Scaff's Gallery

  • Thread starter Scaff
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GTP_Deathwalker
Thanks For The Heads Up About Them Scaff!
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No problem at all, check out the used kit they have on their website, they always seem to have 50mm 1.8's for around £70 (+£8 delivery).


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Thankfully the foreground is not too distracting on that frog snap. Nicely done, I can appreciate how hard it can be to take a good shot of animals (especially frogs), they don't respond to commands on positioning very well :lol:

Oh and that lens seems like an absolute bargain. 👍
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That shot is the least distracting one, took as many as I could at the time but as you say they don't really react to being told to stay still (bee's are even worse - nevr stay damn still).

I'm really pleased with the lens, its awoken my love of fast, prime lenses again. Razor sharp and so damn bright.





Scaff
 
Brilliant work as usual. ^^

I've thought about a f1.8 50mm for a little while. I was even tempted with a sale and still passed it up. I regret that a bit.

I know how difficult to photograph those amphibians. I have some toad shots I should post... One behaved (it was almost tame!) and one didn't. Good job managing to capture it.

Keep up the fantastic work.
 
Thanks guys.

LongbowX - I strongly recomend picking up a 50mm f1.8 as soon as you are able, I promise you will not regret it. The ability to shoot in very low light, the sharpness, true DoF control just make them such a bargain.

Zoom lenses have come a long way from when I had my 35mm kit (which did not contain a single zoom lens), and the image quality is now very good, however getting the 50mm has reminded me again just what a difference a good prime lens is.

All of that combined with the sensor size effectively knocking the 50mm up to a 75mm means its just a great little portrait lens. Now time to start saving for the Nikon 35mm f2.

Oh and I can't wait to see your frog pictures.


Regards

Scaff
 
Scaff
Thanks guys.

LongbowX - I strongly recomend picking up a 50mm f1.8 as soon as you are able, I promise you will not regret it. The ability to shoot in very low light, the sharpness, true DoF control just make them such a bargain.

Zoom lenses have come a long way from when I had my 35mm kit (which did not contain a single zoom lens), and the image quality is now very good, however getting the 50mm has reminded me again just what a difference a good prime lens is.

All of that combined with the sensor size effectively knocking the 50mm up to a 75mm means its just a great little portrait lens. Now time to start saving for the Nikon 35mm f2.

Oh and I can't wait to see your frog pictures.


Regards

Scaff
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I knew it. When I am downtown, I shall look and see if they have any. I don't shoot portraits that often - but I might when I see how lovely the lens works.

And...I will have those toad shots up momentarily. ^^

Thank you for the advice - I appreciate it immensely.
 
Stunning shots Scaff. The colour and sharpness on both images above is pretty much perfect, and the lighting on the one with presumably your daughter is absolutely perfect.

You git, you've made me start looking for 50mm primes for my Nikon now after I'd dismissed the idea a while back...

I'll have a look at that Gray's place you mentioned.
 
Hmmmmm.

A brand new Nikon f1.8mm $180AU with free shipping off ebay is terribly tempting after those great shots you took Scaff.👍

I didn't know what lens fitted changes how sharp something can be when in optimum focus. I have other Nikon lenses and I am now wondering about those.

Anyways, great shots you have here 👍 The garden shots are great, with some great framing.
 
Looks like I may have started a rush on 50mm Nikon's.

homeforsummer - Yes that is my (youngest) daughter and it's a shot I really like as the colour and tones in it are great. Gray's I would strongly recomend for kit, just keep checking back if they don't have what you are after as they have a good turnover of S/H equipment.

80Y 2C2 - Prime lenses will almost always be sharper than zooms as they are a more 'focused' (sorry for the pun) tool. Most are also expensive, however 50mm lenes are a very old and mass produced design so tend to also be cheap. Well worth the price you will pay for them.


Here's a few shots from an event we (as a family) went to yesterday, its a community forest that my Wife and I planeted the first trees in around 14 years ago. Yesterday they had an activity day, so we went along with the kids for a few hours.
































Regards

Scaff
 
They are all good shots, simple effective compositions and well lit. The first two portraits are the standouts of the set. 👍
Looks like the 50mm lens is paying for itself, I’m surprised and a little jealous that the lens is so cheap!
 
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They are all good shots, simple effective compositions and well lit. The first two portraits are the standouts of the set. 👍
Looks like the 50mm lens is paying for itself, I’m surprised and a little jealous that the lens is so cheap!
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Thanks, my wife will be pleased in regard to the first two shots, and yes the 50mm is more than paying for itself.

