The Photography Topic

[Kev]

I have enjoyed just playing about with a Canon 550D but want to get much better - does anyone have any good sources of information or is it just practise and experience?

Practice.

Youtube is actually very good.
Look up the videos from Mark Wallace at Adorama on there. He does some very good 5 minute clips on various aspects.
And also the ones from Bryan Peterson. He's a bit more whacky and creative but it's useful stuff.
Also look at what other people do and try and do the same. It's good experience for playing with settings to see if you can get roughly the same result.

[Kev]

Took this tonight.

[skippy]

Awesome shot!

As soon as I noticed you had uploaded to the photography section, I thought - I bet it is a moon shot! A friend of mine has just uploaded a photo onto Facebook, I am going outside now to see if I can glimpse it!

[Sidewaysgt4]

Having been forced to quit bike racing due to lack of funds and illness I bought a Fuji hs10, couldn't afford full DSLr but still get decent results with the bridge camera, and I like to get a bit of a fix snapping the bikes now.




Still like the close up nature-y stuff though too


And a sunset from before Christmas

[Kev]

Pocket cameras have come on loads in recent years. I think the push of smartphones has done that. You can get some great shots with them now. Those bike ones are great and the colour on that sunset is awesome.

[easyrider]

working in kuwait and shot this from a bridge. seen a rocco here too, shot past me chasing a corvette!

[Kev]

Cool. I want to try some light trail stuff myself but haven't found a good location yet.

[easyrider]

yeah, the location is pretty important, so is getting the iso/f-stop just right. i found a low iso (100) and the middle of the f-stop range (f9 on my 24-70mm) provides the clearest shot with tightest flares.

i also bought one of these, just got to make sure i don't clip anyone with it on!:

http://delkin.com/product/fat-gecko-triple-mount/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kev]

Couple of pics from the WEC cars at silverstone today

[Kev]

I had a little trip out today to Dockey Wood to see what the bluebells were like. Saw a blond girl in a black Scirocco GTS with white stripes as well. Hello if it was you

Wowza! The best bluebell wood I've ever seen!
The car park was heaving but that's a sunny bank holiday weekend for you. But the wood is big enough that people don't get in the way of the photos too much.

[skippy]

Great pictures Kev, I think the mild wet winter is helping provide some really good flower displays this spring!

[Kev]

Thanks.
I've never seen that big a bluebell wood before.

Here's one more.

[easyrider]

yeah, i agree, these are amazing! which post-production tools do you use kev? (presuming you shoot (raw). photoshop or lightroom? played with photomatix at all?

[Kev]

Thanks

I use lightroom5. Great bit of kit. They haven't actually had an awful lot done to them. A bit of vibrancy, a tiny bit of clarity and little tweaks to the highlights and whites/blacks etc and a gradient at the top just to tone down the brightness of the sky a bit.

[Ozmosis]

Ok here's a few pics from my recent road trip across Europe! Watched F1 in Monaco (bucket list item checked off!!).

Was trying to get a good image of speed, and took some time to get the settings for the shutter speed right. First few pics were at 1/40, eventually working up to 1/250 for the F1 cars. To get to around 150 decent pics, I took around 1600!!

Porsche Cup:





Formula Renault:





Formula One:

[Kev]

Monaco baby! Sweet

When I was at Silverstone last year I needed at least 1/600th to get anywhere near a decent hit rate on the F1s (at about 300mm). The speed of the subject and distance from it are big factors. At Prescott where the cars are only doing about 50-60mph I can get down to 1/30th without any bother but the F1s need a lot more.

[easyrider]

wow! great set of shots! love the mercs ;-)

[Ozmosis]

Monaco baby! Sweet

When I was at Silverstone last year I needed at least 1/600th to get anywhere near a decent hit rate on the F1s (at about 300mm). The speed of the subject and distance from it are big factors. At Prescott where the cars are only doing about 50-60mph I can get down to 1/30th without any bother but the F1s need a lot more.

Yeah I have been practising on local traffic when I knew I was going to Monaco, and 1/20th was not a problem for some clear shots. Of course, this was 50-60 km/h traffic though!

All in all though, I knew it would take some time to get it right. Maybe next time my hit rate will be better. Though by the time I can afford to do something similar again, we'll all have hologram projectors or something! Lol

I was quite shocked at how the things pick up speed in the pit lane, wanted to get a good shot or three from there but have a few shots of rear wings!

Did get some good video of the pit-lane havoc during the second safety car though... :-)

[skippy]

Great shots Ozmosis, looks like you had a fantastic time! What I also want to know, what do those engines really sound like?

There was all that fuss at the start of the season but I guess that has receded a bit as people get used to the sound. I know Mercedes tried that 'megaphone' exhaust recently, but I for one accept this is part of the new regulations.

I think the engine noise has been lost in the Hamilton v Rosberg fight, but they appear to have made their peace from what I read.

[Ozmosis]

Well to be honest Skippy, the engine sounds of the Formula Renault and GP2 cars is much louder than F1 now. However, the F1 sound is much more distinctive from the others, and in my opinion, absolutely unique in racing now. Having heard them "live", you get to hear the extra "chirrups" from the turbos's and the wastegates, which you don't get through TV. They certainly do not sound slow... Plus my missus was quite shocked at the loudness of the FR and GP2's, she preferred the F1's as she didn't need to have ear plugs (or fingers in ears!).

They can not simply "fix" the sound with a megafone extension! It's because of the turbo, MGU-H and MGU-K plus the limited fuel flow (limit 100kg/hr) that means they don't rev so much. Plus before you had the sounds of the two cylinder banks through seperate exhausts, now you have all six cylinders through one exhaust (after the turbo has taken it's energy from the gasses).