kwoodard wrote:
Thanks Leighton, appreciate your words. Lately I have been so disappointed with my photography that I actually considered selling everything and getting like a V1 and just doing snapshots. I sat down and looked at the work of a few of you that I truly admire and tried to figure out how you do it, what make a similar shot of mine not look as good, etc. This is the early results of that.

Any other critiques from the rest of you, send them my way. I want to learn and get better. My biggest thing I need and want to learn is black and white post work.

Kevin, I can understand your doubts about photography - have gone through this many times. Sometimes it is the feeling "I was much a better photographer 5 years ago" or "whatever I do, I choose the wrong focal length" and so on.
I'm not good at image-critique, but if you have any specific question about your images or processing please let me know.

David Antilley wrote:
georgms wrote:
David Antilley wrote:
georgms wrote:
Some shots from a short walk through my hometown, lenses of choice were the new to me 16/3.5 and the 180/2.8ED:
A very first shot with the Ai'd 16/3.5 - I love this lens so far ;-) Thanks to John for pointing me to it!
I've re-shot the same subject with some friendly tourists and sold the picture to a local paper.


Interesting, is that a mixture of some new with some old architecture? I have been wanting to get back to Celle (we have a mfg plant there) as I know of an old �split� house. The house is mirrored across a court yard. I tried with a 24mm but it wasn�t wide enough.

David

David, many of these narrow houses have been re-built many times. They started as the rather simple homes of the fishermen and most of them are now used as family-homes with a small shop/pub or small vacation rentals included.
Hiring out holiday flats is an important economic factor for the locals.
As to split-houses - are you talking about "duplex-houses", two mirrored/symmetrical buildings sharing a central wall?
These duplex homes ("Doppelhaus") are fantastic subjects for a series - over the years some house-halves have been decorated with a fake timber-framework facade, while the other half is still in a rather shabby plaster-look and so on.




I don't know if you would call it a duplex or not. The google coordinates are 52.623119,10.083105 in Celle. The address is Bergstra�e 48, 29221 Celle, Germany. It's the Posthof. I think the builder has a sense of humor.

This is a better link. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/23253455

David

Haha, okay, now that's not what I had in mind! A good example of what a builder/investor with character can do.
I'm always fascinated by the contemporary dutch architecture - the builders seem to be much more courageous than her German neighbors. This goes for small single-family homes and for industrial buildings too.

Kevin, leave the jumping in and out of cameras and lenses to Reagan You always have excellent work. I myself have been trying to observe the B&W images by some of these folks here and trying to learn.

Georg, I really liked the 16mm image of the houses on the previous page. I just never get how to arrange things in the frame with such a wide angle. That's a good thing; its contributed to abating my need to adding more lenses

Samy

georgms wrote:
kwoodard wrote:
Thanks Leighton, appreciate your words. Lately I have been so disappointed with my photography that I actually considered selling everything and getting like a V1 and just doing snapshots. I sat down and looked at the work of a few of you that I truly admire and tried to figure out how you do it, what make a similar shot of mine not look as good, etc. This is the early results of that.

Any other critiques from the rest of you, send them my way. I want to learn and get better. My biggest thing I need and want to learn is black and white post work.

Kevin, I can understand your doubts about photography - have gone through this many times. Sometimes it is the feeling "I was much a better photographer 5 years ago" or "whatever I do, I choose the wrong focal length" and so on.
I'm not good at image-critique, but if you have any specific question about your images or processing please let me know.

I am glad I don't change cars as often as my lens collection

Reagan

Jim, I really like the frozen birch(?)-twigs. The 105/2.5 is a legend that rarely fails to impress. Good luck with your search for the 600/5.6!

Kevin, I like "Green" and the "Thistles" a lot.

Philip, very cool image of the "flying potato chips"!

John, the "Fallen tree" is very nicely done. Welcome!

Ronny, I really enjoy your pictures from the other side of the Baltic Sea!

Ron, the blossoms taken with the 80-200/4.5 are marvelous. I prefer the color version.

Philippe, the "Last shot" is excellent. Thanks for sharing your adventures with the mighty 24/3.5 PC-E!

Tony, wow, very cool studio-work with the 55/1.2! The chair is an eye-catcher ;-)

Scott, love the rust-shot!

Samy, the BiF from below is wonderful.

saph wrote:
...
Georg, I really liked the 16mm image of the houses on the previous page. I just never get how to arrange things in the frame with such a wide angle. That's a good thing; its contributed to abating my need to adding more lenses

Samy
...


Samy, thank you. I just moved along the outlines of the fountain-sculpture, lowered or rised (rose?) the camera a bit. I usually shoot a lot of images from slightly varying angles and point of views and pick the best later.

Jeff, Curtis and Scott - thanks for your kind comments!
Here's the last shot for and from today, a bit more sketch-like:

taken with the 180/2.8ED at f/4
(but the lens doesn't really matter for this kind of post-processing ;-)

Kenj8246 wrote:
A few from the Waco Zoo...a real safari is NOT in my budget. Nikkor 400mm f3.5 Ai-S, Nikon F100, Kodak 400 film.

Maribou stork

georgms wrote:
Jeff, Curtis and Scott - thanks for your kind comments!
Here's the last shot for and from today, a bit more sketch-like:

taken with the 180/2.8ED at f/4
(but the lens doesn't really matter for this kind of post-processing ;-)


Georg, I like the texture here. Is this a reflection in a water puddle?

