Nikon User Thread

[Zephyrnoid]

Not at all! Nor did I use a tripod ( cause I couldn't) I opened the window to my room in Siena at around 7'sh that evening and Pow! That scene. So I whipped out the camera and started shooting. Next day the clouds were not there, the day after, amazing fog but hey, by then I'd bagged about 10 or 20 other great pics of the town. Besides, the birds were gone after that ( the insects they feed on have specific RH/Temp reqs) . Ain't nature amazing?

No photoshop?

 

[alveraz]

I want to believe you, I really do! But that one beam of light directly over that one home and the trail from that foreground bird and the others placement is simply too perfect! The colors alone scream manipulation but if you say so.

Sir, if this shot has not been manipulated in anyway then you have my undying admiration and I truly apologize. Incredible, incredible work.

 

[Matt Grunau]

I want to believe you, I really do! But that one beam of light directly over that one home and the trail from that foreground bird and the others placement is simply too perfect! The colors alone scream manipulation but if you say so.

Sir, if this shot has not been manipulated in anyway then you have my undying admiration and I truly apologize. Incredible, incredible work.

Al,

You would be amazed at some of the atmospheric phenomenons that happen in every day life.

I live in WV, which is technically a temperate rain forest. There are things that happen here that you would not believe. Mist rising from lulls in the hills, humidity to the point that you cant see half a mile, and often clarity that approaches the surreal. It's a truly amazing place. I have seen rainbows that are full circle, and have seen shafts of light like the photo you refer to, where a dense bank of clouds approach a very clear system. That can give you exactly that kind of effect.

That doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

That pic looks tweaked, but I have looked out my bay window (which is funny, as there is no bay), and have seen almost the exact look more times than I can count.

That may be an untouched pic, or it may be enhanced. To me, it looks a little enhanced, but since I have actually seen that shaft of light, I cannot say which.

The birds, and the fact that it is hitting a very specific spot make it even more iffy.

Where I live, you see that kind of thing, but it is not so directional. Nice pic, none the less.



M.

 

[alveraz]

I have no doubt these oddities exist. In fact I see them often when I take frequent trips with my family. That said, in my humble opinion this has been manipulated one way or another. But like you said, it's an amazing photo for sure and kudos for the incredibly lucky composition, timing and colors. I love it!

 

[2 in the can]

Hey Matt,

I compared CS2 and CS3's HDR merge (using the photomatix sample photos) and they seemed pretty similar. They had slightly different histograms in 32 bit but nothing substantial. In fact, when converting to 16 bit I used the "equalize histogram" method and as best I could tell they looked spot on. So I wouldn't rush out and upgrade just for the HDR.

Allen

 

[Adam Gonzalez]

Do I see some of that imagery coming from you know Al?

 

[Matt Grunau]

Ladybug:

Playing with panoramas:





This is the thumbnail. 5 pics, minimal tweaking (got rid of some garbage), more of a test to see how far Photoshop will allow me to push.

I really should have adjusted the polarizer on the right part of the pic's sky. I may bring some color over from the left part later.

 

[Zephyrnoid]

Actually, I wish I had a video camera with me at the time. That beam kept turning on and off and moving with the clouds, like some alien abduction beam of sorts. No need for PS adjustments, I looked at the Histogram in PS and it was just fine as is. A rare occurance but I did nail my exposure and contrast settings BEFORE shooting.
I have a stack of shots from Siena. It was the most beautiful place I've been in Italy. Other shots I made that trip have been manipulated due to unpreventable stuff like backlighting, huge contrast and crapy skies. Just not this one. The Birds- Ah! I shot about 20 frames of this scene and yes, only one is perfect.The birds fly that way- soaring/gliding with thier wings locked open until they change direction. That's luck, not me. The point is all my shooting in the past 4 years has been with this Nikon CP5K point and shoot! Properly used, It just has a nasty highlight clipping issue and all else is sweet. I wore out all the control buttons in 4 years :happy:

I want to believe you, I really do! But that one beam of light directly over that one home and the trail from that foreground bird and the others placement is simply too perfect! The colors alone scream manipulation but if you say so.

Sir, if this shot has not been manipulated in anyway then you have my undying admiration and I truly apologize. Incredible, incredible work.

 

[MattinSTL]

I will say that in my experience, many PS cams have an inherrently "saturated" look that appears to be a photoshop enhancement... but as far as the combo of other factors with the birds and the beam... that was about a thousand to one shot there. If the birds and the sunbeam were gone it would be a moderately average shot... but those factors really take it into a much higher level. Nice job.

A friend and I were just commenting the other day at how some PS shots come out so good it makes you look at your DSLR in disgust.

There's a lot of things that have to line up before you get magic pictures... and it won't matter what camera you're holding if you catch it when that happens.

 

[Zephyrnoid]

"That pic looks tweaked, but I have looked out my bay window (which is funny, as there is no bay), and have seen almost the exact look more times than I can count."
I'm a master PS user, what they used to call a "PowerUser" in the old days. I can work miracles with it. Once in a blue moon I don't have to do anything. That's when you get that cheated inside feeling. Huh! The hand twitches on the mouse, wanting to fiddle, but the brain says- why? It's pretty good as is.
Keep in mind, I spent 24 years shooting film and not for National Geographic (where they dot etched everything pre-press) . I'm used to nailing it in camera.
The other point is as you mention, certain parts of the world actually LOOK like they've been Photoshoped. I pitty my poor colleagues that have never visitied these parts. I have many such images taken all over, from land sea and sky. It almost never happens in Downtown DC where I live, and everything looks like a flat, lifeless tourist postcard ( save Fred Maroon's fine work)

 

[Matt Grunau]

"
I'm a master PS user, what they used to call a "PowerUser" in the old days. I can work miracles with it. Once in a blue moon I don't have to do anything. That's when you get that cheated inside feeling. Huh! The hand twitches on the mouse, wanting to fiddle, but the brain says- why? It's pretty good as is.

