Post your PHOTO.... Tell us your THOUGHT PROCESS......

[mom2rtk]

So can I ask what kind of tripod did you get? I have been looking and their are just so many and I kinda want another lens too. I need to plant some seeds for my money (camera) tree. Just need to get some idea of the kind of tripods I should be looking at.

Man! Can I get a start off of that tree???

It took a long time to decide on a tripod, but I ended up going with the one WDWFigment said he has (you know.... weeks ago... before I thought it to death!)

http://www.adorama.com/VNLUXIL.html

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to compromise. I really wanted a super tall one (73" would be good for getting OVER the heads at Disney....) But knowing that I would want to drag it around Disney with me, I knew I needed something small-ish that I could carry along fairly easily....

The lens is another issue entirely. I love reading the threads on lens selection. That helps a lot. But the bottom line is that no one can really say for anyone else, because only you know what you need it for most.

 

[DznyFan]

Marlton Mom - OMG I was busting up reading your fireworks post!! You know, we were there during that time in December and it was REALLY busy - a lot busier than you'd think being that time of year. It's so totally true about arriving early and staking out a good spot - and since my DH isn't really patient with that whole kind of thing, it usually doesn't happen for me. But - had to share with you - a story along the lines of the whole Shaquille O'Neal and the kids on the shoulders thing...

When we were there a couple weeks ago, we caught DAWM. Several friends of DD's are in that and I was shooting around heads because we came up on the show while in progress. Two days later, with the intent to get there EARLY and pick my spot for the show, I did just that. Shot MISICI as it went by, then promptly positioned myself for perfect shooting of DAWM. I was in front, but there were a group of little ones right in front of me, and although I'm not tall, I was still taller than any of them so I was fine. Right as the show starts, one of the dads comes up to the very front, steps directly in front of me, and puts his DD (who was one of the kids who was in front of me) on his shoulders. Are you SERIOUS? All along the entire front row, there's ONE person standing up with the kiddo on the shoulders. ONE. And he's right in front of me. He was actually the only one even standing up! (technically, I was in the 2nd row and we were all standing) Of course by now, it's packed in there so I can't move anywhere. So I still shot around heads (and as I mentioned in another thread, seriously contemplated how good a blunt instrument my new 70200 would be).
I hate hate HATE being rude but I'm finding that when I'm at Disney and want/need to get the shot, I have to be rude myself. It just kind of goes against my nature. I loathe the rude guests at Disney, a place that can be overrun with them. I LOVE your idea of noxious gas-emitting protection or God forbid some kind of **hack hack** contagious *cough cough cough* disease.

And your butterfly shot/story? Wonderful!

 

[pointandshoot]

I like threads like this. This is a photo I play with from time to time.

I like to look for new ways to shoot these statues. The thought here is to use Minnie as a posed model with the starry glance towards the sky. She is backlit by the afternoon sky. I exposed the picture for the sky and used one off camera fill flash on our Minnie model. This allows the sky in the picture to maintain its great evening color and light the model.

Since I cannot set up a pair of strobes (yet) at the world, I needed to do some post processing to deal with shadows. I removed many hotspots. I cloned part of the left eye to the right eye to hide the shadow cast by the flash from her beautiful nose. I play with the color tone and brightness. One day I will by satisfied.

As for now, it is my take of a dreaming Minnie.

Chuck

 

[mom2rtk]

I like threads like this. This is a photo I play with from time to time.

I like to look for new ways to shoot these statues. The thought here is to use Minnie as a posed model with the starry glance towards the sky. She is backlit by the afternoon sky. I exposed the picture for the sky and used one off camera fill flash on our Minnie model. This allows the sky in the picture to maintain its great evening color and light the model.

Since I cannot set up a pair of strobes (yet) at the world, I needed to do some post processing to deal with shadows. I removed many hotspots. I cloned part of the left eye to the right eye to hide the shadow cast by the flash from her beautiful nose. I play with the color tone and brightness. One day I will by satisfied.

As for now, it is my take of a dreaming Minnie.

Chuck

I love how you were able to get the detail on Minnie while preserving the color of the sky. I am pretty stupid about post processing, so I have NO hope of doing what you did here, but .......

 

[mom2rtk]

OK... my turn. We went to Disney on Ice this week. I LOVE to photograph Disney shows, but this year the show was in our arena in town that has metal detectors and doesn't allow cameras with detachable lenses..... Hmmm.... what to do .... what to do.... 2 years ago when the show was there, I smuggled my Canon DSLR in inside my coat pocket. I laid it on the table and didn't wear it through the metal detector. Thankfully it worked again.

I did take the strap off my Xsi and chose the nifty fifty as my lens for the night. I threw in the point & shoot for close ups of my daughter sitting next to me. 50mm just wouldn't work for that type of photo! The nifty 50 is so small that the camera really looked like the many bridge cameras people were bringing in (you know... in case I got caught!)

