[Murchu]

December 31, 2017 at 3:27 pm

Yeah, not a bad idea. Have a bit of time before I have access to my development kit, so any anecdotes/ experience when shooting expired film are welcome. From some homework it seems I should be ok & not lose too much sensitivity when shooting it (thought I made lose a stop)

[Murchu]

June 19, 2014 at 9:38 pm

Ha ha, yes, I know what you mean :) Architecture I think would always have been something I have always enjoyed a lot, but failed miserably to be satisfied with any architectural images I’ve taken. I think many successful images can be rooted in light and details, and you’re probably taking the right route, returning to a similar area time and time again :)

[Murchu]

June 19, 2014 at 11:53 am

Nice image Miki, and not the easiest of areas to get a satisfactory image I have found :) Do I detect a series/ photo project revolving around Christchurch and its environs ?

[Murchu]

May 23, 2014 at 10:35 pm

Hey Jamie,

Its a trick photographers used when shooting slides – underexpose by about a third of a stop to increase the intensity of the colour. With post-processing software these days, there are a lot more options, and if your software allows it, playing around with the hue/ saturation/ lightness sliders of the colours in question helps a lot. I wouldn’t go overboard, and usually find playing around with the parameters for one colour tends to do the trick. To help get your head around it, envisage something like a colour wheel, to understand what changing the hue/ saturation/ lightness does with the colour in question, I find this helps a lot :)

[Murchu]

May 23, 2014 at 12:52 am

A little underexposure, about a third of a stop, can help deepen colour.

The other thing you will find helpful, is playing around with the green/ yellow sliders under the hue or saturation tab if you’re using lightroom. Unfortunately I can’t remember which, as its been a while, but it was one thing that gave me the greens I saw, as the default processing tended to give me greens that had a little too much yellow in them.

Oh, lowering the white balance a little will sometimes help too with greens, as it seems to bring down the warmth of the yellow in the greens I found.

Hope that helps, as that’s what I discovered when seeing how I could easily replicate the wonderful greens one of my camera presets (Nikon D2x Mode 3) gave me :)

[Murchu]

May 13, 2014 at 1:09 am

Anything to do with the aperture lock on the lens ?

[Murchu]

May 7, 2014 at 11:28 am

I have a big weakness for the gallery style frames, with the minimal black metal frames and and a nice mat with probably a slight hint of warmth in it. I like how as a frame, it tends to get out of the way of an image, at least for photographic images, and seems to work equally well for both b&w and colour. For paintings, give me anything, as long as its appropriate to the piece :)

[Murchu]

April 17, 2014 at 1:59 pm

Quite interesting.. I can’t say I like most of the effects in the images, but as a technique it is quite interesting, and an alternative way to get motion into an image without needing to use a video file. I suppose there’s probably a fair amount of work involved to get to this point in photoshop though..

[Murchu]

April 10, 2014 at 11:34 am

Use 500px, have used Flickr, and dabbled with the idea of Ipernity, a site quite akin to an older style, more streamlined version of flickr. I wouldn’t be one for internet criticques, so can’t add anything really in that regard, beyond agreeing with your own impressions of the aforementioned sites. I’m keen to keep an eye on this thread though, as presentation of images is something I care for, and while I like 500px in that regard, I don’t care much for the square thumbnails that many sites impress on you.

[Murchu]

April 1, 2014 at 1:20 pm

The issue you’re facing is the inability to blur the background with your 18-55, which is a product of the lack of wider f-stops on it, and the wider focal length nature of the lens. To get shallow depth of field you need either wider apertures or longer lenses, and in that regard the 50mm f1.8 is a good recommendation, but the cheaper version for €100 will not autofocus on your D3200, and you will need its newer incarnation, the 50mm f1.8 AF-S, to do so. On your Nikon DX camera, that 50mm will become a short telephoto, something that can be useful, but a little specialist in nature. Bear that in mind if you don’t think you would have much use for the lens outside this purpose.

I think a much better alternative if you have no intentions of using the 50mm for dabbling in portraits, and other work that lends itself to a short telephot. would be to look at the 35mm f1.8 which will help you blur the background a little, as well as also being a handy little lens for general shooting. Cheap enough too at about €200, or less if you shop around or seek out a used version. In that ballpark, you may also find a nice little third party f2.8 zoom, like the Tamron 17-50, but that would be more a replacement to your current lens, as opposed to something to supplement it like the aforementioned prime lens options.

To see what depth of field you will get with what focal lengths and apertures on your camera, check out depth of field tables like those at dofmaster.com. Should put most of the options on the table into context, and if they will fit your purpose.

By the way, extremely odd link as an example of what you were hoping to illustrate. The web is full of shallow depth of field images, and was surprised to see the link you used to illustrate your original question.

[Murchu]

March 15, 2014 at 1:45 pm

markst33 wrote:

the rule of thumb he had was that apart from whitening the whites of the eyes and sharpening eyes, hair he did not touch permanent things.

That’s actually quite a great and succinct rule of thumb, I shall have to remember it – thanks for sharing it :)

[Murchu]

March 12, 2014 at 11:09 am

Hi Billy,

Welcome to the site, Billy. Like the others, I’ve enjoyed looking through your work, and know I am going to continue to do so :)

If you haven’t done so, do check out the film photography forum here, where I think you shall find some quite dedicated and talented users there. Don’t neglect having an amble around the rest of the site though :)

[Murchu]

March 11, 2014 at 1:53 pm

Lovely silhouetted shot, and lovely colour :) Bit of colour fringing around the dog I would deal with, but that’s about all really. I would be interested to see what a square crop, cropping what’s left of the dogs tail, would look like though :)

Welcome to the forum by the way!

[Murchu]

March 11, 2014 at 12:39 pm

Any chance of a nominate button on picture posts ?

Apologies if the wrong forum to suggest such, but consider it a free bump if so ;) :D

[Murchu]

March 10, 2014 at 8:42 pm

My own view is I think post-prodction that enhances the qualities of the person is fine, but alteration is not. The end product doesn’t matter a whit to me either, and would have no time for airbrushing/ body alteration/ digital slimming/ digital facial alteration, or any of the nonsense that is used to project images of perfection, ala the fashion/ magazine industry.

Anyway, there’s your first strong opinion ;)

Re: photoshop, I don’t think its so much the tool, but rather the intention of the one using it, or what it’s used for.