frank uhlig

<p>The bounce flash is counterproductive: it evens out the light, indirects it and thereby distributes it all over and onto the background.</p>

<p>Alternative: have a black velvet hung in the back, get rid of the couch ... And make sure the ambient light is not strong. Simply spotmeter face and background. You need about 6 EV difference or even more.</p>

<p>Simple answer: too much contrast. A blue sky with a dark street underneath will also turn white as the medium (film, sensor) tries to do justice to the dark part of the pic.</p>

<p>No way to get this done in camera, without HDR (google) in photoshop, for an utterly unnatural look, however.</p>

<p>There is a subfield of geometry called descriptive geometry that is geared towards drawing 3-D objects accurately on 2-D paper/screen. And inside that field, to reconstruct physical quantities such as size, distance, angle of view etc is done via photogrammetry.</p>

<p>Now go find a book on this. You will first have learn perspective drawing and once you know how to do that, you can appraoch the inverse process: to get measures in 3D space off a 2-D picture.</p>

<p>This, however is a long and tedious process of learning; large police forces usually have one member capable to do this for criminal proceedings to reconstruct the scene of a crime for example .... (or they outsource this ..). There may be some photogrammetry software now, too ... </p>

<p>Good luck. it is not easy is all I say here. But good luck anyway. Perspective drawing is such fun!</p>

<p>Look at your currently used charger and read the fine "print" on its case.</p>

<p>One item there will end with a capital V for Volts. And it will be preceded by something like 100 - 240.</p>

<p>Then you would be ok most anywhere on the globe ... and in Turkey: 230 V 50 Hz, plug type C or F and C will suffice for both kinds on the wall.</p>

<p>Just google "line voltage Turkey" to understand how easy this is. Then get a US to type C converter plug locally (you would not be likely to find one in T ...; try Radio Shack, maybe, or google again ...). </p>

<p>Florida has no income state tax , that is the only non-tax there ... So if you receive a salary in FL, federal tax is it in Florida. All other sales, professional and service taxes/fees etc exist in Florida as everywhere.</p>

<p>WEELL Landrum,</p>

<p>when I view my pics after a while, I have lost all idea of what I felt at the time and why I took some/many of the pics. On first viewing, however, I often feel that I did not catch the feeling at aLL AND ALL MY PICS FIRST DISAPPOINT ME. bUT AFTER WEEKS WHEN THE DIRECT ASSOCIATION VANISHES A BIT, i DO LIKE SOME FOR THeiR COMPOSITION, COLOR, LIGHT ...</p>

<p>aND NOW YOU WORRY ABOUT A THIRD PERSON GETTING WHAT YOU SAW IN THE FIRST, THE TAKING MOMENT. fORGET IT, PLEASE.</p>

<p>yOU ARE CREATING AN ARTIFACT, NOT A HOLOGRAPHIC, acoustic, OLFACTORY, ... REPLICA.</p>

<p>Who can hear the thunder of the waves of a seascape? Or the boom of the cannons in a war photo? Or smell the smell of rotting human flesh there ...</p>

<p>I think good pics take on a life of their own and a strength of their own that often was not what the author had in mind. Art exists independent by itself in nature, waves, sand drawings on the beach etc, does it not? In crowd movement, fallen leaves, ...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>What makes you want to have instant tripod response to quickly changing scenes? Low light. </p>

<p>So how about investing in a 128,000 ISO camera. That may be your cheapest bet for city nightshots on the street, people milling at bus stop, cafe entrance etc. Some high price Nikons, Canons can go up there and you could easily gain 6 stops over your D50. And be able to hand hold comfortably.</p>

<p>But a tripod, by its very construction and purpose requires timely (compared to the fleeting scenes you are (apparently) after) set-ups.<br>

Just having the camera on a tripod with a somewhat loosened head for easy swings around and reframing can result in good long time exposure shots with a bit of technique. Good luck! And do use a remote cable release ... of course you know that and do it anyway ....</p>

