The Photography Thread

[ThisIsMyUserName]

1966 Ford Mustang GT

[truthv7]

Originally Posted by ThisIsMyUserName

1966 Ford Mustang GT

Wow, that's an amazing shot. Is it just HDR, or how did you do it?

[robotparker]

not to be a douche, but what's up with all the macro shots of flowers and bugs? I see it all the time on a couple of other forums. and flickr is just overflowin' with them. whats the dilly yo?

[butterface]

Originally Posted by robotparker

not to be a douche, but what's up with all the macro shots of flowers and bugs? I see it all the time on a couple of other forums. and flickr is just overflowin' with them. whats the dilly yo?

Popular genre like cars and architecture and a lot of the other genres you see repeated. It's colorful, and macro lenses pick up on textures vividly. And in the case of plants, it's a pretty easy-going subject matter to play with, doesn't move or resist. Personally, flowers give me false hopes that I'm a good photographer just because I've got a nice camera. Nature is diverse and fascinating, but I get that some people just see the same tree over and over.

[brianward81]

I bought a Canon 70-200 USM L F4.0 lens the other day here in Spain, still yet to give it a good go. It's too farkin hot to venture out today!

[dazmania83]

My first effort using my new daylight bulbs, did a bit of cleaning up to remove some harsh shadows caused by the flash, and I blurred the background to remove the obvious creases in the sheet I used for the backdrop. Any pointers for improvement always welcomed. I'm not too happy with the Aura I seem to have created around my head though, it looks like a bad cut and paste or I have a messiah complex.

[truthv7]

I'm not an expert so I might be wrong but the halo might be from being too close to the background. The light from the sheet is almost as bright as the light on you and it looks like you did the blurring in post which seems to be a more likely cause. If you can move farther from the background and zoom in a bit, if you could, for a more natural in-camera blur.

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Originally Posted by truthv7

Wow, that's an amazing shot. Is it just HDR, or how did you do it?

Thanks!
I redid it a few times before I was happy. It's a lot of RAW tweaking and also HDR. Nine exposures I believe. I also used a polarizer on the lens. I was shooting a band and they wanted the picture in front of one of their Mustangs. I had to get a few shots since it's one of my favorite cars.

Now if only I could find someone who owns the Batmobile from 1989!

Originally Posted by dazmania83

My first effort using my new daylight bulbs, did a bit of cleaning up to remove some harsh shadows caused by the flash, and I blurred the background to remove the obvious creases in the sheet I used for the backdrop. Any pointers for improvement always welcomed. I'm not too happy with the Aura I seem to have created around my head though, it looks like a bad cut and paste or I have a messiah complex.

Also try shooting at a lower f-stop if you can. The further you can get away from the background and lower the aperture, the better. I'm about to set up another little tabletop studio so if it works out, I'll post a pic of it. I'm terrible with the controlled light thing.

[SanFranStagehand]

Originally Posted by dazmania83

My first effort using my new daylight bulbs, did a bit of cleaning up to remove some harsh shadows caused by the flash, and I blurred the background to remove the obvious creases in the sheet I used for the backdrop. Any pointers for improvement always welcomed. I'm not too happy with the Aura I seem to have created around my head though, it looks like a bad cut and paste or I have a messiah complex.

Yeah, truthv7 is right, too close to the backdrop. Check this photo of my wife and son. They were standing a few feet in front a sliding glass door with a sheer curtain hanging in front of it. I used the on camera flash, but not at full power. A wide aperture kept the curtain out of focus. The correct exposure for the people totally over exposes the curtain, which is exactly what you want if you're trying to get an all white background.

I haven't done any processing to this yet, if I do I will probably pull a little red out to make their skin look more natural.

[elvisrico69]

im no photographer