Dan Martin

Let's have a thread where we post our photo experiments. This is the place for stuff you've shot that is outside your normal style.

Let's see something different!

It might also be helpful if you could include a little blurb about you technique or what you were trying to accomplish while making the shot.

Dan Martin

I'll start things off...

Last night I decided to try some black background shooting with a single flash. The inspiration came from a flickr group called Strobist. My setup was ghetto fabulous since I don't have any sort of a home studio setup. The background was actually my black flece housecoat :ghey:. I made a "snoot" for my flash out of a cracker box to focus the light only on the candle and smoke. This prevented the background from getting hit with any stray light.

One unexpected problem I ran into was trying to get smoke come off the candle. I don't know why but it was only maybe one-in-ten that I could get smoke. The other times the candle would just blow out cleanly. This made for many many wasted frames and only made my appreciation for the digital medium even stronger.

Well, here was the result of this experiment:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedan/227771491/
30D with Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 EX DG and 430EX
60mm @ f/10
1/40s
ISO 100
Tripod and timer.

Flash was off-camera with DIY snoot, 1/8th power.

Tealight by Ikea.

srika

nice shot Dan.

well I just want to post something out of the norm, I wasn't really experimenting with this one but I do think this shot stands out from my usual style. I wanted to capture the essence of the night, with a cherry bomb martini.

Dan Martin

Cool! That's what I'm looking for in this thread. Just something that you normally wouldn't shoot, but think it turned out pretty cool. Actually, even if it failed miserably I'd still like to hear the story behind it.

Street Spirit

Well, the one I was originally going to post looked remarkably like the one Dan just posted, so I'll choose something else!

I'm all about the candid shots, so this isn't anything different than what I usually look for in a potential shot, but this time I lucked out! It was just a matter of timing: Shoot as many frames as I could while the child held her stance against the plexiglass; Hope to get a good shot of the seals swimming through the frame so you can understand the girl's interest; Do it without her parents noticing that a stranger's taking pictures of their child



There's more detail in the larger version of this pic (not posted here).

Dan Martin

10 points for the timing on that one.

Stapler

This is something I took a long while back. I'm posting it because I don't really do this sort of thing anymore, and I don't know why. Looking at my last 100 or so pictures that I atleast kinda like, I hardly ever try to get a different angle of the subject than just looking directly at it. Seems I should make a effort to do so in the future.

I would like to say i was trying to do some special composition technique or something, but at the time I was taking a photography coarse at a Comunity Colledge and was just trying to finish of the roll to get it developed in time for class.



Oh right, this is Saint frances of knowledge. I bought it for my mom in nogalas. She wanted the saint frances of birds. The guy in mexico didn't tell me there were two Saint frans.. damn him.

cl_jay

In the past I have taken B/W pictures, but last week I had an idea of shooting B/W in the night to catch the light trails of the cars passing by.

West6MT

Well, I dont really know anything about photography, nor do I take many pictures of anything. Anyway, I was with my sister in some little town between Cambridge and Toronto (I forget where) because she wanted to go berry picking (rolling eyes). When we were done we stopped in at a neat little place that sold stained glass windows. All of their stuff is shipped over from England/Scotland/Wales (the UK basically) or the US. There was a lot of cool stuff there, and I took a bunch of pics of different things while I waited for my sister to buy some silly window she does not need (this place is $$$ too).

Anyway, my camera sucks and I dont know what I am doing,....................but I thought I would try to get some neat pics of different windows. Here are a few of one window I liked. The texture of the glass was cool and I liked how it was weathered, the shadowing, the eyes etc. Try not to laugh too much at my crappy photo skills.





What I was shooting.

West6MT

I thought I would add this too, since I am REALLY into car detailing. I really like the reflection shots one can get after a lot of hard work. This shot is a reflection of my neighbours backyard off the side of my TSX,......which I had just completely detailed.

Speed_Racer

My son got this Hot Wheels track from Christmas so I tried to snap a picture of the car flying around it. Took me about 300 shots to get 5 decent ones. This was way outside my normal pictures of family events.

Canon 20D, 580EX Flash, 1/250 sec, F1.8, 50mm MK1 lens.

drigo

since i'm a beginner & i just got a new point & shoot...i guess you can call these shots experimental...went out golfing with my brothers one weekend and decided to take the camera along to "experiment"...the first 2 shots i tried macro mode..the 3rd in b&w and the 4th was in macro mode with the color swap mode...camera is SD600...still learning...

