General Photography Chat

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by toyota74

Just a question has anyone done underwater photography??

How deep?

I have a Pentax point and shoot that's good to about 6 ft. I've used it a few times in swimming pools and lakes.

[toyota74]

I do a lot of snorkelling in the summer and
was just wondering how good a pic you would
get with a standard point and shoot if it
had to covered in those waterproof covers...

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by edmontonenthusiast

Thanks for the help flar and Robert Pence. Yes, I always carry a camera bag with me when I am using my camera and it seems to be decently cushioned. It isn't an awfully large bag, so I don't know if gel pacs would fit...sometimes I have a difficult time putting the strap in (despite this, it still does have room for 1 more lens). The plastic bag thing would be good, but my problem is I find that I go from out to in lots. And when I go inside, unless I'm going home or something, I usually want to take pictures too, and don't want to have to wait for the condensation to leave (how long does that even take??). Also, if I'm only going to be inside for a short 10 mins (maybe myself just warming up or going to the washroom or taking a quick light rail ride [here the downtown stations are underground akin to subway]) would I really need to worry about condensation and cold-to-hot differences when I'm going to be right out all over again right away?

thanks for all the help and merry christmas to all!

ps -- i'm not one to go out for hours in -30ºC weather (-22ºF), but will for -10 (14ºF) or -15 (5ºF).....

There's no stopping condensation from happening. It's a bit tough to read, but here's a screen shot of a good article on cold weather photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43386028@N08/4134794786/in/photostream/

[ue]

^Man that is really thorough and extensive and time consuming. Gel bags and two plastic bags, seriously? Especially when I'm out and about, I don't really have a place to stash the camera in a cold environment for it to warm up, it comes with me (and I often wanna take pics inside too).

Here's what I have been doing, I don't do anything nor do I worry about the camera being outside at all, but either before I go inside or immediately when I get in, I usually put a big Ziploc bag out and put the cam in, and then put the camera in the insulated somewaht camera bag. I usually wait about 30 mins and by then the camera is overall warmed up (maybe a bit cool), and I continue taking pics as normal. Is this any good? Will what I am doing be bad for the camera? Everything seems fine now, but who knows after doing this technique for a while.

PS - I keep the Ziploc bag open, not entirely (although not necessarily the camera bag) so that the condensation can evaporate.

thanks...

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by edmontonenthusiast

^Man that is really thorough and extensive and time consuming. Gel bags and two plastic bags, seriously? Especially when I'm out and about, I don't really have a place to stash the camera in a cold environment for it to warm up, it comes with me (and I often wanna take pics inside too).

Here's what I have been doing, I don't do anything nor do I worry about the camera being outside at all, but either before I go inside or immediately when I get in, I usually put a big Ziploc bag out and put the cam in, and then put the camera in the insulated somewaht camera bag. I usually wait about 30 mins and by then the camera is overall warmed up (maybe a bit cool), and I continue taking pics as normal. Is this any good? Will what I am doing be bad for the camera? Everything seems fine now, but who knows after doing this technique for a while.

PS - I keep the Ziploc bag open, not entirely (although not necessarily the camera bag) so that the condensation can evaporate.

thanks...

Have you heard of google? I hear that the internet is a wealth of information.

The greater the temperature swings the greater the condensation. So staying outside at -40 for 3 hours and then coming back inside for 2 hours is going to create more moisture than running in and out every 20 minutes.
With regards to damage, that will depend on the weatherproofing of your camera. I know Canon rates their cameras, I'm sure the others do as well. That fact that should be easily obtained googling the internets.

P.S. I think keeping the ziploc bag open is a bad idea. You want as little air as possible in the bag. Having it open defeats that.

[ue]

Well I'm just wondering if the technique I had been using is useful. I think it's a little hard to google all the terms I said, thanks for the tip though.

I haven't seen any condensation on my camera since the one time that I did see it a week ago (because since i've been using the technique posted above). But then again I'm not checking every corner of my camera or anything.

