Picture of the Day

**Lestat** · 09-03-2013, 03:34 PM

hey bench what gear you using ?

**BenchZowner** · 09-03-2013, 04:29 PM

Nikon D600
14-24 AF-S 2.8G
24-70 AF-S 2.8G
Hoya HD Variable ND
Hoya HD circ polarizer
Manfrotto tripod

**Darakian** · 09-03-2013, 05:05 PM

I love that last one bench. How much processing did you have to do to get the stars and the car to come out? Or is that a composite pic?

Edit: Here's the best star pic I've done so far. It's not much.

_MG_9137-2 by Darakian, on Flickr

**BenchZowner** · 09-03-2013, 11:48 PM

Thanks to the clear and low light polluted sky it was pretty easy to get everything in just one shot.

ISO @ 1000
20s shutter
F/2.8
24-70 AF-S @ 24mm

**nex_73** · 09-04-2013, 09:32 AM

From stars to spiders - i shoot'em all

Araneus diadematus by NeXur, on Flickr

**BenchZowner** · 09-04-2013, 10:54 AM

Those need to be shot properly...

( with a shotgun

or flamethrower more appropriately

)

**kwscore** · 09-05-2013, 05:39 AM

Landscape by kwscore on Flickr

**nex_73** · 09-14-2013, 11:57 PM

Gamle dal by NeXur, on Flickr

**BenchZowner** · 09-15-2013, 01:41 AM

Like the 2nd pic Nex.
First is nice too, but something makes me prefer the 2nd to the 1st if I had to choose.

On another note, a not so good photograph from the Olympic Complex ( Olympic Stadium "OAKA" in Athens, same condition as of the 2004 Olympic games )

**kwscore** · 09-15-2013, 10:07 AM

Milky Way by kwscore on Flickr

**BenchZowner** · 09-17-2013, 12:05 AM

**Malik** · 09-17-2013, 12:49 AM

**BenchZowner** · 09-18-2013, 06:32 AM

Michael Jordan's... Lighthouse

**BenchZowner** · 09-20-2013, 03:23 AM

See you at the church!

I scored

**nex_73** · 09-21-2013, 12:36 AM

Hehe, good to see it's not only me out at nights

20/9-2013 by NeXur, on Flickr

**BenchZowner** · 09-21-2013, 02:13 PM

Night photography = simply the best

Can't count how many times I went out around 10pm and came back home 7am+

A non-processed ( JPEG from camera, not even picked ) from today's session:

"The magician playing basketball"

**.::NeO::.** · 09-22-2013, 02:12 PM

Vintage VW Beetle di Marco88it, su Flickr

First test shots with the new D7100. I'm also using a MB-D15 battery grip and it feels awesome. I couldn't imagine a simple accessory like that could do such a big difference when shooting.

Anyway, I went to a vintage fair today with my girfriend and spotted this relatively old new beetle.

This was one of the very first shots and I still need to understand and learn most of the things this new body can do... Coming from a D3100 this is a huge step forward for my noobish photography skills

So far I am extremely impressed with the IQ and sharpness, even with a cheap lens like the 40mm Nikkor Micro used for this shot. Also, the amount of informations you can recover during PP (especially shadows) with the 14bit lossless RAW files produced by this camera is astonishing.

**BenchZowner** · 09-22-2013, 04:10 PM

Enjoy your new camera Marco!
Very good choice.

Here's to a gazillion of awesome shots! :beer:

**BeepBeep2** · 09-25-2013, 08:15 PM

I need to shoot more. Get my mind off of everyday life.
My D5100 is collecting dust.

**.::NeO::.** · 09-28-2013, 04:39 PM

Thinking di Marco88it, su Flickr

**[XC] Oj101** · 09-29-2013, 01:14 AM

I'm new to this section, new to digital and new to night photography

I haven't done any noise reduction, I'm still learning my way around post processing.

F/1.8
ISO200
10 second exposure

**BenchZowner** · 09-29-2013, 03:36 AM

Welcome to the amazing world of night photography!