Same here, sort of. I don't have the experience of location shooting (but boy would I love to), and I still get into the same type of sticky when you have a great pic, and every ounce of your fiber tells you to tweak it, but it is too good to mess with.

In those cases, I usually slap a couple of small adjustment layers on and crank them down to 10-20% just to make myself feel like I have done something.

heh.

I can still remember when there were only something on the order of 8 blending modes, Layer Masks were rad, and 32 bit was hovering near Saturn.

Sheesh, I'm old. rogar-BigGrin(DBG)

 

[Zephyrnoid]

exactly! I was gifted a copy of PS V2.0 by the Knoll brothers at Macworld one year.
everything had to be done in channels back then. Layers? 32Bit? That was Saturn for sure in 1990. But even before all that I was one of the mad few that actually enjoyed compositing photo images the hard way, with in-camera and copy-stand matte techniques. Scary the past was. Really scary! And the horrors of waiting 20 minutes for PS V1.0 to rotate an image or run a filter on a 5MB image:lipsrseal.
I'm not blowing horn or anything, the superstars were spinning magic with nothing back then. Like the guys that hacked out Myst on a couple of Mac Quadras, Hypercard and StrataVision.

Same here, sort of. I don't have the experience of location shooting (but boy would I love to), and I still get into the same type of sticky when you have a great pic, and every ounce of your fiber tells you to tweak it, but it is too good to mess with.

In those cases, I usually slap a couple of small adjustment layers on and crank them down to 10-20% just to make myself feel like I have done something.

heh.

I can still remember when there were only something on the order of 8 blending modes, Layer Masks were rad, and 32 bit was hovering near Saturn.

Sheesh, I'm old. rogar-BigGrin(DBG)

 

[MattinSTL]

Zeph... for as nice as those latest pics are above... that previous shot is still in it's own league because of the magic factor.

Chaos theory equals birds, and the closest bird in particular... IN SYNC with a shaft of light perfectly illuminating a lone house on the crest, relative to your position.

Your other shots are great, but in my humble opinion no comparison for x-factor.

 

[Zephyrnoid]

The other shots were to show me, yes me, on location in Italy last Summer. every one of the others shots was worked in PS. Usually to fix skies or adjust lighting.
The one of me in profile modeling the Rudy Project glasses is a cut and paste as the lighting was wrong for a self portrait in that light. Here's where they will all end up when I can finish the page layouts...
Http://www.gearninja.com :thumbsup:

Zeph... for as nice as those latest pics are above... that previous shot is still in it's own league because of the magic factor.

Chaos theory equals birds, and the closest bird in particular... IN SYNC with a shaft of light perfectly illuminating a lone house on the crest, relative to your position.

Your other shots are great, but in my humble opinion no comparison for x-factor.

 

[alveraz]

bob & weave, bob & weave.


:grin:

 

[Zephyrnoid]

?? New one on me:shocked:

bob & weave, bob & weave.


:grin:

 

[iposiniditos]

Do I see some of that imagery coming from you know Al?

...???

 

[Adam Gonzalez]

It was in reference to of the the post processing done in your images. Alveraz had some of the same type of post processing that you do in some of your photos. LoL

 

[Matt Grunau]

exactly! I was gifted a copy of PS V2.0 by the Knoll brothers at Macworld one year.
everything had to be done in channels back then. Layers? 32Bit? That was Saturn for sure in 1990. But even before all that I was one of the mad few that actually enjoyed compositing photo images the hard way, with in-camera and copy-stand matte techniques. Scary the past was. Really scary! And the horrors of waiting 20 minutes for PS V1.0 to rotate an image or run a filter on a 5MB image:lipsrseal.
I'm not blowing horn or anything, the superstars were spinning magic with nothing back then. Like the guys that hacked out Myst on a couple of Mac Quadras, Hypercard and StrataVision.

Ha! My first Photoshop came on 20 floppies. I believe it was V3.

Those were indeed the days, when camera composition was even more important. My largest project was a humble 36 layers and about 250 megs. Think of how far we have come. The healing brush still amazes me, and CS3? I don't know what to do with half of the new stuff.

Give me Adjustment layers, and I'm a happy cat.

Now, I have single projects that get close to a gig. With the advance in digital photography, video, and everything else, the pipeline has tightened, but I still love the sound of the scanner clicking, grinding, and humming as it brought your work to its digital life.

With your level of experience, you should hit up the Photoshop section more often. Your knowledge and time tested techniques would be a great asset. (am I pimping the section I asked for, hell yeah, but experience is always great)

And here I thought I was the resident PS old schooler. Not anymore, and hats off to ya. :beer:

I have officially been trumped. Finally.

 

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

A few recent shots from a trip out to Jackson Hole, WY. I originally went to photograph my aunts wedding, but ended up having lots of time to find some great photo spots.

Nikon D80 | 18-135 f/3.5 | 50 f/1.8