Broom

Canon EOS 350D with Canon 18-200mm IS lens
1/125 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100 at 35mm

I should probably admit to having a bit of a broom fetish when it comes to pictures. Since I probably won't stop taking pictures of them, what should I be doing to get a better picture?


Updated 2nd Jan 2011

 

So here's the same broom, with a bit brighter top section of red.  It was originally this colour when I took the picture, but I darkened it by accident when I added a filter to soften the white bit behind the broom.  

Arch

Here's another shot open for discussion.

I liked the historic look of this arch, its reflection in the moat and the broken gate within. I wanted to convey something of the quiet mistery about its rundown appearance in the early morning rain.

Arch
Canon EOS Kiss Digital X with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM at 177mm EFL
1/400s, f2/8 & ISO 400
Handheld in light rain.

So what do you think? Does it leave you wondering what this place once was, what happened here and why is it deserted now?

Modern Architecture

Hi Guys,

This is an alternative take on pattern studies. Usually pattern studies are abstract, close up images, but this one is quite literal.

I kept this out of a number of candidates for it's blocky architectural shapes and the subtle hue variances between the apartments.

Modern Architectrue
Canon EOS Kiss Digital X with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens at 320mm EFL
1/800s, f/5.6 & ISO 100
Tripod mounted with IS and remote shutter release.

Does it look like an interesting and colourful architectural pattern study to you, or...?

Sunset

Asian sunsets always seem to appear more orange and red than those in Australia. This one was taken in India near the Pakistan border. We were camped out in the Thar Desert under the stars on a relatively clear night. While waiting for dinner to cook, we could watch the sun set across this rather desolate location.

The setting sun was struggling to shine through layers of thin cirrus clouds making them go a beautiful red colour. For this shot, I biased the exposure towards the sun and clouds which left the foreground a little dark.

In post processing, I further increased the contrast in this image, made it a little darker and added some more saturation to the clouds.

Sunset
Canon EOS Kiss Digital X with a Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens at 320mm EFL.
1/125s, f5.6 & ISO 100
Handheld with IS on.

So, what do you think? Does this capture an Asian orange sunset in an empty place? Should I push the foreground more towards a silhouette or try to brighten it up and add some detail?

Into The Eyes of a Dragon

Hi Guys,

I had a really lucky run with some macro photography this weekend.
I have two subjects that I particularly liked and I thought I would share.
My first subject is a Dragonfly.

---
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec f/11, ISO 100
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 1: 1:1 crop.
Note: I also did a couple of spot removals on a couple of tiny bits of junk on the compound eye in image 1 that I thought were a little distracting. I did not remove them in image 2 at the bottom.



---
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec f/11, ISO 100
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 2: Full image from above. This was as close as I could get and still focus.




---
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec f/11, ISO 100
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 3 : Just another angle to show off the pattern in the wings, and the colour of the tail.


---
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec f/11, ISO 100
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 4 : A pretty red Dragonfly was algo buzzing around.


---
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec f/11, ISO 100
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 5 : Same red Dragonfly perching on another twig.


---
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec f/11, ISO 100
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 6 : 1:1 crop of Image 5 to show detail in the compound eyes.



Cheers!
Craig.

Who Likes Trains?

Canon EOS 350D with Canon 18-200 IS lens
1/400 sec at f11, ISO 200
Taken at 60mm (EFL 96mm)



Ok, no background for this shot. What do you like, not like about it?



Geoff.

The Pot

Here's an interesting shot taken in Asila, Morocco.

I'm not sure what prompted me to take this photo, but while reviewing my shots later, I've come to really like it. I enjoy it's simplicity of design and the blue orange colour pair.

The Pot
Canon PowerShot S2IS at 270mm EFL
1/1000s, f/4 & ISO ???

Does it work for you? Or is it just another arty attempt at a pot on a wall?

Edit: 21 Dec 2010,

Here's a slightly different crop based on feedback. However, I don't know if I like it any better than the frist.

So, which appeals more to you?