Thanks for the comment on the rust image.
Scott

georgms wrote:
Jeff, Curtis and Scott - thanks for your kind comments!
Here's the last shot for and from today, a bit more sketch-like:

taken with the 180/2.8ED at f/4
(but the lens doesn't really matter for this kind of post-processing ;-)


Very unique and excellent image Georg - love the variety of excellent images that are being shown in this thread.

John

Love the shot Georg! Wonder how it would look rotated 180 degrees?

A local contest popped up where they want some sort of a view on the street. They didn't give a time when the pic needed to be taken, this is what I am thinking of entering. I took the pic when I first got the 50mm Series E, but didn't really know anything about my camera (ISO6400, daytime?!) Anyway, I tried my new post process, what do you all think?


DSC_4698 by Kevin.Woodard, on Flickr

Kenny: Lovely series. I like the second one the best. Great comp.

Georg: Thanks, and yup that's a tile. I spend my Saturday afternoons helping out a friend take interior shots in exchange for, well, beer money. Young chap who's taking over his dad's interior construction business; enthusiastic about injecting new work methods into a very traditional scheme. It's an excuse to rouse myself on a weekend to put all these gear into good use; the 14-24mm has had a really good run for these type of projects.

Kevin: Looks good to me. I'll check back at home for the title and post back here.

georgms wrote:
Some shots from a short walk through my hometown, lenses of choice were the new to me 16/3.5 and the 180/2.8ED:



Very nice images Georgt - enjoy the new lens

Kenny - nice pics. You probably can afford Souith Africa - the Kruger Park will cost you about $120 per day - less if you share accommodation.

Samy - the roller is gorgeous. I know how hard it is to capture these in flight... all I usually get is a couple of tail feathers!

kwoodard wrote:
Love the shot Georg! Wonder how it would look rotated 180 degrees?

A local contest popped up where they want some sort of a view on the street. They didn't give a time when the pic needed to be taken, this is what I am thinking of entering. I took the pic when I first got the 50mm Series E, but didn't really know anything about my camera (ISO6400, daytime?!) Anyway, I tried my new post process, what do you all think?



I like the sharpness of the image and am amazed at the lack of noise at that ISO - also nothing wrong with your lens! Two thoughts on your current state of mind - try some of the ideas in this book
( http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Perfect-Practice-Self-Training-World-Class/dp/0321803531/ref=pd_sim_b_1#reader_0321803531) ( I used the ideas in the preview to perk up my enthusiasm when I wondered why I bothered to take pictures) and spend a day with one lens taking pictures of everything in sight concentrating on perfect exposure and focus - nothing else. It's good discipline and it doesn't matter with digital if every one of them is deleted. Hang in there - you take good photos.

rafaelcasd wrote:
djjohnr13 wrote:
leighton w wrote:
djjohnr13 wrote:
I tested two AI/AIS lenses against their modern 1.8G counterparts over the last week, concentrating on resolution at landscape f/stops. The 28 1.8G trounced the 3.5 AI across the whole image frame, while the 85 f/2 AIS has held it's own/surpassed the 85mm 1.8G (still testing). I don't have time to make crops this weekend, but I'll post the .nefs to Dropbox if anyone is interested.

The 28mm f3.5 isn't known for greatness. Put the 1.8G up against the 28 f2.8 AI-s, and you'd have a better comparison.

Huddy put it up against the f/2.0, which is a better lens for my purposes then the 2.8. The 1.8 was sharper with similar OOFA response, if not slightly better. I just don't think the old wides can compare to the new designs in terms of absolute resolution.

Post some samples if you can.

.NEFs here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s7ad88g18y0zh39/necuXYVNe_

These are obviously just lens test shots - no artistic merit. I was only testing for resolution across the frame at f/8 and f/11 which are my working apertures for landscapes with wide angles. In the indoor set, the focus point was the blue thread hanging of the right front side of the play mat. On the outdoor set the focus point was the front blades of the grass plant on the left hand side of the frame.

I'll post the results of my 85mm test soon. The 85 f/2.0 AIS held it's own/beat the G. I'm guessing I got a bad copy of the G, but I'll never know since I just returned it for an 85 PC-E.

Kenny, very nice use of the 400 3.5 at the zoo.

Samy

Kenj8246 wrote:
A few from the Waco Zoo...a real safari is NOT in my budget. Nikkor 400mm f3.5 Ai-S, Nikon F100, Kodak 400 film.

Kenny

Kevin, looks good and I wonder if this would be a candidate for B&W conversion.


kwoodard wrote:
Love the shot Georg! Wonder how it would look rotated 180 degrees?

A local contest popped up where they want some sort of a view on the street. They didn't give a time when the pic needed to be taken, this is what I am thinking of entering. I took the pic when I first got the 50mm Series E, but didn't really know anything about my camera (ISO6400, daytime?!) Anyway, I tried my new post process, what do you all think?

One of Barbara's babies. All the white spots on him are milk splatters when they come loose from the bottle for a second. Sometimes they get all over them! He's already finished this meal but wanted more when she picked him up. 24mm at 3200 ISO.

Very nice Leighton. Only one cardinal error though - you're proving that Barbara does all the work while you mess about with a camera all day

Oosty wrote:
Very nice Leighton. Only one cardinal error though - you're proving that Barbara does all the work while you mess about with a camera all day

Shhh...don't tell her!

Following my own advice to Kevin! Sometimes one runs out of inspiration even living in a beautiful place like Knysna so I went to a local nursery and asked permission to take some pictures - all with the 105 2.5 ai - some with the equivalent tube to a PN -11 which I have now acquired and eagerly await!