My Bits And Pieces - I'm Talking About Photos...  

Nick_

Yeah I was thinking about my lenses being way too slow for dark stuff, it's evident in the way I think about taking photos (aka after 5 i don't bother) whereas with a faster lens I could get more time, but I'll wait until I get a Cannon because the way I see it, the more money I spend on the Pentax now, the more money I'm loosing on it. However an off-shoe cord does sound damn handy, even when I've been doing home shots like the beer (and others I haven't let out of the box), it'd give me a lot more freedom so that one I'll be looking into while i wait ANOTHER week for my shutter-release cord to turn up :/ damn hong kong ebay people sending shit via immigrant boats.

TD 06

off shoe cords rock, thats i started off with off shoe flash stuff, mine cost me $80 back in the day, was a absolute ball, until i got bored and myself and Psi of here chopped it up and made it longer, go back through my posts in my thread and you will see

Spoolin D

I was out at Archy taking photo's a few weeks back, not easy at all. I found the best place was to get them coming around the final hairpin, road's a bit wider and generally your able to get them in full frame without any of the tyre barriers getting in the way of the photo. I was like you, took about 80 or so photo's, only 25 came out relatively decent.

matt mead

nick good work on the archy photos... doesnt look very photo taking friendly

Ghetto Panda

Archy is a bitch for photos but when they come out good they rock, your pics from archy are good but i would have shot at around 1/60 or 1/50th the cars are'nt going very fast at all and at 1/100th (the shutter you used) you just don't get that sense of speed they still seem pretty frozen.

Oh yeah and a 50mm 1.8 lense for archy rocks indeed.

Nick_

I did try 1/50th and 1\60th but they were crazy blurry. I think having a quicker lens would help a lot but since I've now got my sights set on a 40D I wont be spending any big bucks any time soon. a 50mm 1.8 will definantly be on the list then however. As will not missing shots because the K100 is .5FPS ..

matt mead

Nick i would keep shooting above the 1/100 mark... to build up ur confidence with panning...idealy you want to be shooting slower... but u need to build up the skills.. i dont let myself go under 1/100 unless i get bored...u dont get that amazing shoot...but it builds up ur success rate ...i want a 40d.. its like its made for motorsport photography

Nick_

I've been buying some pom DSLR mags lately and one has a big review of everything (practically) on the market under 3K and there's a Nikon which shoots 8FPS for 100 frames, it's a pro model and costs more than the 40D but that would be awesome, what wouldn't be awesome is it's 4MP sensor..

Had a play with a 40D last night and DANG it's big, it's like twice the size of my K100 but it's funny that it felt more balanced with it's 17-85 (the kit I'm aiming for) and probably just as heavy. Bentleys Camera House at Chermside can do it for $2200 (a touch under but I can't remember), does anyone have a 'friend' or 'contact' in a camera store that could give me a nice price on a 40D

matt mead

have a look here

http://www.d-d-photographics.com.au/canon40d.htm

very cheap stuff and there in sydney... i buy stuff of them when i cant be bothered waiting for stuff from the us..

ronald_r32

Or here is another link with the camera and lense you were after.

http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/category628_1.htm

Zeeute

If you don't mind travelling down from Brisbane, there is a company called CamerasDirect which is in Labrador, on Brisbane road... They do things REALLY cheap... You can also get the camera mailed to you if thats a problem... here is the link to their 40D section inclu. prices on their website:

https://www.camerasdirect.com.au/index.php/.../canon/40d.html

You can always say to them, oh but 'so and so' has it for $how ever much and they will lower the price for you...
And also try the line, is that your best price

All the best with the buy mate, cant wait to see the results from the camera!

Spoolin D

A good place is Ted's Camera Store in the City on Adelaide Street. Awesome store and he'll beat any price that Photo Continental are advertising, but then again they've always been a bit heavy on the coin. I got my 11-18mm there and very friendly.

His 40D Zoom kit with the EFS 18-55mm (just your basic kit lens) IS is $1700

Nick_

Wow guys, those are killer prices!

I hope that I can save quick because I've got the taste of it now..

In all reality I think if this ever happens it'll be late in the year unfortunately.

Nick_

Well who else went to QR today? I bet a few, I know JustDave was there, lulling up and down in front of me in the first DA prac.. I was wishing no-one else was around so I could've knocked him down with something from my car and taken off with his elephant-dick sized L series tele-lens on a rather gigantic canon (5D? 1D?) but alas, I went home instead and went to crushers leagues club which was awful.

Here are the keepers, even some of these are ratty, but hell, I'll put them up anyway. Oh and I like how Fernando hit the tyres, DON'T THINK YOU'RE SO GOOD WITH YOUR CHROME VINYL NOW DO YA BUDDY? HUH??
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IMHO I think it was a pretty poor effort today, I felt much more focused at Archie, as well as the fact I could get real close to the action, where as here I was sitting on the tail-gate of my work ute, I think it made me lazy and my shots reflected this.. What do you think?

ronald_r32

What lense were you shooting with? some of them have no sharpness at all. A few keepers though, i love pickerings s15 haha. TE27's FTW

Oh and according to daves exif info he is using a 1D mark III

Nick_

Of course it's a mkIII, I'm no canon buff so I wasn't brave enough to guess what model exactly.

I was shooting with a Sigma DG f/4-5.6 70-300 and a Sigma DC f/3.5-5.6 18-125.

I think the thing that lets me down in the incredibly slow focus on the K100D, when testing the 40D, it had super quick focus, even in dark areas where-as the Pentax seems to have trouble even in indoors areas where it shouldn't. One more reason to step up I guess..

