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Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:05 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
Airmantharp wrote:
Tamron's bass-effing-ackwards ergonomics really get in the way.
Tamron's rings spin the same way as Nikon's. Sigma's spin the same way as Canon's.


And the point is that Nikon and Tamron are fundamentally wrong :).
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:52 pm

Airmantharp wrote:
JustAnEngineer wrote:
Airmantharp wrote:
Tamron's bass-effing-ackwards ergonomics really get in the way.
Tamron's rings spin the same way as Nikon's. Sigma's spin the same way as Canon's.


And the point is that Nikon and Tamron are fundamentally wrong :).


Considering both Sony, Pentax, and Carl Zeiss MF lenses all focus and zoom with the same direction as Nikon and Tamron, it may just cast some doubt on who is doing it wrong. :D
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Jun 02, 2014 5:42 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
Considering both Sony, Pentax, and Carl Zeiss MF lenses all focus and zoom with the same direction as Nikon and Tamron, it may just cast some doubt on who is doing it wrong. :D


No doubt here. When I picked up my first Canon kit (at the flip of a coin), I thought that their setup was a bit awkward- until I used it. For consumer cameras, it doesn't make much of a difference, but when you're actually trying to produce work with a semi-pro or pro kit, I can see why Canon did what they did, and have a hard time imagining doing it otherwise except for the sake of being 'different' than Canon.

I mean, seriously, if you're shooting a 70/80-400 for example, why the hell would you want the action required to zoom to longer focal lengths to naturally bring your left elbow away from your side?
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:50 pm

I find that it just takes a rotation of my hand/wrist..... My elbow never moves. Its not like there is a ton of travel in lenses these days.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Jun 02, 2014 11:00 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
I find that it just takes a rotation of my hand/wrist..... My elbow never moves. Its not like there is a ton of travel in lenses these days.


I certainly can- and did- deal with it, but it's just not something I want to live with unless I have to. I have Tamron's 150-600 in my sights, especially now that they've gotten the Servo focus issue resolved in all shipping units, so I guess I'll be getting over it, unless Sigma has an appropriate Bigma refresh coming :).
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:03 am

Sigma's long tele's have historically been lacking. This Tamron comes in under the price of Sony's 70-400G used. Its a tremendous deal. And every new Tamron has a 5 year warranty. You won't be able to beat that.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:17 am

TheEmrys wrote:
Sigma's long tele's have historically been lacking. This Tamron comes in under the price of Sony's 70-400G used. Its a tremendous deal. And every new Tamron has a 5 year warranty. You won't be able to beat that.


Quite true, at least for their budget (<US$2000) models; their 300-800/5.6 is supposedly stellar, and only really misses OS against the more recent 200-400/4 + TC entrants from Canikon. And optically, the new Tammy is only a minor upgrade over my current non-L 70-300, barely matching the aging 100-400L (roughly speaking) and not a real challenge for the 70-300L, and certainly no challenge for Nikon and Sony's latest efforts that push out to 400mm.

But you're right- it's damn cheap, and it's quite fine for being so damn cheap, and it's also very light and very well built all things considered.
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Jun 03, 2014 9:45 pm

"Spring is sprung the grass is rise, I wonder where the birdies is? They say the bird is on the wing, but that's absoid, the wing is on the boid." Walt Kelly

I got a wild rose:

Image
Fuji X-E1 Leica Elmar 135 4 XF60mm 2.4 Macro | Zeiss FE 35mm 2.8
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Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:07 pm

Photography and literature? I'm in.

Also, nice shot :).
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Jun 08, 2014 10:53 pm

It's late sping in north central Texas, and that means thunderstorms....

I let the dogs out and happened to turn around to catch a beautiful cumulonimbus illuminated by an internal lightning flash. It hadn't really formed an anvil top yet and was very distinct. Unfortunately the lightning wasn't all that active. Over the space of 15 minutes, I only got two shots. Even worse, the focus is poor on them. They look good at lower resolution, but they aren't suitable for prints. These are 10 second exposures and the clouds were moving pretty rapidly, but the lightning is fuzzy so I expect the focus was a bit off.

