Official BeyondUnreal Photography Thread

[BillyBadAss]

Out shopping with my wife on a Sunday a few weeks ago. One of the few times she has posed.


Summer Breeze by Jason_Combs, on Flickr

[IronMonkey]

I've added to my list of "first against the wall come the revolution".

Number 1 is still folk who don't know how to switch off the flash on their camera/phone/P&S and even (really!) DSLR.

A new contender, straight in at No. 2 is the iPad owner.

<rant>
At a Judo competition at the weekend, we were all clustered around the podium to get shots of the medal winners.

There was the usual smattering of folk holding a camera above their head in order to get a clear shot. That's OK. Take the shot and you're done.

For a while now there has been the annoying iPad owner holding the iPad above their head to video the presentation and effectively blocking the view for those behind them for the duration of the presentation. The new twist we got at the weekend was to hold the iPad up and also hold the cover parallel with the iPad - twice as much area blocked as with a single iPad. Short of getting a banner, they could not be more inconsiderate to those behind them.
</rant>

Ahh! I feel better now.

[Selerox]

Wow, that's inconsiderate in a whole new way.

Although to be perfectly honest I'd stick iPad owners on the list simply for being iPad owners

[Gir]

BBA! How are you doing you big cheat?

[BillyBadAss]

Originally Posted by Gir

BBA! How are you doing you big cheat?

Wow! Long time no see! I'm pretty good. I got married and moved to Japan three years ago. Not really too much to mention. Working, taking photos etc.

How about you?

[IronMonkey]

I went to see Popa Chubby at The Ferry on Thursday. Great concert, despite there only being about 100 people in the audience.

[Israphel]

In the middle of wedding and workshop season right now.
Here's a pre-wedding shot (I'm shooting their wedding in a couple of weeks) from the other weekend.

[Gir]

Originally Posted by BillyBadAss

Wow! Long time no see! I'm pretty good. I got married and moved to Japan three years ago. Not really too much to mention. Working, taking photos etc.

How about you?

Sorry I seem to have plain missed your reply. Yeah, I seem to have found some of those pictures. Nice stuff! I haven't married yet, but funnily enough I also moved to another country three years ago. I live in Oslo these days, together with my Norwegian girlfriend. We make a pretty good, if a little stressed living here.

[dr.flay]

FOR F*CKS-SAKE DO NOT CLICK ON QUOTE
Mixed bag of my stuff.













http://my.opera.com/dr-flay/albums/

[Israphel]

Shot on a workshop I led on Saturday evening. We came across a couple of hundred percebes (goose neck barnacles) clinging to a plastic bottle.
There were a couple of kilos here....and they can sell for around €80 per kilo.
We left them in the ocean.

[BillyBadAss]

Originally Posted by Israphel

Shot on a workshop I led on Saturday evening. We came across a couple of hundred percebes (goose neck barnacles) clinging to a plastic bottle.
There were a couple of kilos here....and they can sell for around €80 per kilo.
We left them in the ocean.

Sometime in the future I want to come to Lisbon to hang and shoot with you if you would like.

Anyway, shot a portrait of a photography friend visting from China last month.


Keiko by Jason_Combs, on Flickr

[Bi()ha2arD]

Some photos I took on a recent vacation

[Vaskadar]

http://greggirard.com/
Many of the photographs that Greg has put up are really interesting, almost insightful.

[BillyBadAss]

Uploaded a photo from a role I finished that was in a camera I don't use much. I am pretty stoked how the color came out. They asked me when I dropped the film off if I wanted them to do the Ektar process on the film, so I said yeah, and the color came out pretty awesome. Very little post done here.


Moving Up Slowly by Jason_Combs, on Flickr

[Israphel]

Originally Posted by BillyBadAss

Sometime in the future I want to come to Lisbon to hang and shoot with you if you would like.

Sure, let me know if you ever visit...I know a couple of people who rent out apartments for short lets (which is generally cheaper, better value and nicer that hotels).
Lisbon is a great city...plenty of atmosphere, good food and good light, you'd enjoy photographing it.

Here's a shot from another pre-wedding session I did the other week in one of Lisbon's old quarters near where I live.

[BillyBadAss]

Thanks. I'll have to convince the wife.

That's a great shot. I love the old parts of town there. It's sooo good for shoots.

[shadow_dragon]

Had another clear-night recently:

[Zur]

Wow, it's like looking at the skybox on some UT map. Like this photo.

[BillyBadAss]

Originally Posted by shadow_dragon

Had another clear-night recently:

I have a friend that wants to know how to shoot these. I figured you are using a tripod and just doing a really long exposure of the sky. Am I wrong? If I am right, how long is the exposure? Do tell.

[shadow_dragon]

Originally Posted by BillyBadAss

I have a friend that wants to know how to shoot these. I figured you are using a tripod and just doing a really long exposure of the sky. Am I wrong? If I am right, how long is the exposure? Do tell.

Yeah it's pretty much just a long exposure on a tripod.
I'm pretty new to it but the key info I needed before I got the hang of it was just a simple "rule of thumb" to avoid star trails.

What you do is divide 600 by your "effective" focal length.
As I'm using a humble old D90 I've got a cropped sensor so my "effective" focal length is not the focal length on my lens sadly.
Thus assuming the crop ratio was 1.5 the easiest way to do the above is actually do 600/1.5/(focal length)
Ie. 400/actual focal length.

Knowing that I worked out that my widest lens(11mm) would allow me about 36 seconds of exposure before the stars trailed visibly. (in reality i find 30 is about right)

That's about it really.
The rest is just usual stuff you can work out through experimentation.
Open up your Aperture as wide as possible, crank the ISO as far as sensible without destroying the image with noise and ensure the lens is manually focused on infinity.

It takes a few nights to get the knack of it I found though my "nights" are currently only 3 hours long.

If it's digital it's a bit easier to compose the image i imagine as you can trial and error it. Most of what you're shooting is invisible to the naked eye otherwise. It's advisable to just handhold some shots with maybe .50-1sec exposure with the iso up as high as it can possibly go, then when you're happy with the composition whack a tripod under it.

It tends to be the little things that make the difference. Checking star charts helps, keeping a close eye on weather reports also, if necessary wrap up warm and always stay away from light pollution and be careful about wondering around the wild in the middle of the night.

Hope that helps.

I did this one last night:

In three months i've had three available "clear nights"... Oh boy living in the UK.
The clouds in the background just rolled in and by the time it was dark enough to get decent star fields the cloud cover was too great.