RyeCL

props to you for sticking with it for 300 shots...end result is

Dan Martin

Great shots everyone!

Keep 'em coming!

waTSX

Great shot! I like the story behind it, too.

wndrlst

These are nothing special, but that's why experimental....

I was playing with motion, the first horse was shot with 1/1000 shutter speed with the cameral set on shutter priority. The aperture was as wide open as possible at it's focal distance (4.97). Unfortunately, I forgot to check the ISO, which was at 200, so they were underexposed. (Light meter? What's that?)

So anyway, I was aiming to completely freeze the motion in the first couple of shots.







The next horse, I was attempting to pan the shot to get some background blur (motion, not optical), but still keep the horse in focus.




This time I remembered to set the ISO to 800. I'll have to double check the exif data, but I think the shutter speed was 1/60.

Billiam

On the notion of keeping an open mind and experimenting, Dewitt Jones' latest column in Outdoor Photographer magazine is well worth a read.

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/c...drivebys.shtml

Viking

First time using the night setting on my camera and I tried to capture a nightshot view of Vegas through my hotel room window.

Dan Martin

Good read!

JLatimer

This one has been posted here before, but... This is a 30second exposure taken in the dark and light painted with a handheld flashlight. He is not dead, just sleeping...



I have an old film photo packed away in storage where I did a similar thing and cloned me and a couple friends in a dark garage with a flash. We would move into different locations and strobe the flash, then move again, etc. We look like a couple of ghosts. Dont expect me to dig it out and scan it though.

Street Spirit

Scan it.


























No, I'm serious!

JLatimer

really, I am in the middle of a move and living out of boxes between closing dates. I dont remember which of the 100 boxes has my photos in it. I wont move in for 15 more days, and even then it will be weeks before I get everything unpacked. By the time I get my photos out, you will have forgotten all about this thread.

:ibstreetspiritmakesacalendareventtoremindme:

srika

love the 2nd horse shot

Bdog

Most will figure this one out!




One shot taken thru a window with a Nikon SLR and old manual lens.

srika

Dan Martin

Cool concept. Try stopping down a lot more next time to get the needle in focus. It's not uncommon to use apertures as low as f22 for macros.

srika

yea sux the needle is out of focus... it was a Nikon 4500 point-and-shoot...

Savio

te3point5

nothing too fantastic from me, but i usually don't try to do night landscape shots. I really liked the way the sky looked with the clouds and the car lights trailing looked cool too.

wndrlst

During the storm yesterday, I was watching the tree out my back window thinking about how it would be interesting to take a pic with the wind blurring all the leaves & smaller branches, while the larger branches stayed in focus:


ISO 100, 3.2s, f/22




Black & white crop



I tried a couple at dusk, but was supremely unimpressed. I painted the leaves with a flashlight for slightly better results, but the light was very yellow, so the leaves were orangey. I had to leave for a dinner reservation, but I thought about it while I was out, & realized I had a white LED flashlight at home. So, nerd that I am, I set it back up & painted the leaves with the white light. It was full dark by then, but the cloud cover was reflecting a good amount of light from the school behind my house.

ISO 1600, 30s, f/14



ISO 1600, 30s, f/11

Dan Martin

Cool trees!

waTSX

A few from the Puyallup Fair from two years ago. The fair is a very big deal here every year, and nighttime photography is fun as well as forgiving. Tripod-mounted 20D, EF-S 17-85, various exposures:

Dan Martin

Very cool! I've been meaning to shoot a fair at night for exactly the effect you got here.

Stapler

Wow those fair pictures are quite nice, though it kinda puts me into a carnival with evil clowns kind of mood.

Stealth CL

i suck at photography but hope to get better at it...so hers some that i thought were cool, but not at all the greatest of skill.









Those are just some of my favorites....im a car photo whore.

jupitersolo

The link below shows a great shot of Toronto in 6 time laspe photos. What I think is great about them is that he put them in flash to get a great time laspe of them by running your mouse over them. Pretty Cool.

Does anyone know how this was done?


http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/archives...1662.shtml?123

Stealth CL

thats awesome...i wish i could do that

srika

^^^^^ @ the time lapse....

soopa

Neat shots! Looks like a hybrid Bobb Ross painting Prettty little trees...

srika

from PureNation yesterday...