Its the advantage of a design that is so tried and tested for manufacturers that its cheap to make and still one of the best in terms of optical quality.

👍

Scaff
 
A couple more spider shots from the garden, loads of them around at this time of year, and its just about the only time I've had to shoot this week.







So here are a couple of landscapes from my holiday.

Westward Ho.


and Ilfracombe


Not really that happy with the last one, as the cloud highlights are blown, I'm still getting used to digital after many years of film and highlights are just so damn easy to blow and nothing you can do will get them back. Its a shame as it could have been a much better shot.


Regards

Scaff
 
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Do you have a RAW of that last one? There's usually some more information in there if you underexpose it when importing into PS using Camera Raw. That last pic could make a great (pseudo-) HDR.
 
Spiders are truly beautiful and very interesting to take a picture of. I love the way the background in the first one is dark and blurred while the spider and the web are quite bright and sharp 👍

However, the second picture lacks something. You look at it gives a sense of, you want to see more surroundings, you want to see more of what’s happening above the spider.


As for the landscapes, I like the last picture, it has a good punch. I little problem, has you said, with the over dodged clouds, that seems to rob a bit too much attention, but I believe it could be overcome in Photoshop. 👍

The first of the landscape, I am not too found of it, for almost the same reasons of the second picture of the spider. I would like to see more of the village and the lower part and less clouds and sea. Also, there seems to be something strange with that picture, it lacks detail, it’s strange, it's not you at all.
 
NLxAROSA
Do you have a RAW of that last one? There's usually some more information in there if you underexpose it when importing into PS using Camera Raw. That last pic could make a great (pseudo-) HDR.
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It was shot as a JPEG, and as I was walking with the family I only had a chance to grab the one shot.

Even if it had been RAW, the highlights are so blown PS would not be able to pull any detail out of them (they are 255,255,255 on the original - no detail left at all).



Nicknamealguem
Spiders are truly beautiful and very interesting to take a picture of. I love the way the background in the first one is dark and blurred while the spider and the web are quite bright and sharp 👍

However, the second picture lacks something. You look at it gives a sense of, you want to see more surroundings, you want to see more of what’s happening above the spider.
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The two shots were actually taken at the same time of day and its amazing when a difference the way the light falls.

The first I do like myself, as its quite a big contrast difference between the subject and background, which I must admit I did maximise in PS.

With the second shot I wanted to try a more subduded look to the colours, as I tried a more saturated look and it just didn't work for me at all. Have to say I quite like the muted colour palette on it, but I'm still not 100% on the crop from the original.



Nicknamealguem
As for the landscapes, I like the last picture, it has a good punch. I little problem, has you said, with the over dodged clouds, that seems to rob a bit too much attention, but I believe it could be overcome in Photoshop. 👍
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As I mentioned above, those highlights are just too far gone to get anything back from at all, which is a shame as they do distract from the picture as a whole.


Nicknamealguem
The first of the landscape, I am not too found of it, for almost the same reasons of the second picture of the spider. I would like to see more of the village and the lower part and less clouds and sea. Also, there seems to be something strange with that picture, it lacks detail, it’s strange, it's not you at all.
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That's interesting as I put the shot up to see what people thought of it, from my own point of view its not my favorite shot. However my dad loves it (to the point that I had to frame an A4 copy of it for him), so I am interested to see what other thought.

One thing I would say is that getting a shot with a subduded/muted colour palette to work is a damn sight harder that getting a punchy, high contrast shot to work.

A I love a challenge its an area I want to put some work on, but don't worry my 'normal' output will still be the main body of my work.



Thanks for the feedback guys.


Scaff
 
Scaff
Even if it had been RAW, the highlights are so blown PS would not be able to pull any detail out of them (they are 255,255,255 on the original - no detail left at all).
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Still, keep in mind the S2 Pro saves RAW files at 12 bit rather than 8. Which means it stores 4096 different values rather than 256. :) Those extra bits are (partially) lost when converting it to JPG.

Which is why I always shoot using RAW. There's so much more information in your sensor than just 8 bits (0-255). :) My 450D uses 14 bits, which means it can store 16384 values rather than 256.

