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The Weekly Photo

onepixel

onepixel

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There are a bunch of people posting nice photos. Albeit the subject matter is kinda random.

How about a little direction? We can come up with a topic. Then for a week post your take on the topic. Seeing others viewpoint and photographic technique on the same subject can help ones creativity and better your photography. Any comments on your process is welcomed.

I’ll start.
WEEK 1: Flowers

_CMY9496 Pink Plumeria-sm.jpg

Original image before crop. I take photos pretty quickly, so I leave room to crop and refine it later in Lightroom. It was a cloudy day, which can make for some really nice photos. No sun bleached areas or harsh shadows. I saturated the colors a wee bit to make it pop from the background.

There are a lot of free and inexpensive photo editors out there. The ones on cell phones work pretty good.

plumeria-crop.jpg


The Weekly List
  • Week 1: Flowers
  • Week 2: Memorial Day
  • Week 3: Sports
  • Week 4: Water
  • Week 5: The color green
  • Week 6: In the dark
  • Week 7: Your music
  • Week 8: Found objects
  • Week 9: Street photography
  • Week 10: Moths and butterflies
  • Week 11: Summer
  • Week 12: Trees
  • Week 13: Circles
  • Week 14: Lines
  • Week 15: Roads
  • Week 16: Found faces
  • Week 17: Light
  • Week 18: Car and motorcycle parts
  • Week 19: People
  • Week 20: Lighthouses
  • Week 21: Autumn
  • Week 22: Anything goes
  • Week 23: Store windows
  • Week 24: Things that go 'bump' in the night (Halloween)
  • Week 25: Mountain, Hills and Volcanos
  • Week 26: Rivers, Creeks and Canals
  • Week 27: Drinks
  • Week 28: Food/Feast/Kitchen
  • Week 29: Weather
  • Week 30: Christmas Trees, Ornaments, Decorations
  • Week 31: Low Light
  • Week 32: Anything Goes
  • Week 33: A Year in Review
  • Week 34: Bridges
  • Week 35: Buildings
  • Week 36: Having Fun with Monuments, Sculptures and Local Attractions
  • Week 37: Symmetry
  • Week 38: Photographers
  • Week 39: Objects in a Different Light
  • Week 40: Clouds
  • Week 41: Animals and Wildlife
  • Week 42: Shot between 5-7am.
  • Week 43: From the Yard
  • Week 44: Toys, Knick-Knacks, and Whatsits
  • Week 45: Still Life
 
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Interesting idea for a thread. Here is an image I took a couple weeks ago at Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in San Luis Obispo County.

Canon 5DIII, Canon 50mm 1.2. Color tweaked in Apple Photos and cropped. Brutally crushed down to low resolution for AK upload.
IO7A0952.jpg
 
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Yeah, ice plant. I was shooting 4K video with an Iphone X and Movi cinema robot. I took the fat 50mm and the 5D3 to balance out the wide angle and lack of DOF on the X. That is one area I need to work on, what is the best focal length to use.

It was a lot of stuff to hike with in the sand, but a beautiful day. Took lots of Plover photos on the hike back along the ocean, so I am glad I took the 50mm.
 
@Cadillac Kid If you want a great, day to day wide angle prime, a fast (f1.4 to f2.8) 24mm or 35mm would work very well. Everything from landscapes, street photography, portraits and even astrophotography. I have an excellent 16-35mm, f/2.8 zoom that is quite versatile. But zooms are often much bigger/heavier than prime lenses. Anything wider, is more of specialty lens. They can be cool for large landscapes, but you can get distortion. You can always easily stitch photos together to make wide angle panoramas.

I'm telling ya, your 50mm, f/1.2 is a very sweet lens. Try some low light portraits wide open.
 
This is just some unknown, pale blue weed in my front yard. I don't have any software with which to manipulate the image yet, so I have to post the .jpeg. Nikon D610, 70mm, f/4.5 @ 1/125, ISO 200, DX mode.

The lens quite surprised me; it's a 24-70mm zoom, and I was able to focus reasonably well at just less than 1 foot. Also, the background is more blurred out than I expected for f/4.5

upload_2019-5-21_17-29-49.png

This is after 30 secs with windows 10:

upload_2019-5-21_17-43-14.png
 
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@GuyK 24-70mm is a good standard zoom. You can get blurred background with a variety of lenses and apertures. Depends on the distance to the background and adjust the distance to the subject.

Looks like you might be a little too close to the flowers. Try about 1.5 feet away.
 
onepixel said:
@GuyK 24-70mm is a good standard zoom. You can get blurred background with a variety of lenses and apertures. Depends on the distance to the background and adjust the distance to the subject.

