Just back from a very inspiring day with Joe McNally and Bill Frakes. A must see if you get a chance to watch them, very entertaining.

Crappy iPhone pic of Joe:


Another crappy iPhone pic of the crazy clouds over Stockholm today:

Are you shooting in shutter priority or manual? Unless iso and aperture is at the min and max you should still be able to do a long exposure.

There's two other options you might consider that don't require you going down the HDR route:

1) Use a Neutral Density Grad filter

2) Take 2 exposures - one for the traffic, one for the background - and then blend them in post with something like Photoshop by stacking the two images on separate layers and then using a gradient mask to obscure the unwanted parts of the upper image. Pretty much the same principle as a ND Grad filter, but done in post, which gives you the advantage of having more options and a greater degree of control after the shot has been taken.

Edit: I'm not sure an HDR would be the best choice in this instance anyway, because each of the exposures is going to render the traffic differently, which may pose some issues for the HDR software when it comes to blending.

This sounds great, and it's just reminded me that I have some videos featuring Joe that I haven't gotten around to watching yet, which I shall make a point of seeing now. Thanks!

Oh crap, sorry DTM! Somehow I completely forgot about this. If you are still in need of further info just let me know and I will do my best to furnish you with as much as I can. It's the very least I can do given the depth and quality of your continual contributions to this thread.

I think this one was in manual, ISO was at 200 and like f11. You're right, i wasn't thinking clearly.

I considered option 1 but wasn't sure how to manage the filter, would you have flipped her "upside down" and darkened the bottom 1/2 instead of the top 1/2?

I'm a really poor "photographer", when I'm out taking pictures I'm usually enjoying the moment a lot and talking with my friends or admiring the scenery and sometimes forget to set up the shot correctly. I know some people that get in the zone and just love fiddling with settings, I enjoy playing with settings but seem to use my camera as an excuse to go out and do things I enjoy.

ya, the more you use the camera the better you get at it. it just takes practice. it helps to do what you did here and analyze what you want to do better and ways to improve the photo.

If you move the aperture up a couple of stops you can dim down a lot of the blown highlights but as a result might lose a lot of detail in the sky like you were worried about. i would just do a couple of exposures and see what you like the best. then if you actually have time to go back and edit it you can but like you said you have more fun taking the picture than doing stuff like editing.

Edit: I think the car trail lights will probably look way better too

Thanks, Gazillion!

Anything you can contribute would be greatly appreaciated. RL looks like I wont be pulling the trigger on anything for at least 6 weeks, so there's no rush. (I wish I had time now to play with the public beta)


Info I'm most interested in includes:

• more description/explanation of things you can't do in Lightroom but often need to do when editing photos (I.e.. why should I buy Photoshop as well as, or instead of, Lightroom?)
• more description/explanation of things you can do in Lightroom but can't do in Photoshop, or can do easier in Lightroom than in Photoshop (I.e. why should I buy Lightroom as well as, or instead of, Photoshop?)
• software to consider instead of Photoshop to augment Lightroom
• software to consider to augment Lightroom and Photoshop (perhaps includes third-party plugins)
• Your views on how to learn Photoshop (I'm presuming learning Lightroom is fairly easy compared to learning Photoshop.)

I'm sure just about anybody reading this thread would benefit from whatever you could post about Photoshop and other editing software.

.

Springsteen, as others have said I definitely think your best bet is taking a bunch of different exposure lengths, picking the ones you like the best and blending them manually, that is, if you know how!

If this was me I might blend 3 photos... one for the sky (the long exposure to get the movement of the clouds), another for the buildings, and a third for the car lights. If you want brighter car lights you might want to wait until you see some cars coming and try to time your exposure to capture just those few cars, something like a 4-10 second exposure.

Zoo Photos

what lens did you use?

Sony 85 mm F/2.8 on a Sony a35 (APS size sensor)

First attempt at a macro. found this guy on my floor while i was leaving for work

Looking for some input and suggestions from all of the camera wizards itt:

I currently have a Canon EOS XSi that I purchased in 2009. It just has the stock 18-55 lens, and I have some lens filters but that's it for the most part. I would really like to upgrade to a camera that can take video as well and am trying to figure out what kind of resale value my camera holds, as well as get suggestions on the type of camera to upgrade to. Mine definitely has some wear on it but everything functions perfectly--would it be unreasonable to get $300 for this camera? I know this is the camera thread, but if the resale on my camera is really terrible I was also thinking I could simply invest in a reasonable handheld video recorder and keep my camera as I am happy with the pictures it takes--so if anyone has suggestions on a good video camera (esp one that would do ok filming at night) I would appreciate it

I was was looking at a camera like the Nikon D5100 as it has a 16 mp camera, 1080p video and has a movable LCD. FWIW, most of the pictures and video I will be taking will be outdoors, and often in limited light (dawn/dusk, sometimes night time) when I am fishing. As far as price range--depends on resale value of my camera, but I don't want to be out of pocket more than $500 if possible. Thanks.

the d3200 is supposed to be announced sometime this week

Just a guy with his digital camera taking pictures of the city he loves:

Hi guys

Just started playing around with my camera to relax and cut off from normal routine. Will actually be going somewhere nice today and take a couple more shots.

What do you think about my first two?

PS - I am a newb plus my camera is nothing special, just a Casio Exilim EX-Z19 with 9.1 Mega Pixels








Any tips from the pros to make them look nicer?

Also, some of the photos here leave me speechless! Just awesome and well done (they are the ones that inspired me to try this out)

Thank you!

Took a couple more of my car and some cliffs, plants, etc....

I'm selling my house and I'm going to do the photos myself. The widest lens I have is Canon 17-55 f/2.8. Is that wide enough on a crop sensor? Will the distortion be terrible at 17mm?

Tips? (I'm looking at you, Mike )

Would be cool and probably worth the money to rent something for a couple of days.

Either that or justify buying a 10mm lens

lol gonna try to borrow a 10-22 before I think about buying one

This is perfect time to apply "can't afford not to" logic to buy a 5d mark III or something

QFT

Here's some train related photos.