General Photography thread

[Jack Straw]

here's another - taking out the colour allows you to focus oView attachment 137333n the structure of the flower and some(all?) are incredible though some more incredible than others

Love that. That's a car wheel to me!

 

[Wardy's twin]

Sorry if you already said this, but what lens are you using. I presume a macro. Love the pictures.

In these cases they are both taken with sigma 105mm f2.8 macro on Pentax DSLRs first was k-5 the latter is k-70. I think this lens was available on Canon and Nikon as it is pre-digital. I bought it second hand on e-bay for £120. I love the lens , on the ASPC sensor this is efffectively 157mm. This lens is highly rated in the Pentax community.

You can get good affects from none macro lenses e.g. i have a 18-300mm general zoom lens made by sigma and using it at 300mm to get a close up view of a flower and it gives good results. I also have a sony rx100 compact camera and think it gives good results. DXOmark which publishes tables of performance and doesn't really rate them if you look at the 'technical' score but i think the output is pretty good.

I spent a lot of time going through kit (bought second hand so often sold it on for what i paid for it) looking for perfection never really found it , that's possibly because I don't buy (can't afford) expensive lenses or cameras

 

[1066familyman]

here's another - taking out the colour allows you to focus oView attachment 137333n the structure of the flower and some(all?) are incredible though some more incredible than others

Cracking!

The Passion flower has such an interesting story behind it too, when it comes to its structure.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Cracking!

The Passion flower has such an interesting story behind it too, when it comes to its structure.

indeed and hence the name...

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

In these cases they are both taken with sigma 105mm f2.8 macro on Pentax DSLRs first was k-5 the latter is k-70. I think this lens was available on Canon and Nikon as it is pre-digital. I bought it second hand on e-bay for £120. I love the lens , on the ASPC sensor this is efffectively 157mm. This lens is highly rated in the Pentax community.

You can get good affects from none macro lenses e.g. i have a 18-300mm general zoom lens made by sigma and using it at 300mm to get a close up view of a flower and it gives good results. I also have a sony rx100 compact camera and think it gives good results. DXOmark which publishes tables of performance and doesn't really rate them if you look at the 'technical' score but i think the output is pretty good.

I spent a lot of time going through kit (bought second hand so often sold it on for what i paid for it) looking for perfection never really found it , that's possibly because I don't buy (can't afford) expensive lenses or cameras

Likewise I have not the money to buy a new macro lens. But I am wary of second hand. So you found that sigma by trial and error through buying loads of second hand lenses, or did you target it specifically and got 'lucky'? I bought a mirrorless camera for Christmas, it was the first 'proper' camera I have had since my Pentax Me Super in the early 80's when I was an enthusiastic teenager. Although the camera I've bought is not the most expensive, it's a Fuji xt-200, I have been very pleased with the results. Modern cameras are very much more versatile though and there's a sharp learning curve!

 

[helipilot]

I've been living in China with work since Dec last year. There's some amazing scenery/ animals to see so will post some of these as they may be of interest/ a bit different.

Baby macaque monkey.

 

[helipilot]

Zhangjiajie Mountains (scene that inspired the floating mountains in the Avatar movie)

 

[helipilot]

Red-rumped swallow carrying some nesting mud

 

[helipilot]

Another of the Avatar mountains

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Stunning pictures [MENTION=15618]helipilot[/MENTION]!

Any shots of bamboo stands or shoots? I am partial to bamboo.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Likewise I have not the money to buy a new macro lens. But I am wary of second hand. So you found that sigma by trial and error through buying loads of second hand lenses, or did you target it specifically and got 'lucky'? I bought a mirrorless camera for Christmas, it was the first 'proper' camera I have had since my Pentax Me Super in the early 80's when I was an enthusiastic teenager. Although the camera I've bought is not the most expensive, it's a Fuji xt-200, I have been very pleased with the results. Modern cameras are very much more versatile though and there's a sharp learning curve!

