# General Photography Thread



## CaptainCool (May 18, 2014)

We already have a thread for wildlife and pet photography, so let's get one going for photography in general.
Other threads:
How to DSLR?
Pets and wildlife
Cross-posting should probably be avoided when showing off your photos.

Also, make sure to comment on the shots of others. Contructive criticism is always important.

So I'll just kick things off with some of my more recent shots.






I recently boughta lens from Pentacon from about 1960, made in the GDR!^^ It's a 135mm f2.8 tele lens which is known to have really good bokeh. And I really agree, the out of focus parts look great.
It's also a fully manual lens. No auto focus (I missed perfect focus by just a hair), no aperture control through the camera. I like that because I hope I'll learn a little more about proper exposure with this lens!





Same lens as above. I don't quite remember but I thnk I also used a 12mm extension tube for this one.





A shot of the milky way. I took this when I was visiting my parents in the north of Germany. They live in a very rural area and the street lights are being switched off there after 1am. It's been a while since I saw the stars so well ^.^


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## CaptainCool (May 20, 2014)

No one yet?
Well then have a macro shot:





40 stacked shots at f3.2.


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## Kangamutt (May 21, 2014)

The stars picture is beautifully ethereal! And that macro flower has some seriously punchy color. Love it.

Haven't been shooting lately, but I'll post some personal favorites up:




One of the first photo prints I've ever made. A Delta IV HLV taking off. The contrast filter blocked the corners and messed the print up, but oh well...





More experiment than anything, I have an old 620 format camera from the 50's that I put some trimmed photo paper into and color inverted after scanning.





Redscaled and double exposed.

Definitely want to get back into shooting again. I've had 5 rolls of a special emulsion film that replicates the effects of filtered Kodak Aerochrome. Definitely would make things interesting.


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## CaptainCool (May 21, 2014)

Those are really interesting!
Sadly I just don't have the time to get into film photography as much as I'd like :T


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## monochromatic-dragon (May 21, 2014)

I feel WAY intimidated to post anything here, since all I know how to do is point and shoot.


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## Harbinger (May 21, 2014)

You made a photography thread on Furaffinity and failed to name it "Photografur's", for shame...
And i dont think i have any photo's which dont have an animal in


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## CaptainCool (May 21, 2014)

Harbinger said:


> You made a photography thread on Furaffinity and failed to name it "Photografur's", for shame...
> And i dont think i have any photo's which dont have an animal in



I don't like doing puns  Besides, there is a group called "Photografurs" on the main site but it has been very inactive... Which is also why I didn't want to use that title :3

Maybe I'll experiment with a makeshift infinity curve today, but first I need some dinner^^


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## CaptainCool (May 26, 2014)

As I said above, I experimented a little with a very simple infinity curve:


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## Harbinger (May 26, 2014)

Oh my god zoids...its been so long...


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## CaptainCool (May 28, 2014)

Harbinger said:


> Oh my god zoids...its been so long...



I never watched the show, I only bought the kit because it looked interesting :3

Some more simply product photography:






The "studio" literally cost me 70 cents by the way. It's just a big piece of white cardstock bent to an infinity curve.
As long as you have a good flash that you can bounce from the ceiling or some other way to get some even lighting on the subject this is super easy.


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## CaptainCool (Jun 9, 2014)

Some drops.


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## Milo (Jun 10, 2014)

lol nevermind


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## Misomie (Jun 11, 2014)

What kind of cameras are you guys using to get these beautiful shots? I'm especially interested in the camera that took that stunning night shot.


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## CaptainCool (Jun 11, 2014)

Misomie said:


> What kind of cameras are you guys using to get these beautiful shots? I'm especially interested in the camera that took that stunning night shot.



