I just realized how good you guys really are

[Angelwolf21203]

So yeah... I’ve always wanted to get into photography... for no reason at all and for at least a billion reasons... I just never did. I recently checkEd something off my bucket list by getting a fairly nice camera setup : )

And I swear to god, I thought, I got this. Imma kick everyone’s butt’s in the “photo of the month” contests. Cuz, you know... you just need a good camera... right?

OMG, did I step off in the deep end. No photography experience at all really and now I am trying to operate a very sophisticated ensemble of equipment while attempting to take pictures of things in “horrible” lighting and yeah... underwater.

Lesson learned??? You guys got skillz!!!

Underwater photography is really hard. Practice with some scenic shots first.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Underwater photography is really hard. Practice with some scenic shots first.

Yup, that’s what I should have done lol... nope, I dove in the deep end lol

 

[GaryE]

Yup, that’s what I should have done lol... nope, I dove in the deep end lol

That's usually how I do it. Pull out the gear, toss the manual aside and go make lots of mistakes.

I have to say, this is the very first camera I have owned that the first few shots didn't suck completely. Only suck a little...

 

[GaryE]

The new lens arrived. So far not bad. I need a lot of practice with it.

I have figured out that it's not a great low light lens, will have to play with flash to get something real good with it.

Overall I'm happy with it though.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

The new lens arrived. So far not bad. I need a lot of practice with it.

I have figured out that it's not a great low light lens, will have to play with flash to get something real good with it.

Overall I'm happy with it though.

Very nice! Very nice indeed. I have been struggling with low light shots on my 100mm macro as well. I have to back away from the tank a bit further to get it to see the shot.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Yup, that’s what I should have done lol... nope, I dove in the deep end lol

Just keep swimming... just keep swimming.....

 

[GaryE]

Very nice! Very nice indeed. I have been struggling with low light shots on my 100mm macro as well. I have to back away from the tank a bit further to get it to see the shot.

This lens is full manual, so I have to figure it out

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

So... new topic here. You already know I am miles and miles behind you guys. Bought technology that I hoped would ....get me in a better place... I don’t mind saying it now. I am friggin blown away by the pictures I have been able to take. ...these pics would blow my cell phone up!

I am 2 weeks in on this photography Journey as of today... real photography. I can’t catch up to y’all. Not really... but, I have to admit, the recurring theme here is... move away from “auto”

....2 weeks in... I still haven’t updated the software.... I found a “36 step guide to setting up your EOS D90” and haven’t made it thru that. Real life got in the way of desired hobby activity time... sux

Back to new topic : ) What should I be doing next? ...I just want to keep playing with my toys. Shooting auto has not had time to get boring yet... while contemplating that...

I’m in an odd place with my tank. I have been gearing up for an SPS dominant tank. So, back in build phase, but the build is almost in place... currently 200 gallon.. mostly softy tank. My tank is 5 months old... almost. I am stuck waiting for coraline to show up. A five month wait...

I have time for my new Camera toys : )

 

[GaryE]

Just keep working on getting better. I'd start with working on manual focus.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Just keep working on getting better. I'd start with working on manual focus.

That I can do : )


gotta ask? Mirrorless with a new bad (back-side) piece of glass... gettin’ it yet? : )

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

@GaryE ... I have a challenge for you : ) should be fun. Post 2 pics... of the same exact thing. Shoot one in auto... at the best of your ability... and then shoot the same thing again in manual... your best 2.

show me the difference? Please?

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

@GaryE ... I have a challenge for you : ) should be fun. Post 2 pics... of the same exact thing. Shoot one in auto... at the best of your ability... and then shoot the same thing again in manual... your best 2.

show me the difference? Please?

Don’t let your editing software decide.. show me the pics : )

 

[Rick.45cal]

So I’m just going to echo what Gary has already said. I can’t stand using the automatic mode, or even auto focus on my dSLR. Once you’ve learned manual settings you will realize that the camera makes really poor generalized decisions in automatic modes. While it’s a great crutch when you’re first starting out and you want to take decent shots without worrying about “messing up” It will never give you exactly what you are looking for.

