Artography - Willis Tower

[Mike Lamb]

I finally bought an entry level SLR. $600. I'm trying it out in different venues. This has heavy post production to make it look OK. You get what you pay for.

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[David Meiland]

Star filter?

[kurt]

Yeah, star filter. Around here, we call it atmosphere (smog).

All them sodium vapor lights cancel out stars when downtown. You want lottsa stars, you have to go out onto the big pond several miles on a clear night.

Or, find different secluded spots, but even then, it's gotta be a clear night.

Cool shot, though.

[Terence McCann]

DSLR or just a SLR Mike?

I've got the Nikon D300S and it still needs a lot of help in post processing. Although I really like digital in that you can shoot till you fill up a memory card they still need a lot of help after the fact. If your DSLR has any picture control such as Standard, Vivid, Landscape you can play around with these for different effects. I always shoot RAW, in that you have a lot more creative elbow room in post processing, but shooting JPEG may look better.

If you went Nikon I would suggest getting Capture NX2. Much better than PS for RAW processing.

Nice pic btw - it looks like you need to straighten the horizion a tad though.

I think HIs are plugged into photography, more than the general population, because what we do is of such a visual nature. Then again I could be full of crap.

[Mike Lamb]

Thanks for the compliments.

It is a DSLR. Canon EOS 10 pixel. It came with 2 lenses which is nice. A standard and telephoto 75-300 mm. My long shots are grainy even with the anti-noise filter on.

I am taking before and after pictures of Mercy Hospital on our near south side. My buddy's Elec. shop changed all the hospital lighting inside and out to LED. Huge difference in brightness and energy consumption.

I was on the roof of the hospital and there were some great photo ops of the Chicago skyline. Tempting, but I don't think the night engineer would have appreciated me clowning around so I took the pics I was supposed to so we could both get in out of the cold.

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[Terence McCann]

What ISO you shooting at Mike? Once you start climbing over 800 it will get grainy.

[Mike Lamb]

1600 ISO. It gives a brighter shot. Maybe a lower ISO with a slower shutter speed would be better. I'm not really a photographer, yet.

[Terence McCann]

1600 is going to be off the chart grainy Mike.

Tripod and slow shutter speed for low light condx. Use a remote shutter cord or the onboard timer, on the camera, to prevent shake on these as well.

[Bill Kibbel]

I think HIs are plugged into photography, more than the general population, because what we do is of such a visual nature. Then again I could be full of crap.

You might be on to something. I was an art major before dropping out. Maybe it had a part in leading me to a career in crawling around old buildings. [:-graduat

[Terence McCann]

A few web sites you can noodle around at Mike:

http://www.kelbytraining.com/

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photog ... echniques/

http://photo.net/

http://www.sphoto.com/techinfo/histogra ... ograms.htm

If you're going somewhere with great photo opportunities but don't want to invest in a big $$ lens:

http://www.lensrentals.com/for-nikon

A fantastic web site for online education:

http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=306

Absolute necessity for anyone serious about taking digital photos, processing them through a program like Photoshop and then trying to replicate what you're seeing on the computer screen to what actually comes out of the printer. I've tried other ones but this is the best imo.

http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_product_ov ... px?id=1115

If you shoot me your home address I can give you some books on photography as well Mike. They deal with film but all the principals still remain the same for digital - depth of field, ISO, etc.

[kurt]

You might be on to something. I was an art major before dropping out. Maybe it had a part in leading me to a career in crawling around old buildings. [:-graduat

Another mid 70's art school drop out.......same here. I wanted to paint like JMW Turner, but ran dead on into the NY Abstract Expressionist ethic being flogged by every art professor at the time.

I had no interest in the farce being perpetrated upon me.

On occasion, I commune with the spirit of the great Gauguin......he dismisses most of late 20th century American Art, as do I........