#aperture priority

[radioradio]

Black (light) box

As noted previously, Swapping out the light colored backgrounds for the black yielded some weird results. With the camera in aperture priority and Auto ISO set to full auto, the ISO skyrocketed with just that change.

Later I realized I was still operating with matrix metering, where the camera takes in the light from the entire frame. That's fine for most instances, but I'm doing this...

The camera wants to account for everything outside of the box as well as Akane here.

So now I've switched to spot metering, where the camera will meter from just a selected spot in the middle of the frame. I've dropped to a strict 100 ISO. D600, 50mm f/1.8D lens at f/8.

Uh huh. The camera wanted to do 1/5 sec. I'm on a tripod, but not on a timer. Thus the shake.

Let's see what happens when I use the shutter speeds *I* want to use. 1/60...

1/100

1/125

1/150

1/200

And finally 1/250

The box is plenty bright with a light colored background, but it's obvious a little help is needed.

I KNOW!

An LED bulb from the studio kit, dangled from the arm of a desk lamp and pointing through the top flap of the box. That gives plenty of light and then some.

Same f/8 and ISO 100, but with the big bulb only, the camera now asks for 1/30 sec.

And for comparison, 1/50

And 1/60.

And now let's turn on the box lights as well. It's powered by a mere 5V via USB, so it's not really a powerhouse. This time the camera recommends 1/40 sec.

And once more at 1/50

And 1/60

I was about ready to give up on the black backdrop, as the results up to now were basically crap. It took some literal outside-the-box thinking to bring it back from the brink.

And boopenings to @sirfrogsworth. I've been busy the last few days, as you can see. The figure family is continuing to grow as I recruit more victims, er, test subjects, I mean models.

[marywoodartdept]

Mirrors and Self Portraits

Julie, our #photography blogger, shares a series of self portraits she's been taking since high school and freshman year as a photo major at Marywood. Each set reveals new insights to her identity & evolution as a fine art and professional photographer.

[liamphotoatl]

(Liam Photography Podcast)

[johnzachary215]

Primes Or Zooms

I would like to ask you a question. What do you prefer shooting with a prime lens or a zoom lens?. This seems to be a hot topic in the photography community.I myself use more zoom lens’s then primes. For my Canon 7D I use a 28-75mm 2.8 and a Canon 70-200mm 2.8 for most of my shoots. As far as my fuji XE2 I use a 18-55 2.8-5.6 zoom when I’m shooting with mirrorless. The reason for me using zooms…

[spgpt]

MODULE ONE ASSIGNMENT 3 The Golden Hour, Aperture priority mode, 10 photos

[rawan-soso]

As the adults struggle to find food and keep a roof over everyone’s heads, the children of northern Gaza also have their own struggles. Their mental health is in a horrible state.

I hesitated to talk about this. I don’t want people to think we have so many donations that we can afford to buy my sister toys. It’s not that we can afford it. It’s just that sometimes we have to skip a meal to buy something for her because the boredom is making her even more depressed. She has severe trauma, she has seen bombs dismember people, she has escaped multiple massacres with us. But now the other kids in the building keep breaking her toys while playing and we can't buy a new one immediately, because there are more urgent things. The cheapest thing in northern Gaza right now is makeup, because no one needs it, so I bought some. I apply it on myself and Soso to make her happy, but I don’t always have the energy or time to play with her. I’m exhausted, sick and malnourished, and I still have to do chores and spend hours at the market looking for the most affordable food, clothes, and hopefully medicine.

We have many expenses that we don’t talk about because people won’t see them as vital. Phone chargers (only used ones that die fast, because new ones are insanely expensive). A fee for the neighbors who have the internet router. Phone bills and data. Toys for the children. School books and private tutors for students.

You’re right, it wouldn’t be vital if the war had only lasted for a week. But it’s been more than a year. Our children’s mental health is destroyed, especially children as young as Soso who is only 4 years old and whose brain is developing in a genocide. Students can’t just stop studying for all this time. My other sister missed her entire last year of high school, but she wants to take university entrance exams. Dropping out of university because of the war has killed everything in me. I can’t let her experience the same kind of loss, so I pay for her books, for paper and printing, for private tutoring classes.

I had to buy three phone chargers in a month. The first one was $70. Days later, it was $100. Two days ago, a neighbor fried the second charger, and the new one was $200. I cried that day, because it wasn't even my fault. The prices of everything keep going up and I feel like I’m going insane. Even our landlord tried to increase the rent. It’s okay if I sacrifice meals. I’m used to hunger. But I have three younger siblings and I can’t watch them lose even more than they already have. I want them to study and play. I want them to eat and stay warm.