I have seen many pictures that had a 255,255,255 in the JPG that had quite some detail left in it when using the RAW. Of course, the parts that really are blown out, are blown out and no extra amount of bits will cure those. ;)
 
Scaff
As I mentioned above, those highlights are just too far gone to get anything back from at all, which is a shame as they do distract from the picture as a whole.
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Yeah, you are right.
I tried to play a bit with the picture in Photoshop, but either the clouds were over highlighted and real, or a bit less distracting (just a bit, they are still distracting) and out of place:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/nicknamealguem2/3847481275_1a81d0e1d2_o1.jpg

Or, you can make a balance of forces. It’s not possible to make the clouds look less distracting, adding detail, making them less brighter on some spots (like what I tried)?
Make the rest of the picture distracting as well:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/nicknamealguem2/3847481275_1a81d0e1d2_oth.jpg

I hope you didn’t mind me playing a bit with your pictures 👍
I think the last option kind of masks the problem, the clouds doesn’t seem to distract the eye from the rest of the picture, at least for me
 
They don't grab the eye as much in the last one, but for me the buildings are now too light and the sea is burnt out.

Its a tricky one to balance, and I may have to go back to the original on this one and do more work on it.

Too nice a potential shot to stop trying.


Edited to add - don't mind you playing around with them at all - part of the reason why I post them.


Regards

Scaff
 
The first spider shot is perfect. Love it. 👍

The second one has a little too much of the plant in focus to distract you. A good macro lens would probably have worked well here.

With the landscape shots, I'm in two minds about both. I love what you tried to do with the first one, however there is something about it that just doesn't sit quite right for me. I'd probably like to be able to see a little bit more detail in the town. Looks like a lovely place.

The second landscape shot has awesome detail in the land, but the sky distracts me too much. Maybe cropping some of the sky out might put the focus back on to the lovely scenery.

Great stuff Scaff, always enjoy your shots, keep them coming. 👍
 
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The first spider shot is perfect. Love it. 👍

The second one has a little too much of the plant in focus to distract you. A good macro lens would probably have worked well here.
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A good macro lens would certainly help out a lot, as it stands these are being done with a Cokin +3 filter, as it will be a while before I can slip a macro past the wife unnoticed.



Syntax error
With the landscape shots, I'm in two minds about both. I love what you tried to do with the first one, however there is something about it that just doesn't sit quite right for me. I'd probably like to be able to see a little bit more detail in the town. Looks like a lovely place.

The second landscape shot has awesome detail in the land, but the sky distracts me too much. Maybe cropping some of the sky out might put the focus back on to the lovely scenery.

Great stuff Scaff, always enjoy your shots, keep them coming. 👍
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The town in the first one is Ilfracombe and it is a lovely place (the lighthouse/chapel shot earlier was taken in the same town), as I mentioned earlier I still feel myself that I've not got the most out of these two yet, so the feedback is greatly appreciated.


Ta

Scaff
 
First go at a stitched panorama, taken from five images; shot at Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Swindon.





Quite pleased with the end result, its not perfect, but it is something I will be trying again.


Ta

Scaff
 
TheCracker
I'm enjoying your landscapes Scaff 👍

What software did you use for your 'stitch'?
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Thanks.

The stitch was done using the Photomerge tool in Photoshop, works well, particularly given that the five shots used were all handheld, so didn't match up perfectly.


Regards

Scaff
 
Nice one. There don't seem to be any obvious signs of sticking and you've got it level as well without any distortion. Very nicely done 👍
 
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Nice one. There don't seem to be any obvious signs of sticking and you've god it level as well without any distortion. Very nicely done 👍
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Thanks, I have to say I'm quite happy with the balance of the end result, even if its not the most exciting of shots. It was however a good test of 'method' for me.

I shot the original five in RAW at the same exposure and then set the colour temp to 5,600 for each one when I converted them to .psd files. Opened them in PS and stiched them together before doing anything else.

It seems to be a good approach as I didn't need to do any work blending to hide joins, I then went to work on the image as a whole. Used seperate layers for the sky (one each for levels and contrast) and land (again one each for levels and contrast) before applying another layer for saturation on the whole image.

After five shots, one stitch and six layers I'm glad it looked OK in the end, because its a lot of damn work.


Thanks

Scaff
 
This update is great 👍 I like how wide it is, and the scenery itself is great. 👍
Just two questions. What are those weird diagonal lines in the sky? And, do you have a bigger version?
 
Nicknamealguem
This update is great 👍 I like how wide it is, and the scenery itself is great. 👍
Just two questions. What are those weird diagonal lines in the sky? And, do you have a bigger version?
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The wierd lines are a result of the stitch, it was a very windy day and the lines are a result of cloud movement and the stitch attempting to 'fix' the change in position.

I do have a bigger version, 6716 x 1607 and close to 7 meg, I can have a look at a place to upload it if you would like.


Regards

Scaff
 
Spent the day with friends and family at the Rally Supercar Day at Castle Combe.

First couple of shots (more to follow).








Ta

Scaff
 

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