[Farktographer]

When it comes to big crowds, or if I’m looking for a particular shot and people are in the way, I have no problem getting a picture without permission. Hey, it’s MY picture they’re invading 😆 Or if I have backs turned to me, and there’s just something about the shot I love, I’ll take it. I only ask permission of a stranger(s) to take a shot if they’re going to end up being the main subject(s) of that frame, and they’ll be recognizable.

[Farktographer]

Eh…second one in this contest. Woodstock_the_Mighty’s 2011-04-28 04:05:50 PM submission is a compilation pic. A shame, b/c it’s pretty interesting idea…

[Farktographer]

Thanks! I had to separate my niece from the crowd celebrating her 2nd birthday, then handed her balloons and got a series of similar shots – that one was my favorite of them though.

On an unrelated note, I tend to get iffy around black and white shots, but really liked your Brother-in-law and nephew (his son).

[Farktographer]

For me, I think when I photograph friends & family, I hold the photos to an even higher standard than if I were to do studio work for pay (which I don’t). I’ve learned to be more forgiving of minor flaws when I’m taking street photos because it’s less than ideal conditions, generally, and I know I only get one take (if I’m lucky). When it’s friends & family, I think you want everything to be ‘perfect’.

Ennui, I think olavf hit this one on the head. When it’s a stranger, you don’t know their personality or much about them, so when you capture the moment you can just fit them into your situation as needed. When you have a family member or friend, you want to be able to get an image that you can look at and think, “this is really them. This is how they look, this is how they feel, this is how they act,” and that’s much much harder IMO. I like how your shots came out 🙂

[Farktographer]

Here’s a special case: Say I’ve brought somebody up to my big research telescope and we’re taking what I like to call ‘pretty pictures’ (usually I’m alone up there, but Rav visited once. It was cloudy, though so we got nothing). Given that the operation of the camera in this situation is a bit involved, I would probably have to be pressing all of the buttons, but somebody else could be directing me about composition, exposure, etc. If I then press the ‘Expose’ button, do I instantly become the photographer, even thought I’ve done only the job of a trained monkey? I’m leaning towards no. This is, in fact, what we have at a lot of the big observatories-dedicated operators directed by astronomers doing the actual research. The telescope operators aren’t called astronomers-they just press the buttons. To play devil’s avocado, though, it would be hard not to give credit to the operator. It’s a bit of a grey area, to be sure.

::sigh:: just HAD to make the grey area even more grey, didn’t you Plama? 🙄

I’m in the camp that the person directing everything would be the photographer. The composition as a whole, set with them telling you how to expose, what to aim for, et cetera, would be their creation if you’re practically flying blind.

It’d be a bit like a composer crafting his masterpiece – sure, there are lots of musicians involved in the symphony, but everyone in the audience really knows who created the final piece, and only the composer is going to be able to take full credit for it.

/Edit to say: this case is a real tough one, though. It has me split down the middle. I can see how very valid arguments could be made against using a photo formed this way.

[Farktographer]

In this case Elsinore is the creative vision behind the photograph, she constructed the scene, decided on every element about the scene, she is the photographer. It doesn’t matter who pushed the shutter.

I’m leaning heavily towards this sort of definition. If you can consider yourself the photographer of a given picture, then I would think it’s fair game for entry. If you’re confident you could put a copyright on it and claim it as your own creation, then it’s yours to submit. If there’s internal dissonance of any sort, or you’d feel guilty for it, then just don’t (like someone mentioned before, we don’t have Farktography police that will be able to track down who actually tripped the shutter).

During Easter, I had my camera set up in manual mode. I got the exposure, the general setting, the subjects, the lighting, everything set up, then handed it off to my sister-in-law. She composed the final picture before tripping the shutter, so I’d instantly consider that her picture – I’d never lay claim to it. However, if I had my camera set up on a tripod and I composed the shot, and all she did was trip the trigger? I’d absolutely call that my photograph. It’d just feel like it was mine, and I’d have no problem claiming it as such.

/my 2?