Image

Image

--SS
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Jun 09, 2014 12:17 am

I like that stuff.

It was easier in some ways when you could rely on 'cranked all the way', to be at infinity. I had to focus my Fuji when I did some astro shots as it has no solid infinity either.
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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:08 pm

Ran across some cicadas mating while I was playing around with my son at the park. I had my a7 and a Minolta MC Rokkor 50/1.4 mounted. Took a couple shots in RAW while he was distracted with a ball, so these are hand held with a normal lens, not macro at all. I am pretty impressed. I wish I could have taken my time and set the camera on a brace of some sort. Anyway, love the color on those Rokkor's. I am up to a 28.8/2.8, 35/2.8, 50/1.4, and a 135/2.8. Also, my friend is selling her CY mount Zeiss lenses. I don't have the cash for them, but there is a 50/1.4 and 135/2.8, both of which are stellar. PM me if you are interested.

Cropped down a bit for some semblance of framing.
Image

1:1 crop
Image
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:31 pm

Very nice!

And while I maintain some interest in Zeiss glass- that 135/2.8 does sound nice- I don't have the money for it either :).
 
lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Aug 11, 2014 5:53 pm

PM pending.

Airman, the 135/2.8 isn't too expensive. It's probably the cheapest 135mm I was looking at short of 40-year old m42 monsters. IIRC mine was ~$220 and is in fairly good condition.

Been travelling quite a bit recently. Flickr is slowly being updated with pretty much every shot I've taken, batch edited for WB and contrast with the GIMP. I won't link to any specifically, since there are quite a few and I'm not the biggest fan of any of them, but if anyone wants to look through and give feedback, I'm all ears. Link
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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 04, 2014 12:13 pm

The wild sunflowers are all abloom in Colorado, as we streak towards winter. So, that's as good a time as any to go out. I was mostly shooting wonderful little scenes that are completely boring, but that my wife wanted to use as cut-outs for scrapbooking. And then I ran across a ton of bees. I wish I had a macro lens, because this is a 1:1 crop with my a7 and a Rokkor 50/1.4. Considering the technological limitation as well as my own ignorance, I am pretty happy with how this turned out.

Minolta W.Rokkor PG 50/1.4 ISO50 f/2.8 1/2500
Image

Sony FE55mm ISO50 f/2.8 1/2000
Image
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
mattsteg
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 11, 2014 3:25 pm

It's been a while...here's one from Labor Day weekend.

Image
Nærøyfjord by mattsteg, on Flickr
...
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:04 pm

Very fun wide shot! I might have played with the background exposure a bit in PP, but that is more a matter of taste than anything. Pictures like this make me want to go to the Scandanavian countries. And Iceland. And maybe Greenland. Shoot. I need more money.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 11, 2014 4:50 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
I need more money.


That's how I summarize most of these shots... :D
 
mattsteg
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:02 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
Very fun wide shot! I might have played with the background exposure a bit in PP, but that is more a matter of taste than anything. Pictures like this make me want to go to the Scandanavian countries. And Iceland. And maybe Greenland. Shoot. I need more money.

Thanks - the landscape in Norway is insane, especially in the fjords. Everything is at such a grand scale...but with tiny little villages and farms scattered along the coast, squeezed between water and rock, so you usually have a reminder of just how grandiose the landscape is. The dynamism and *depth* of the landscape are incredible.

On the background exposure, I'm curious what your vision would be - I think you're right about different preferences, but curious on what yours are.. The little bit of sky is basically blown completely, the far cliff was actually brighter and is pulled back half a stop to bring it more in balance while still separating with the near cliff.

And the real fun part - that shot was at 80mm, even though it feels wider.

Beautiful country.

Have some shots that were tighter:
Image
Nærøyfjord by mattsteg, on Flickr
and wider
Image
Nærøyfjord by mattsteg, on Flickr

and some much wider shots from the general area:
Image
Voss by mattsteg, on Flickr
Image
Geirangerfjord by mattsteg, on Flickr
...
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:13 pm

· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Sep 11, 2014 9:05 pm

mattsteg wrote:
On the background exposure, I'm curious what your vision would be - I think you're right about different preferences, but curious on what yours are.. The little bit of sky is basically blown completely, the far cliff was actually brighter and is pulled back half a stop to bring it more in balance while still separating with the near clif.


