Photography Discussion

#26
#26
If you say it believe it. For now. :). Random question. Share your thoughts on equipment, placement, luck involved, etc. on how the awesome North TD catch was captured. Useless thought: I caught a pretty cool shot of the moment of impact catch that DaRick made when he got sandwiched vs Cincy. Of course it was with my phone up by the jumbotron, but I was still pretty proud of my shot. Haha.

There's always luck involved with sports photography, but it's usually combined with good preparation. Jim Brown got that shot with an old school technique where you hang a camera around your neck with a wide-angle lens. You pre-focus the lens to a few feet inside the endzone so when the moment comes, the AF won't have to hunt a very long distance. Once you practice it enough, you can become very fast at bringing the camera on target. It's not as easy as it sounds though, especially if you're juggling a 400 or 600mm in your other hand.

It's one of those once in a blue moon shots that every sports photographer would love to capture.
 
#28
#28
Wedding photography is tough. I've second shot a handful of them, and I'd recommend you second shoot as many as possible as you learn the basics. They are stressful events and require a pretty strong knowledge of the basic things in photography... exposure, composition, framing, lighting, etc. Unless you are an incredible natural talent, those things will come with time and experience. Just read up and shoot as much as possible.

As far as gear for weddings, you want a good variety in your shots. The personal style you develop really dictates what lenses you will use the most. It's all personal preference. Some people cover weddings with just a few zooms and a prime, and do a good job at it. A kit like a 70-200, 24-70, and 35/50 prime would work for that. I personally love the 85mm focal length in a prime, so that would be in my kit. Something like a 100/105 macro is nice for detail shots and single/couple portraits.
I would want something wider, like a 16-35 if the scenery is nice. There are so many directions you can go. Regardless of lens choice, if you planned on ever shooting something by yourself, then a second body would be a requirement as well. At least some knowledge of lighting is required. You can get away with shooting natural light a lot, but you're selling yourself short if you don't take advantage of flash or strobe lighting in certain situations. Like I said before, weddings are tough.

But like I said before, it's important that you don't get too caught up in gear in the learning phase. You already have top notch gear, so you shouldn't have that lust for "something better" like many of us had (I learned on a Canon Rebel XTi with a nifty fifty 50/1.8). Study the work of others, discover what styles you like, and try to emulate. Learn the technical stuff as you go.

I'm going to read this post many times. A lot of wisdom. I think I'm done dwelling on equipment and am about to start just having fun with it when my camera arrives. I have a ways to go. I took some decent photos back in the day when I had a rebel G, but development costs really cramped my progress. I'm also going to start the NYIP online professional photography program. It might not be a great endeavor but I know it def can't hurt.
 
#29
#29
If you are shooting outdoors, a polarizing filter is a must imo. Keep in mind though a polarizing filter requires it to be vertical to work. If you use a zoom lense the lense rotates and you have to turn the filter back to vertical for it to work. The same applies if you turn the camera to shoot portrait instead of landscape.
 
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#30
#30
About a year ago, I decided to get more serious about photography. I still have barely any time to devote though.

My kit:

Canon 6D
35mm Sigma
85mm 1.2 L II
24-105 L kit lens

I have debated going the 24-70/70-200 route, but agree with l3rewski on the 85mm length. I prefer both 85 and 35 to 50 (on a full frame, at least). The 70-200 2.8 IS is a beast though. Not wild about the 24-105 and plan to put it on CL soon. Would like a wide angle though to replace it.

I also made the decision that I was going to shoot fully manual to truly learn the relationship between lighting, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, depth of field, etc... I wish I had more time to devote... I love it.

So, question for l3rewski, IPlead, and other experienced togs:

Do you shoot fully manual, some priority mode (Av, etc...), or use a custom setting most often?

Addendum: Awesome work, by the way, IPlead.
 
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#32
#32
If you are shooting outdoors, a polarizing filter is a must imo. Keep in mind though a polarizing filter requires it to be vertical to work. If you use a zoom lense the lense rotates and you have to turn the filter back to vertical for it to work. The same applies if you turn the camera to shoot portrait instead of landscape.