Looks like you might be a little too close to the flowers. Try about 1.5 feet away.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely too close to the flower, but I was just exploring what this lens could do. I'd consider this particular shot again from a little farther away at f/8 or so. The focus would likely be sharper, the entire flower would be in focus, and depth of field would probably still be sufficiently shallow. I should also consider a different vantage point to try and keep the other flower stalk out of the pic; it's a little distracting.
 
GuyK said:
I'm definitely too close to the flower, but I was just exploring what this lens could do. I'd consider this particular shot again from a little farther away at f/8 or so. The focus would likely be sharper, the entire flower would be in focus, and depth of field would probably still be sufficiently shallow. I should also consider a different vantage point to try and keep the other flower stalk out of the pic; it's a little distracting.
Click to expand...
You may be ok with the closeness to the flower. Some of my lenses focusing range is beyond a foot. I checked my 24-105 and I could get in pretty tight, within a foot.
 
In photography, a big part is capturing the right light. The light was before sunset and dappling through branches and leaves. Giving it a dramatic feel and popping the colors.

Shot from about 10 feet away with a 24-105mm. 105mm at f4.5, 1/200 sec, ISO100.

_CMY2070-bromleiad-sm.jpg
 
mhedges said:
@GuyK which 24-70 was that? I'm assuming a 2.8 version? Yes they will give pretty good background blur especially on a FF camera. If you want some decent free editing software for use with your D610 I recommend the Nikon combo - View NX-I and Capture NX-D. It's what I use..
D72_1135 small by Mark Hedges, on Flickr
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No, surprisingly, it's not the f/2.8 lens. I only have the f/3.5-4.5 version. I'd like to get to 28-300mm lens for general daily walkabout stuff, and a couple of very nice, very fast primes for special applications. It's only money, right? The kit lenses I have currently are ok, but are not super crisp.

edit:
I have View NX-2 that came with the camera, but neither of the other two you mention. NX 1 doesn't appear to do very much, but I haven't played with it much, yet.

edit 2: The lens is a 24-85mm, not 24-70.
 
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Cadillac Kid said:
Interesting idea for a thread. Here is an image I took a couple weeks ago at Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in San Luis Obispo County.

Canon 5DIII, Canon 50mm 1.2. Color tweaked in Apple Photos and cropped. Brutally crushed down to low resolution for AK upload.
View attachment 1514400
Click to expand...

I just noticed you noted 50mm f/1.2. This is a nice piece of glass! I'd like something similar eventually.
 
onepixel said:
You may be ok with the closeness to the flower. Some of my lenses focusing range is beyond a foot. I checked my 24-105 and I could get in pretty tight, within a foot.
Click to expand...
No, I think I'm too close. None of the flower petals are truly in sharp focus. The two in the middle are the best, but neither are great, the other two are out because depth of field is too shallow
 
GuyK said:
I just noticed you noted 50mm f/1.2. This is a nice piece of glass! I'd like something similar eventually.
Click to expand...
The f/1.2 creates images with great bokeh, wonderful background blur and it's fast. I have a 55mm, f/1.8 that is really nice. But I've seen portraits down with the 50mm, f/1.2 and they look gorgeous and dreamy.

If you get to really know your gear, you can do some incredible stuff.
 
GuyK said:
No, surprisingly, it's not the f/2.8 lens. I only have the f/3.5-4.5 version. I'd like to get to 28-300mm lens for general daily walkabout stuff, and a couple of very nice, very fast primes for special applications. It's only money, right? The kit lenses I have currently are ok, but are not super crisp.

edit:
I have View NX-2 that came with the camera, but neither of the other two you mention. NX 1 doesn't appear to do very much, but I haven't played with it much, yet.

edit 2: The lens is a 24-85mm, not 24-70.
Click to expand...

NX-i does most of what I want. I don't do heavy edits. You can crop, straighten, increase saturation, contrast, sharpness, etc. And if you shoot in RAW you can adjust exposure and white balance.

Capture NX-D does heavier edits and the two programs work together pretty well. It's all done in a non-destructive sidecar format.
 
mhedges said:
NX-i does most of what I want. I don't do heavy edits. You can crop, straighten, increase saturation, contrast, sharpness, etc. And if you shoot in RAW you can adjust exposure and white balance.

Capture NX-D does heavier edits and the two programs work together pretty well. It's all done in a non-destructive sidecar format.
Click to expand...

I guess I'll have to spend some time actually playing with the program, then.
 
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