All shots that I posted here and in the wildlife thread were taken with my Nikon D7000 and quite a lot of different lenses. The camera body isn't even all that new! It's from late 2010, it already has a successor and I actually bought it used. But it is in great condition, it was "pretty much new".
The shot of the Milky Way I took with my 12-24mm ultra wideangle. The flower shots at the top where taken with a 135mm lens from the 60s and the rest was taken with a 40mm macro lens.

The camera body cost me about 450â‚¬, the lens that I used for that shot about 240â‚¬. But that lens is CRAP for that kind of astrophotography... The widest aperture is f4, that isn't enough. Next month I'll go back to the same location but this time I'll rent a much better lens for it :3


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## CaptainCool (Jun 13, 2014)

Have some dancin' paint:


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## Milo (Jun 15, 2014)

I like your stuff


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## CaptainCool (Jun 16, 2014)

Thanks :3
Right now I am looking into buying a microcontroller so I can take images like this: http://kwerfeldein.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/DSC15402_700-web.jpg


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## Milo (Jun 18, 2014)

you mean for an automatic shutter?

anyway, I'm exploring video, and hope I can get a few test shots of ideas that I have. mostly I'm waiting to get my hands on a glide track, and a tripod. I want steady shots specifically for slow motion shots as well. since I have a fairly decent camera that goes up to 60fps. 

I have a program that lets me tweak the ghost frames, so that I can slow it to beyond 120fps, without it looking too awkward. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDLq_BXz2QM

this guy overdid it by going a bit overboard, since if you pay attention, you can really notice the ghosting between the frames, but I still really like the effect.


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## CaptainCool (Jun 19, 2014)

Milo said:


> you mean for an automatic shutter?
> 
> anyway, I'm exploring video, and hope I can get a few test shots of ideas that I have. mostly I'm waiting to get my hands on a glide track, and a tripod. I want steady shots specifically for slow motion shots as well. since I have a fairly decent camera that goes up to 60fps.
> 
> ...



Pretty much. The device that I want to get next month is  called the "crazyTrickler". It can controll 3 magnet valves, three flashes, a light barrier and it can trigger any camera at a millisecond level. So when you set all valves and the camera to be triggered at the right moment you can catch pretty much anything with it.
There are other devices available like the "GlimpseCatcher" or the "Timemachine" but those all cost 400 bucks and more, _just_ for the device! Then you still need to buy all the other stuff like the valves, hoses, a rack to put everything on and more... So you can easily spend up to 1000 bucks on this. *Just to make drops!* XD
*But luckily* I am a cheap bastard with a sense for quality!^^
The crazyTrickler costs 85 bucks when it's unassembled, 135â‚¬ assambled but without a case and 210â‚¬ with a proper metal case. I'm just gonna get the assembled one without a case and make one for it. I already know what I will use for that.
Then I'm gonna get one valve for it (more than enough to start out with), which costs 22â‚¬.
Then I'm gonna get a big 45% opaque acrylic backdrop. That'll cost about 35â‚¬.
Now this is where I start to get cheap. Instead of buying all the materials to build a rack for it... I'm just gonna buy a cheap, movable clothes hanger rack^^
All in all it's gonna cost me about 250â‚¬ but that's about what I'll get in provisions from my job this month so I don't really care 

I've been making photos like this before:





I used an infusion set from the pharmacy which cost me about 90 cents. It let's you control the drop rate and it worked rather nicely. Getting that shot did take about an hour though because everything is based on pure luck. You can't control the drops perfectly. And that is why I want the crazyTrickler^^
Here in Germany there are photographers who based their whole portfolio or a big chunk of it around drop photos.



As for video, I am personally not really interested in videography but what you want to do there does sound really awesome!
My previous camera had a 60fps mode as well, sadly I kind of sacrificed that when I bought my new camera. It is about a year older so its CPU isn't as fast, but the overall photo capabilities are much better, which is what I wanted.

