Photographers: tips, tricks, equipment, etc

[SKnight]

Ugh, spent some money this week. Somehow, either when I was at the Georgia Tech game or along the way camping my 24-105 lens was broken. During a weak moment and the Best Buy guy cutting me a deal I came home with a new 24-70 f2.8 mkII lens. Blew my vacation budget by three times, but wow, what a lens.

[doc73]

They are great lenses.!

[doc73]

Few shots form Pittsburgh.

I took several night shots. They were my first time trying as legit night shot with the new Canon. Had some shake issues from kids running around me and shaking the observation deck. I also left on the IS so it was recommended to shut off when on a tripod.

IMG_2357 by doc736, on Flickr

IMG_2196 by doc736, on Flickr

[Gottaluvlife]

Originally Posted by Shutterbug

Here is something I posted on a Facebook group. Thought it might help some of you....


For those of you that like to photograph sunsets. Here is a tip to saturate the colors.

This particular sunset was quite bland, as it was still too bright. I knew with the vertical clouds it would make the sun look like fire.

The trick is to under expose to saturate the color, and highlight the yellows, and oranges.

Both of these shots are straight out of the camera. No post processing. The more saturated of the two was under exposed by 2 full stops.

When shooting sunsets. Try multiple levels of under exposure. Each sunset is different.

This particular shot looks quite a bit better printed. Back lit computer screens can't show the full effect. But you get the idea.

Happy shooting.
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Attachment 123163

Awesome pic! And thanks for the tips!! I also recently learned that if you wait (think about 20 mins) after sunset for the Blue Hour..you can get some amazing pics as well!!

[doc73]

Same holds true for just before sunrise (BUT THAT IS EARLY!!!). Similar effect on the shots.

[Oakman]

I hope these pics look as good on a computer screen as they do on my smartphone. Today's smartphones, although limited in scope, are capable of taking some darn good pictures. Here are a couple of pics taken with my Samsung smartphone.

[gspot01]

Originally Posted by SKnight

Ugh, spent some money this week. Somehow, either when I was at the Georgia Tech game or along the way camping my 24-105 lens was broken. During a weak moment and the Best Buy guy cutting me a deal I came home with a new 24-70 f2.8 mkII lens. Blew my vacation budget by three times, but wow, what a lens.

Those lenses are long-term investments and built like a tank. I'm using the Mark I version I bought in 2004. It's traveled with me to Canada, Spain, and Italy, and innumerable smaller trips, much to my back's complaint. Been thinking about the 24-105 f/4 for travel because of its longer reach and lower weight. I determined that most travel photos are at smaller apertures to maximize depth of field anyway. For that rare portrait, I could just use my 50 f1.8 that I carry as a backup.

[SKnight]

Originally Posted by gspot01

Those lenses are long-term investments and built like a tank. I'm using the Mark I version I bought in 2004. It's traveled with me to Canada, Spain, and Italy, and innumerable smaller trips, much to my back's complaint. Been thinking about the 24-105 f/4 for travel because of its longer reach and lower weight. I determined that most travel photos are at smaller apertures to maximize depth of field anyway. For that rare portrait, I could just use my 50 f1.8 that I carry as a backup.

I can say that my 24-105 was a good durable lens, it lasted me seven years and I think I know how I broke it. I was shooting football Friday night before leaving Saturday, after getting some coin toss pics I let the camera go instead of hanging it on my belt, because my shoulder strap would catch it, except I forgot to hook the strap. Thump, camera with 24-105 hits the ground. I swapped to my 70-200 for the game and must have missed the lens being cocked.

[EJM4]

This past weekend @ Ives Run in Tioga, PA.

[MilCop4523]

definitely not camping season in eastern Canada but...

[chroniekon]

Here's a fairly recent look at Crater Lake in Oregon

[MilCop4523]

took these yesterday with my cell phone....

[Oakman]

I took this with my smart phone as we were returning to Port Canaveral on the NCL Epic this past Saturday.

[Jack Larson]

Just got a used Nikon D 3200 Double Zoom Lens Kit & Case for $250.00. My friend bought it new and took nine pictures with it. He has a bunch of cameras, and bought this on a whim. He include a 32 GB card. Its way more camera than I know what to do with, but read some reviews before I bought it. Came with a 18-55 mm lens and a 55-200 mm lens, a decent bag, all the wires, battery charger. Got everything in the original box just like new. Was happy using an old Canon Power Shot A 520, and the DW has a small Nikon, not sure what model it is. Its a small one, but better than my old Canon. Just began to use it, and man what a difference. Started with just the basic Auto setting, allows the point and shoot easy setting. And have played around just a little bit. I have much to read, learn and try. Next trip is in March, can't wait. Will try and absorb as much as possible before than. I understand that this is a discontinued model and maybe that's why it was sold in this package type kit. Should be a good learning curve me. Still have to try out the 1080p HD Video. As with out TT that we have learned so much from this forum, I hope to lean from this post as well. Thanks to everyone that shared here.

[Jack Larson]

[IMG]22017026[/IMG]

[chroniekon]

There is a lot of really good info on the D3200 on the kenrockwell.com website including reviews and extensive user guides

[Jack Larson]

Thank you chroniekon, I will check it out for sure. I'm pretty much dependent on the "Auto" mode for now. I was pretty happy when I was able to actually post a picture in a post. I just hope I can remember just how I did it. I pretty new to this forum, and that was my first picture post. I get great enjoyment from this forum, there is so much information on just about everything.

[krispyk]

Saw this guy soaking up the sun and watching cars go past. He didn't stick around long once I stopped and got a couple quick shots.

[Oakman]

I just returned from a trip to China. I was expecting our flight to go across the Pacific Ocean from California but after leaving San Jose our flight continued north. The plane flew over part of the Arctic Circle on the way to Beijing. Wow, what a view that was.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Oakman

I just returned from a trip to China. I was expecting our flight to go across the Pacific Ocean from California but after leaving San Jose our flight continued north. The plane flew over part of the Arctic Circle on the way to Beijing. Wow, what a view that was.

Attachment 136184

Going over CA would have been "the long way around".

When dealing with an "oblate spheroid" (the earth), the shortest distance between two points is a "great circle".