My buying kit was more down to excessive compulsion and i became a collector I also went through cameras as well. I tend to go OTT when i get into things fortunately my Mrs is very tolerant. Most of my lenses were quite old and cheap but were reasonably good quality. For Pentax fitting lenses there a Pentax forum site which has people reviews of kit spanning many many years as the Pentax lenses of 40 years ago still work (some you will be familiar with if you had the ME super). The 105mm was highly rated and is excellent. It is also long enough to get some decent wildlife shots because of the crop factor.

If you are happy to do manual focus photography (and for macro some people swear by it) you could go the route of adapter, tubes and old lens e.g. pentax a 50mm F1.7 . probably cost less than £50.

 

[banjo]

Found in my shed and released.

 

[banjo]

A winter’s walk.

 

[Jack Straw]

I've been living in China with work since Dec last year. There's some amazing scenery/ animals to see so will post some of these as they may be of interest/ a bit different.

Baby macaque monkey.

View attachment 137341

Love all the photos you've posted, but the focus, back lighting and bokeh on this one is perfection.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

My buying kit was more down to excessive compulsion and i became a collector I also went through cameras as well. I tend to go OTT when i get into things fortunately my Mrs is very tolerant. Most of my lenses were quite old and cheap but were reasonably good quality. For Pentax fitting lenses there a Pentax forum site which has people reviews of kit spanning many many years as the Pentax lenses of 40 years ago still work (some you will be familiar with if you had the ME super). The 105mm was highly rated and is excellent. It is also long enough to get some decent wildlife shots because of the crop factor.

If you are happy to do manual focus photography (and for macro some people swear by it) you could go the route of adapter, tubes and old lens e.g. pentax a 50mm F1.7 . probably cost less than £50.

I am doing exactly that! I use my old 50mm Pentax 1.7 lens a lot! It lacks a little of the clarity of the newer lenses I bought with my camera, but is absolute mustard in terms of close-ups (not so much macro) and that lovely buttery blurring effect. It is my favourite lens by far of the three I currently have. I am also old school in that I prefer using manual settings in any case. The extension tubes work nicely for macro but I am finding the depth of focus extremely limiting. Just trying to use GIMP for layering on my chromebook as I don't have a PC. I hope that will increase the scope of use, otherwise it'll have to be a real macro lens.

 

[Wardy's twin]

I've been living in China with work since Dec last year. There's some amazing scenery/ animals to see so will post some of these as they may be of interest/ a bit different.

Baby macaque monkey.

View attachment 137341

What a fantastic picture and the swallow as well. Love wildlife pics .

 

[helipilot]

Love all the photos you've posted, but the focus, back lighting and bokeh on this one is perfection.

Thanks so much, a put a couple more of the cuties on later.

 

[helipilot]

What a fantastic picture and the swallow as well. Love wildlife pics .

Much appreciated, only started wildlife photography during lockdown1. Was only an amateur (very) underwater photographer before that.

 

[Wardy's twin]

I am doing exactly that! I use my old 50mm Pentax 1.7 lens a lot! It lacks a little of the clarity of the newer lenses I bought with my camera, but is absolute mustard in terms of close-ups (not so much macro) and that lovely buttery blurring effect. It is my favourite lens by far of the three I currently have. I am also old school in that I prefer using manual settings in any case. The extension tubes work nicely for macro but I am finding the depth of focus extremely limiting. Just trying to use GIMP for layering on my chromebook as I don't have a PC. I hope that will increase the scope of use, otherwise it'll have to be a real macro lens.

The depth of field is really difficult to master (IMO) need steady hands or a good small tripod and remote. When you say layering do you mean stacking?

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

The depth of field is really difficult to master (IMO) need steady hands or a good small tripod and remote. When you say layering do you mean stacking?

Yeah, silly me! I meant stacking. Couldn't find a program on my chrombook that will do that automatically, GIMP seems to want one to select distinct areas and I want something intelligent. I found an online page focusstackingonline.com which does a reasonable job. I have a decent enough tripod a K&F job which is atm sufficient for me although I'd like the head or whatever its called to be a little more stable as when I tighten it to the desired place, it relaxes a little which is annoying.

I can remotely release the shutter from my phone which is good and I also use a timer to release the shutter sometimes to avoid tripod wobble.