Please help me. When all of this is over, I’ll get my degree, find a good job, and I’ll never ask for anything again. But as long as the war keeps going, I need your help. I promise your donations don’t go to waste. Food and rent will always be the priority. Soso and my grandmother are the first beneficiaries. We always think carefully before buying anything. I hope we can reach the final goal soon, and that it will cover all expenses until the war ends, because I’m so tired of relying on strangers. I hate asking for money. I’m eternally grateful to anyone who helps, but the guilt won’t fade, because I wanted to be an independent girl and help my family myself. I'm exhausted and depressed.

My campaign is vetted! ✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #347 )✅️

Forgive me, you shared before and it helped a lot so I ask you to please share again @kerosene-saint @andnowanowl @omegasmileyface @4c-aperture @bahrmp3 @dhmiss55-blog @woodesnake @original-character-chaos @revalentinee @rapogirl13 @gorillawithautism @xerxestexastoast @kyoukainokanata @rabiesrabiesdog @rainyrebloggin @ok1237 @isummonedadragon @pro-pin-prinny @boxheadpaint @rukafais @butcklinkle @earlysunsetting @ceeberoni @strangeauthor @the–pony-box @blurrycow @nabulsi @90-ghost

[quaranmine]

Several of the things I'm looking at though are upgrading my camera setup again. I've been rather terrifyingly asked to photograph a friend's wedding in January 😯

I do not think I am being paid (I didn't ask and frankly I don't think I have the experience necessary to be paid for this) and they're super chill people so I think it'll be okay. Like they don't even seem to post on social media so I don't think they have super high expectations of it all being perfect. Most of what I've heard about the wedding is quite laidback. I'm mostly worried about messing up a very important event! You can redo a regular photoshoot but if you miss all your shots on someone's wedding day...uh-oh

Anyway, a while back I upgraded my kit telephoto lens to the much better EFS 55-250 mm one. And then that became my favorite one for shooting since it's soooo much better. So I had already been thinking of upgrading the other kit lens too, and now I definitely do since I want something better.

So now I'm looking at Canon's "nifty fifty" lens, the 50 mm f/1.8 STM. I wonder if they'll mark it down in Black Friday. I have never shot on a prime before but I'm really thinking I will need that wider aperture for getting the best quality for portraits in low light (indoor wedding.) Also looking at a used Sigma 17-50 mm f/2.8 as a more general replacement for the 18-55 mm variable aperture kit lens (but I'm worried about a fixed 2.8 aperture for landscapes, since my current kit lens is f/3.5-5.6 and normally you'd want to keep more depth of field for landscapes. I'm trying to find some magical perfect affordable lens that's great for both that doesn't exist.) But overall I need to own at least something that is f/2.8 or f/1.8 I think.

Annnnd I think my camera sensor has dust on it because I noticed spots on my photos back in Iceland, so I want to order a kit to clean it. With the like. Dust blower thingy since you dont want to risk scratching it. And I think I should invest in a new camera bag that is maybe actually waterproof since I pushed my luck in Iceland with my current bag. Much to think about, much to spend.

If I get these lenses, I better play with them a lot in December before I try using them on a wedding

glad i've found that Surprise Cash a few weeks ago because now I've suddenly decided I need a bunch of random stuff. i have like 7 tabs on my computer just monitoring things for black fridady

[pnwander]

quick & easy lightroom walkthrough or: shooting through dirty double-paned glass, and other hardships.

I'll tell you! (Original post here.)

✱ KIT Panasonic GH5 + LEICA DG 100-400 with rubber hood for shooting through windows.* ✱ SHUTTER 1/125 sec ✱ APERTURE f/6.3 ✱ ISO 1600

*I use this one. It works for me, but it's a little tricky. It was a gift, and I think if choosing for myself I'd find something easier to get on and off.

WHAT'S ALL THIS, THEN? It was cold outside, obviously. And the flickers bolt if I try to open the back door, so sometimes I'll post up in front of my dining room window and just get the best shot I can. I do this less and less these days, now that my arthritic hands and I have heated gloves. The 'after' photo is a brand new re-edit using better tools than were available when this was shot. I was never happy with how it looked, before now.

under the cut: EDITS

✱ Detail: Sharpness & Noise Reduction My main problem here is sharpness. The photo is in focus, but because I'm shooting through a thick storm window, I've lost that tack-sharpness I really want, and I have a whole bunch of noise to contend with. This would always be the case, but worse depending on the camera you're using, and in my case this was two generations ago - the GH5. I have tested window shots with the GH7, and they're a lot cleaner.