Help me to understand. Isn't a filter just a tinted round glass? I don't I understand the relationship of vertical vs horizontal.
 
#33
#33
So, question for l3rewski, IPlead, and other experienced togs:

Do you shoot fully manual, some priority mode (Av, etc...), or use a custom setting most often?

Addendum: Awesome work, by the way, l3rewski.

That wasn't me, that was IpleadInsanity. If you're interested in looking, I post my work occasionally on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54380082@N05/. And I keep my best shots on my portfolio site: Andrew Bruckse Photography. It's pretty much 95% Vol sports... I need to diversify.:)

As far as settings, I'm manual probably 75% of the time, but then again, I'm usually shooting in places where light is somewhat constant. If the light is changing rapidly (i.e. annoying partly cloudy day), then I'll switch over to aperture priority. Whichever setting, I just keep an eye on the histogram every once in a while. Metering systems are still easily fooled in some situations.

Great post zidane. Thank you for your input. I ordered a 70-200 2.8 IS. I hope its worth the money!

Oh, it is. That lens is pretty much perfection.
 
#35
#35
Great post zidane. Thank you for your input. I ordered a 70-200 2.8 IS. I hope its worth the money!

You won't get hurt, its the best lens for wedding and sports photography, very versatile and tack sharp. Internal zoom is a pleasure to operate. You can sell it easily if you don't like it for some reason, very popular lens.
 
#36
#36
That wasn't me, that was IpleadInsanity. If you're interested in looking, I post my work occasionally on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54380082@N05/. And I keep my best shots on my portfolio site: Andrew Bruckse Photography. It's pretty much 95% Vol sports... I need to diversify.:)

As far as settings, I'm manual probably 75% of the time, but then again, I'm usually shooting in places where light is somewhat constant. If the light is changing rapidly (i.e. annoying partly cloudy day), then I'll switch over to aperture priority. Whichever setting, I just keep an eye on the histogram every once in a while. Metering systems are still easily fooled in some situations.

Oh, it is. That lens is pretty much perfection.

Post corrected to give credit where due to IPlead.

Very nice, Andrew. My favorites are the B&W flag/crowd shot in Neyland, overhead SEC dunk, and the running through the T. Care to post the EXIF data?
 
#37
#37
Thanks! Here's the EXIF:

B&W Flag (It's actually from the @USCe game)
Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens (mm): 16 (16-35mm/2.8)
ISO: 6400
Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/640
Exp. Comp.: +0.3
Program: Aperture Priority
Focus Mode: AI Servo AF

Overhead dunk
Model: NIKON D800
Lens (mm): 200 (70-200mm/2.8)
ISO: 3200
Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/1000
Program: Manual
Focus Mode: MANUAL

Run Though The T (The ground level one)
Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens (mm): 16 (16-35mm/2.8)
ISO: 1600
Aperture: 10
Shutter: 1/30
Program: Manual
Focus Mode: AI Servo AF

Other Run Though The T- This is a composite of several 1 second exposures.
Model: NIKON D800
Lens (mm): 24 (PC-E Tilt-Shift)
ISO: 64
Aperture: 32
Shutter: 1.0
Program: Manual
 
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#38
#38
Help me to understand. Isn't a filter just a tinted round glass? I don't I understand the relationship of vertical vs horizontal.

Not the polarizing filter. It's totally wierd how it works. If you have polarized sunglasses, next time you're in the sun, take them off and rotate the 90 degrees and look through one of the lenses. It will lose it's polarizing effect.

Also, if you have a polarizing lense you can spin them while looking through the camera since it's an slr and you're actually looking through the lense.
 
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#41
#41
a few more
 

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#45
#45
Not the polarizing filter. It's totally wierd how it works. If you have polarized sunglasses, next time you're in the sun, take them off and rotate the 90 degrees and look through one of the lenses. It will lose it's polarizing effect.

Also, if you have a polarizing lense you can spin them while looking through the camera since it's an slr and you're actually looking through the lense.
Wow you learn something every day..
 

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