When going over 5s of exposure make sure you set the Long Exposure Noise Reduction option on the camera to On.
If using high ISO ( > 1200 ) also enable the High ISO Noise Reduction feature on the camera.

If you're going to be shooting a lot of long exposure photos or trying to make a collection of long exposures to perform image and/or startrails stacking disable the Long Exposure Noise Reduction and High ISO Noise Reduction on camera, and take a photo with the lens cap on before you start your exposures ( make it as long as most of your exposures will be, if you'll be shooting 20s exposures, have the camera take a 20s exposure at the same settings with the lens cap on, one before you start your exposures and one after you're done ).
You'll use the photos to do Long Exposure NR ( Dark Frame Subtraction ) and ISO Noise reduction in post-process, saving a lot of time and battery during the photo taking process ( otherwise for a 20s photo you'd be waiting 40s with the camera doing DFS meaning you'll be losing cloud & star movement and battery since the shutter will be 2 times longer open and the CPU will be working overtime as well ).

Originally Posted by [XC] Oj101

I'm new to this section, new to digital and new to night photography

I haven't done any noise reduction, I'm still learning my way around post processing.

F/1.8
ISO200
10 second exposure

**[XC] Oj101** · 09-29-2013, 04:49 AM

I know, my noise reduction will have to be done by hand for shots like the one above as 10 seconds at ISO 200 got me a pure black image. I read about it recently on DPReview, and wanted to try it on the one above but there was nothing. Here's the unedited version, I was going to delete it (I had actually already done Shift + Del but clicked no when Windows asked if I was sure), but decided to see what could be done to it. I'll do a side-by-side:

If that's what I can do to a dead, lifeless, crappy picture I'm looking forward to see what can be done to one that actually comes out well

I've spent close on 12 hours in the past week sitting outside at night, practising not until I can get it right, but until I can't get it wrong. Everything I've shot so far has been on full manual with manual focus, I haven't explored any of the creative or auto modes the camera has (Canon 600D).

My setup is as follows (normal South African retail prices in brackets, direct conversion to US $):

Canon 600D ($580)
Canon 18-55 mm F/3.5-F/5.6 (not the kit lens, the kit lens has IS) ($180)
Canon 50 mm F/1.8 ($110)
Canon 55-250 mm F/4.5-F/5.6 IS ($350)
Velbon CX-460 tripod (cheap as hell, directly converted it was US $30 but works rather well and allows yaw, pitch, roll and height adjustment up to 144 cm) ($30)
SanDisk 16 GB 30 MB/s SD card ($25)
Canon 300EG sling shoulder bag ($45)
Phottix infrared remote (this one) ($9.50)

I got the whole lot new for about US $900 (direct conversion), I got a bundle of the two zoom lenses and body for $730 and haggled the prices a bit. Buying everything individually would come to $1329.50, so I'm pretty chuffed

Here's another, the bird was quite far away - even at 250 mm it only came to 400 pixels wide out of a 5184... This is a 100 % crop, everything on manual including focus and absolutely no post processing.

1/400 seconds, ISO 100, F/10

The edges are a bit soft, I should probably have tried 1/200 seconds at F/7.1 as the lens is at its sharpest between F/5.6 and F/8. It was MEANT to be done at F/11, but it was just a luck shot I took without any preparation and in my hurry I selected F/10 instead. I don't know Photoshop very well (yet), I might be able to sharpen it up a bit. I took the shot in RAW, so I want to play around with it and bring out some detail in the bird if possible.

**BenchZowner** · 09-30-2013, 08:24 AM

Untouched JPEG as it came off the camera, too lazy to edit at all right now, very busy.
Tripod was setup on soft sand and my cousin was making the shots, I was the flameboy at the dock, so excuse his ignorance on getting the horizon straight after the tripod started diving into the sand.

Here's a video he took with his Galaxy S3 of me at work with the steel wool: