Fuzzy Waterfall, how to...

[Soocom1]

Are there other photography things worth exploring besides the obvious.

Lens reversing rings. Free-lensing.

Busting the glass OUT of a cheap teleconverter, to make an extension tube.

Adding a 1.4, 2x, or even an older 3x teleconverter to a Lensbaby. Makes an approximately 75mm-80mm ,100mm-112mm,or 150mm-175mm tele "lensbaby"

Cheap-screw in wide-angle adapter lenses (e-Bay, Amazon,Ali Express).

Inexpensive lens adapters from e-Bay.

Legacy lenses..pawn shops, garage sales, etc..

Old, low-cost gear in "BGN" or "UGLY" condition.

Weird stuff you read about on the web.

Cool new-tech stuff you find out about.

What I have found interesting is that alot of "ugly" is mostly cosmetic with a few bummers in the lot.

If you can handle the battle scars, buy it!

Besides, those scars tell stories.

Sure you wont get a huge return on the investment per se money wise, but you can create like a mad man.

The only exception I have an issue with is pawn Shops.
I have purchased from them also, but I had an experience years ago where the receipt I kept also kept me out of jail when one of my lenses turned out to be a bit on the warm side and the police were kind enough to allow me to prove my legitimacy.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Having come from and still use from time to time, a film background; I like to think that anyone standing in my spot when I took the shot, could have shared the same experience.

Likewise if I was lucky enough to have been at the location when a picture was taken, I like to think I could have taken a similar picture.

I will admit, good post processing is an art and produces many marvelous photographs but it is not my cup of tea.

While it is true that I want the camera to capture the scene as I saw it; I do not want the picture to be as I wish it had been.

In the case of the OPs waterfall challenge. I may diddle with a dozen photos, with various camera options, then select the picture I like. But it is not likely the product will exist only in a post processed file.

 

[Ash Telecaster]

Having come from and still use from time to time, a film background; I like to think that anyone standing in my spot when I took the shot, could have shared the same experience.

Likewise if I was lucky enough to have been at the location when a picture was taken, I like to think I could have taken a similar picture.

I will admit, good post processing is an art and produces many marvelous photographs but it is not my cup of tea.

While it is true that I want the camera to capture the scene as I saw it; I do not want the picture to be as I wish it had been.

In the case of the OPs waterfall challenge. I may diddle with a dozen photos, with various camera options, then select the picture I like. But it is not likely the product will exist only in a post processed file.

I had originally formulated a post where I was saying that I wanted to see what I can make the camera do. I am new to photography and want to develop some skills. That is the whole purpose of these challanges I've been posting.

It's not clicking until I get lucky. It's working with intent. A given challenge is what I intend to produce, drawing upon the wisdom and generousity of serious hobbyists and professionals such as yourself to develop a strategy.

That being said, I love what he did with those photos. Nobody would mistake them for unedited pictures and the effect they produced was dramatic and beautiful. I think their legitimacy as art is just as valid. It's simply a matter of using different tools. I would like to experiment with both and get good at both.

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts to add to the above:

1) When using aperture to reduce the amount of light entering the camera be aware of several things:
a) The smaller the aperture (bigger f number) the greater the depth of field (area of the photo in focus and sharp) will be. This might or might not be important for the composition of your photo.

b) Aperture affects sharpness in a photo. Typically a lens it not its best when wide open (widest aperture, lowest f number, the lens can do), and will improve in sharpness as you stop the shutter down. Around f8 to f10 (it varies lens to lens) the lens will deliver its peak performance in sharpness. Thereafter the sharpness starts to degrade. Beyond around f13 or f16 the drop in sharpness becomes more apparent.

So whilst you can use smaller apertures (bigger f numbers) to reduce light entering the camera, be aware of how it might also affect the photo you get.

2) If you mount the lens on a tripod and you're using slower shutter speeds turn OFF any stabilizing system. In general many of the newer ones can detect if the lens is on a tripod and turn themselves off; but at the same time its my experience that they fail to detect if the shutter speed is slow. So you can end up with blurr as a result of your anti-shake thinking its countering shake that isn't there. So you're already on a tripod, turn the anti-shake off.