I was looking forward to trying some of my newfound knowledge. After reading the thread on photographing shows at Disney, I had an a-ha moment and had realized why so many faces on my show pictures were always blown out. I needed to use spot metering or the camera would try to compensate for the dark background and overexpose the brightly lit areas. I was extremely happy with the results of spot metering. (I just still need to figure out how to use the exposure lock so I can do better with my scenes where I want to meter and recompose.)

I went with 1600 ISO on all of these. Can anyone tell me if that's the right choice for a show like this? I mean, it's a dark venue, but the subjects are pretty bright.... I should have tried a few at a different ISO for grins, but didn't think of it.

I wanted to stop the action while maintaining the greatest depth of field possible. So I chose shutter priority. I'm new at choosing the best shutter speed for the situation, but thought 1/200 or 1/250 would do. It seemed to stop the action pretty well.

I did mess around with slowing the shutter speed while some of the skaters were in a spin, trying for some nice motion blur, but the whole thing just looked bad. I'm guessing that's a shot that would require a tripod or at least a monopod. And since I didn't figure out how to get the tripod past the metal detectors.... I had to pass!

All of these photos are straight out of the camera with no post processing. I can do a lot of cropping when I print them for my scrapbook page:

Any other thoughts on what I might have done differently?

 

[Marlton Mom]

QUOTE: Mom2RTK wrote: I am pretty stupid about post processing, so I have NO hope of doing what you did here, but .......

I'd encourage you to consider taking a class at your local community college. They usually offer them at night and perhaps even on the weekend. It's one of those deals where there is no pressure, like your degree is dependent on it.

I took a CEC (continuing education credit) class at my local community college. I think it was less than $200, not including software. They let us purchase the software at a discounted student price so score one there!!

This was 4 weeks of Thursday only night classes, that lasted for 3 plus hours. We went super fast but I was able to keep up. The class was half newbies like me and half working professionals that had casual experience and needed a bullet point for their resume. I wasn't too intimidated to raise my hand in this type of setting and ask for help from the instructor. He and the other students actually liked when some one would ask questions because, for the most part, other people had the same question.

If you want something slower, look for a class that is geared toward hobbyists and perhaps is longer in length than 4 weeks.

I have to say that I am really enjoying being able to complete my photographs as per my artistic vision using this software. I have only just begun to tap into my potential using the images that I have already taken and want to improve on.

I have enjoyed checking out your photographs and I would say that in consideration of your excellent photographs you ARE READY to go for it and add Photoshop to your tool box!

C'mon..... GO FOR IT!!!


Marlton MOM

 

[mom2rtk]

Many thanks for the kind words of encouragement Marlton Mom!

I think that's a great idea. With 3 kids and the sewing biz, most of the time even a short course just seems like too big a commitment, but maybe over the summer when things do seem to "slow" down a bit.....

 

[mom2rtk]

Anyone else want to post a photo and tell us why you made the choices you did? I learn a lot from examples.....

 

[SrisonS]

For this one, my main "thought process" was focusing on the post-processing. But I guess the approach to the shot itself is interesting enough. Many times, I like to incorporate at least 2 subjects in a shot; and better yet (like this shot here), 2 subjects that have something in common. I find it to be a nice little challenge when out shooting. At Disney, there are a lot of things that people may "see", but don't actually "notice". This sign is probably one of those things. So I couldn't NOT get a shot of it without getting Cinderella's Castle in there.

When I initially went to take this, I knew I wanted the sign to really stand out; so I went with a wider aperture (small 'f' number). That way, I knew the sign would be in focus; and hopefully, everything else would be blurred. Even more importantly, I had to make sure I could get the castle. This sign says the exact same thing on the other side; but from that direction, the sign would've been more angled and harder to read. This view is a little more head on. I also used the simple technique of locking focus on the sign, then recomposing the shot (I hardly ever DON'T do that). The camera even set exposure for the sign. If not, the sign probably would've been too dark. ....... you know, typing this out really makes it seem like I really took some time out to think about this; but it only took a few seconds....... anyway...... That's the technical side. The tilt is more for effect (and sometimes it helps to get everything into a shot).

I usually try to keep most of my shots in color; but sometimes, a monochrome (b&w, sepia, etc.... "one" color) touch comes calling. In the original version, this sign looks great; but the rest of Main Street, Cinderella's Castle, and the sky is a little overexposed. And because of the blurred effect, the castle kind of gets blended into the sky (it's still sort of like that, but not as bad). But the main thing that made me go monochrome (and I just like sepia for this, for some reason) was the color of the sign and its pole. Main Street has great color to it, and nothing really stands out as color clashing. But here, all of those colors were only slightly there; and right in your face is this big green pole and yellow sign. So, since the colors weren't playing nicely in this scene, I just went sepia. Now, everything is evenly colored, and you can just focus on the subjects in question.



