Picture of the Day

[BenchZowner]

Forgot to mention, spot metering instead of matrix

Good work, and nice equipment collection dude

[[XC] Oj101]

I've normally used f/5.6, ISO100, 1/125s for lunar shots, I never really tried anything else.

[BenchZowner]

Now you know what to do next time

[hokiealumnus]

Thanks for the tips guys, valuable for starting moon shots. Heh, I'll try to remember them if it ever happens that I get a high-enough MP camera for a 135mm lens. The moon is but a relatively small dot on my camera currently.

Anyway, I love fall!

f/8, ISO 100, 1/160 sec, 35 mm, no flash


f/8, ISO 500, 1/160 sec, 106 mm, no flash

[Soulburner]

I've normally used f/5.6, ISO100, 1/125s for lunar shots, I never really tried anything else.

I shot with settings that corresponded to the sweet spot of my lens. At the focal lengths I was using with my AF-S 70-300 VR, f/8 was the sharpest. So I may end up needing more than ISO 100, but that's what experimentation is all about

It's too bad this lens gets soft toward 300mm, but it's not uncommon.

Great colors hokie

[BenchZowner]

Even the highest-end telephotos are very soft near their very end sadly.
Moon-wise you're still able to get a pretty good shot even at the very end of your focal length scale even with a cheap lens.
Birds and the likes is a different matter in this case though

[Soulburner]

I'll probably end up with the 70-200 f/4 replacing my 70-300 VR for general shooting, and using a TC when I want a nice moon shot. With a 2x I could have an EFL of 600m with a sharper lens, though we're talking a bit of cash there. Dreaming! Maybe next year...

[BenchZowner]

I'd go for the prime time 300.
Lacks the flexibility of a zoom lens, but it's sharper, faster ( focusing ), has less CA.

[Soulburner]

A good lens, but with no versatility. I don't want a moon/wildlife only lens, but if I did that would probably be the one.

[BeepBeep2]

Wow, great pictures and discussion guys.
I need to shoot more!

[hokiealumnus]

Today's photo....geese!

f/8, ISO 250, 1/125 sec, 85 mm, No flash


We also went to the Butterfly Pavilion at a museum last weekend and I got some nice butterfly shots. Just haven't had the chance to shrink them yet.

[hokiealumnus]

As promised, something from the butterfly pavilion at the NC Museum of Life & Science. I wont post a bunch at a time, but there will be enough to last a little while with one (or two) daily.

They did a butterfly release while we were there, where a staff member would (gently, with good hands) put a recently morphed butterfly on a kid's hand and it would fly away for the first time. It's a cool experience for the kids...and for the multiple people with cameras (I was totally jealous of this guy's 5D Mark III + L-series telezoom).

f/5.6, ISO 2000, 1/160 sec, 126 mm, no flash

[Darakian]

If you can find one the Tokina 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 is pretty good. It goes soft around 300mm, but in the 80 to 270 or so it's very sharp. I got one with a dead AF motor for ~170$.

[Soulburner]

Per previous discussion, I've decided it is not economical to pursue a high end zoom lens for moon photography when a telescope can offer more for less. I'll stick to building my lens lineup for terrestrial shooting.

Zoom lenses were an invention of convenience and luxury. They are just not necessary for shooting the moon - you have all kinds of expensive, complex optics involved to fix various aberrations that occur when "zooming". All you need for the moon is a fixed focal length telescope

[[XC] Oj101]

...or a Nikkor 2000mm f/11

This afternoon I'm going to be shooting an abandoned hotel. The inside hasn't been seen by the public for about five years, so I feel quite privileged.

[hokiealumnus]

That sounds like a blast Oj101, enjoy the shoot!

Another butterfly for today's pic, but with a cute kid in the background waiting patiently.

f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/200 sec, 135 mm, No flash

[kwscore]

Landscape Tree by kwscore on Flickr

[[XC] Oj101]

It was great It's a very old, single story hospital divided into about twenty buildings. The place has been TRASHED by vagrants, even the flooring of some of the buildings has been stolen. Toilets have been smashed, baths have been stolen, it was really bad. It was quite a rush getting the whole thing photographed, so I didn't try anything arty - I just used aperture priority with exposure compensation dropped one full stop (the default is just silly bright for some reason) with AEB set to +/-1 stop. Other than that it was pretty much walk, aim, click, but I managed to capture pretty much everything in the three hours I had inside. I'll link to an album once I get around to uploading.

The Canon 600D (I think it's the T3i on the other side of the Atlantic puddle) might have zero weather sealing, but it survived three hours in moderate rainfall yesterday

[hokiealumnus]

Sounds great, can't wait to see the photos!

Here's another butterfly photo. I'm not sure what was going on, but the flying butterfly was totally harassing the one on the leaf. Probably showing off trying to mate, or something like that. Made for a cool photo though.

f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1/80 sec, 135 mm, No flash

[BenchZowner]

50 gradients of orange...



higher quality - 500px -> http://500px.com/photo/52442658


Let's check our histogram...

[hokiealumnus]

Beautiful! Where is that?

EDIT - Cropped the butterfly photo. ISO 3200 is grainy on this camera...need moar money for a D70.

[Soulburner]

The original butterfly shot looked better, hokiealumnus. The second one is too dark on my calibrated screens. Great shot though

[Soulburner]

The full moon.

[hokiealumnus]

The original butterfly shot looked better, hokiealumnus. The second one is too dark on my calibrated screens. Great shot though

Thanks for that; forgot I was doing that on my horrible laptop. I moved it to a straight crop, no brightness adjustment. Hopefully that's better.

That moon shot looks very nice!

[hokiealumnus]

We'll move on from butterflies today and go with a Robin. If he/she hadn't chirped, this would have been an excellent catch. As it is, there is a slightly blurry beak.

f/5.6, ISO 3200, 1/6 sec, 106 mm, No flash, -0.7 exp