Shooting in Av mode where you control only the aperture is one of the greatest places to start and really be able to control what’s going on in the photo as your aperture is what controls your depth of field (how narrow or wide the focal plane is). In low aperture settings like f2.8 the aperture is open the widest and will give you the narrowest depth of field. Which is a great way to get a close up photo with your subject in focus and the surrounding background blurry. . This is a great way for macro photography and portraits. Using an f-stop like f22 gives you a very wide depth of field meaning more of the photograph from front to back will be in focus, but since the aperture is nearly closed all the way it doesn’t let much light in causing your shutter speed to be low which means you’ll get movement blur in the photo if you’re shooting something with a moving object in it.

I‘d also highly recommend getting the adobe photo suite and playing with photoshop and lightroom. Using “curves” on photoshop and lowering the blue peak is one of the easiest quickest ways to get your tank shots to look like they do in person .

Photoshop is a daunting and vast program, it can be daunting in the beginning, but there’s this magical thing that happens when you use it enough, you start doing things with it in your own way. It’s one of those things that people can show you a few basic functions and then by playing with it you will start using it in your own way. It’s kind of a cool thing. I can tell you it’s Way more fun than printing pictures in a dark room LOL

And RAW images are a must! Don’t bother with the setting in a camera with RAW+JPEG. It just wastes more space on your memory card and saves a low quality JPEG.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Also a throwback to the old film days, if you buy and “18% gray card” and you shoot a photo with it in your subjects lighting, you can use a “gray scale dropper” in photoshop to automatically color correct your image. It’s pretty accurate most of the time in my experience and only occasionally needs minor manual tweeks in “curves”.

 

[GaryE]

Don’t let your editing software decide.. show me the pics : )

I accept your challenge, however, I only shoot RAW, so will have to process in Lightroom, but will process both with the exact same settings to make it a fair fight.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

I accept your challenge, however, I only shoot RAW, so will have to process in Lightroom, but will process both with the exact same settings to make it a fair fight.

I am only shooting in raw also, so that’s fine : ) I am a visual guy : ) I need to see the difference

 

[GaryE]

The only real difference in these, that I can see is the focus is a bit crisper in the manual and the lighting is different, because auto likes it brighter. I tend to go for a bit darker shot, just my taste...

Mind you, I didn't touch the lens between shots..... The focus is due to the camera taking a slower shot in Auto. So it's not a focus issue due to me not focusing the lens correctly, rather its blue induced from the shake of the camera when I clicked the shutter button.

The editing in Lightroom was very minimal.

Lightroom workflow :

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

The only real difference in these, that I can see is the focus is a bit crisper in the manual and the lighting is different, because auto likes it brighter. I tend to go for a bit darker shot, just my taste...

Mind you, I didn't touch the lens between shots..... The focus is due to the camera taking a slower shot in Auto. So it's not a focus issue due to me not focusing the lens correctly, rather its blue induced from the shake of the camera when I clicked the shutter button.

The editing in Lightroom was very minimal.

Lightroom workflow :

Thank you for doing that : ) I was fairly certain your pics would be convincing. I wasn’t expecting it to be that big of a difference!

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

I downloaded the Lightroom App : ) so... zero experience with this software right? The first pic is something took the other day and edited with my iPad photo editor... the second pic was kind of edited with Lightroom... I say kind of, because the only button I clicked was the “Auto” edit button (I cropped it there too). All I can say is... wow!

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

The only real difference in these, that I can see is the focus is a bit crisper in the manual and the lighting is different, because auto likes it brighter. I tend to go for a bit darker shot, just my taste...

Mind you, I didn't touch the lens between shots..... The focus is due to the camera taking a slower shot in Auto. So it's not a focus issue due to me not focusing the lens correctly, rather its blue induced from the shake of the camera when I clicked the shutter button.

The editing in Lightroom was very minimal.

Lightroom workflow :

So... yeah.... been cussin’ you all day! Lol

You were right. My pictures got worse : )