<p>As said earlier here: "the lens and the film make the picture", and I would add: the photog's eye, the light, and a bit of chance.</p>

<p>So, the best lenses are/ were made by Zeiss or Leica; with the F6 you would luck out on getting those best lenses, I am afraid. The best film is Ektar 100 or Fuji Pro 400 H (for faster shots). So use those. Then train your eyes to see, get up early and watch the light and you will be there.</p>

<p>Of course medium format is totally different again from 35 mm: you will take totally different subjects (more static ones) totally differently, due to different aspect ratios, speed of set-up, shortness of 12 or 16 frames per film, .. weight of gear, ...</p>

<p>And ultimately it does not depend on the gear/film/lens alone (unless you do product photography and working with a SINAR $ 60,000 set up already) but on your eye, the light, and your luck.</p>

<p>So, go price a Contax G2 with a couple of lenses and try that out for cheap but best 35 mm outfit all around. And with that you can go to 12 by 18 any day or night. Good luck!</p>

<p>I favor (and use) the Contax G2 over any old or new Leica; maybe not over a ZM, though. ...</p>

<p>Dear Paul,</p>

<p>think about it this way: If your logic holds, why would Nikon bother to multicoat more than one lens inside the - say 8 element - assembly of this modern marvel lens they sell. That would be good enough, right.</p>

<p>And keeping on here: as you add one more lens (your glass filter) into the optic path, you will want to preserve this lens' lack of flare, rather than introduce two more glass/air naked, reflective surface joins, would you not.</p>

<p>Why use/buy the expensive multicoated lens if you grind its image in flare right up front with an uncoated filter? Simply grind the multicoating off at the front or rear of your Nikon marvel and you will have the same effect.</p>

<p>A clickable URL would be nice ...</p>

<p>How about as you get comfortable in the plane, first 3 minutes.</p>

<p>Then that SILLY PART IS OVER AND YOU CAN ENJOY YOUR TRIP , RATHER THAN CARRYING A HANG-OVER ON THE MOST GLITZY PLACE TO PROPOSE AND FIDGETING ALL THE TIME OVER THIS.</p>

<p>oR EVEN BETTER, DO IT RIGHT NOW, TODAY AND BE FREE TO LIVE AGAIN IN CERTAINTY ...</p>

<p>sILLY ME, UNROMANTIC, JUST PRACTICAL.</p>

<p>And I hit the cap lock button by mistake, sorry. On the MAC I know how to disable it, but on this windows machine I goofed ...</p>

<p>1/3 off exposures do not really matter on film (b+w or negative), except if you are finicky about the exact slides that you will see. So: 300 ~= 250; 100 ~= 125; 25~= 30; ; 10 ~= 8 etc.</p>

<p>Also, there are no glaciers or valcanos anywhere near NYC. But the owls are there for you to depict in Athens ...</p>

<p>Glorious pictures of the police, their weapons to kill, their disassociated brutality and unconnectedness towards the subjects of their aim (the people) is frightening and cold. <br>

I do like the graveyard black vignette on most of the pics. Well deserved satire, it seems to me.</p>

<p>How were you embedded with the "authority" for so long, riding on the back of the tanks etc ... ? Why not any 'people' people shots, I mean pics, sorry? Of course I realize you had to make a decision to be in one bed here. The proper bed, I wonder? But this is nice work, though the colors pop too disneyesque at times .. the blues; no blood reds, though, are ever visible ... Was nobody killed?</p>

<p>I think if you look around a bit more you will find merit in the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 micro 43 lens.</p>

<p>A simple metric ruler is a hard thing to find and learn how to use in these U of A states, it seems. Sorry you had trouble with that. Schools don't teach anything these days, it seems ...</p>

<p>So enjoy that 55mm cap and maybe read up a bit on the physics of the photo-thing, optics, exposure, ... in books from your city library. It is a lot of fun to learn through photography: simple angles, proportions, geometry, the square law, ... etc and perspective, ...</p>

