The Official Photography Thread - Vol. 3

[Fong$tarr]

 

[keko jones]

 

[dvsonm]

 

[s0rtega22]

What’s up NT fam. *Insert long time lurker sentence here*

I slowly got into photography last year after I snagged a sony APS-C for a decent price. I’ve been shooting with Sigma is my go to right now for glass & im really digging the 56mm 1.4. I shot auto a ton but towards the end of ‘20, slowly started switching over to aperture mode and eventually manual.

I was able to land a few paid gigs and want to keep that momentum going and try to net at least 2K a mo. this year doing that (im in the KC area for what it‘s worth). Still finding my style but realizing I fall in line with lifestyle shots, product shots and even architectural photography. Editing is where it’s at for me, trying to find balance by not over editing but taking something ordinary to making it pop.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my work and get some feedback. Hopefully this will encourage some other shooters out there & spark some inspiration. I see a lot of ya’ll shooting some dope stuff and hope we can keep this thread active as time moves forward. I’ll do my best to be more consistent posting- Lord knows I need it after going super introverted during the pandemic. Enjoy.

 

[Fong$tarr]

Couple of photos I shot last week toward the end of the year. Hopefully I keep the same pace I did last year and shoot just as much.

 

[Nujavez]

Excited about this new lens from Tamron coming out for Sony APSC cameras 17-70mm f2.8 this month....

Anyone know for when it comes to aperture when you want to calculate the APSC aperture to its full frame equivalent? Is it the same as when your calculating the focal length of apsc lenses to full frame lenses? Multiplying it by 1.5

 

[DesD1]

Going to start supporting the community here, you guys all are great shots !

 

[s0rtega22]

Couple of photos I shot last week toward the end of the year. Hopefully I keep the same pace I did last year and shoot just as much.


Great shots, man.

What lens are you shooting with here? The contrast is incredible - even in the textures between the wood and the lights/concrete and sky. Did you do a lot of touch ups in LR post edit? I’m always interested because sometimes my shots are night and day once I run them through the clean up in the editing phase, lol.

 

[Fong$tarr]

^^^^^Thanks. The top one is shot with a 50mm and the bottom is with a Tamron 15-30mm. To be honest, any lens works doing these things. You just need to make sure it is framed right with your subject matter and background.

The post processing on these can a be a little time consuming but not as bad as a true product photography shot. But what I do is stand the bike up, shoot the bike with a tripod as a long exposure for about 20-30 seconds long, take an LED light and light paint the bike shining the light down. It takes a couple of tries to get it right but I also I make sure to light things different from the ground, top of the bike, bottom, etc. Then I leave the bike there and refocus on the background and do a normal long exposure there in different exposures. When I import these into light room, I put a general filter on it and do light edits on each photo. From there, I import all photos into photoshop as layers, align then all up and I composite them as one photo. The reason why I take so many shots is so I have photos for any scenario when editing. So if I want better lighting on the bridge or more stars in the sky, I should have a photo of that where I can edit that portion in.

As far as the contrast, I credit that to shooting these at night. When you light anything with an LED, you will get some intense contrast. I've said it on here before but I got the inspiration to do this from car photography like below. You should definitely give it a try. I've done it with shoes, wine bottle and even my lame Honda Accord. I think the bigger the subject the better but I can be proven wrong easily.

 

[kilroythedon]

whoa what a shot.

 

[keko jones]

whoa what a shot.

Thanks bro

 

[picasso swerve]

Couple of photos I shot last week toward the end of the year. Hopefully I keep the same pace I did last year and shoot just as much.

That first shot flames.

Btw, how are you know? Been a few months since accident. Everything good?

 

[Fong$tarr]

That first shot flames.

Btw, how are you know? Been a few months since accident. Everything good?

I am good! Thanks for asking. I had a pinched vein in my brain as well as some hearing loss and both things healed properly. My doctor told me I could have headaches and even a stroke but none of that really happened and it’s been like 5 months since the accident. So I think everything is pretty much back to normal...knock on wood.

 

[picasso swerve]

I am good! Thanks for asking. I had a pinched vein in my brain as well as some hearing loss and both things healed properly. My doctor told me I could have headaches and even a stroke but none of that really happened and it’s been like 5 months since the accident. So I think everything is pretty much back to normal...knock on wood.

Good to hear man! Remember when I first saw the pics on your gram I was shocked. But yeah man, glad its worked out.

 

[s0rtega22]

^^^^^Thanks. The top one is shot with a 50mm and the bottom is with a Tamron 15-30mm. To be honest, any lens works doing these things. You just need to make sure it is framed right with your subject matter and background.

The post processing on these can a be a little time consuming but not as bad as a true product photography shot. But what I do is stand the bike up, shoot the bike with a tripod as a long exposure for about 20-30 seconds long, take an LED light and light paint the bike shining the light down. It takes a couple of tries to get it right but I also I make sure to light things different from the ground, top of the bike, bottom, etc. Then I leave the bike there and refocus on the background and do a normal long exposure there in different exposures. When I import these into light room, I put a general filter on it and do light edits on each photo. From there, I import all photos into photoshop as layers, align then all up and I composite them as one photo. The reason why I take so many shots is so I have photos for any scenario when editing. So if I want better lighting on the bridge or more stars in the sky, I should have a photo of that where I can edit that portion in.