[Farktographer]

(just dont forget the off part or the rest of your pictures will require a lot of extra processing…)

/Guilty 😳

[Farktographer]

Also, if you’re shooting in raw, don’t you want to slightly under-expose?

No, not if you can help it (providing you can avoid blowing the highlights):

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Interesting read – I’ll have to try that technique sometime and see if it makes a noticeable difference.

[Farktographer]

I’m real particular of the winter and autumn HDR’s 🙂

[Farktographer]

ravnostic – yeah, I’m using the D7000 (I love it so so much). I’ve been metering properly from what I can tell, but some situations still throw me off – getting the right metering on a sunset, for instance, or getting a ray of light correctly exposed coming out of clouds. I’m guessing things like that just take practice to see where exactly I want to meter for. Periodically I’ll take some very over-exposed shots of people but usually that happens when I forget to re-meter after moving from a shady area to a sunny one. I do hope I never reign in myself enough to miss a good shot, though 🙂 I notice I get really trigger-happy with wild animals and moving targets (though I think my niece counts as both).

Plamadude – wow, numbers. I’m not used to seeing those sorts of stats being tossed around after a day of work 😕 I agree, I’ve been getting great results shooting slightly under-exposed in raw. It gives me a lot more to play with especially when I go into the processing software. I decided to get myself a Giotto’s Air Rocket to clean off the sensor, but it sounds like that’s about all the service I’ll need for a while

[Farktographer]

…I lied -_-

I saw the Vivitar DF-383 external flash and decided to get that one. I’m not going to be able to afford the Nikon brand speedlight anytime soon, and this seemed like a great alternative to get better-quality indoor shots.

[Farktographer]

Yeah, and I’ve noticed over time that I’ve definitely gotten better with the composition when it comes to shooting family events. I went absolutely crazy with Christmas at 1,000 pictures and maybe only 150 were good shots. That’s compared to the birthday party where of 400 pictures I kept 250 that I considered good enough to share with everyone. I’m still having issues with cutting off half of a person’s head if I’m focusing on little kids though – the adults in the background get no respect from my camera 😈

I still slip into my old ways when I’m trying to capture something in movement, though. I was trying to get a couple shots for the upcoming Airborne theme on the hopper, and had my friend running around chasing birds. I took about 20 shots until I finally got a decent one 😯 It could also be because I’m forcing myself to shoot in all-manual, so I tend to get slightly over- or under-exposed shots that I then have to take twice or thrice to get right…. It is fun learning, though.

I agree limiting myself to shots should force me to get better at composing them the way I want in the first place. I’ll try to relax the trigger-happiness a bit, hah.

So do any of you ever bring your cameras in for service? I get mixed messages on other forums online. I see some that say it’s essential to make sure your machine is running fine, though most say you can usually just air-blow your sensor and that’s essentially all you’d need to do until the shutter starts dying on you (in your experience, how long until that tends to happen – if it even happens at all for any of you?).

[Farktographer]

That’s some serious macro you’ve got there. I’m impressed

[Farktographer]

Alas, one of my favorite family shots is one where I set up everything on the camera down to the flash, exposure compensation, aperture, focal point, focal length, and exact positioning of the camera. But I didn’t have my tripod that day, so my sister had to be the remote shutter release. Just don’t feel like I could submit that since she pressed the shutter.

I’ve always been interested where the gray area ends with this. If I use a remote shutter, I’m telling the remote to tell the shutter to open and close. If I set up a shot and have someone else press the button, isn’t it pretty much the same? Using them as a remote, if you will.

I was thinking about it when it came to the x-rays last week. If I went in for an x-ray and was able to set up everything but wasn’t allowed to press the button, wouldn’t me telling the operator to press the button be pretty much the same thing?

Anyways, that one’s a little more arbitrary. I’m thinking in this situation it’s a fair photo to use, Elsinore.

[Farktographer]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I’m thinking I’ll save up for a bigger (and better) purchase later and just scratch the buying itch with some new memory cards and a spare battery. I’ve been giving those f/1.8 cameras a nice, long look though. Soon…you will be mine, soon.

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