That being said, the trick is to always, always, always use masking along with sharpening. Like, a lot of masking, just so much masking, so that you avoid sharpening an already-noisy background. In Lightroom, you can hold down down the ALT key while using the masking slider to visualize exactly what is being sharpened.

I'm choosing to leave the background noisier than I prefer, because even if I mask out the background, as I increase noise reduction, I lose detail in the edges. Leaving some noise in the feathers also preserves that sense of sharpness, generally.

This is a matter of personal preference and priority in your edits. I've had students absolutely hammer their photos with denoise and like it that way, and that is totally their call. I like it sharp.

Note: you could also do the sharpening/noise reduction at the end, after all your other edits, so that you have a better sense of how much you still need after toning. That's often my preference. I probably went backwards here only because I've edited this image before and had it pre-loaded in my brain.

✱ Tone Dehaze is the real MVP here. You could go even harder than I have on -blacks/+clarity/+dehaze, for a dramatic, crushed look. I decided to strike a balance between the soft darks I prefer but the clarity absolutely needed to make this look less smooshy. And my curve is pretty gentle.

Before toning and after:

(You can see that I've also done some color grading. But because that part is entirely personal preference, I'm skipping it here.)

✱ Selective Adjustments With a photo as flattened as this one, I always want to add some depth to it with masking. I have just three masks in this case:

1. The tree was blown out, detracting from my subject and looking, frankly, unrealistic. So I've darkened this on its own, so that my subject will stand out.

2. Contrast, texture, and clarity to bring out the detail in the feathers; a touch of saturation because the global color grading I wanted took away slightly from the bird's natural coloring. I want this on a mask, and not globally, because I do not want to exacerbate the noise in the background, or the texture of the leaves and snow.

And 3., to make the flicker really pop, I've got a 'spotlight' mask

...which is working together with a light vignette to draw the eye to the subject. You could also create an asymmetrical vignette with an inverted -exposure mask, if you needed to.

All together now...

And that's it!

As always, please feel absolutely free to send any questions to my ask box. I try to watch for comments and questions in the tags, but sometimes they get missed. And if there are any other edits you'd like to see, let me know!

Find my other walkthrough here.

[sirfrogsworth]

I just bought my first non-phone camera (Canon PowerShot SX70 HS). I travel a lot and want to take great photos of the landscapes I see. What would you recommend for someone who is essentially a novice? So far I've been afraid to change the settings from "auto" but I want to use the full capabilities of this camera!

I'm really tired and I don't have the energy to explain everything, so I'm going to give you the secret recipe to landscape photos. This works 80-90% of the time unless there are challenging variables to account for.

Put camera on tripod or stable surface. Set timer to a delay of 1 second. Put camera in Av or Aperture Priority Mode. Set f-stop to f/11. Set ISO to lowest setting. (Usually 100.) Let the camera decide the shutter speed automatically. Focus 1/3 of the way into your framing. Press the button, stand back, and let the camera take the shot.

Tripods are a pain in the butt to carry around, but they open up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to landscape shots. You can also try a little bean bag weight, railings/ledges, or those gorillapod things.

If I am feeling better tomorrow, I will reblog this and explain why these settings usually work and add some additional tips along with settings for when you can't use a tripod or stable surface.

But this should give you something to start with.

[helluvatimes]

Soaring On Wings As Eagles

An immatured sea eagle learning the ropes from its parent on the Marina South coast. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

This image didn’t need to be cropped in post as the eagles including a third one were flying quite low at the time.

The given shutter speed of 1/500 second – I was then in Aperture Priority mode – was apparently not fast enough. A little motion blur could be seen at actual size but that wasn’t obvious here at this size.

[tomartookit]

Went out last night to chase the storms and snag lightning photos. Unfortunately, my new camera is still new to me and I botched every pic. Cant choose the exposure in manual mode? Only Shutter priority and Aperture priority on the Lumix S5II? If anyone else knows how to do it in Manual, please let me know. Anyway, at least I came out with these.

[radioradio]

Some lighting shenanigans

When it's too cold to set even a toenail outside, and the rooms you want to photograph for work aren't ready. I paid for this umbrella kit, so I'm going to use it.