Owl

Canon EOS 350D with 18-200IS f 3.5-5.6 lens
Taken at EFL 320mm, 1/160sec f5.6 and ISO 100

Here's another picture from the Mongolia collection. A little owl sitting on a fence rail. Let the shit stick...

Red-Brick Bridge

Here's a shot in the early morning, towards the end of golden hour.

I was drawn to this bridge for it's unique red bricks, uncomon for Japan. Also the nice Red Green Blue colour trio.

I used a 9 stop Neutral Density filter for this shot to smooth out the water and remove the cars and people moving across the bridge.

Nine stops is very dark, so the camera's auto focus can't get a lock. In this case I used manual focus and live view.

Red-Brick Bridge
Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM at 22.5mm EFL
15sec, f/10 & ISO 100
Kenko ND400, Tripod, Remote Release

What do you think?

Portrait of a Hoverfly.

I took these photos this morning before heading in to work. I was actually testing out another lens when I noticed this little insect perched on a tiny weed.

I ran back inside and changed to the macro lens and was lucky enough to get the following shots. I was using some techniques that Steve suggested with 1/250 second exposure timing and high speed drive to increase the hit rate.

This is a 1:1 crop of the centre of the main image.

Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec at f/11, Iso 200
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Image 1.


I would have liked to get more of the head in focus. It I had a tripod handy I might have been able to try some focus stacking but I've never done that before.


This was the full image before I cropped it. Same exposure trio as above.
Image 2.


What else can I do to make the cropped image better? Should I adjust colours or cropping? Anything else?


Here is another angle and two different cropping styles used.

Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec at f/11, Iso 200
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
Portrait crop.
Image 3.


Same exposure trio as above.
Landscape crop.
Image 4.



So which cropping format do you prefer and why.

Cheers!

Ps: I'm not certain what type of Hoverfly this is, so if anyone knows I'd be happy to hear from them.

--- Updated 2010-12-17

I noticed the noise the Steve mentioned in my earlier posts, so I thought I'd have a go at post processing it better. This time I selectively performed noise reduction on the area that didn't include the head, and then only performed sharpening on the head itself.

To me anyway, this appears to be a much cleaner image and I'm more happy with it than the previous ones when you view it at full resolution. I'm no Photoshop person though, so this is very much a learning exercise.




Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/250 sec at f/11, Iso 200
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.

Cheers!

Critter

Canon EOS 350D with 18-200 IS lens;
1/125 sec;
f/5.6;
ISO 100;
taken at 200mm


Ok, here's a little guy that we found one morning in Mongolia. He's a Long Tailed Ground Squirrel (I think). So where could I improve?

More Ladybirds!

Hi all,

Well this time we have a series of photos of the same subject (Ladybirds).

They all have different framing and cropping, and I'm interested to know which is the most interesting of the series any why is it the most interesting.

And for the photos that aren't the most interesting, what could I have done to make them more interesting themselves?

During this sequence, I tried to implement some of the previous comments. Specifically, I increased the shutter speed, and set the camera to high speed drive mode, so that I could get a few shots in while the insect was doing interesting things. This worked well, but where I was let down was that my flash batteries were not fully charged, so often the flash did not cycle fast enough for the next shot to be taken correctly. Another lesson learned then. Make sure the flash batteries are fully charged before use.

Image 1 : Throttle up!
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/9.5, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.


Image 2: Sunday walk.
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/9.5, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.


Image 3: Ok, I'm ready now. Smiling :)
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/11, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.


Image 4: Traveling home.
Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/180 sec at f/9.5, Iso 400
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.


Looking forward to receiving some comments.
Cheers!

Rainbow Bridge

Ok so enough with the compact camera shots from 7 years ago. Here's one from some upgraded equipment.

I was out the other day at Odaiba, across the bay from Tokyo. Here is a classic shot of Rainbow Bridge. Can you guess why? While walking around grabbing various shots from various angles, I must have seen about a half a dozen other photographers with tripods and remote timers, doing much the same thing.

Rainbow Bridge
Canon EOS 7D with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Lens at 136mm EFL.
0.4s, f/2.8, ISO 100
Camera was tripod mounted with a remote shutter release.

So what could have been better here?

