DeltaSigma wrote:
As I was reading your post and scrolling down my immediate reaction was remove the white at the top. The final image is very good Peter.
I particularly like the isolated claws ready for action....
Yes, the claws really stand out - I also see you changed the "rendering" by muting the background. Very nice.
So, to express your statement another way Peter, there is the "exposure triangle" we all know of f-stop, ASA/ISO and time, but also another triangle - the triangle of lens, sensor and post-processing.
The post processing is an area where I have been frustrated by having not yet learned the skills/program anywhere near my satisfaction. It's a slow process, yet obviously extremely important to master. In skilled hands (not mine) I have seen some very fine results. In others, I jokingly call "fluorescent Elvis on black velvet" (not on this forum, of course). Since you are from S Africa, you may not have been exposed to this fine example of US hotel art. (from the 70s?)
I don't know if it's just me, but the files I get from my Df + MF lenses (I have only 1 AF lens - the 28-105D) seem to require less PP to get to where I like the look, than my Sony A7RII + Sony lens (24-105). To determine if it the lens (rendering), I guess need to do more experimentation with Nikon MF lenses adapted to the Sony.
Time for me to shut up and get out to either take more photos or go fishing..... or BOTH!
Colin, the piece from your impressionist period is superb.
Steve, enjoyed the pics from TDF land. Following with just snippets of action in the evenings, but so far it's been entertaining.
Enjoying the rest of the pictures and conversation as well. All this "rendering" talk gets me thinking, and Gary's last comment of the lens/sensor/pp triangle is especially thought provoking. Not much into spending too much time in post processing, so I'd better get my lens act together :-)
To add to the conversation, I've also imagined photography as a triangle of light, composition, and subject; and have spent a lot of time chasing light. The boredom of the same subject when I'm not travelling puts a damper on how much I shoot.
pbraymond wrote:
To add to the conversation, I've also imagined photography as a triangle of light, composition, and subject; and have spent a lot of time chasing light..
Ah yes, another important triangle. Lots of triangles!
graytrekker wrote:
Yes, the claws really stand out - I also see you changed the "rendering" by muting the background. Very nice.
So, to express your statement another way Peter, there is the "exposure triangle" we all know of f-stop, ASA/ISO and time, but also another triangle - the triangle of lens, sensor and post-processing.
The post processing is an area where I have been frustrated by having not yet learned the skills/program anywhere near my satisfaction. It's a slow process, yet obviously extremely important to master. In skilled hands (not mine) I have seen some very fine results. In others, I jokingly call "fluorescent Elvis on black velvet" (not on this forum, of course). Since you are from S Africa, you may not have been exposed to this fine example of US hotel art. (from the 70s?)
I don't know if it's just me, but the files I get from my Df + MF lenses (I have only 1 AF lens - the 28-105D) seem to require less PP to get to where I like the look, than my Sony A7RII + Sony lens (24-105). To determine if it the lens (rendering), I guess need to do more experimentation with Nikon MF lenses adapted to the Sony.
Time for me to shut up and get out to either take more photos or go fishing..... or BOTH!
Are you using LR's in-built lens profiles when you import the RAW files from images taken with AF lenses?
Using the in-built profiles as a starting point I tweak a few parameters to create/save my own presets for lenses I use often.
Gives me a good starting point.
MF lens profile support is lacking in LR but there are clever people out there who have crafted correction profiles for some MF lenses.
I downloaded and 'tweaked' those profiles to suit my camera/lens/style/processing starting point.
Saves a lot of time. Big thanks to Thomas over here:
Are you using LR's in-built lens profiles when you import the RAW files from images taken with AF lenses?
Using the in-built profiles as a starting point I tweak a few parameters to create/save my own presets for lenses I use often.
Gives me a good starting point.
MF lens profile support is lacking in LR but there are clever people out there who have crafted correction profiles for some MF lenses.
I downloaded and 'tweaked' those profiles to suit my camera/lens/style/processing starting point.
Saves a lot of time. Big thanks to Thomas over here:
Apart from my Nikkor 28-105D lens, my only AF lens is the Sony 24-105, and yes, there is a profile for that one. There is also a profile for a couple of my manual lenses - like the 50mm f2, the 24mm f2.8 - otherwise, I only click on CA correction in that pane.
I've found the conversation intriguing as I've been a MF addict since 2007 when Curtis started this thread and my preoccupation has been with the image as seen by the camera/lens combination, mildly tweaked, and posted. Previously I was an habitue of the B&W Vision forum where so much was dependent on PP and, of course, on light.
Getting involved with the Knysna camera club has been very good for me - making me see things differently and reinforcing my basic belief that it's not the gear that makes the difference but the vision and the ability to produce a WOW! picture that counts. It's great after more than 50 years with one or other camera to have my view of photography challenged and to have my batteries recharged.
One of our members is a wonderful landscape photographer with many salon acceptances worldwide.
As it happens she uses Nikon gear but she would produce great shots on a cell phone. Her flickr address is https://www.flickr.com/photos/162699788@N03
AS always I owe a great deal to this wonderful group of friends - always stimulating and supportive. Thanks.
From Florence visit in April which I meant to post earlier.
Took these at the roof top terrace of a department store at Piazza della Repubblica. There can be a bit of a wait but it is a great place to enjoy a cool one and the views.
Funny the timing of these discussions. A couple of friends and I started a local photography club late last year. Focusing on taking young photographers or young at heart photographers and teaching the basics. The topics of rendering and how different lenses give different results have been discussed at our recent monthly meetings. Yes, I am trying to push the use of old manual focus glass, and have been successful in a couple instances
I posted the image below to our group without telling them how it was shot and had them try to figure out how an image like this could be done without post process manipulation (apart from converting to b&w).
Showing the extreme example of the way a PC-E lens can tilt/swing the focal plane. I think some were convinced that it had to be done in post. Gave them homework reading about the Scheimpflug Principle (ok so maybe I am stepping outside the boundary of "basics")
Below shot with the Z6 and PC-E 24mm. (Also posted in the Z Images forum but thought I would post here too)
Processed in Lightroom with the B&W Red Filter profile.
George, to anybody who’s ever used a view camera it would be immediately obvious how you achieved the effect without PP. But nowadays most young people prefer to shoot with the iPhone and refuse to carry even a 35mm camera.
Which reminds me of a story about Charles Conkling, a Portland photographer, long since deceased who after climbing Mt. Hood, Oregon’s highest peak at 11,240 ft., set up his 5X7 view camera to photograph his climbing companions. Somebody knocked the tripod toppling the camera and tearing the bellows. He replied not to worry; he would use his backup camera from his backpack—a 4X5 view camera.
I saw Mt. Hood from a distance on a visit to Portland many moons ago. Somewhere I may still have an AF photo of the peak above the clouds.
Carrying a 5X7 *and* a 4X5 up Mt. Hood Not for me. I thought carrying the Wista 4X5, the tripod and a bag with the film holders across from the parking lot to the Staunton market was plenty tough
This is when I was trying to learn tilt with the 24 3.5 PC-E during a visit to Cape Cod last year. At Provincetown's Pilgrim Monument in Cape Cod in September.
Not for me. I thought carrying the Wista 4X5, the tripod and a bag with the film holders across from the parking lot to the Staunton market was plenty tough 