For now it's just a trifold posterboard for a backdrop. Using the shoot-through umbrellas tonight. Megumin and Yunyun are our models. Using the 50mm f/1.8D lens at f/5.6 in aperture priority.

First, right LED only.

Adding the overhead desk lamp.

Left LED only

Left plus desk.

Both LEDs

And finally both LEDs plus desk.

As you can see, the addition of the desk light adds a yellowish cast to the image. Almost peach. The LED lights are rated at a color temp of 5700K. The desk lamp is a hotel standard desk lamp that came with the room.

A fellow anime redditor suggested a light box if I was going to continue with figure or product photography. After seeing what they got with a 16x16x16 box, I decided to order one for myself. I wanted to go the next size larger, but after taking measurements of my desk, the 16" box is my better option.

Boopenings to @sirfrogsworth. Hope you're getting to feeling better, and I'd like your thoughts on light boxes. In addition, I have some wide-angle shenanigans planned for the Three Sisters Bridges in the city once the weather breaks.

[liamphotoatl]

(Liam Photography Podcast)

[theviceenforcer]

Team Fortress 2 - Ridiculous Ties

Whether you work for Mann Co., Black Mesa, or even Aperture Science, fashion is always number 1 priority.

[mxtxfanatic]

Just remembered a section in svsss that was translated differently and why I think the official does a better job of portraying the interiority of Shen Qingqiu as a character than the fan translation did. Here is the section directly after Shen Qingqiu kills the Skinner Demon, when it sinks in exactly what he has done:

This is Shen Qingqiu’s first time making a move to ‘kill.’ But he didn’t hesitate at all. Because firstly, this is a novel; secondly, this was a demon that had killed countless people; thirdly, if he didn’t make a move then he would have been the one to die.

Shen Qingqiu looked at the ‘Butterfly’s’ twisted limbs, a horrible sight as blood flowed from all seven apertures, overly beaten. He used the three reasons listed above to clear his mind and brainwash himself.

—Chapt. 8, fan translation

In the fan translation, the wording of “clear his mind” makes it feel like he’s trying to clear his conscious, convincing himself that he was acting justly through “brainwashing.” This makes the priority seem like settling his morality vs. his emotions. But in the official translation:

This was the first time Shen Qingqiu had killed someone. But he didn’t hold back, not even a little. First, because this was a book; second, because this was a demon who’d killed countless people; and third, because if he didn’t, he’d be the one who got killed.

Shen Qingqiu gazed down at the horrible state of “Die- er”: four limbs twisted and broken, bleeding from the seven facial apertures. He turned away, bombarding his own brain with a barrage of his three reasons until they blocked out the screen of his mind.

—Chapt. 2: Mission, official

…it is much clearer that Shen Qingqiu is not trying to convince himself of his own righteousness but, instead, is trying to block out the horror he was forced to commit for his and his students’ survival by logicing his way through the situation. He doesn’t feel like this is a book. He doesn’t feel like a hero valiantly striking down a villain in a made-up story. He feels like a man who just killed someone. And if he doesn’t want to lose his mind over it, he has to learn to cope. Thus begins his journey in dissociating by overly depending on “story logic” to soften the reality of the horrors he faces.

Shen Qingqiu isn’t blind about what is happening in the world of pidw now that he has transmigrated, and he isn’t in denial about how real the people and creatures of the world are. But the official translation does a better job of showing this nuance, which is why it is my favorite!

[malavoie1]

Ladybug and Flower

As I searched for a composition featuring some pink blossoms, the vibrant red of the ladybug sitting on the pink buds against the green background caught my eye.

Using a 100mm macro lens with an aperture of ƒ/10 provided a good depth of field to keep both the ladybug and the flower buds in focus. However, achieving precise focus on such a small subject is always tricky, especially with any slight movements from the ladybug or the flowers.

A shutter speed of 1/200s was essential to avoid motion blur, given the potential for movement from the ladybug. This speed, combined with the shake reduction helped to ensure a sharp image.

The overcast day provided soft, even lighting with almost no shadows. This soft light was perfect for capturing the delicate petals and the bright red of the ladybug's shell. It also meant there was less natural light available. To make sure I could maintain both shutter speed and aperture, I set the camera to shutter & aperture priority, letting the ISO do its own thing.

Processed with Affinity Photo v2 and Topaz Photo AI.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: smc Pentax DA FA 1:2.8 100mm Macro

100mm / ƒ/10 / 1/200s / ISO 640

Taken: July 16, 2024