The video that you linked to doesn't work here in Germany because of copyright nonsense :c Can you show us a different one? I am really interested in seeing slow motion stuff^^


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## CaptainCool (Jun 28, 2014)

Alright! As I said above, I got a microcontroller to control fluids perfectly.
Still got much to learn but I got some results today:


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## bijutoha (Jul 8, 2014)

I have seen some high quality image. May I take them?


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## CaptainCool (Jul 12, 2014)

Have two new ones:


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## Taralack (Jul 12, 2014)

Hey bro you might wanna consider putting a watermark of some kind on your photos.


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## Milo (Jul 12, 2014)

first picture from my new camera. flowers. original


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## Taralack (Jul 12, 2014)

Nice one Milo. Feels like it's missing a hipster quote or something though


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## Milo (Jul 12, 2014)

Taralack said:


> Nice one Milo. Feels like it's missing a hipster quote or something though



"untitled"

because that's the most original thing ever


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## Kangamutt (Jul 13, 2014)

CC, your liquid photos are fucking _marvelous_. I'm in agreement with Taralack, and recommend watermarking, that stuff is quality.

Milo- absolutely love the focal play on that. Would love to see more!


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## CaptainCool (Jul 13, 2014)

And Milo is back in the game! 
I like the muted colors!



Taralack said:


> Hey bro you might wanna consider putting a watermark of some kind on your photos.



They do sorta have a watermark. My copyright information is embedded into the file itself, the EXIF data contains my name and email address.
Watermarks are just such a huge photography clichÃ©... I really don't feel like hopping onto that train.



Kangaroo_Boy said:


> CC, your liquid photos are fucking _marvelous_. I'm in agreement with Taralack, and recommend watermarking, that stuff is quality.
> 
> Milo- absolutely love the focal play on that. Would love to see more!



Thanks^^ But as I said to Taralack, I'm not gonna do that. If someone wants to print them or something they are free to do so. And if they get shared online the file contains my information. So only if someone actually strips the EXIF data from the photos I would be a little pissed


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## Taralack (Jul 13, 2014)

I only say that because of this post, which had been flagged: 



bijutoha said:


> I have seen some high quality image. May I take them?


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## CaptainCool (Jul 13, 2014)

I see. But I still don't really want to use one. They only distract from the image, I want the photo to stand on its own.
Thanks for the concern though :3


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## Harbinger (Jul 13, 2014)

Im the exact same, people keep telling me to watermark my images but it annoys me too much, especially because i want to document a species and show it off as best as i can. Although i have to pay the price by seeing people on ebay use my pics all the time, often not even for the same species the fekken plebs.


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## CaptainCool (Jul 13, 2014)

Right. I see the point though. Maybe I'll try to come up with something small that doesn't annoy me.

Edit: Ok, I think something like this doesn't piss me off too much:


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## Taralack (Jul 13, 2014)

Nice man. Is that your signature?


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## CaptainCool (Jul 13, 2014)

Taralack said:


> Nice man. Is that your signature?



Yeah. But my handwriting is awful so it took me like an hour to come up with something that looks sorta ok XD


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## Milo (Jul 13, 2014)

It's hard to get what I want out of photography and video, because my ideas require other people. I don't know anyone who's into photography, so I'm stuck doing this type of stuff, which isn't really my thing.


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## CaptainCool (Jul 13, 2014)

Milo said:


> It's hard to get what I want out of photography and video, because my ideas require other people. I don't know anyone who's into photography, so I'm stuck doing this type of stuff, which isn't really my thing.



Yeah, you need other people for video :T Which is also why I am not into it at all. I like to do more abstract stuff and things that you usually can't see, which is why I like these drop photos so much. It's not only that one moment that I can capture, a whole bunch of events happen during these few milliseconds and that is what fascinates me!
Like this:






There are only about 10 milliseconds between each of these. But you can't even see any of that with the naked eye!

But your photos look good, they also did with the other camera that you used to have^^ Makes me want to see more :3

And then this happened today:


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## Milo (Jul 13, 2014)

Actually, that's why I like video. A nice 60 frame camera can be slowed down to 120 frames, which captures this sense that you're observing every detail of a single moment.

