Posts about Gallery
All the posts...Pretty in Pink Prom 2023
07 April 2023
I played photographer at the Pretty in Pink Prom again this year.
The entire gallery of images is on Facebook for all the fabulous attendees to see.
Photography July and Beyond
14 August 2008
While preparing for last night's No Fear Photography meeting, I realized that I've had a pretty exciting month of photography!
- As Independence Day approached, I realized I didn't care a thing for trying to take some fireworks photos, but we still stumbled upon some, and I happened to get a fireworks photo or 2 that I actually liked.
- I got away with taking all my gear on the beach vacation -- flashes, umbrella, lenses, foam and poster board reflectors, everything! The monopod bungeed to a chair or railing makes a great lightweight light stand.
- I crudded up my sensor pretty badly on vacation, and ended up learning: 1) small apertures show dust really well, 2) to clone out lots of dust spots in post-processing, and 3) how to clean the sensor with a blower, swab, and Eclipse fluid.
- I managed to shoot a few strobist-style shots of the family on vacation -- they played while I setup, then I shot for 10 minutes or so. Then we abruptly tossed all the gear in the van and ran off, because someone needed to hit the bathroom.
- I passed off my D40 and 50mm f/1.8 crammed into a too-small bag as a point-and-shoot, so I got it into the Kill Hannah show at Chameleon.
- Upon acquiring a super-cheap Sigma 70-300DG lens which only focuses manually on my D40 and a few other accessories, I've acknowledged that I have all the gear I need for now, and that opinion has stuck for nearly a month now. 300mm fits my needs nicely, and I seldom wish I had "just a little more".
- I've actually started shedding gear -- Stacey's borrowing my Nikkor 55-200VR lens which was effectively replaced with the 70-300. If she doesn't buy it, maybe someone else will.
- I'm having lots of fun shooting close-up shots with the Sigma lens.
- After about a month of shooting almost exclusively with the 70-300, I went back to my kit 18-55mm lens a bit to shoot some wide-angle -- I'm particularly enjoying wide landscapes and a bit of distortion in portraits.
- My manual-everything 50mm f/1.8 remains my go-to lens for parties, low-light, and street photography.
- I was looking at the Fall non-credit photography courses at HACC and trying to choose 1 of 2 possible classes. Today, I just registered for both, instead of trying to choose: Portrait Photography and Perfect Pictures.
Gimp Tips from Meet the Gimp
10 July 2008
I've been sitting on a little email note to myself since October! It's just my hot tips I collected from the early episodes of Meet the Gimp. Finally, I'm going to put them here, so I can find them again, and I can delete that email.
Keys:
- 'x' swaps background/foreground colors
- [ ] scale the current brush
Faking some simple adjustment layers:
- multiply a compensation color layer to remove a color cast
- screen a color layer add a color cast
- multiply a gray layer to darken
- overlay a layer and paint black on the layer to burn
- soft light a layer and paint white to dodge.
Nikon D40
18 March 2008
I've had a new Nikon D40 for nearly 2 weeks now, and I think it's working nicely for me. The noise at ISO 400 on my PowerShot S2 was just getting to be too much of a hassle for me, and the opportunity to drop some cash came around, so I went for it.
Stacey and Doug were a great help while I shopped. They're both Nikon shooters, so I knew I could borrow equipment and draw on their vast experience. Dinger also has a nasty case of NAS paired with an odd DIY flair.
The extra couple hundred dollars that a D40x would have cost didn't seem worthwhile just for some extra pixels, so I just went with a D40 with the kit 18-55mm lens. I added a Nikon 55-200mm VR lens to try to get nearer to the telephoto capabilities I had with the PowerShot S2.
After a quick read through the manual (I don't seem like the type, though, do I?), I could pick up and find everything on the camera pretty quickly. The camera doesn't have quite as many buttons and dials as the higher-end Nikons, but I can still change my basic settings pretty quickly -- the dials default is shutter speed, then I need to hold a button for aperture, and I mapped the Fn key to change ISO, so I'm in business. I found the built-in flash configuration to switch it to manual 1/32 power, so I'm in business with my slave strobes.
The minimum ISO of 200 means I'll definitely need my ND4 filter to get some longer exposures, but that's fine. 3200 ISO (HI1) is pretty noisy, but not terribly disappointing. 1600 is surprisingly clean. Indoors I try to stick around 1600, but I'll gladly kick up to 3200 if needed. I can clean up the noise in post production.
I've had to introduce UFRaw to my workflow to get images down to 8-bit for Gimp. I really like having the extra range and flexibility -- I can make some dramatic changes in RAW without losing detail, but it took me a little while to learn what I was doing, and some things (base curve) still sort of allude me. I'm still sort of slow at processing, but I think the results are much better. I'll figure out batch processing soon, I figure. I would get done much quicker if I wasn't consistently holding the camera 1-3 degrees off of level -- I'll have to work on that.
I got to try the camera for travel for the first time on Sunday at Baltimore's St. Patrick's Day Parade. I can barely fit the camera and its lenses in my old bag, so it wasn't too difficult. It's a little cumbersome to have the 55-200mm lens hanging from my neck and chase the kids, but it's possible.
I was feeling some pain having to switch between lenses to shoot the passing parade from the curb, but I quickly settled into my 18-55, and I was really glad I had it. I used the 55-200 later to shoot the kids running and playing. The photos have a surprisingly noticeable "telephoto" feel, though.
I've been able to get much shallower depths of field with this new gear -- that makes me happy, since it was really hard to do with the PowerShot S2. I find myself actually having to work the other way, and closing down the aperature to get a bit of depth back. It's nice to have that control now.
My kit's pretty complete right now, but I hope to get a hold of some old strobes my Mom doesn't use, and her old camera bag. That'll give me a little room to grow. I also have an old full-manual 50mm f/1.8 lens on loan from Dinger which I'd love to have for indoor party photography and maybe portraiture, though I think an 85mm prime would be more comfortable for portraits.
I can't really think of anything more that I'd need the camera itself to do, so I'll probably use this thing for a pretty long time. Pair this thing with a couple more lenses, strobes, and some radio triggers, and I'll keep myself busy for quite some time.
All the Posts
April 2023
August 2008
July 2008
March 2008
- 18 - Nikon D40
January 2008
- 02 - Year in Photos: 2007
February 2007
August 2006
- 27 - Canon PowerShot S2
December 2005
- 05 - Levels vs Curves
June 2004
- 07 - Photography Tips