You gotta give it a break though, those cars were hitting near 200 at the first righty (where most of my shots were from) so by the time it had focused the car was already past its focus point, I shot anyway in the hopes of getting some decent.

Lance

For a cheaper price, try Photo Continental, they are on Logan road at Mt Gravatt. They will pretty much beat any price around, except eBay obviously.

ronald_r32

Having no idea on what that camera can do...Is it possible to set it so that it focus' continuely and then just track the car before the car is in the spot you want to shoot?

Lance

Predictive focusing for the win.

Nick_

You can, and it is set to that but it seems to stop after just a few seconds and it finds focus so slowly that the car has already been past the preferred point i want to shoot.

I was tracking the car from the straight to the entry of the corner but having such fast speeds I guess it couldn't keep up with the cars, I wasn't going to focus on a point in the track either because I wanted to try and pan with them but I couldn't really in the spot I was in. Shame.

The camera also seems to hunt in what I'd call rather mediochre indoor/darkish scenes so I guess that's what makes it a 'students camera' and not a 'professionals camera'. I'll also mention that I have FAR from pro-series lenses also, which no doubt effect the speed and accuracy of the AF system, the 18-125 is a DC which is supposed to be a dual lens, for dig and film whereas the 70-300 is a DG which is supposed to be 'optimised' for digital. Also they're both reasonable medium lenses in terms of speed being f/3.5 and f/4 unlike a 2.8 which would be over twice the price.

I think when I get the Canon, I'll just get one medium zoom like the 18-75 in the pack and then focus on shorter & faster lenses like a 50mm 1.8 or so because I find myself in a lot of low-light situations wanting to shoot and my 18-125 is just that little bit too slow to work even with IS on.

dunn

some sweet work in there, definitely diggin the ones of the cat earlier on.

Nick_

Cheers mate.

Am stalking a Pentax 28mm prime f2.8 on ebay at the moment which should give some nice results and good practice in the next few months.

Nick_

Some playing with the flash on my coffee table.


Was just stuffing around with the flash and getting a new angle on my coffee table, first was taken using the ob-board flash, too dark. Second was taken with my Nissin 32AF bounced off my face which hurt, but at least I was smart enough to close my eyes as tight as I could, I think this is the best composed picture. Third is the Nissin pointed at 90 deg. at the coffee table which obviously blew the arse out of the pic. None of these were 'shopped either.. Well maybe just a little sharpness..

Just thought I'd show you all what I've been doing lately, which is just practicing methods and using the hot-shoe (which I never really use except on things like this anyway)

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Also have a 28mm f/2.8 coming from ebay this week which should be rad having a much faster lens, unfortunately too short to use at Archie I think (which is where I want a fast lens), but I'll try the next time I can get there anyway (My turn to work the 7-day late shift at work this week) Should be able to get some good aspects from it though (ala green ute POTW 2 weeks ago). That's my plan anyway!

TUN35

Wow the old bouncing off the head trick haha! The lighting actually turned out really well in that shot champ

Nick_

Haha yeah, I must have a big white head or something..

There's a big of vignetting too which sucks.. oh well..

Nick_

A couple from this arvo.

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Nick_

Aaaaaaaaaaaany commeeeeeeeeeeeents?

matt mead

the cats eyes are pretty cool....i really like it

Nick_

Thanks Matt.

The boss said I had done these too much (two previous I think) and I think she may be right, but if I don't do it, basically it's just a shit photo of a cat.. there isn't much mood etc, I think it really makes an attitude about the cat also, which is fitting because it's a bit or a shithead.

Nick_

Posted a re-edit of the moon shot in my deviant art account. On the laptop now so I can't post the pic here, XP and Vista don't like networking without a Microsoft add on which isn't really suitable at the moment with things such as validity and so forth

Nick_

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That is all.

Fisher

You wanted me to have a a look so I am.
Just to warn you - I'm honest, I don't sugar coat ANYTHING.
You still want me to do a full crit? (by a full crit I mean all the shots on this page. I CBF going back any further).

TD 06

do it harry

Ghetto Panda

With your cat shot i would crop it on the right just after the tail to improve the comp, second shot remove the pole in the way.
Now i know you have posted the moon shot without pole (or whatever it is) but now seems a bit central so maybe crop it with the moon lower in the frame.

C'mon Harry rip him a new one lol.

Fisher

Ok but you're taking the wrap if it turns into a shitfight again!

The shots are actually decent, well, there are really only 2 so...

Moon shot (with tree/pole) - The tree/pole thing adds nothing to the shot (good idea taking it out), the comp is too central and static, remember the rule of 3rds, there is some weird line on the bottom right of the moon which needs to be cloned out. The crop is too wide, try shooting it at f/8, ISO100, that will give you a sharper image than f/5.6 and ISO 200, you will probably need a tripod. With the sharper image you have more freedom with closer crops. The colors are good and the exposure is bang on.

Moon shot without pole - The re-edit is good in that you have taken out the pole but that's where it ends. The extra sharpening looks dodgy as it has given the sky a more blotchy and hash texture, would have been better if you had made a layer for the moon and just sharpened that.

Kitty cat - This shot is great, despite it's central comp it is not too static, the only problem I've found is that my eye keeps being attracted to the light flaring on the window and on the material at the bottom, a little bit of burn might be good there. I really like this shot. I hate selective coloring but I love it here, the scene looks really cold and inhospitable and the cat looks un-phased and fierce - great work.

My crits are damn picky and you might not agree with alot of stuff - that's cool, just try and keep an open mind and maybe try applying those ideas to your shots in the future.

Keep it up and keep posting.

Harry