Picture of the Day

[hokiealumnus]

Practically every Cannon DSLR except the 70D which seems a bit strange ??

I really like the out of focus detail on yours and Darakian's flowers, something I haven't tried/mastered yet, and when I get near a flowering plant its days will be numbered...........as I have a black thumb

It's just too new, and there hasn't been a firmware update yet. The devs need a firmware update so they have something to work from. Without the ability to extract firmware from the camera and no downloadable firmware update, they're pretty much stuck.

Re: throwing the background out of focus - you should be able to do it with your 35mm f/1.8. Open that aperture all the way (or just a stop down; my shot above was 50mm & f/2.2 using the nifty fifty), get close to your subject and have the background separated by a decent distance. The further away from your subject you are, the deeper your depth of field, so get right up on it. That plus a large aperture will reduce your DoF a lot, allowing the background to get thrown plenty out of focus.

The extra focal length helps too, so yours might not be thrown quite as far out of focus at 35mm, but with an f/1.8 lens, it should be plenty bokehrific.

EDIT - Guess I should post a picture too.

[Darakian]

It's just too new, and there hasn't been a firmware update yet. The devs need a firmware update so they have something to work from. Without the ability to extract firmware from the camera and no downloadable firmware update, they're pretty much stuck.

Re: throwing the background out of focus - you should be able to do it with your 35mm f/1.8. Open that aperture all the way (or just a stop down; my shot above was 50mm & f/2.2 using the nifty fifty), get close to your subject and have the background separated by a decent distance. The further away from your subject you are, the deeper your depth of field, so get right up on it. That plus a large aperture will reduce your DoF a lot, allowing the background to get thrown plenty out of focus.

The extra focal length helps too, so yours might not be thrown quite as far out of focus at 35mm, but with an f/1.8 lens, it should be plenty bokehrific.

EDIT - Guess I should post a picture too. ]

Aye, if/when the 70d gets ML it should be a power house. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll have a fast enough SD card bus to support at least 720p raw video. That plus the continous autofocus stuff should make for a damn good cinima camera.

@Alpha, as hoki said you just crank the aperture open to get the out of focus blur. Two things to keep in mind though. One you're focal plane is shallower the closer you are to something so getting in at you're minimum focusing distance gives you more bokeh as well. Two, you'll want to play with your highlight/shadow levels in post. For my pink flowers above I lowered the highlight levels a good bit to recover the color in the bokeh.

[Ace123]

Galaxy S4 on the way to work driving down from my house on the hill

[BenchZowner]

da f*ck is this ?

[hokiealumnus]

Dead. That's what da f*ck dat is!

Some geese have taken residence in our work parking lot. Not on the periphery ether, right smack dab in the middle of everything. They can't be removed thanks to the migratory birds act. Anyway, this guy is all kinds of geared up for a fight...with himself!

[alpha0ne]

The extra focal length helps too, so yours might not be thrown quite as far out of focus at 35mm, but with an f/1.8 lens, it should be plenty bokehrific.

Thanks hokie, all/any advice is always welcome

@Alpha, as hoki said you just crank the aperture open to get the out of focus blur. Two things to keep in mind though. One you're focal plane is shallower the closer you are to something so getting in at you're minimum focusing distance gives you more bokeh as well. Two, you'll want to play with your highlight/shadow levels in post. For my pink flowers above I lowered the highlight levels a good bit to recover the color in the bokeh.

Thanks Darakian, I took these (multiple) shots @ ~ 12" using my 35mm, all @ 100 ISO, 1/800s, f/3.5 and manual focus, both are scaled up 150% from the original



Cacti @ Flickr

This one is stacked from 5 separate shots @ slightly varying focus points



CactiSTACK @ Flickr

[alpha0ne]

da f*ck is this ?

FARRRK me I'd crap myself if one of those was ever loose in my slum............................BURN IT

edit: its a Scutigeridae

I can handle spiders and ants (they keep the roach's away ) and the occasional beetle but 'things' like that don't belong on this earth

[hokiealumnus]

Those look good alpha. Take that lens to f/1.8-f/2.2 (assuming it's not too bright and you have a fast enough shutter speed) and you'll blow out the background even more.

I also went by the airport yesterday since I had some free time (it's only 15 min or so from our house). The backlighting was difficult to deal with, but I got a couple keepers. Here's one of them.

[kwscore]

kudowa by kwscore on Flickr


kudowa by kwscore on Flickr

[alpha0ne]

This is SOOC and the sky really was that blue, if not even darker than shown in the shot, taken just before sunset



Yodelling Magpies @ Flickr

[BenchZowner]

kudowa by kwscore on Flickr

Really like this one man.
Which lens did you shoot it with ?

[Fr3ak]

After 5 years of not having a DSLR, I finally have one incoming, so I will be able to take part in this thread soon

Great pictures all over the place here!

[kwscore]

really like this one man.
Which lens did you shoot it with ?

n 14-24

[Darakian]

Night shots. I think I needed less light for #1. Hot pixels galore on #2

_UAL3124 by Darakian, on Flickr


_UAL3101 by Darakian, on Flickr

[hokiealumnus]

Gallery Plaza metro station (Washington, DC). It never ceases to amaze me what we (humans) can accomplish, especially underground like this.

