[deetee]

Rudraji, your photos by themselves are good examples to beginners,quite a good composition. I percieve that light is shone from above.Was it a studio light or a strobe ?Also how was the subject held for the shot ,

TG, the avian looks quite aggresive in that posture.I wonder how close you were when you shot it( I know you can manage to enter its energy space , just curious ).

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by deetee

I percieve that light is shone from above.Was it a studio light or a strobe ?Also how was the subject held for the shot ,

Flower is 35 bucks a stick (I think that seller coned me)

500 watt/sec flash head with white acrylic in front. Power setting at minimum. Not exactly from the top but left up and tilted.

100 mm lens at f22 with shutter speed of 1/100

Background has nothing as backdrop. It's part of the room and light didn't reach there to expose anything.

[fazalaliadil]

Rudra Sen,
This is art at its best!
TG,
The frontal pic. of the peacock lost focus after the beak onwards, loved the profile considering the low light on it, when you photographed him.
Regards,

[deetee]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Flower is 35 bucks a stick

Oops!! I was thinking thats a real flower, I was about to ask you what it is called

Thank you for the info.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by deetee

Oops!! I was thinking thats a real flower, I was about to ask you what it is called

It is real flower and I don't know the name. Someone can help us here for sure. By saying stick I meant stem. Sorry for this confusion.

One more Black and white process from my old stock. Baralacha Pass at 16400 ft.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

I liked the flowers outside our bedroom window. Decided to make an HDR. The exposure blend script in GIMP sucks, so decide to do it manually.

The soft glow is a futile attempt to hide the imperfections in exposure blending. I am still trying to improve it. HDR gurus, any tips? I think I should not use 100% opacity while applying layers. Still have to learn masking etc.

Attachment 147872

suggestions, do blinds, fan add to the character? I haven't processed them yet.

Attachment 147873
Attachment 147874

I tried close up but it highlights the insect screen which I was not able to take out.

Vivek,

I like your exposure blended image, the soft glow is cool But you could have avoided that thick frame.

I am no HDR expert, but exposure blending and HDR processing are actually different. I think you tried to blend exposures here. In HDR, an image is produced with far greater dynamic range than a single shot would have ever captured. This image will have 32 bits per pixel and not 8 bit per pixel liek a jpeg. Then we do tone mapping to actually make all those dynamic range really visible in computer monitors & prints which have limited dynamic range display capability. This process also can bring down the bits per pixel to 16 or 8 depending upon what output you want finally. (16 bit tiff or jpeg)

Blending of exposures is relatively simple procedure, and it can be even done manually whereas you need some computing power to do an HDR processing. You can use PS or Photomatix to do HDR processing.

When you do the belnding manually, as you tried, you need to know about masking and stuff like that. Check out youtube videos (there are loads of them) which teaches you all these techniques.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Torqueguru

@Deetee
@Clevermax
What kind of tone mapping in ps?
Regards,
TG.

Sorry, I meant that I messed with the (tone)curves . Not tone mapping... hehe

BTW, Superb colors in this peacock shot. Nice, uniform, creamy bokeh ;-) Which lens at what aperture?

[Torqueguru]

@clever max
@deetee
thats a 50mm prime lens, aperture was 2.8 hence the shallow dof...i was barely half meter away. It took time, almost an hour to get that close...i feel the intensity of a shot is more when u r in the energy aura of your subject...rather than always rely on log zooms. In this cae i entered the cage of the peacocks personal space and it let me too!

@Fazal
Yeah, i thought i liked it that way to be honest. And it was really late in the evening, the shot was taken at ISO 2500.


Here's one with the mouth open. It was giving out the famous loud peacock call when i took this shot, and it was just inches away from me. Awesome experience.

Regards,
TG.

[Rocky_Balboa]

No words for Your brilliance, Mukul.
What did the peacock say to You? :P

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Torqueguru

@clever max
@deetee
thats a 50mm prime lens, aperture was 2.8 hence the shallow dof...i was barely half meter away. It took time, almost an hour to get that close...i feel the intensity of a shot is more when u r in the energy aura of your subject...rather than always rely on log zooms. In this cae i entered the cage of the peacocks personal space and it let me too!
TG.

