šŸ“· The Photography Thread

Fuck off

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Yep. It gives me the flexibility to colour correct while itā€™s being scanned in (because changing the colours on a jpeg will lose information along the way), and it also means I feel less guilty about editing after the scan too - when I get scans back from the shop I feel like thatā€™s the ā€œfinalā€ image, but Iā€™ll happily carry on working on my own scans as I would a digital file.

The only scans I do get done at the shop are where I get film cross processed, because I can never get that x-pro look at home for some reason. A dev only roll of film costs me a fiver (or four fifty if my mateā€™s on the till), regardless of whether itā€™s 35mm or 120.

Do you use the Silverfast software when you scan in? That gives you the option to specify the film youā€™re scanning, which improves the colours, and if youā€™ve over or underexposed, it feels better to correct that by adjusting that on the scan too (obviously all my photos are perfectly exposed in the first place, ahem)

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Take two

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Still fucked it. Oh well

Goodness me, their website is terrible! But the Silverfast one isnā€™t much better. I shall investigate further later.

One thing I ALWAYS have to do to my scans is sharpen them, which I didnā€™t do in my early days of home scanning. Once the penny dropped I went back to some of my old pics to see if itā€™s worth re-scanning, and it turns out that sharpening wouldnā€™t have helped improve them! :joy:

Yeah, just the screen - it only fell a short distance but I gave everything a good checking over. The LCD display is knackered, though - bottom half still shows a complete (but grainy) picture, the upper half is either fractured or completely missing.

Any quote Iā€™ve had back so far has been Ā£170-190, so Iā€™m tempted to get a replacement screen and attempt to fit it myself. If that doesnā€™t work out, Iā€™d be better off buying a second-hand body, whichā€™ll still be cheaper than the quotes Iā€™ve had!

I think Iā€™m 6.8% happy with these. colours probs weird from being tester printed stuff then snapped with my phone. I take very on brand photos.

image

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just trying to put together a little book thing

Bee.

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Took my underwater housing for my digi compact away on holiday with me, didnā€™t I lads?

Itā€™s either this one, or the next size up, but an absolute steal - much cheaper than buying a dedicated underwater camera, and much better image quality (in my experience)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquapac-Waterproof-Compact-Camera-Case/dp/B0044LTKPC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=aquapac+compact+camera&qid=1560188676&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Hey gang. Looking at getting into this shit. As a complete novice where would be the best starting points in terms of camera, software, lenses, any books worth picking up etc.
Everything seems to suggest one of the nikon d3xxx series is a decent starting point but yeah, some non-Bank breaking pointers would be v welcome (also loads of great stuff itt)

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second this, my phone is ok cos Iā€™m learning how to frame shots and that but Iā€™m gonna need a proper camera soon i reckon

Hereā€™s a heathen opinion. If you are only vaguely invested in photography, think very carefully about whether you will actually transport a big camera body around (and multiple lenses).

I got big into photography a couple of years before good camera phones were a thing, and splashed out on a dslr. For the last three years at least it has languished in a drawer.

My camera phone takes brilliant photos - and if youā€™re more interested in composition of the scene itself and shooting ā€˜in the momentā€™ rather than on super high quality, youā€™d do fine with one of the better camera phones. I have a Huawei P30 (recently upgraded from iPhone X) and its superb.

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Best thing to do is identify your budget and whatnot is that you want to regularly take photos of then go from there.

Plenty of people would make this kind of recommendation- ā€˜the best camera for you is the one youā€™ll take with youā€™.

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ya my camera phone is okay but if i can frame something well and add the right processing fx sometimes i get pretty sweet results

I would counter this opinion (with love) to say that if youā€™re interested in learning the craft of photography then itā€™s essential to get yourself a decent camera, at least one with manual ISO, aperture, shutter speeds, white balance, maybe even the option of flat colour profiles.

Iā€™d start out a with decent kit zoom lens (24-70) or similar and then think about getting yourself a fast prime down the line when youā€™re into the swing of it. A zoom lens would allow versatility and being able to change your composition without physically moving. A lot of zoom lenses go down to F4.0 which is still enough for you to get a bit of shallow depth of field to play around with. Tilts is right that you want to be able to pick up and go and not be lugging around kgs worth of kit or faffing about with lenses to begin with.

My experience is that Canon DSLRs are great for beginners as the layout is user friendly. a 5D mark ii / mark iii would be great but it depends what counts for you as breaking the bank. Mark II is similar price to Nikon D3.

Canon is great because you can get a lot of old vintage lenses adapted to fit them which saves you mega bucks - I have some Contax / Zeiss prime lenses that cost about Ā£200 a pop and the image quality is sublime and theyā€™re very ā€˜fastā€™ (fast is camera lingo for when the aperture goes really low which allows you to achieve maximum shallow depth of field.)

I personally have no experience with Nikon but Iā€™m also a fan of the philosophy that the best camera is the one you have in your hands.

Software - Photoshop is obviously great but itā€™s so pro that it can be a little bit confusing at first. But it wouldnt take too long to get used to the layout and learn how to adjust the levels / colours in your photos. Aperture also good.

Wouldnt say theres any essential books Iā€™ve encountered that are much better than watching a few youtube tutorials on how to operate the camera and then practicing as much as possible.

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This is super advice.

On a side note, even though my dslr is relegated to a drawer, I also started collecting analog cameras on the cheap from charity shopsā€¦ My Praktica MTL5B gets a lot of love because there is such a joy and surprise in seeing what youā€™ve created on film. Expensive hobby, mind.

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