70D, EF-S 18-135, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 1600

Gallery Plaza Metro Station by hokiealumnus, on Flickr

[BenchZowner]

Well... hello there fantastic mister Fox!



As usual for my luck ( or the lack of it ) I had the 2nd most inappropriate lens for the task mounted on the camera... at least it wasn't the very worst ( the ultra-wide ).

[Darakian]

That's great hoki! I love the geometry of the place
Dual iso at night done well

_UAL3295 by Darakian, on Flickr


_MG_3311 by Darakian, on Flickr

[alpha0ne]

That's great hoki! I love the geometry of the place
Dual iso at night done well

Love the colour Darakin, whats 'dual iso' ???

Took this one the other night and got eaten alive by mozzies



ME @ Flickr

[BenchZowner]

Greek Space Shuttle

[hokiealumnus]

That's great hoki! I love the geometry of the place

Thanks! I have a couple more I'll post, but first a cool apartment building in DC. I cringe to think how much the rent is in this place.

Art Deco Apartment by hokiealumnus, on Flickr

Art Deco Apartment by hokiealumnus, on Flickr

Great shots of the moon alpha0ne & Darakian. It was a stormy night here last night, plus I only have 135mm worth of lens and I don't like getting up at 3:00am.

Loving that power tower BZ, great geometry there too.

EDIT - Also, that's another shot where a wide angle lens would have done me a lot of good. I'm going to hold off on any future lens purchases to see what would help get the shots I want most often over the next year or so. 135mm feels short on occasion, but most of the time only when shooting wildlife. The only real "darn I wish I had a ____ lens for that shot" so far has been "wider".

There are several Sigma wide zooms from 8mm and 10mm. Canon has the 10-22mm. All of them are out of my price range, but worth considering in the future maybe.

EDIT II - Hahahahahahaha....I got curious. Here's the building's web page. Following through to available apartments, a 0 bedroom (yes, that's zero bedrooms), 1 bathroom is $2,035/month. Two bedrooms up to $4,050 and three bedrooms up to a mind-blowing $5,904.

[Fr3ak]

Meanwhile in China:

[Darakian]

Love the colour Darakin, whats 'dual iso' ???

Thanks. It's the first of four blood moons that'll be showing up this and next year. Dual iso is a hack for canon cameras to increase their dynamic range at the expense of effective resolution. The sensor gets read off line by line at alternating isos and then you reconstruct the pic once you get back to a computer. It's one of the many many reasons I love magiclantern (and why I can get away with having a t2i/550d )
Edit: One more

_UAL3299 by Darakian, on Flickr

[alpha0ne]

Thanks! I have a couple more I'll post, but first a cool apartment building in DC. I cringe to think how much the rent is in this place.
There are several Sigma wide zooms from 8mm and 10mm. Canon has the 10-22mm. All of them are out of my price range, but worth considering in the future maybe.

I really like the second shot hoki, especially the sun reflecting off the window

I've been looking @ wide angle too (Sigma and Tokina) but it will have to wait a while now as I just bought a Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS HSM so I'll be eating noodles for the next few months

Thanks. It's the first of four blood moons that'll be showing up this and next year. Dual iso is a hack for canon cameras to increase their dynamic range at the expense of effective resolution. The sensor gets read off line by line at alternating isos and then you reconstruct the pic once you get back to a computer. It's one of the many many reasons I love magiclantern (and why I can get away with having a t2i/550d )
Edit: One more

I'm usually called 'that damn moon' by ppl who know me

Why is this one 'glowing' ??

And yesterdays effort, 11GB worth of pics and this is the only one I like



A Rose....@ Flickr

[hokiealumnus]

I really like the second shot hoki, especially the sun reflecting off the window

Thanks! I preferred that one too, which is why I posted two. The other one wasn't worth its own post.

I've been looking @ wide angle too (Sigma and Tokina) but it will have to wait a while now as I just bought a Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS HSM so I'll be eating noodles for the next few months

Congratulations on the lens!! That looks like a great fast zoom. My only worry about third-party lenses is CA. My camera automatically removes CA and distortion on canon lenses, but can't do it with third-party lenses. Currently, I can pick & choose which shots I post-process, using RAW+JPEG and only PP the ones I want to play with. I'd have to PP them all for distortion & CA reasons. It looks like you picked a good one as far as CA goes though, I'm curious to know your experience; not like I can afford it regardless.

And yesterdays effort, 11GB worth of pics and this is the only one I like

Yep, that's how it goes; and I fully sympathize. On the plus side, after all that, you got a great shot in the end!

Here's another from the DC metro. It's fun to shoot down there. This is #2 of 3 (saving the best for last). I processed this one in B&W and color. Honestly not sure which I like better. Sometimes it's easier to tell, but other times I have a really hard time deciding which is 'better'.

Cleveland Park Metro - Color - 02 by hokiealumnus, on Flickr

Cleveland Park Metro - B&W - 02 by hokiealumnus, on Flickr

Open to any & all opinions.

[alpha0ne]

^ Darn hokie, you dont need a wide angle, I think the colour shot is outstanding !!