3) Neutral Density filters can help a lot in reducing incoming light for this kind of photo. They come in different grades, with the higher the grade meaning the greater the value of light they stop entering the lens. Thus you can use them to reduce light without having to adjust any settings in the camera. These filters come in two forms, round and square. The round simply screw into the front of the lens; whilst the square go into a filter holder. The hold then clips to the front of the lens. The advantage of the holder is that it can mount to many lenses and thus you can use one larger filter for all your lenses rather than a unique one per lens if you're using a screwthread (you can use stepping rings but its more of a hassle).
In addition there are Graduated Neutral Density filters which reduce light entering the camera from half of the filter, this is great for things like a sea scene where the sky and sea might be very different values of brightness. Thus you can set the variable point of graduation on the line between sea and sky - note that if you get a circular one that point has to be in the middle of the photo; whilst a square one you can move up and down the scene.

4) Even though cameras has EXIF information in each photo I'd encourage you to take notes on what you're doing as you play around and learn. The art of note-taking helps most people learn things quicker because it makes you formally write out what is going on and engage with that understanding. This might also help you not just reinforce what you do know; but identify areas where you're finding it hard to write down and thus highlighting an area you might not know all that well and would be prudent to read up on a bit more of.

 

[Ash Telecaster]

A few thoughts to add to the above:

1) When using aperture to reduce the amount of light entering the camera be aware of several things:
a) The smaller the aperture (bigger f number) the greater the depth of field (area of the photo in focus and sharp) will be. This might or might not be important for the composition of your photo.

b) Aperture affects sharpness in a photo. Typically a lens it not its best when wide open (widest aperture, lowest f number, the lens can do), and will improve in sharpness as you stop the shutter down. Around f8 to f10 (it varies lens to lens) the lens will deliver its peak performance in sharpness. Thereafter the sharpness starts to degrade. Beyond around f13 or f16 the drop in sharpness becomes more apparent.

So whilst you can use smaller apertures (bigger f numbers) to reduce light entering the camera, be aware of how it might also affect the photo you get.

2) If you mount the lens on a tripod and you're using slower shutter speeds turn OFF any stabilizing system. In general many of the newer ones can detect if the lens is on a tripod and turn themselves off; but at the same time its my experience that they fail to detect if the shutter speed is slow. So you can end up with blurr as a result of your anti-shake thinking its countering shake that isn't there. So you're already on a tripod, turn the anti-shake off.

3) Neutral Density filters can help a lot in reducing incoming light for this kind of photo. They come in different grades, with the higher the grade meaning the greater the value of light they stop entering the lens. Thus you can use them to reduce light without having to adjust any settings in the camera. These filters come in two forms, round and square. The round simply screw into the front of the lens; whilst the square go into a filter holder. The hold then clips to the front of the lens. The advantage of the holder is that it can mount to many lenses and thus you can use one larger filter for all your lenses rather than a unique one per lens if you're using a screwthread (you can use stepping rings but its more of a hassle).
In addition there are Graduated Neutral Density filters which reduce light entering the camera from half of the filter, this is great for things like a sea scene where the sky and sea might be very different values of brightness. Thus you can set the variable point of graduation on the line between sea and sky - note that if you get a circular one that point has to be in the middle of the photo; whilst a square one you can move up and down the scene.

4) Even though cameras has EXIF information in each photo I'd encourage you to take notes on what you're doing as you play around and learn. The art of note-taking helps most people learn things quicker because it makes you formally write out what is going on and engage with that understanding. This might also help you not just reinforce what you do know; but identify areas where you're finding it hard to write down and thus highlighting an area you might not know all that well and would be prudent to read up on a bit more of.

Overread,

That is great information. Especially the relationship between aperture and focal depth. I didn't understand how you would control bokeh. Thank you very much!

I did buy a few filters, the score on kind, but it was more a matter of just having a few to play with than any grand plan. I'll have to look into the square type as that seems much more practical and flexible.

Taking notes is a great idea. I've been experimenting and getting a feel for manipulating the camera to get what I want but I don't remember many specifics.

Turning off the stabilizer makes sense. One time the camera was driving me nuts because I forgot to turn off the auto focus!

 

[Ash Telecaster]

No idea of the settings, I shot this in 1978 or 79, and EXIF wasn't exactly a thing..? I think it was Kodachrome 25, which gave me room for longer shutter in full daylight, like 1/30 or even 1/15 at f:16, the smallest aperture the camera I used had on its lens. I'm not sure where the original is, this is a recent scan of a print I had made decades ago, so color-wise, it's quite flat. The blown whites and blacks are what you could expect back then, printing from a slide.

The waterfall in the background is an earthen dam about 20 feet high, holding back a small lake, and the foreground is actually a small rock maybe 4 inches high!

So close enough and small enough, ultra-long exposures aren't really needed!!! Too bad nothing shoots at 25 any more!