Just lookinat it here, I might drop the clarity/presence/saturation +/- 10, and then drop the exposure 1/3rd a stop. Then drop the highlights and bump up the shadows. After this, I would tweak the exposure again. The Nikons d600/800 family has so mich dynamic range, that grad nd filters are not as necessary. Maybe play with a grad filter, too. I am talking about Lightroom stuff, so it may be labeled differently. If you don't mind, I would love to play with the raw file, if you can share it with me through dropbos. Would love to play with a Nikon 36mp file.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
mattsteg
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:05 pm

I can see what you're looking at...in general your preferences seem to be a bit lower-contrast than mine based on what you've posted recently and this would bring the result closer to that. At a minimum a few localized adjustments to pull back the waterfall area and also kill the chromatic aberration in the snowpack make sense. I'd be happy to share the NEF, as long as you don't distribute, claim as yours, etc. It's not a "full strength" file (the auto-Iso had bumped up to 800 to maintain a solid handholding margin for boat shooting) but definitely impressed at the files this camera outputs.
...
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:21 pm

No worries, it would just be for here, and I will delete the file when done with it. Shoot me a pm with a link. If you want to work with any of my images, I am more than happy to share. Shoot me a pm with a link to it. If you are okay, I may post up the results here.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sat Sep 13, 2014 3:46 pm

mattsteg wrote:
and some much wider shots from the general area:
Image
Voss by mattsteg, on Flickr


Love this one.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sat Sep 13, 2014 3:59 pm

mattsteg wrote:
It's been a while...here's one from Labor Day weekend.

Image
Nærøyfjord by mattsteg, on Flickr


Here is my version. I think I prefer your original. Either way, its a very good image.
Image
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:14 pm

I think I like the original too :)

(though I'd likely arrive at some point between the two on my own)
 
lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:17 pm

I'm with Airman. I prefer the brighter green of the hill and the blue water in the original. I would try to settle somewhere between the two for the mountains. At the lower resolution (displayed here) I really like TheEmry's version, but at full resolution the grey-blues of the mountains really shine through in the original.

My contribution! It's college football season! This is from 2 weeks ago, at our home opener, but I've been busy...

Image_DSC8909_stitch

Two in-camera panoramas stitched together with Microsoft ICE. Now if only I had PS for content-aware fill. Or felt like doing my homework that requires me to implement that...
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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:58 pm

Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:17 pm

While I was having some fun, and got this image, which I am not really thrilled or disappointed with, there is a sequence which will be accompanied by my thoughts as I took the image.
ImageBig Waves Hilo (4 of 4) by the3mrys, on Flickr

So cool, this looks like it will be a nice wave crash.
ImageBig Waves Hilo (1 of 4) by the3mrys, on Flickr

Wow, that's a pretty solid crash....
ImageBig Waves Hilo (2 of 4) by the3mrys, on Flickr

Aaahhhh, too close!!!
ImageBig Waves Hilo (3 of 4) by the3mrys, on Flickr
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:32 pm

TheEmry's, are you in Hawaii on a permanent basis? I remember you posted some shots from a trip there over the summer, but I thought that was just for vacation/not permanent.

My recent contributions. Went wine/spirit/beer tasting yesterday, and grapes don't grow in ugly places (slogan of nearby winery: they're pretentious and their wine isn't great, but their slogan is entirely true) so I got some fun pictures. Also, a picture of the WI capital, as I was out there for an interview.

View from where we had a picnic lunch. This was at Pollak Vineyards, looking over the small lake.
Image_DSC9123 by emerson.robert, on Flickr

This little bugger came barreling towards us, just as we finished our sandwiches. He stuck around for a bit before realizing we didn't have any more food.
Image_DSC9063 by emerson.robert, on Flickr

Third winery (Veritas) gave us this view. It was pretty crowded, so the 135mm came out and I tried to shoot around people.
Image_DSC9140 by emerson.robert, on Flickr

And bonus picture from Madison!
Image_DSC9002 by emerson.robert, on Flickr
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