I was contemplating on buying another zoom lens, and now your 50mm prime lens shots have actually changed my plan. I should get a prime lens now.

Have you done any comparison between your 70-200 or other zoom lens zoomed at 50mm, with your 50mm prime? I think prime will let more light in compared to any other.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by clevermax

I was contemplating on buying another zoom lens, and now your 50mm prime lens shots have actually changed my plan. I should get a prime lens now.

Have you done any comparison between your 70-200 or other zoom lens zoomed at 50mm, with your 50mm prime? I think prime will let more light in compared to any other.

And for Canikonians, the 50mm f/1.8 is pretty cheap. And clevermax, more light is a function of the aperture+shuter speed. No matter which lens you use, the amount of light will always be same if the aperture and shuter speed is maintained across the various lenses (provided your lens can go as wide as the prime in discussion).

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by HellwratH

And for Canikonians, the 50mm f/1.8 is pretty cheap. And clevermax, more light is a function of the aperture+shuter speed. No matter which lens you use, the amount of light will always be same if the aperture and shuter speed is maintained across the various lenses (provided your lens can go as wide as the prime in discussion).

Hmm I don't have a Canikon.. :(

Yes. My point is, larger the aperture, a quicker the shutter speed can let the same amount of light in, and you get a more steady shot. Prime lenses will be suitable for taking pictures with very high shuter speeds in this way, because they generally have larger apertures like f/1.8 as you said, which is not seen in a zoom lens.

Primes will have other added advantages like they will have better optical quality because of the simple construction with less number of components. Reduced CA for example.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by Torqueguru

It took time, almost an hour to get that close...i feel the intensity of a shot is more when u r in the energy aura of your subject...rather than always rely on log zooms. In this case i entered the cage of the peacocks personal space and it let me too! .

Mukul,
for the patience and sheer brilliance.
Ever since I read that post of yours, whenever I get chance, I was trying to slowly approach the being(bird/animal). Bigger ones are ok but problem is with smaller species. By the time I enter thier personal space, I start to get tensed that they will move away. May be they sense my feelings,within no time they vanish away from shooting distance.

Originally Posted by Torqueguru

Yeah, i thought i liked it that way to be honest. And it was really late in the evening, the shot was taken at ISO 2500.

Cool, even at ISO 2500, plenty of detail with little noise.
I think, even at 2.8, if camera is picking focus points on its own, the entire body of the bird should be sharp. Canons have this nasty habit of locking in on the closest object first.But on retrying, they more or less try to get the subject fully focused. Next time I will try with 50mm and confirm.

Originally Posted by Torqueguru

It was giving out the famous loud peacock call when i took this shot

Was it elated that it will be on team-bhp soon

@vivekiny2k,clevermax
I like the first pic too. Though some parts are blown out , the glow itself adds some character- ethereal I should say.

[maven]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

...One more Black and white process from my old stock. Baralacha Pass at 16400 ft.

Attachment 148027

i wanted to type just one word in response because that says enough but the system accepts longer messages....
so here's the word-

breathtaking!

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by deetee

Mukul,
for the patience and sheer brilliance.
Ever since I read that post of yours, whenever I get chance, I was trying to slowly approach the being(bird/animal). Bigger ones are ok but problem is with smaller species. By the time I enter thier personal space, I start to get tensed that they will move away. May be they sense my feelings,within no time they vanish away from shooting distance.

The approach I follow is borrowed from Mr.Sudhir Shivram. He says (in context of birds) "Ignore the bird, and the bird will ignore you." And that's the trick I presume?

Cool, even at ISO 2500, plenty of detail with little noise.

I saw a photograph yesterday taken at ISO >6000 by a D700 and man, what a performer! I fell for that camera straight away. It was a macro of a spider in Lalbagh with 60mm macro. And the details were mind blowing.