OP asked about fisheye... Those aren't something you can just go out and shoot general photography with, but they are fun to play with.

Here's a shot of my motorcycle, close enough that the mirro at the top of frame is behind the camera. I shot across the nose of the bike, with the horizon centered in the frame to keep it flat, and you can see the ground, and the entire left side of the bike. From about 5 inches away!

This one is looking almost straight up at the trees, and is actually cropped to remove the ground (and my own feet) at the bottom of the frame.

My fisheye is the Rokinon 8mm, for crop-frame cameras, and gives a field of view that diagonally is 180 degrees. If mounted on a full-frame camera, its hood is visible in the image, but it would crop to a circular image.

That treetop photo is making me dizzy!

Nice effect, on the bike too. I have to get one of those!

 

[Ash Telecaster]

Are there other photography things worth exploring besides the obvious.

Lens reversing rings. Free-lensing.

Busting the glass OUT of a cheap teleconverter, to make an extension tube.

Adding a 1.4, 2x, or even an older 3x teleconverter to a Lensbaby. Makes an approximately 75mm-80mm ,100mm-112mm,or 150mm-175mm tele "lensbaby"

Cheap-screw in wide-angle adapter lenses (e-Bay, Amazon,Ali Express).

Inexpensive lens adapters from e-Bay.

Legacy lenses..pawn shops, garage sales, etc..

Old, low-cost gear in "BGN" or "UGLY" condition.

Weird stuff you read about on the web.

Cool new-tech stuff you find out about.

What I have found interesting is that alot of "ugly" is mostly cosmetic with a few bummers in the lot.

If you can handle the battle scars, buy it!

Besides, those scars tell stories.

Sure you wont get a huge return on the investment per se money wise, but you can create like a mad man.

The only exception I have an issue with is pawn Shops.
I have purchased from them also, but I had an experience years ago where the receipt I kept also kept me out of jail when one of my lenses turned out to be a bit on the warm side and the police were kind enough to allow me to prove my legitimacy.

Searching eBay for ef lenses. Tons of them out there. Some for really low prices. KEH has a bunch too!

 

[Derrel]

Yes,Canon has sold something northward of 70 million EF lenses since 1987 or so, so there are many of them out there in the wild!as you have found out with so many lenses available prices are not exceptionally high. I personally see a lot of upside in buying used lenses.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

At my age I will be the first to admit I spent lot of time chasing rainbows. That is believing that I needed the next new gizmo or camera upgrade to improve my photography. They truth was, modern cameras are powerful tools and many of the things I needed were there all along, I just had not discovered how to use them yet.

That is the beauty of this board, we all get to share our successes and seek help on our failures.

 

[Soocom1]

At my age I will be the first to admit I spent lot of time chasing rainbows. That is believing that I needed the next new gizmo or camera upgrade to improve my photography. They truth was, modern cameras are powerful tools and many of the things I needed were there all along, I just had not discovered how to use them yet.

That is the beauty of this board, we all get to share our successes and seek help on our failures.

I find myself moving somewhat backwards.
using view cameras but with digital.

The concepts have never changed.

 

[texxter]

A second question. Are there other photography things worth exploring besides the obvious. Like maybe infrared photography or fish eye lenses or anything else?

1. Looking at photographs. Whether your library, bookstore or the internet, one of the most profitable ways for a photographer to spend time is to look at work done by others. Good work if possible. Beautiful photo books.
2. Instead of, or, in addition to, technical gimmicks, pick a personal project, something you're deeply interested in, and shoot for a few months, selecting the images that best tell the story, and then put together a book for yourself, and/or others with this body of work. The subject could be anything that motivates you to shoot. Google it and you'll find examples and suggestions. One of my favorite books about a personal project is Irving Penn's "Small Trades"

 

[Ash Telecaster]

A second question. Are there other photography things worth exploring besides the obvious. Like maybe infrared photography or fish eye lenses or anything else?

1. Looking at photographs. Whether your library, bookstore or the internet, one of the most profitable ways for a photographer to spend time is to look at work done by others. Good work if possible. Beautiful photo books.
2. Instead of, or, in addition to, technical gimmicks, pick a personal project, something you're deeply interested in, and shoot for a few months, selecting the images that best tell the story, and then put together a book for yourself, and/or others with this body of work. The subject could be anything that motivates you to shoot. Google it and you'll find examples and suggestions. One of my favorite books about a personal project is Irving Penn's "Small Trades"

Great suggestions, thank you!