[iMyke]

Wheel Bug nymph