General Photography thread

[BadFish]

You'll get much better bokeh (background blurriness), if you can put as much distance between your subject and the back ground. Experiment with macro settings, but I wouldn't go above F11. I like between F5.6-F11. The lower the F number, the blurrier the background, but be careful bits of the subject aren't blurry too.

Excellent I will have a go. I was struggling with the exposure today, especially when the sun was out.

I will keep experimenting.

 

[Bodian]

That's bloomin' brilliant that is! Really needs entering into some kind of photo competition

Thank you THPP - most kind. I did enter a competition years ago - it was for the Forestry Commission's Tree Magazine. They published it on the cover, and captioned it 'this month's winning photo'. But they then had a different photo inside as the 'prize-winning photo'. I did email them to point out that as mine was titled 'winning photo', then I assumed I had won the bottle of malt-whisky. Or did they have two competitions, one 'winning' to be published on the cover, and one 'winning' the bottle of malt?

I received no reply.

Then to add salt into the wound, they used my photo to publicise National Tree Week - and it was on all sorts of websites, like the BBC.

I was a bit disillusioned with competitions after that!!

 

[Jack Straw]

Excellent I will have a go. I was struggling with the exposure today, especially when the sun was out.

I will keep experimenting.

You'll get better and better as time goes by. I spent years with a really decent camera set on auto mode. Then I started watching Youtube tutorials as suggested by a previous poster, and suddenly, instead of the camera settings all being a complete mystery, I slowly got the hang of it, and now understand exactly what most of the bits and bobs on the camera do and how best to use them.
Another tip I would suggest is looking at photos on Flickr, and with lots of them, it tells you all the camera settings which were used, so if you're looking to take a similar shot, you can try the same settings.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Excellent I will have a go. I was struggling with the exposure today, especially when the sun was out.

I will keep experimenting.

That's good advice. Another is to think about composition. We all know the feeling of seeing a lovely landscape and reaching for our camera -- but finding the result a little bland. So consider finding something to have in the foreground eg a flower or a person etc. This makes the image more interesting and you sort of get two subjects in one. A longish lens can be good for the bokeh effect. I don't want to sound like an expert because I'm really not. But it's easy to get better quite quickly if you invest a bit of time in YouTube vids or a book. Things like 'the rule of thirds', the nice effects possible with long and short exposure times, the ' exposure triangle', 'golden hour' etc are all photography basics that will help you a lot, and help to quickly produce images a cut above most camera snaps. Post processing is also important. I use Lightroom but there are plenty others. TBH, even Google Photos has some decent tools these days. Good luck!

 

[helipilot]

A couple of Green turtles chilling on the coral, taken yesterday.

 

[shingle]

Here's one taken earlier today of two tango dancers in Buenos Aires.

 

[The Tassie Seagull]

My efforts from yesterday at Crandle Mountain, Tasmania.

Great to see somebody else down in my part of the world. Managed to get back up there last week for a few days. Did the Twisted Lakes walk this time which gives you some great alternative views of the mountain, rather than just the view from around Dove Lake. Was a bit of a slog to the top of Hansons Peak but was well worth it.

We also did the nearby Champagne Falls and Bridal Veil Falls walk as we were staying at Lemonthyme Lodge. Great place to stay.

 

[BadFish]

Great to see somebody else down in my part of the world. Managed to get back up there last week for a few days. Did the Twisted Lakes walk this time which gives you some great alternative views of the mountain, rather than just the view from around Dove Lake. Was a bit of a slog to the top of Hansons Peak but was well worth it.

We also did the nearby Champagne Falls and Bridal Veil Falls walk as we were staying at Lemonthyme Lodge. Great place to stay.

I fell in love with Tassie, what a beautiful place.

Except Hobart, Hobart is annoying.

 

[The Tassie Seagull]

I fell in love with Tassie, what a beautiful place.

Except Hobart, Hobart is annoying.

All the people from the big city! Don't get to Hobart too often, at least it has a shopping centre (sort of) Its a great place to bring up your kids. Just needs more to keep them here when they have grown up.

 

[The Tassie Seagull]

.Wow, I think you win it for "best test subject" with that mountain range!

The tight pink/blue shot with the house in the lower corner is something else, great job

That looks like Mount Roland?
I might be biased, but I think that I am in a pretty unique place to take pictures of some awesome scenery. Just a few nice pics from around different parts of the state.

Sometimes I think it is hard to take a bad shot over here. Have lots more that I could post.

 

[the larks]

I use a nice lumix tz 70 , it's got a great zoom lense on it. A good alternative to a SLR and I use it mainly for landscape and wildlife photos.

I been pleased with it and its almost got me back to using a SLR again after many years away from them.

 

[BadFish]

That looks like Mount Roland?
I might be biased, but I think that I am in a pretty unique place to take pictures of some awesome scenery. Just a few nice pics from around different parts of the state.

Sometimes I think it is hard to take a bad shot over here. Have lots more that I could post.

Yeah it is mount Roland. Tassie is amazing, love those pics. I will be back.

 

[banjo]

From this morning on my bike ride.

 

[US Seagull]

For those curious about old-school flash photography

 

[AmexRuislip]

Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award winner

A stunning image of a young polar bear drifting to sleep wins a wildlife-photographer competition

www.bbc.co.uk

Wouldn't life be as simple as the winning entry

 

[Bodian]

Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award winner

A stunning image of a young polar bear drifting to sleep wins a wildlife-photographer competition

www.bbc.co.uk

Wouldn't life be as simple as the winning entry

I struggle a bit with this. The image is meant to, in part, reflect the problems of / comment upon climate change, shrinking ice and so on - yet the photographer spent three days on a ship "desperately searching for polar bears". My first thought was that isn't it precisely this sort of trip that leads to further degradation of the ice? I prefer the starlings myself.

Sorry - preachy bit over.

 

[AmexRuislip]

I struggle a bit with this. The image is meant to, in part, reflect the problems of / comment upon climate change, shrinking ice and so on - yet the photographer spent three days on a ship "desperately searching for polar bears". My first thought was that isn't it precisely this sort of trip that leads to further degradation of the ice? I prefer the starlings myself.

Sorry - preachy bit over.

It's what NSC is all about

 

[helipilot]

 

[Colonel Mustard]

View attachment 175122

Good shot. I can see you want to capture the bokeh background but I’d be tempted to crop that closer as the detail is very good. What was the camera and lens?

 

[helipilot]

Good shot. I can see you want to capture the bokeh background but I’d be tempted to crop that closer as the detail is very good. What was the camera and lens?

Thanks, Nikon Z9 and 800mm PF.