That's why I'd love to one day have a camera with the capability to slow down by the thousands. You can see each millisecond of a moment. 

There was this movie i saw recently called "the signal". It was cinematically gorgeous.  It used a lot of slow motion in the best ways. One of my favorites is this scene of the character starting at a river, in slow motion, and it was gorgeous. It really inspires me


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## CaptainCool (Jul 13, 2014)

Slow motion stuff is pretty much the only thing about videography that interests me. As for slowing down the video from 60 to 120fps, my camera can't even do 60fps  It can't even do 1080p at 30 fames! X3
The DSLR that I had before could do 720p at 60fps though. But I just don't care. The camera that I currently use, a Nikon D7000, is _much_ better for stills than my old camera, which was a D3200.


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## CaptainCool (Jul 18, 2014)

More high speed stuff:


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## CaptainCool (Aug 9, 2014)

So here is something I tried:






Usually you would use a neutral density filter for long exposure shots during the daylight. But since I am a giant fat idiot I forgot my filter at home when I went on a vacation at my parents place.
So instead I did it with Photoshop.
Take many shots of the same scene, dump them all into one file in Photoshop into seperate layers, auto-align all layers, convert it into a smartobject and then add the Meridian filter for smartobjects. Done!
The Meridian filter averages all layers within the smartobject, it "fills in" all the gaps between your seperate exposures to create the same effect as an expensive ND filter.
A LOT less noise since it's not a long exposure and you save like 40 bucks for the ND filter  It is just a little time consuming when you edit it.


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## CaptainCool (Aug 16, 2014)

Tiny planet panorama:


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## Harbinger (Aug 24, 2014)

Those panorama shots are crazy awesome :O

I know this has one of my pets in it, but i was trying to be artsy so bleugh :V






I still havent had a good play with my flash so i was waiting for natural light, only the weather today was just taking the piss, overcast as soon as i got set up, then a bright sunny day as soon as i headed in.


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## CaptainCool (Aug 24, 2014)

Thanks!

I like yours, too by the way! Maybe I would have edited it a little differently but that comes down to taste^^
Also, when you are setting up a shot like this where your subject doesn't really move that much (I assume the insect mostly stayed in place?) make sure that the framing is perfect. You have a little more space on the right than on the left and also more space at the top than at the bottom. The skull also seems like it isn't perfectly straight.
Either be perfectly straight _or_ make it look crooked on purpose. People _will_ notice when the lines are a tiny bit off. But if they aren't straight at all it looks like you did it on purpose and not by accident :3
And don't cheat by cropping off the edges or rotating the image a little ;D


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## shteev (Aug 24, 2014)

Captain, your photos are really fantastic and none of my stuff is really up to scratch with really anything in this thread 

I don't wanna blame my camera because I love it and a good photographer can make due with all sorts of constraints but it does get grainy and the image quality isn't too great. 

Anyway, I've downscaled them to fit the forums and to mask some of the blegh quality. 






I think close-ups are more to my camera's speed.


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## CaptainCool (Aug 25, 2014)

shteev said:


> Captain, your photos are really fantastic and none of my stuff is really up to scratch with really anything in this thread
> 
> I don't wanna blame my camera because I love it and a good photographer can make due with all sorts of constraints but it does get grainy and the image quality isn't too great.
> 
> Anyway, I've downscaled them to fit the forums and to mask some of the blegh quality.



Thanks a lot for the compliment! :3

Photography isn't about your camera. It's all about experience. You have to learn to judge lighting situations and how proper composition works, that's most important in my opinion (outside of the technical stuff).
A better camera only helps you to get the results that you want in a more easy way. Modern DSLRs have a higher dynamic range than other cameras, which makes landscape photography a heck of a lot easier.
Back in the day the camera itself didn't even matter that much. Sure the lens was still important but the kind of film that you used was even more important.