<p>Read on; that is how I learned this craft. And do a lot of trial and error experiments. They teach a lot deeper understanding than ready advice here can.</p>

<p>Dear Rick,</p>

<p>the pics are superb, but let us all remember it is NOT the camera (nor the typewriter for poets ...), it is the photog, his/her eye and expertise with the technical and compositional stuff.</p>

<p>Congrats, Rick on being a superb photog! For these scenes you could have used any other camera, I am sure ...</p>

<p>Ryan,</p>

<p>what size wedding is this? 20 people sitting comfortably around 1 table, small church/ ? for the tying of the knot ..</p>

<p>Or Westminster Abbey, 1400 guests and friends; or on on a cruse ship/private Caribian island all of its own etc? </p>

<p>Only you may know the answer here: for the former setting, a 28-50mm lens couple is good, for the second one the 300mm tele might be your only choice if you are number 1283 on the totem pole and 2 decks away from the bride ..</p>

<p>Well, dear JDM, just try to do as Chuck and I said earlier and you might learn a trick or two.</p>

<p>It is just physics, the physics of motion or the action = reaction principle of it.</p>

<p>You may call this knowledge of ours "self-confidence" or by any other name that you like or if you like. It, a little understanding of physics, will work wonders anyway and every time. And answer the poster's problem completely.</p>

<p>I apologize, though, to have riled you with a little physics truth. Sorry, for my faults.</p>

<p>Ok, try this (I assume the shutter release is from a button that you will have to push right back towards you, ala Rollei .. If different improvise, please)</p>

<p>The idea is not to exert any unbalanced force onto the camera body when shooting: So, I simply put my index finger (right hand) on the release and the thumb behind the camera. Now I squeeze index finger and thumb together and the shutter button is pushed in and the shutter releases.</p>

<p>And all the pushing force is self-contained in its counterforce from the thumb. A squeeze upon the whole camera body, rather than a push of the camera into my own belly direction.</p>

<p>Works well down to 1/8 sec on a TLR with the camera firmly resting on my belly. And the other fingers of the right hand and the left hand supporting the TLTR as usaul.</p>

<p>All earlier advise above is just soso, in my opinion, sorry.</p>

<p>I think the Haselblads have square images as output. Why rotate the camera since landscape = portrait mode here ... ?</p>

<p>But you could try some of the flash flip brackets maybe.</p>

<p>Dear John,</p>

<p>there are a few things to learn here:</p>

<p>1) Portraits with flash straight on into the face gives you "deer in headlight" pictures, sort of like caricatures of what you are after, portraits.<br>

So read up, learn, practice to use bounce flash (sync cord, flash bracket, wall, ceiling use)<br>

2) Portraits at 28mm focal lengh - while quite possible with good technique - give your subjects big noses and no more than 1 ear per picture. Back off and shoot with a 90mm lens and see.<br>

3) Read up in general, there are camera tutorials, flash tutorials etc en masse.<br>

4) Be patient with your gear and your understanding of it. Do not give up, but learn and educate yourself. Stop being frustrarted that you cannot just produce Yusef Karsh (google) quality portraits upon one gear change. Even if you had inherited his set-up, your pics would still suck for years to come ...<br>

5) Photogaphy is an art that requires constant technical learning and artistic freedom. Do not confuse the two.<br>

6) Good luck, you have one premier camera system with glorius lenses to boot. Success will come.</p>

 

<p>Use an external lightmeter, maybe? Old meters sometimes just die ... or are highly unreliable ...</p>

<p>Assuming you have a camera, go out and use the most insensitive film or sensor setting (smallest ISO value, 50 or 100), close your lens down the most (largest f number f/22 or smaller f/32), focus ,,, ... Put a filter on the front, maybe a polarizer (- 2 light values) or a neutral density filter, get your tripod out, find a suitable subject and TRY your luck with a long time exposure, maybe a minute, maybe two ... whatever your lightmeter tells you!</p>

<p>That is how it is done. YOU CAN DO it all by yourself. Good luck!</p>