(Click pic for its Flickr page)

 

[mom2rtk]

For this one, my main "thought process" was focusing on the post-processing. But I guess the approach to the shot itself is interesting enough. Many times, I like to incorporate at least 2 subjects in a shot; and better yet (like this shot here), 2 subjects that have something in common. I find it to be a nice little challenge when out shooting. At Disney, there are a lot of things that people may "see", but don't actually "notice". This sign is probably one of those things. So I couldn't NOT get a shot of it without getting Cinderella's Castle in there.

When I initially went to take this, I knew I wanted the sign to really stand out; so I went with a wider aperture (small 'f' number). That way, I knew the sign would be in focus; and hopefully, everything else would be blurred. Even more importantly, I had to make sure I could get the castle. This sign says the exact same thing on the other side; but from that direction, the sign would've been more angled and harder to read. This view is a little more head on. I also used the simple technique of locking focus on the sign, then recomposing the shot (I hardly ever DON'T do that). The camera even set exposure for the sign. If not, the sign probably would've been too dark. ....... you know, typing this out really makes it seem like I really took some time out to think about this; but it only took a few seconds....... anyway...... That's the technical side. The tilt is more for effect (and sometimes it helps to get everything into a shot).

I usually try to keep most of my shots in color; but sometimes, a monochrome (b&w, sepia, etc.... "one" color) touch comes calling. In the original version, this sign looks great; but the rest of Main Street, Cinderella's Castle, and the sky is a little overexposed. And because of the blurred effect, the castle kind of gets blended into the sky (it's still sort of like that, but not as bad). But the main thing that made me go monochrome (and I just like sepia for this, for some reason) was the color of the sign and its pole. Main Street has great color to it, and nothing really stands out as color clashing. But here, all of those colors were only slightly there; and right in your face is this big green pole and yellow sign. So, since the colors weren't playing nicely in this scene, I just went sepia. Now, everything is evenly colored, and you can just focus on the subjects in question.





(Click pic for its Flickr page)

VERY nicely done Scott! You have been posting some great stuff here and I appreciate the chance to get inside your head a bit.

Did you shoot it in sepia or convert in PP?

And you wanna give me some tips on ordering up some of those picture perfect clouds on Main Street for our next trip???

The effect is lovely. And it provides a different way of seeing and photographing Main Street!

 

[SrisonS]

VERY nicely done Scott! You have been posting some great stuff here and I appreciate the chance to get inside your head a bit.

Did you shoot it in sepia or convert in PP?

And you wanna give me some tips on ordering up some of those picture perfect clouds on Main Street for our next trip???

The effect is lovely. And it provides a different way of seeing and photographing Main Street!

Thanks for the compliments. I converted it to sepia in PP. I wouldn't suggest shooting in b&w or sepia, especially if you're using JPEG (it might not matter for RAW though). You can always convert to a monochrome, but you can't covert to color.

I wish I could order up some of those clouds myself sometimes.... or take back those orders for "all clouds".

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks for the compliments. I converted it to sepia in PP. I wouldn't suggest shooting in b&w or sepia, especially if you're using JPEG (it might not matter for RAW though). You can always convert to a monochrome, but you can't covert to color.

I wish I could order up some of those clouds myself sometimes.... or take back those orders for "all clouds".

I really liked the way the clouds filled the upper half of the photo and balanced Main Street below!

 

[mom2rtk]

You know... it occurred to me... should I have been using Servo to focus on the skaters in the photos I posted?

Also, does anyone else want to let us into their head and post something?

 

[JoeDif]

Since there was side lighting falling across the roof of this work shed I wanted to show off the textures of this wooden plank roof. I put the lens right against the slanted roof and used f/14 to get a reasonable DOF. Later when processing it in Lightroom I used a Dragan grunge type preset for the final product.

 

[mom2rtk]

Since there was side lighting falling across the roof of this work shed I wanted to show off the textures of this wooden plank roof. I put the lens right against the slanted roof and used f/14 to get a reasonable DOF. Later when processing it in Lightroom I used a Dragan grunge type preset for the final product.

That is very cool. I think it would be a great lesson for me to just go out and find textured objects like this to photograph. I'm always hesitant to dig out the camera unless I have something more interesting as a subject.

 

[JoeDif]

That is very cool. I think it would be a great lesson for me to just go out and find textured objects like this to photograph. I'm always hesitant to dig out the camera unless I have something more interesting as a subject.

Thanks!!

I agree. This time of the year those woods are mostly uninteresting as far as landscape because most everything is dull and gray. Times like this calls for improvation and trying to make the best of the situation.