Architecture

Here's a shot taken while on holidays in Germany. I quite like the architectural lines and the strong blue-orange colour pair.

Unfortunately it was taken with an old camera borrowed from a friend so I don't have much metadata to go with here.

Architecture
Minolta Compact Camera, ??? EFL
1/640s, f/6.7 & ISO 100

So what could have been done better?

EDIT: second attempt at post processing.

Architecture-edited
Minolta Compact Camera, ??? EFL
1/640s, f/6.7 & ISO 100
Alternate crop and post processing.

In this image I changed the crop to remove that annoying bottom slab and move the central tower a little to the left.

I bleached the stairs a little to remove that yellow stain.

I adjusted the luminance, saturation and contrast to show more detail in the stonework.

Has it improved?

Prepare for takeoff.

Now for some macro shots.
This was taken in my backyard just after this ladybird had mated with another one. I'll post the mating photos a bit later :)
This was taken just as the ladybird was about to take off.

Canon 40D at 100mm (EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM)
1/125 sec at f/11, Iso 640
Canon 580EX II Flash with a home made light diffuser trying to soften the light.
Hand held.
How could I have avoided hot spots on the wing coverings from the flash? What type of flash diffuser would prevent this for macro shooting?

Prague Castle

Here's another one. My wife picked it from a short list. However all photos could do with improvements. This is a shot of Prague Castle in the Czech Republic.

Prague Castle
Canon PowerShot S30 at 105mm EFL
1/320s, f/5.6 & ISO ???

What do you all think? Could it grace the pages of a travel magazine?

Mountaineer

Check out this masterpiece in my own little world.

Mountaineer
Canon PowerShot S30 at 35mm EFL
1/1000,  f5/6 & ISO ???

Aside from the missing model release, why isn't this a top seller?

Mandarin Ducks at Taronga Zoo Sydney.

Again following Steves lead with a nice photo of some pelicans, here is a photo I took of some Mandarin Ducks at Taronga Zoo from our recent Sydney holiday.

This is the original image:
Metadata:
Canon 40D at 105mm (EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM).
Exposure: 1/45 s, f/4.0, Iso 200
Hand held.


This is the same image after cropping it a little bit.


Did the cropping improve it at all? It was only a little bit, but I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

I note that the bird on the right is a little out of focus. Maybe I should have set my aperture to f/5.6 or f/8.0 instead to fix that? I always have a hard time deciding if something is really sharp or not when checking on the LCD on the back of the camera, even when zooming in. I've not sure if the maximum magnification stops at 1:1 or not. Does anyone else know what Canon use as their maximum zoom in on the LCD?

Cheers!

Sydney Harbour Bridge at Night.

Hi all.

Well Steve was brave enough to put some photos up first, so it is about time someone else puts something up for a grilling. I thought I would follow his lead and post a night time shot of lights reflecting in water.

This photo was taken on a recent holiday to Sydney. I have to admit I have never taken any lights reflecting in water photos before, and don't really know the technique for doing it. (It was mainly a fluke :)


Metadata:
Canon 40D at 40mm (EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM).
Exposure: 15s, f/8.0, Iso 100
Tripod mounted.

So what worked, what didn't?

(One thing I can think of right away was my time of day perhaps. I've read that you should take landscape shots in the golden hour at the beginning and end of the day, but I've never managed to try that myself yet. I'm guessing if I picked a better time around twilight, I might have captured some colour in the sky perhaps, rather than straight black).

Cheers gents!

Pelicans On A Beach

How about this one? Would National Geographic be interested or is it just another "pelicans on a beach" shot that's been done before?

Metadata:
Canon Powershot S30 at 105mm EFL.
Exposure Triad: 1/800s, f/4.9 & ISO ???
Handheld

Brisbane City Lights

Here's one of my very first digital photos ever taken. I was so impressed with this that I thought I had a Pulitzer Prize winner in my hands...

Metadata:
Canon Powershot S30 at about 40mm EFL.
Exposure Triad: 15s, f4.5 & ISO ????
Also used a tripod with remote timer release.


So why hasn't National Geographic called yet?