General Photography thread

[Jack Straw]

Fascinating image Jack. Could you post the before darkroom shot - just so we can see the sort of processing you are doing? And perhaps explain the software and processes you have used? I would love to understand / experiment with this sort of thing.

My pleasure Titanic. I'm still very new to this but this is what I do now. I shoot in RAW mode which produces almost a digital negative. There are colours in the image as you can see, but not to the extent when you shoot in jpeg mode when your camera will do the "developing" for you. With RAW, you do it yourself like in the old days when you went in to the dark room with your negatives and a tray of chemicals, sloshing it about until the image appeared. Hence nowadays, the "digital dark room".
As I'm trying to be a "proper" photographer, everything and everybody tells you to shoot in RAW which is what I've just started doing.
When you transfer your images on to your computer, you don't see thumbnails, but a NEF file symbol. You need software to open them. I've got Camera Raw which is part of my Photoshop CS6.
You open a file, and hey presto, you are in the digital dark room with a quite easy to understand set of sliders and options to basically adjust anything to do with the developing of your photos.
I'm quite happy to be corrected with anything I've written here, as I said earlier, I'm new to this standard of photography, but think I'm learning fast.
When you're happy with what you've done, you can save your file as a JPEG, whilst the original stays as a NEF file as you left it. For example, before I posted the original image below, I had to slide all the sliders back and set everything back, so none of the original file was permanently changed.
You can still edit JPEGs in Camera Raw if you have the software but the quality won't be as good as RAW. These are much bigger files.
Hope you can follow what I've written and it is helpful?

 

[Titanic]

Thank you Jack. Fascinating.

I haven't experimented with RAW files yet. I currently take largest JPEGs with my D7100.

I do have Photoshop Elements and Lightroom... but only ever do minor tweeks to crop, adjust levels and the odd bit of cut/paste/cloning to remove minor faults etc.

This sort of major artistic manipulation would be a whole new ball game.

 

[sebtucknott]

Raw is definitely the way to go. Gives you so much more flexibility. Now with memory so cheap and PCs/macs reading them as images there is no reason not too.

One of my best photos of the west pier I only shot in JPEG and wish I had the raw file!

Great shot btw

 

[Jack Straw]

Thank you Jack. Fascinating.

I haven't experimented with RAW files yet. I currently take largest JPEGs with my D7100.

I do have Photoshop Elements and Lightroom... but only ever do minor tweeks to crop, adjust levels and the odd bit of cut/paste/cloning to remove minor faults etc.

This sort of major artistic manipulation would be a whole new ball game.

You have exactly the same camera as me!
As I've said, I've only been shooting RAW for two weeks, and for some reason, was worried to death about going over from jpeg to RAW.
It's very painless and once you've done it, there will be no going back.
It will cost you nothing to give it a go!
If you've got 2 SD cards, you can set one of jpeg and one for RAW in your camera.
Either post on here or PM me if, even with my still very limited experience, I can be of any help.

 

[Jack Straw]

Raw is definitely the way to go. Gives you so much more flexibility. Now with memory so cheap and PCs/macs reading them as images there is no reason not too.

One of my best photos of the west pier I only shot in JPEG and wish I had the raw file!

Great shot btw

Thanks. I didn't know that. Must get a new PC soon! Cheers.

 

[sebtucknott]

Thanks. I didn't know that. Must get a new PC soon! Cheers.

Maybe I'm wrong about PCs, certainly can on a mac!

It's well worth getting Lightroom, that reads all the Raw files and is good for organising all your images. You can also do Raw edits within there and apply the same settings to multiple files. Say for example you have a shoot where your white balance is slightly off. You can edit it for one then apply to all.

I would get it as part of the Creative Cloud package - https://creative.adobe.com/plans/photography?store_code=gb

Great value and you'll always have the latest version.

 

[sebtucknott]

If you're into you're landscapes, give HDR a go. You can get some great results. Here is my favourite from last year -

 

[jevs]

Im trying to get jack Straw to get his arse out of bed early in the morning (6am) and get a night shot of the Amex with the orange "grass lamps" on. I would imagine the results of the orange beam of light coming up from the stadium when viewed from the Dyke, Ditchling road or Falmer road would be pretty amaizing.

 

[sebtucknott]

Sounds like a good idea. Are the on everyday?
I have a baby due anytime now so could be a trip to take on an early morning!!

 

[Jack Straw]

If you're into you're landscapes, give HDR a go. You can get some great results. Here is my favourite from last year -

That's a cracker. I keep forgetting I have the HDR setting on my camera. I'll go experimenting using this mode in the very near future.

 

[Jack Straw]

Im trying to get jack Straw to get his arse out of bed early in the morning (6am) and get a night shot of the Amex with the orange "grass lamps" on. I would imagine the results of the orange beam of light coming up from the stadium when viewed from the Dyke, Ditchling road or Falmer road would be pretty amaizing.

6 am is when I go to bed! I may have more time on my hands soon? Thanks for your nice comment on the over-egged pier shot.

 

[Uncle C]

If you guys are getting into storing RAW files you will definitely need more storage. I was about to buy a pair of 2TB external drives, but if you look at customer feedback they have about a 10% failure rate across the board. This looks horrific in this computing age.
Are there alternatives. There is something called the CLOUD, but I have no idea what it does.

 

[Zukey Seagull]

If you guys are getting into storing RAW files you will definitely need more storage. I was about to buy a pair of 2TB external drives, but if you look at customer feedback they have about a 10% failure rate across the board. This looks horrific in this computing age.
Are there alternatives. There is something called the CLOUD, but I have no idea what it does.

Microsoft use the cloud, basically instead of having a fixed hard-drive you can store pictures all online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_storage

i was going to get a western digital hard drive 2TB, but now might think twice

 

[Zukey Seagull]

here is a photo looking back across the away end. this was early before kick-off

 

[Eeyore]

 

[StonehamPark]

Any tips on a good camera (new) for under £100.00 (if there is such thing!) ?

 

[Northstander]

Any tips on a good camera (new) for under £100.00 (if there is such thing!) ?

Be more specific in your requirements, there are many types

ie: Digital compact cameras, Superzoom Bridge cameras, Point and shoots, Interchangeable lens cameras and then going up to the big DSLR (Entry level up to professional mirrorless) market

 

[Uncle C]

Microsoft use the cloud, basically instead of having a fixed hard-drive you can store pictures all online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_storage

i was going to get a western digital hard drive 2TB, but now might think twice

Any idea how much it costs to use the Cloud?

 

[Zukey Seagull]

Any idea how much it costs to use the Cloud?

I have a windows phone and I get free cloud storage with that. Think about 4gb. But it might be more.
I think you also get it if you have a Microsoft account. So free basically.

 

[Zukey Seagull]

Any tips on a good camera (new) for under £100.00 (if there is such thing!) ?

If you can stretch your budget, I would go for the Nikon P510 or the newer model as you can do pretty much everything manually. Has a zoom of 42x.

That's the camera I use as well as my Nikon d3200