Agnostic.com

15 10

Anyone else into photography? I’ve recently started taking black and white pics with my phone and really enjoy playing around with the different filters. You?

PeppermintDreads 7 Feb 13
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

15 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

Boats are riding on icy Erie waves ?

0

Been into photography for a very long time. Developed my first negative and made my first print the summer of 4th grade. By Jr. high I had built my first darkroom and had burned hundreds of feet of film.

While in the army I took a 21 week class in Photography. Kind of funny as with several tasks, and technical knowledge, James (a classmate who was the son of a professional photographer) and I were occasionally more knowledgeable then the instructors. During one shooting assignment I was the only person who had achieved the objective because I did exactly the opposite of what they instructed us to to do. I tried to tell them they were wrong but they at that time they decided not to listen. The following week the instructors changed their answer keys because James and I answered one way and everybody else answered another the way agreed with their wrong answer key. The instructors made this known to the class so James and I were not popular as their score went down.

I started with an antique (rummage sale) Kodak brownie then moved to 35mm slr then for a very short time to medium format (twin reflex) then onto large format 4x5 cameras and lenses. Even with a self modified 1897 enlarger designed for 5 x 7 plate negatives, making 30 x 40 posters from the 4x5 negatives was fun. Amazing quality. You could move yourself inches from the print and count every line in the subject's eyes. Landscape work is fantastic as with large format as you can fully adjust the lens plane and the prints were almost surreal. As large format was a lot of work and money I transitioned back to 35mm with the manual Canon F-1 body and Canon fd "l" lenses.

I have used a variety of filters but prefer the polarizing filters to accentuate clouds and reduce glare. In all honesty, I usually just use polarisers as a neutral density filters as I often shoot wide open with fast f1.2 etc. lenses.

Currently my primary camera is a cheap mirror-less Sony A5000 with the fd to Sony E-mount Metabones and Metabones Speed Booster Ultra lens adaptors to accommodate a ridiculously large collection of old FD, FL and FD "l" lenses.

A few years back I attended an outdoor wedding and (at the last minute) decided to film (movie) the event with the A5000 and a 4+ lb 50 to 300mm fd "l" lens. The 1.5 crop factor of the Sony's smaller sensor gave me a 75 to 450mm equivalent lens length and allowed me to frame from head and shoulder to a very wide medium shot of the couple from several hundred feet back. During the ceremony, a bee briefly flew around the bride. While watching the 1080P movie I froze a frame with the bee was able to make out the lines in the wings of the bee. I was completely blown away. If you plan to upgrade from your phone, a mirror-less cameras with a lens adaptor and quality old glass is a fairly cheap way to get amazing results.

I take it by filters you are talking about digital filters. I like to shoot unmodified and raw digital images and apply filters with the computer.

Have fun with your camera. I have no doubts your will produce excellent images worthy of framing.

1

Yes! I love it. I’m addicted to taking pictures.

1

Rochester, NY...the Home of Photography.... is my home town.

1

Been a photo-nut since the 1970's. You kids today have it too easy!

My first camera was a Brownie.

@RavenCT , My first SLR was a Pentax H1. Screw mount lenses (preset, no automatic aperture), manual focus, no meter of any kind (after a couple years I got a Sekonic selenium averaging meter).

0

I did the 1 photo a day for a year a while back. I got to 250 or so photos. Then my phone died. It killed the flow.

1

Nice capture, great balance! For me, there was a day ...and it appears gone. But it’s all on film negatives, with prints 🙂 I’d shot weddings for friends and relatives, even those hiring ‘a pro.’ I’d be encouraged to get the candid shots, and did! I kept copies (and often the negs) of the best. Unfortunately, the negatives and prints have far outlasted most of the marriages…

Time exposures were my favorite.. Opened up around a campfire with a tripod to where I’d ‘get into the picture’ with everyone. I’ve one at night of Oregon’s (decommissioned & destroyed) Trojan nuclear power plant’s cooling tower that stoned friends couldn’t get enough of. And ‘Flower girls,’ focused on their fruit as ‘we’ look through the carved handle of a wedding watermelon is a favorite..

I’ll still drag my gear along on major excursions, but am no longer known for ‘always having that damn camera’ 😉 I love watching what friends come up with using their ‘phones,’ though.. Total depth of field - without trying! ..while I’m still fuckin around with F-stops and shutter speeds... Only thing, when their digital archive’s are lost, my ol’ negatives will be filed, labeled & boxed ..hiding out near my bed 🙂

Varn Level 8 Feb 13, 2018

@PeppermintDreads You’re forgiven 🙂 So, my daughter’s tell me I’ve likely bought the last Ipod, Gen 6. It’s ‘camera’ is only 8 MP I believe, but I’ll finally be digital, somewhat…

I agree with your love of timed exposures. In the good old days, night time several minute exposure with the old 4x5 camera produced intriguing images - the coal to gas processing plant - the way the light from the plant illuminates the fumes etc. . . Now I use fast 1.2 lenses to take several second night time exposures. My favorite such shot was a tight shots of a person with steel grated outdoor wood burning firebox at night - the flying embers making harsh streaks that allow you to appreciate the power of burning wood etc. Fun stuff. So much easier with digital then the old film days.

0

I love black and white photography. And as a native born Clevelander, I like your shot

@PeppermintDreads I moved away when I was 14 and never really been back, so long overdue to rediscover my roots!

@PeppermintDreads full circle??? Who knows what my future holds???

3

All I can say is "FB challenge - 7 days - 7 black and white photos". Yes I did. It was fun and got the best pic of my Tuxie by far.

@PeppermintDreads Yes I was all "I wonder if my photo program has B&W?". It did. I use Picasa - it's free. 😉

0

Love it...

1

I'm not a fan of black and white..sort of like going back to horse and cart. It's fun as a novelty, but cars are faster.

But, yes, I'm a sort of "professional" photographer because I post some of my photos on a stock photography site to make money. But since I only get 25 cents to $2 per photo use, it's not much. Mostly for fun.

My obsession is bird and wildlife photography..not a big market for it, but your style of photography could be lucrative for use in ads.

Whether or not I like black and white depends on the photo, I find (it works well for @PeppermintDreads' shot) - it can be very useful in photos that depict texture rather than colour and/or form, but I get fed up of seeing so many bad or uninteresting photos that have been converted to monochrome simply because the photographer thinks it looks arty.

@Jnei My attitude exactly!

@birdingnut Selective colouring is my weakness - I overuse it, but it's very handy for picking out the subject from a busy background and it's eye-catching in print!

2

I love photography, although I am not expert. I'm a graphic designer and I love photo editing. Black and whites are so classic and clean, I love them!

2

I took digital photography in high school. I have a good digital camera as well as a good camera on my phone. The rear is a 16mgp camera. The wide angle lense one on the back is a 8mgp. My front wide angle one is a 5mgp camera. The extra wide one on the front is a 5mgp too. My digital camera is a 16mgp camera too. I love using macro mode for close ups of the flowers I take pics of in the Spring. I have a photo editor on my computer. Well, 2 of them. I have apps on my phone for editing photos as well.

@PeppermintDreads Lol.

0

It is a great hobby... go for it. I used to about 40 somethin' years ago.

2

I published a calendar of Cemetery photography back in 2008. I love using old fashioned filters, lenses, etc to construct a shot 🙂

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:23988
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.