As far as the contrast, I credit that to shooting these at night. When you light anything with an LED, you will get some intense contrast. I've said it on here before but I got the inspiration to do this from car photography like below. You should definitely give it a try. I've done it with shoes, wine bottle and even my lame Honda Accord. I think the bigger the subject the better but I can be proven wrong easily.

Love. Thanks for the insight, man. Also good to know your health is on the up and up.

What you're describing makes complete sense and something I want to experiment with. Im just now switching over to manual mode and learning the power of the camera itself but am always amazed at how many way you can manipulate light to make some dope creations. I've been looking into lumecube because a couple of my boys have them and swear by them - anyone here have experience with em?

And keep the flicks coming all. This is the inspiration I personally need to keep expanding & growing. Regardless of if we're making money off of it or not, I think now more than ever it's good to keep our brains working/imagining a better world. Appreciate ya'll NT!

 

[DesD1]

moving out it’s so boring.

still have this hanging out beautifully

 

[Fong$tarr]

Couple of product photography shoots with some dunks I got. Need to get a little more creative with these if I can. Perhaps shoot with some elements in the photo. I've seen things like this shot with say a lemon or what not to go with the background.

I'd love to do something like this but that is a lot of crap I need to buy that is the same color.

 

[s0rtega22]

Yo Fong, those shots are fire. I actually like the simplicity but completey understand what you’re saying about adding extra elements. Check out Evan Ranft‘s YT channel - he’s got good inspo. for executing product shots around the house using common items. He should some air maxed with coffee grounds and it came out super dope.

What is the yellow background that you used here?

 

[Fong$tarr]

Yo Fong, those shots are fire. I actually like the simplicity but completey understand what you’re saying about adding extra elements. Check out Evan Ranft‘s YT channel - he’s got good inspo. for executing product shots around the house using common items. He should some air maxed with coffee grounds and it came out super dope.

What is the yellow background that you used here?

Yeah...I follow him on Youtube. Seems like a cool guy and I saw his shots on sneaker stuff before. Bummer he lost that job shooting that stuff.

I use actually a white background from Savage Universal and then do the Photoshop technique below. So in theory, I have almost any background color but with white backgrounds, the technique only works with doing lighter colors. I think if you had a grey background, then you can do darker colors.

 

[dvsonm]

Fong$tarr since I can’t reply to your IG stories I figure I can ask here. What’s your setup for product photography. Have a few things I wanna shoot and just wanna try out that aspect of photography. So I was looking for a shopping list of things I’d need. Thanks!

 

[Fong$tarr]

Fong$tarr since I can’t reply to your IG stories I figure I can ask here. What’s your setup for product photography. Have a few things I wanna shoot and just wanna try out that aspect of photography. So I was looking for a shopping list of things I’d need. Thanks!

Yo...what's up.

My setup is oddly cheap considering some people's setup but there are a lot of things you need to buy to even do what I do.

So this is not my setup but just showing it to reference the things I have. I have a 86" white backdrop from Savage Universal. I bought one of those Amazon backdrop setups too that came with 2 tripods and bar to go across to hold up the backdrop like above. I have two budget flashes from Yonguo with some Amazon budget umbrellas as well as flash stands. Umbrellas are only so good but it would be nice to get some softboxes like above to control the light better. The two flashes take care of most things but I do have an LED light if I need some more light for whatever reason. Then I have a Yonguo receiver for my camera and a tripod for my camera as well. I think if you get everything, it would be say $500-600 which is cheap considering but of course you can get way better stuff than that which can add to the cost easily.

It's a lot of work to even setup these shots as well as even edit them cause you want to be super meticulous with product photography stuff but I will say it is very rewarding than even capturing landscapes. Let me know if that answers everything,

 

[Fong$tarr]

Couple of bike photos in the empty streets of SF

 

[Fong$tarr]

Big camera new from Sony today with the launch of the A1. I can't say I have been a Sony lover but you have to give credit where credit is due. They let Canon have the light for just a bit with their R5 but this new A1 and although more expensive is what we have all been dreaming about. It's a sports camera, high MP camera and hi res video camera all in one. I really can't see myself selling off all my Canon gear to switch over but I just hope Canon follows this model and makes something similar in the future.

Sony Just Destroyed the Competition With New Sony a1 Mirrorless Camera

Sony has long been leading the way in the mirrorless market, but over the last year, Canon and Nikon have been trying to scratch and claw their way to the top. Today, Sony has sealed their fate. In a recent article, I asked the question “is lack of competition slowing camera innovation?”. And...

fstoppers.com

 

[lifestooshort80]

I

 

[dragicon]

moving out it’s so boring.

still have this hanging out beautifully

I just wandered into this thread for the first time in a long time.... happy my picture is still getting some love