So I'll close the ziploc...is there anything else I should do anybody any ideas?

[ue]

^can anybody help? just want to clarif with those who deal with this is what i am doing ok? i ziploc shut and put in cam bag and usually wait 20-40 mins before use indoors.

[flar]

I'm sure that's fine. I never worry about it too much, but then again I've never even experienced the degree of coldness Edmonton can have. The coldest I've ever taken my camera out is around -10 C. I just left it in the camera bag for an hour after I got in, no problems.

[vid]

I've used my camera in -30 for over an hour an not had any problems.

(Documenting a house fire exactly a year ago today, in fact.)

[ue]

Cool thanks guys. I always thought Ontarian winters were more brutal. You guys get blizzards and crazy snow, although I know I heard on the news Toronto goes nutty when it's -15 LOL. I think the coldest I've taken out was -20/-25 and that was night. In day, -18ish.

[vid]

That day was one of the coldest of the year. Fires always seem to happen on the coldest days possible. The average high for this time of year is -9, and the average low is -20. Edmonton is colder.

[ue]

^Edmonton average is -8ish for this time of year, but we often times do get cold. I guess I never paid a whole lot of attention to the numbers in Ontario, but noticed the amount of precipitation which is way more than what we get. Oh well anyways back to photography .

[boden]

The real problem with cameras in the cold occurs if you come inside for a bit, and the lens fogs up, and then you quickly go back out. That sets up all kinds of potential horrors.

[ue]

^I'm guessing that's where the bag comes in.

Anyways, I was wondering if you guys could help me with a certain shot. I'm not sure if it looks dumb or not. It actually came out good in normal, but I was editing it in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and played around with it and got this:



I kinda thought it looked cool at the time, it kinda had a vintage look about it, like really old photographs PreWWII kind. I've seen many from that time that were overcomposed and had very little detail and I thought of that with this. And while I still think it looks like that, I was wondering...does it look stupid? I've been wondering this sicne I uploaded it. I'm just not sure. Any sorts of thoughts?

[vid]

It doesn't look vintage to me. The vignetting is too strong in the upper left hand corner, and the overuse of vignetting is annoying me anyway.

It doesn't really have a focal point. The end of the street is blocked by a car and the rest of the photo is too cluttered with branches and buildings.

[ue]

^It's supposed to be an urban scene. They have trees, cars, buildings .

[Aleks]

trees are hard to shoot unless they have leafs. Personally I'll avoid dead trees because the twisted branches add too much weird details and when I sharpen the photo the branches also sharpen making them look weirder.

As for the black and white, I also personally don'y like black and white. I used to loveeeee it but as time passed I began to fall in love with faded and monotone shots more. Black and whites are hard to make. I've never made a successful b&w shot.

[ue]

^I dunno... they aren't terrible to shoot. They can give some sorts of moods or feels to the photo, sometimes drama, sometimes other things.

Plus, it exposes some funky twists to trees w/branches, like here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_edmontonenthusiast/4234410099/sizes/l/

Just like oranges, yellows, pinks, and greens in trees, bare brown can work too in my opinion. It helps Seattle is green for the majority of the year though (Edm is probably 50-50 with the months of brown grass we get).

And I love black and whites (especially when they add some different feels to a photo not otherwise representable in colour)...and have seen many great ones. I don't find them that hard to make decent ones, but I don't know if any of my B&Ws are 'successful.'

[1ajs]

add some noise to it to give it that film look

but like vid mentioned that van takes away from it and is distracting

[vid]

I just try to ignore naked trees when I take photos in winter. Most of my winter stuff is close ups are architectural studies anyway. When they're in front of buildings and you convert the photo to single-image HDR you get a weird blurry ghosting effect, sometimes it doesn't look too bad.

In the summer, you would barely be able to see this house because of the trees:




The arched windows of the belltower of this church are obscured by leaves in summer. And I probably should have blurred this a little.

You just have to get creative.



And yes, the van does detract from the photo. It obscures the focal point. There is nowhere for the eye to rest because of it.