kwjustin89

einsatz

I don't know what I was going for, but I do know it didn't quite come out the way I wanted, even after some manipulation in PS. Shot in color with my 700IS out the window of the TSX while I was at a stoplight.

moeronn

Steel and White



Slide Shadows and Steel Column at the Tate Modern in London.

Higher Res

Dan Martin

I don't normally take night panos, so this was a little bit of an experiment for me:




The original image is 35MP, so this is a little under 10% of full size.

moeronn

^^Nice. How many shots? Do you have a leveling plate on your tripod?

Dan Martin

It was 6 shots in portrait orientation with about a 25% overlap. I'm just borrowing Street Spirit's 3-way head for now until the Arca-Swiss Z1 Dual Pan is available in a couple months. The Dual Pan is pretty smart in that it it puts a panning control directly below the quick release, so you don't need a leveling base. That means no matter how your camera is oriented, the panning movements will be parallel to your camera. All you do is level your camera with the ball head and pan away.

This shot was done the old fashioned way: I leveled the tripod and used a hot shoe level to level the body before taking the panorama.

wndrlst

Nice! Where was that taken? (Just curious about the American flag )

Dan Martin

It's the Detroit Skyline as seen from Windsor. The other way around isn't as nice.

MrChad

I did this in camera with a maglite over x-mas, I was a little bored waiting around at my parent's house before church on x-mas eve. Not the best composition on Earth but hey I've found yet another use for flashlights.


I'm willing to bet Dan knows where this was taken...

srika

thread revival... you never can take enough experimental shots...

dang thats a nice shot of Detroit..

wndrlst

Nice bokeh...what lens?

srika

the only one i have, the 24-105 f/4L

wndrlst

One of these days it may actually stick that you only have the one!

srika

srika

btw.. in the event you are wondering why I keep using that smiley on you.. its because of a bad influence... his name begins with 'Y' and ends with 'h'... just thought you should know the reason..

wndrlst

I was wondering what I did to earn 2 spankings from a typically peaceful kinda guy!

Dammit, Yummy........

aackshun

Whenever I'm bored with my camera I just take macro shots of random things nowadays.


mmmm beingets.

wndrlst

...and beignets.

aackshun

That picture is so yummy in full quality, i'd have it as a wallpaper if it didn't risk my monitor being eaten.

Dan Martin

Something I created tonight:




There's still some work to be done, but I've had fun so far.

Larger version available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acurazinedan/1134026764/

srika

love your creative stuff, Dan.

wackjum

^^ I've seen similar pictures on Flickr and I've wondered how its done. Please explain?

einsatz

I love the "smog" around the planet

Dan Martin

Thanks! It's nice to change things up every now and then.

I've been playing around with them since the fad on flickr started a couple months ago, but it's really not hard.
1) Take a panorama and make sure the horizon is as level as possible. It helps if it's a 360 degree pano, but it's not necessary. The <360 degree panos will just need a little more creativity in photoshop. The key here is to have something with a level horizon, so spend some time to make it straight, either at the time of capture or in post.
2) Open the pano in photoshop and perform a 180 degree rotation (ie turn it upside down).
3) Go to Filter -> Distort -> Polar Coordinates and select the "Rectangular to Polar" option. This filter basically bends the image so the two ends meet up. You'll have a good idea of what your planet is going to look like after this step.
4) Go to image size, uncheck the "Constrain Proportions" box, then make the width the same number as the height to create a square image.
5) Use the regular photoshop tools to clean up the seam line and to rotate to your liking. The Clone Tool and the Healing Brush will be your friends here.

Steps 1 through 4 are pretty easy, but step 5 will take some time. The more time you spend here, the better your planet will look. I added the stars and smog, created a drop shadow around the buildings, and saturated the colours to give the planet a little more "cartoonish" look. When I first saw this technique done, I thought it looked like something that Marvin the Martian would see through his big telescope.

Thanks! I figured if Detroit were a planet, it would be a pretty smoggy planet.

wndrlst

That's really cool! The water looks almost metallic, which is also appropriate.

aackshun

wow that's amazing, usually I have to photoshop a picture to get it like that.

jupitersolo

I was just reading about this in popular photography. Very Nice. They had a step by step diy. I just put this as my wallpaper, it's looks pretty good stretched.

Dan Martin

I just changed the picture to "more wallpaper friendly" proportions.

If you'd like a 1600x1200 version for your desktop, here it is: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1086/...7363e377_o.jpg

Jupe, I saw the same article in Pop Photo and it inspired me to give the technique another try.

jupitersolo

Sweet, thanks for the larger version.

wackjum

Thanks Dan. Now I am only merely behind the fad instead of being out of it.

LuvMyTSX

First attempt at catching some super quick hummingbirds zooming around my house. They're tricky little suckers to capture because they won't sit still.
Critiques welcome. The bokeh didn't turn out the way I wanted, which I think took a little away from the subject, but this was hard for me to figure out.









Edit: Not sure why the exif data isn't showing up, but it was on action mode on my XT, which gave me:

ISO 400
Shutter Speed: 1/800
f/2.8
Lens: EF 85mm 1.8
No processing just yet

waTSX

^Very cool!

LuvMyTSX

Thanks

I'm thrilled I can actually see the birds in the photos...they move so dang fast you'll miss 'em if you blink! Plus they are unusually berserk because they are preparing to migrate back to S. America in the coming weeks, so they're being very protective about their feeders, and keep chasing each other away. They're funny and pretty cool to watch.

jupitersolo

I can see the exif using opanda. The camera kept focusing on the feeder, you should have used a smaller aperture because of the subject content. The third one is what you were going for, the background wasn't far enough in the background for the bokeh I think you wanted.

How were you feeling when you took these? Were scared that you would miss the moment? I felt the same way when I was trying to take picture of the praying mantis I posted a couple months back.

aackshun

More boredom making macros:

waTSX

Some kind of ice cream cake? Inquiring minds want to know!

aackshun

Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake, it dissapeard within 2 minutes.

Half of the cake:

aackshun

Full HQ of my pics, warning if you're hungry I wouldn't click on these.

Beignets

Ice Cream Cake

LuvMyTSX

Yes, this was a very tricky subject to capture. It's a moving target - a very quick moving target! They really never sit still, and are constantly going down to get some food, then back up to take a peek around. What I did was open the window a little bit and prop the camera on the back of the couch, and kept the camera focused on the feeder. It was the best I could do. And since I've only practiced so far with aperture, and not really shutter speed, I wasn't sure what to use and all my initial pics came out blurry. So then I used the action mode, which then wouldn't let me adjust anything (ISO, aperture, etc), so I was stuck with whatever the camera gave me, and that's why they didn't really come out correctly.

Plus, the birds kept almost coming to the feeder, but they are territorial and one would chase the other away, so I'd quick get ready for a pic, and then it wouldn't happen. Haha. It was tough, but fun.

jupitersolo

It's all about learning. The first time I went with wndrlst to the polo matches, nothing I had was worth posting. The next time I got some pretty good shots.