Photographed TODAY (or Processed today) con't

[Kraellin]

hehehe, sorry palms, but i'm officially a dirty old man now, having hit 60 last month, so i get to get away with it

i like the idea of shots at home. i'll bet more folks are on facebook than flikr, though, at least in more of a social networking frame. we could start a 'fans of retouchpro' page or something. i wouldnt ask for a once a week. i'd do it more like it's done here in this thread. just post something up when ya like.

i've had the idea of doing a retouchpro calendar or table top 'best of RP' book or something along those lines, too. add in the photo art forum and we've got something i'd buy.

[crazyfly1]

Hi all,
I just took this shot of my puppy. Hope you like.
I am giving thought to the new thread, got some ideas, just have to wait for a day off.

[fpellerin]

Nice dog! Reminds me of Keimo my Malamute...I really miss that dog!

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

...I just took this shot of my puppy. Hope you like.
I am giving thought to the new thread,...

Love your dog, and love how you incorporated a look at your "Patch" of Colorado at the same time.

Took this a few days ago (we've had rain since) but wanted to show that the Valley of the Sun in Arizona already has Spring flowers blooming - at least in my front yard.

I like the idea of using our forum and our interest in photography to share something about where / how we live with each other. I agree with Palms about not showing info that could lead someone to our doorstep, but think that would be easy to avoid. Placing such photos in a separate thread would make sense to me. People who are interested could set aside some time each week (or so) to search for a subject or location that expresses something about their locale -- that would give focus to our shooting without the strictness of a specific subject, and would make us think about what makes our locale special or different.

[palms]

Another reason why a thread would be interesting about our area's is CJ them are summer flowers here

Palms

[Nasturtium]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

i'll bet more folks are on facebook than flikr, though, at least in more of a social networking frame. we could start a 'fans of retouchpro' page or something.

statistically I'm sure that's correct but I don't think FB supports geotagging yet.

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by palms1

Another reason why a thread would be interesting about our area's is CJ them are summer flowers here

Palms

Palms - By the time you are enjoying your summer flowers, these will have gone to seed and be only memories and photographs.

Originally Posted by Nasturtium

statistically I'm sure that's correct but I don't think FB supports geotagging yet.

If it comes to posting elsewhere, I'll vote for Flickr over Facebook any day. Flickr is all about photography while Facebook is filled with Farmville or whatever other games and diversions. I guess a FB page for our group might be able to avoid that kind of stuff, but I'm not sure. (I hate to visit my page now because of Friends of friends requests to "milk their Farmville cow" etc.)

[palms]

Not sure about the flickr/facebook idea, And Doug will be shouting into his screen "Why" when we can do all that here ( except for the size of images) Crazyfly get a new thread going and lets see how it goes

there could even be a request thing, which i could start off now, My 5 year old granddaughter wants to go to USA so that she can photograph the Statue of Liberty! so as the next best thing is there anyone out there who could do a snap just for her? ( mind you she does think it can dance like on a camera advert over here )

C.J. I Know what you mean i have turned friends news off on some because of the farm/zoo/cafe things

Palms

[crazyfly1]

Frank, thank you, the animal shelter told me he is a wolf but I don't know.
Cj, thank you, and those are lovely flowers, I'm really ready to see some of those here.

I'm going to start the new thread in a few days.

Here are a couple I shot in North Carolina on Lake Waccamaw. Just converted them to BW.

[Kraellin]

william,

i'm a fan of black and whites. however, i'm thinkin the first, the alligator shot, might look better in color. but, i love the dock shot. great perspective and great contrasts. very nice!

[crazyfly1]

Craig, here he is in color.

Thank you for your comments on the dock shot. I've been working on my framing and cropping, black and white seems to help with that as all I see is the tones. Seems like color can kind of cloud a picture for me.

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

william,

i'm a fan of black and whites. however, i'm thinkin the first, the alligator shot, might look better in color. but, i love the dock shot. great perspective and great contrasts. very nice!

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Craig, here he is in color.

Thank you for your comments on the dock shot. I've been working on my framing and cropping, black and white seems to help with that as all I see is the tones. Seems like color can kind of cloud a picture for me.

Crazyfly - I agree with Craig on both images, and with you about color interfering with our concentration on composition. Color is such a strong element that it can blind us to other pieces of the image (I have the same issue myself); I think your working in b/w while working on composition and cropping is a sound idea. After working on composition, then you can decide which images you want to keep b/w and which would look better in color or in both b/w and color. The dock image has strong lines and interesting composition and works well in b/w. The alligator shot doesn't have enough contrast to show well in b/w, I think. Color can sometimes BE the subject, it is that strong of an element.

[crazyfly1]

Cj, Thank you. I was hoping for more feedback after the color post. I thought that the bw was better because the only color was green. After reading your post and looking at it again with new eyes I see that you and Craig are both right.
The bw doesn't have any lights and the color brings out the water plants and the algae and the wavy green lines in front of the gator.
Again, thank you both for your sound advise.

