~Any Photographers???~

[LiLKIM]

Shooting young beautiful women has GOT to be more fun than shooting cars on hot asphalt! Or carburetors in the studio.

Nice stuff. And the photos look good, too...

thanks!

I wanna start getting into stock photography and doing work for ad agencys. That won't be till I get a lighting kit and studio set up inside the house though.

and yes, it is more fun to shoot hot girls then carburetors I'm sure lol

 

[Beerhunter]

Hey guys,

Total amateur here but I have a Canon Rebel XS. I pretty much take my camera everywhere so I get some interesting scenic shots from time to time. I kinda focus on concert photography and of course car shows and such. Here are some of my latest shots.

 

[THA1]

extremely amateur photographer here... always loved taking pictures and just recently decided to pick up a decent camera. so, as far as gear goes, just a nikon d90 w/ the 18-105 kit lens and a carbon fibre tripod. probably gonna pick up some new lenses and strobes as soon as possible. i like the fact that theres always something to learn with photography/photoshop... (at least for me) heh

flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29265268@N05/

sample:

 

[Error404]

heres a small sample of some of my work... let me know what u think!

Honestly, I think most of the photos look good as far as composition, subject matter, and timing! The one thing I think that is missing from them, is some sort of control over the lighting. Have you ever thought about trying some lighting setups? You would probably be amazed at how potential is in a set of 2 or 3 flashes for portraits/glamor, once you get a good control over them! And know how to work them to what you want.

Natural light can be done nicely, but what gives real good portraits/glamor photography that punch, is good lighting! Something to think about maybe

 

[LiLKIM]

Honestly, I think most of the photos look good as far as composition, subject matter, and timing! The one thing I think that is missing from them, is some sort of control over the lighting. Have you ever thought about trying some lighting setups? You would probably be amazed at how potential is in a set of 2 or 3 flashes for portraits/glamor, once you get a good control over them! And know how to work them to what you want.

Natural light can be done nicely, but what gives real good portraits/glamor photography that punch, is good lighting! Something to think about maybe

yeah... unfortunately, im just a poor college student right now lol... so thats why I havent invested into any good lighting yet. I plan on doing it eventually, but I know exactly what u mean about the lighting. So.. I just try to work with natural light as best as I can for now.

what do u recommend for a lighting kit to start out with? I have a nikon D80, and something under like $1500 preferably.

 

[Error404]

what do u recommend for a lighting kit to start out with? I have a nikon D80, and something under like $1500 preferably.

I would check out http://strobist.blogspot.com/ That's a website dedicated to doing off-camera flash lighting without paying $$$ for big strobe setups. Flashes are much much cheaper, less powerful (only draw back) but alot more manuverable, portable, and just easier to work with I've used big studio setups, and they are nice when you are trying to light something big like a car with a huge light above it, but for just about everything else, cheap flashes and pocketwizards will work pretty much just as good, and a whole lot cheaper and easier to use!

Using just regular flash guns (the type of flashes that go on top of your camera) with wireless triggering systems is quite cheap compaired to studio strobes. I'd say two flashes (lets say $120 each) 3 pocketwizards (one for the camera, and one for each flash, $170 each) and two "shoot through" umbrellas ($25 each) with light stands and mounting heads (probably a total of $80 each stand/head setup), and then some rechargeable AA batteries and a charger (probably $40 total?) would be a perfect setup! That would probably be a total of about $1000 for a nice solid flash setup, and a very portable setup too!

The pocket wizards are "expensive" (they are the most expensive part of a usual flash setup) but they are absolutly bullet proof reliable! They have a very long operating range, and they will fire every time you pull the trigger, like 99.99% with out fail. They are the golden standard You could try some cheaper methods (Cactus triggers, or what not) that are 1/5th the price, but they don't work very well, (they work like 70% of the time) and will just be frustrating. I got a set of the cactus triggers when I was starting out, just to see if I really wanted to get into flash lighting. After 2 days, I knew I loved flash lighting, and I knew I hated the Cactus triggers and wanted Pocket Wizards! haha! After I went to the pocket wizards, there's no looking back at all

And then after that, just add a flash, stand, and pocketwizard when ever you think you need an additional light (you don't need an umbrella for each light, but it's probably good to have at least one umbrella to use upclose for soft "portrait light"). Or, you could maybe even get away with using a light trigger (built in to some flashes) and cut the cost of the pocketwizard. But, they are so reliable, they are well worth the $170 when you need them.

