[ivox3]

J_Man,

I thought I'd try and bring some of the contrast/color out.

Just a couple .......

Nice pics.

[kirkt]

J-man - thouse are tough shots to expose properly with the bright sky behind your subject. Next time try using the flash (if your camera has one) to help even the lighting - it will also help capture (freeze) the motion of the bird taking flight - if that's what you want. When you get that harsh backlighting your contrast and color saturation go downhill if you don;t compensate for the exposure. Regardless of that nonsense, those are some real nice shots.

Another example for using a flash is shooting cars or other shiny things in harsh midday lighting. Seems counterintuitive, but using a flash helps "redistribute" the light in the TTL exposure meter and helps with underexposure problems.

Good stuff folks.

kirk

[kirkt]

Here are some silly shots that were taken tonight while testing the "painting with light" technique. here is a blog describing some of these techniques:

http://katiespapa.blogspot.com/2005/03/light-lines.html

Also interesting is the use of a hotshoe flash (i use a Canon Speedlight 580EX) off of the hotshoe and fired multiple times at various locations in the field of the camera to paint the intensity of the lighting onto the scene with the shutter open. I used a 25 second exposure started with the timer (to minimize shake) and then ran around my yard firing away at the trees. here is an example:



Also interesting is the "multilight" approach to lighting an object with the same multi-flash in a single exposure technique. Here is the exposure:



and here is a wide view showing me frantically running around the yellow kiddie car firing the flash at various intervals during the exposure:



Finally, here are some examples of painting on an invisible canvas a la Picasso:



This was sort of a cool image because the lamp I use has both a halogen (orangish) and LED (white) lamp - I mixed the two lamps during my flailing around with the shutter opened and got the mixed colors. Thisis the headlamp i used.

And one with a second curtain sync'ed flash on the hotshoe:

.

What that basically means is that the flash was set to fire right before the shutter (the second curtain) closed. So, I started the timer, ran in front of the camera, the shutter opened, I got out my LED headlamp and wrote the word "Hi !" and then the flash fired while I posed next to the "writing" area. The last two images have sort of a low-contrast haze on them because I forgot to cover the viewfinder so light leaked in through the eyepiece - apparently that is what that little, seemingly useless, rubber thingy on your camera strap is for, for those of you with SLRs!

All of the images were shot in RAW, Adobe 1998 color space, using a Canon Digital Rebel and developed in Adobe Lightroom (now in Public Beta 3). Matte and titles added in Photoshop.

This is just one of the many demonstrations I perform daily confirming my complete geekitude.

kirk

[ivox3]

good stuff Kirk.

[LarsSon]

Kirkt - those are totally great!
...and really nice explanations too. Thanks.

-LarsSon

[j_man]

J_Man,

I thought I'd try and bring some of the contrast/color out.

Just a couple .......

Nice pics.

Thank ivox3! I've had a look at them on my old computer which has a calibrated monitor and I think you're right, so I've upped trhem also, but maybe not as much as you have!

J-man - thouse are tough shots to expose properly with the bright sky behind your subject. Next time try using the flash (if your camera has one) to help even the lighting - it will also help capture (freeze) the motion of the bird taking flight - if that's what you want. When you get that harsh backlighting your contrast and color saturation go downhill if you don;t compensate for the exposure. Regardless of that nonsense, those are some real nice shots.

Yep, the backlighting was a big problem. I tried a few different things including up to two stops compensation on some of them, but I didn't use the flash but next time I will. I'll also shoot with a smaller aperature to improve the sharpness.

Also interesting is the use of a hotshoe flash (i use a Canon Speedlight 580EX) off of the hotshoe and fired multiple times at various locations in the field of the camera to paint the intensity of the lighting onto the scene with the shutter open. I used a 25 second exposure started with the timer (to minimize shake) and then ran around my yard firing away at the trees. here is an example:

Hey my dad use to do this in dark buildings like catherdrals etc.

I can't see you images though > : I guess they're being blocked by the firewall. I'll have a look at home.

Thanks for the comments! I'll get some more images to post...

BTW jdp i really like the warm highlights on your london eye photos. good work!

J.

[kirkt]

Thanks folks - and yes @jdp - your london eye shots 3 and 5 are especially terrific.

[Maximus3D]

Chris: Thanks glad you liked my nature shots, and as soon as the sun is out, i'm out the door too hehe can't sit indoors when it's +20-30c and sunny. Expect more nature shots in the future..

Voidmonster: That's really good! great composition and colors you got there. Thanks nice to hear you liked my pics too.

Kirk: Thanks i've seen on Discovery Channel about a year ago about people in UK who go out and drive like that in the woods with their jeeps. Seems like fun!

jdp: Thanks interesting shots you got there.

Andretto: Alright, my mistake. Yes well perhaps this thread is to blame to some degree for the lack of renderings lately, i really don't know but maybe. However i think once the 1.1 update is out many more of us will resume rendering again with Maxwell as it'll work better then once it's updated. Why i photograph more than rendering now is because i have computer problems (hardware trouble) and rendering is no fun until i can afford a new motherboard. So this is basically all i can do for now

j_man: Very nice birdie photos

Kirk: Interesting stuff, thanks for the tips and very cool photos now i wanna try that too! must get a tripod first tho.. great way of explaining how you did it to us

My first try at a panorama shot without a tripod, this is downtown in the harbor two days ago. Note: this panorama test sucks alot as it's poorly aligned and the blends are horribly bad. But here it is anyways.


Click on the thumbnail below to view the fullres version.


/ Max

[kirkt]

@Max - looks beautiful. What did you use to stitch it? it appears the order of the stitched images is a little off, splitting the image in the middle. I took the pano and just rearranged it a little in Photoshop:



i think this looks more natural. I hope my messing with the image doesn;t bug you. That is an awesome bike ride! Keep on practicing panos - this one is pretty terrific for handheld.

kirk

[Cyberfish_Fred]

WK 2006

I have watched our team, the Dutch, the orange, in London...
weeeeee r the champions.....

[Maximus3D]

Kirk, thanks but i think my version looks horrible. Your version looks much better and natural as you said, i like it more when i did that i used Ulead PhotoImpact 11 (prefer that ahead of Photoshop). It might not be the best but it's good enough for my skills. Anyone's free to mess with my photos as much as they want, i don't mind

Fred: Hehe crazy football fans everywhere there

/ Max

[NicoR44]

Remember that little bird some pages back?

[Maximus3D]

Oo.. it hatched and grew up quite a bit now Nico i'm sure it'll fly soon if not already.

One from the harbour down by the city a few days ago..



EXIF Data
Date/Time: 2006:06:10 15:55:03
ExposureTime: 1/500 seconds
FNumber: 8.00
ExposureProgram: Shutter priority
ISOSpeedRatings: 100
ExposureBiasValue: 0.30
MaxApertureValue: F 2.80
MeteringMode: Multi-segment
Flash: Not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength: 8.00 mm
ColorSpace: sRGB
Resolution: 3264x2448 (downsized by 100% for forum posting)

/ Max

[ludenhud]

Wow nice parrot shots everyone, I like the one flying the most, really good.

NicoR44 you added fur, wii

Today is the day when Krispy Cream opened a store at Maquarie Centre near by my place. Me and my buddy got there and purchased 24 donuts and went home to surprise my girl and our room mate.

I’m the standing fallah, my girl is in the up front and everything else speaks for itself

[thxraph]

a sunset in mallorca, will the sky fall on us?



thxraph