[Nasturtium]

crazyfly1-the BW dock picture is great. On the 'gator shot I think you have to 'forget what you know and look at what you see'. Alas the way our brain directs attention can be pretty darn hard to duplicate in a 2D static picture. :-(

I'm messing around with trying to learn how to shoot in manual mode. Gosh! It's hard! And thank goodness I'm doing this in the digital age. lol. I think I'm going to give up on expensive face creams and just depend on photoshop to make my skin look good from now on out. :-)

[Kraellin]

is that you, nasturtium?

i much prefer manual. i wish these smaller cameras had manual zooms. and yes, digital helps

[Overdoze]

Had to find something to do. And I got birthday tomorrow so made a picture for myself. What you think?

About the setup:
40D with 16-35mm/f2.8 @ (16mm/f5.6 ISO 100)
2x BXRi 500 with basic reflectors. (behind model both sides, minimum power)
1x acuteB with zoom reflector and grid (right from camera)
1x 430EX with omni bounce (as fill from camera direction)

postprod:
LR and PS
removed little this and that from background in PS
Added and modified the smoke in PS (liguify)
toning in LR (i dont know why but this is reaaly much easier in LR)
curves and vignette in PS
save for web

[crazyfly1]

Overdoze, Nice pic!! Love the smoke. If you don't mind I might steal that whole idea for my facebook pic.

[crazyfly1]

K, sorry guys I'm back with deer and I have 4 fav's so I'm gonna mini blow up the thread.
I shot these tonight in my driveway.
It's nice that they want to pose, but I can't get them to stop staring at the camera.

[crazyfly1]

BTW
1/100 sec
f/8
ISO 200

Bet you never saw a deers tongue before lol.

[Kraellin]

those are good, william, especially the first two. i'm hoping to get some that close up with my new camera coming soon

[Overdoze]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

Overdoze, Nice pic!! Love the smoke. If you don't mind I might steal that whole idea for my facebook pic.

Thx! =) and I dont mind.

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by crazyfly1

...It's nice that they want to pose, but I can't get them to stop staring at the camera.

LOL!!

I love seeing your deer visitors, and I especially like the first one -- I like having more of the background show. It would be my choice of enlargement or turning into a painting. Of course, those close-ups with the tongue are wonderful views also.

Overdoze - great portrait concept and execution! Sounds like you are experienced with lighting, which is a subject many of us are still nervous about.

[CJ Swartz]

Happy March equinox, everyone!!

[palms]

just as we think spring is coming apparently winter may be back next week ! ! !

hopefully these will get through with a bit of TLC


Palms

[Overdoze]

Originally Posted by CJ Swartz

Overdoze - great portrait concept and execution! Sounds like you are experienced with lighting, which is a subject many of us are still nervous about.

Thanks! Usually great ideas leads to great pictures. And like many others, I got good light days and bad light days. Learning all the time and expirementing is key to success. Shame that I havent had enough time/models to train. And somehow expirienced, Im thinking that my level is somewhere between total amateur and "pro". =D I got lots of know how and now im just trying to learn how to use my knowledge in real situation.

[Nasturtium]

Craig - yup, 'tis I.
Overdoze-that is so cool.
Crazyfly-What a magical moment - in your own backyard!
CJ-gorgeous flowers. The long cold, gray winter has made us all so hungry for bright colors
palms1-We sure had some crazy spring weather. Hope your sprouts survive the hardship

I've been giving myself assignments - how to get a proper exposure, using the tripod -n- stuff. Today is Monday so I tried to get a good 'Bench Monday' (a really kewl group on Flickr) shot.

This is an HDR shot of a tree. The light is pretty awful today but I messed with it until it was purdy

[Overdoze]

My friend wanted a picture about her new hair so this is the result.

Camera and lens: 40D + 50mm/f1.4 (@5.6 ISO100)
Quick setup for lighting:
AcuteB camera left as main light
BXRi 500 cameral left behind model to blow out background (cleaned in photoshop)
Canon 430EX bounced from ceiling to hair ( to give little fill on the opposite side of main light)

Postpros:
Camera raw for basic adjustments
Toned what i wanted it to look like
lots of cleaning with hair (model skin was great)
little dodgin and burnin all a round (mostly hair, but little hand and face too)
With channel luminosity mask highlight little up with levels and shadows little down to add contrast . (http://www.goodlight.us/writing/lumi...tymasks-1.html) never tried it before.. looked pretty nice.. better that only curves or levels contrast adjustement.

Hope you like it =)

[Kraellin]

odd, those dont look much like your avatar pic, nasturtium. pretty

spring has finally arrived here, as well. temperatures starting to hit in the 70's. forsythias are out in full, daffodils are going crazy and even the large tulip trees are blooming their large pink and whites. gotta say, i'm liking it

oh, and i love that tree in that shot, nasturtium! what a grand old beast!

[Nasturtium]

Overdoze, she should be very happy with that picture. Thanks for including your lighting details
Craig-Just call me a woman of mystery :-)

This turned out more 'Linda Blair' that I intended but it's just my first attempt

[Kraellin]

alright, miss woman of mystery, what in the world are you doing playing trampoline on the couch? didnt your mother ever tell you... lol. i like it