Getting good images is also a little about timing and planning. For example, if you want to capture something like this (not my work) you can't do it at any time of the day. You have to do it in the morning or in the evening because that is when you get that beautiful diffused light that creates these great colors.
When you shoot it during the day at around noon you get a very harsh light and harsh shadows which generally doesn't look very pleasing at all.

As for your photos, I think the first one is just too tight. You see a little of the lake, a little of the (burned out) sky and a crapton of green. In fact, I am pretty sure that was "too much green" for the camera to handle^^
A wider shot would have worked better. But that depends on your camera and lens! Which one did you use for this?

The other two shots are pretty cool though!


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## shteev (Aug 25, 2014)

CaptainCool said:


> Thanks a lot for the compliment! :3
> 
> Photography isn't about your camera. It's all about experience. You have to learn to judge lighting situations and how proper composition works, that's most important in my opinion (outside of the technical stuff).
> A better camera only helps you to get the results that you want in a more easy way. Modern DSLRs have a higher dynamic range than other cameras, which makes landscape photography a heck of a lot easier.
> ...



EHEHEHE that's the thing, I use a point-and-shoot so the lens isn't interchangeable. It's a Nikon Coolpix L820 with a powerful zoom (30x lens). I think, in that shot, I had it zoomed in quite a bit so the FOV was narrow.

As far as timing/lighting goes, thanks for the tips! I should really get out and do some shooting at different times of day to get a feel for it.


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## jtrekkie (Aug 26, 2014)

It will be September soon. Here's something to look forward to.


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## shteev (Aug 26, 2014)

jtrekkie said:


> It will be September soon. Here's something to look forward to.
> 
> -beepbooppicsnip-



I'm SO excited for winter photo ops. NOT excited for frostbite


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## CaptainCool (Aug 31, 2014)

The weather was changing between awful and great every five minutes today so I decided to experiment at home a little:


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## Fallowfox (Aug 31, 2014)

Late Kretaceous _Micraster _sea urchin


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## shteev (Sep 2, 2014)

A storm had just passed and the clouds took this huge shape in the sky







I don't think my photo does it justice, they looked so massive


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## jtrekkie (Sep 4, 2014)




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## CaptainCool (Oct 11, 2014)

"Jesus saves the trashcan"

Taken with my Sony Xperia Z1, because I don't usually take my camera to work


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## Coffox (Oct 13, 2014)

My amateur try at Car photography.

Nikon D3200, NIKKOR 50mm 1.8D lens.
and yes bokeh is not pretty.

http://imgur.com/a/pEm5s


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## Coffox (Oct 13, 2014)

One i made while i tried b&w street photography for my first time with my D3200 and 50mm 1.8D

Its still a photo i enjoy. 
Conformity is a blur in today's fast paced city


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## Coffox (Oct 13, 2014)

I think graffiti is an art, as primitive as it usually can be.

This area has been cleaned recently. As well as this truck.
I have NO involvement in the making of the paintings.


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## jtrekkie (Oct 13, 2014)

Like the window picture.


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## Oreo (Oct 13, 2014)

Awesome photography. Makes me wish my PC hand't eaten my hard drive with my stuff. Even tho it's not up to the artistic quality of most here.


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## CaptainCool (Nov 13, 2014)

A little something you can do with soap, a little glycerin from the pharmacy, a flash or a lamp and a macro lens or extension tubes:


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## CaptainCool (Jan 24, 2015)

You guys like bismuth? I like bismuth. Have some bismuth.





https://www.furaffinity.net/view/15562120/





https://www.furaffinity.net/view/15562102/





https://www.furaffinity.net/view/15562090/


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## UrsusArtist (Jan 24, 2015)

My backyard in summer.


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## CaptainCool (Mar 27, 2015)

Proving to myself that I can do more than just animal photography 



Physalis by Mathias Appel, on Flickr


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