MPEX sells "kits" that include a flash, light stand, bracket, and light gels:

1 set: http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=STROBIST1XKITS
2 set: http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=STROBIST2XKITS

Now, these stands and brackets will not be the most heavy duty stands in the world, but they are a great place to start (and VERY inexpensive!), and will more than likely last you a good long time!

And all you need after that is the pocketwizard:

Pocket Wizard transcever: http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,124.html


And if you want additional flashes: http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,12311.html or http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,4616.html (or most any manual flash you can find on ebay)

 

[FnSweet06]

Very good info in here. I like photography and once in awhile i'll snap a pic or two

 

[kdesigns]

No fancy lights

Here's one of my favorite shots from last year. No fancy lights, no flash. Shot at 10:00 pm - ISO set at 3200 - that's the trick! 20th sec shutter speed, don't remember the aperature...

 

[THA1]

Here's one of my favorite shots from last year. No fancy lights, no flash. Shot at 10:00 pm - ISO set at 3200 - that's the trick! 20th sec shutter speed, don't remember the aperature...

beautiful shot! is that straight from camera??

 

[andyman]

I got a Canon XSi with two lenses a few months ago after using film and digital point and shoots forever (and not knowing how to use them). I always thought the big thing holding me back was the camera, and it was, now the big thing holding me back are lenses lol... got to get those wide aperature l-series lenses

Here's a link to some of my favorites: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28767875@N05/sets/72157620945307884/

and here's the one to all the photos on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28767875@N05/sets/


love taking pictures....only a couple out of all those are retouched, the rest are straight from the camera.

 

[Hitman]

That's one of my best friends cars! BBC in that one. Look on the side of the hood. Ty Tech!

 

[kdesigns]

beautiful shot! is that straight from camera??

Yep. No tricks with that one...

 

[THA1]

Yep. No tricks with that one...

awesome man, great shot

 

[LiLKIM]

Lots of good info in this thread.

I just took some Mustang pics yesterday...I'm gonna have to put a few up soon

 

[Redwolf]

I like taking pics...........and I have shot a few amateur films....

 

[Casey4s]

I got into photography seriously in the late 70's and took a bunch of courses at the community college. I did portraits, "grip & grins" and weddings for about 10 years but finally got out all together for hire. I got fed up with weddings because of all the ass-hats with their frigging video cameras gettint in the way and acting indignant when I asked thenm to move out of the way.

I used a Hasselblad 500CM and a Mamia C330 for my back up wedding rig. I am amazed at the so called professionals who show up to shoot a wedding with a 35 mm camera, and now its all the digital stuff.

My 35 mm is a Nikon F3 HP with motor, and my "snapshot" camera is a Nikon P1 digital. Digitals are ok for everyday stuff and have some advantages with instant download and computer manipulation, but I could never part with a real film camera.

 

[Error404]

Casey, yea there's something nice about film Especially larger film, medium and large format Digital's have gotten pretty good lately though, but sometimes I choose to shoot film over digital. I don't like roll film though, sheet film is more fun I think.

 

[EagleStroker]

Casey, yea there's something nice about film Especially larger film, medium and large format Digital's have gotten pretty good lately though, but sometimes I choose to shoot film over digital. I don't like roll film though, sheet film is more fun I think.

I got into 35mm stuff with the last Nikon we used at work. I enjoyed it quite a bit! Now I'm shooting with a D60 and a few different lenses, nothing special at all but I enjoy it! I never touch up my photos, I don't have access to photoshop so I just hope for the best! If I ever quit spending money on the car, I'll buy a decent lighting set up. For now I make it a challenge to find different natural lighting situations!

 

[LiLKIM]

some of the new mustang pics....

 

[Error404]

I would say there is to much contrast in some of those, particularly in the dark areas of the car. The black car goes completely black-hole black, the added contrast has crushed the detail out of existence