illektronik Symmetry Shoot

[illektronik]

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[Jethro41]

Brilliant!

[10d]

My gosh, JC. You have been busy. Nice! When's my turn. Haha.
Synergy>D

[S&H]

Beautiful as usual

[nath_mk6]

Great shots JC, that last one is my fav, looks like its grinning as its about to do something bad.....

[Taz_]

Damn, impressive work!

[SUGA]

John, you just keep impressing and impressing and impressing!

[G-rig]

Awesome shots

[Justin Fox]

So hot, featured ride material right there.

[10d]

Awesome, JC! Might try something myself. Just got inspired. Time to dust off my camera gear!

[S&H]

How does one turn on those two strip of lights under the main ones?

[defaultx]

I'm looking to buy a new camera so this is good inspiration, nice shots :D

[kaoticice]

Those are beautiful shots!! man.. those wheels are breathtaking!!!

[Frenchie]

Last shot is the money shot ! beautiful pics John.

[chewy7]

Dang! Thats hot!

Your rocking OEM LED's with Dual Reverse lights? NICE!

I admit, i am extremely tempted to go out and shoot my car after i saw Easton Chang's work on the porker. Just amazing photography...but alas, Uni has me by the balls ><.

You've done a pretty awesome job at trying to replicate his work though..So well done!

[Tinto]

This bar-raising shit is getting upsetting.
I'm going to buy some Polaroid film and give David Hockney a call ( none of us will quite know how to critique it) ha.

Great work John!
Black car, night time, (basically) indoors... Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but these are just beautiful :)

[G-rig]

This bar-raising shit is getting upsetting.


It's pretty hard to compete these days, LOL.

[Dori*mon]

Beautiful, both car and photos.

[TasH]

Great shots, how long did it take you to make sure everything was perfectly symmetrical

[wilch]

Nice shots!

But the last one...dual drive (I see two steering wheels). :D

[VeeDub]

Superb! Especially the shot of the rear.

[10d]

Nice shots!

But the last one...dual drive (I see two steering wheels). :D
Haha. Busted!

[∆pex]

shots look amazing john!

i eagerly await the day you graduate from "noob" status!!! lol

[nath_mk6]

yeah I was thinking if this is whats produced by John in noob status, what are they going to look like when he becomes proficient!?!?!? maybe they will actually come alive on the screen!

[nath_mk6]

:)

[wilch]

The difference would only really be noticed by me (I think), as I work the the high res files. I'm sure you know what I mean Steve. You're in the same game as me. You can hide a lot of crap in a low res JPEG and most people would be none the wiser. Get a professional photographer to look at your RAW files and they'll pull it to bits, even you guys would see the flaws in the raw files. I'm not about to show them though. That'll kill the illusion.

Canon or Nikon user?

If you're a Canon person I'd highly recommend L series lenses. They make a world of difference zoomed in at 400%. All those areas where the colours use to bleed...goneski. :)

[chris32]

Awesome pics i'm so jealous :)

Penrith Plaza?

[burgs]

Fantastic photos, crisp and sharp. Exposure is spot on :)

[Byza]

mate i am speechless... they are amazing shots and makes me realis i need to step up my PS skills..

on the noise your finding... in low light, use a low ISO and longer exposure if there isnt much light around... with really long exposures, you can turn noise reduction on but for the image period, its the same period for reduction ie... 120sec exposure, another 120sec of process after shot...

im still working on it too... black can bring quite a bit of noise but hopefully when i buy couple of strobs should solve night shots...

keep it up mate... your work is inspiring...

[Byza]

mate AV mode is basically teaching you what you need for the exposures you achieved... thats all good...

i have never used Auto since i bought my camera about 10 month ago and have always shot in manual..i made this pack for myself when i bought it so i would learn. i have got pissed off plenty of times but i have also learned very quickly... i would suggest Av for landscape panos as this will give you an even exposure throughout the shot... it is also great with taking consistent in variying lighting...

if you were in a carpark you will need an exposure of roughly 5-20sec pending light... so try this, manual mode, ISO 100, 5-15 sec exposure and obviously on a tripod... depending on the lense this will reduce the noise alot... also when taking a shot on the tripod, always use the 2 sec delay so you dont get an shake or movement on your HDRs... youll find the camera is compensating with higher ISO to light the image rather then a longer exposure... if you have an awesome camera then a high ISO is not big deal but mine sucks so need to always use lower ISO... usually lower the ISO, reduction of noise...

i would check the stats of the shots and see what the specs were??

mate i am no expert but just passing on what i have learned first hand... i hope it helps...

oh and with flickr, if you find a shot you like... look at camera details and then there is "more properties..this will give you the details of the shot... this will help you a lot with anything you want to know about that shot... i have found it helped me quite a bit...

dont worry mate, your shots are sick and perfect framing... i need your editing talent bad...

** just realised they are HDRs which helps a lot with low light but you are getting the noise from shoting at 3200 ISO....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/illektronik/4449533644/meta/

[Byza]

Also, Byza, if you have any photos you ever want me to make a series or (or just a 1 off) PM me. I'll work on them for sure.

you're a gentleman... thanks for the offer..i may take you up on it and at least some PS advise... if you have Q's, just PM me and ill see if i can help but i am still learning lots... i have learned alot from reading "properties" in flickr and seeing different settings for different shots... get that ISO down and youll never have any noise problems mate... even at ISO400, you find the noise would be massively reduced based on the same shots, even though they are perfect!!! haha

[scotty1991]

I want that car in my life

[zz2]

John those photos are amazing! gotta love sneaking into multi story carparks at night ehehehe

[benough]

Noob photographer. Not a noob retoucher. I've been doing that for what feels like centuries. I quite seriously did fail Photography at uni. I hated it back then and am wishing I'd paid more attention.

The only thing I'm really wanting to learn/understand is:

1. getting sharper, cleaner shots.
2. getting the lighting right, starting to use speedlights (but have enough to lear the with camera – 1 step at a time)
3. Getting less noise



On the noise issue, I assume you have set your ISO as low as possible and used a tripod and longer shutter speed?

My $35 genuine canon external shutter controller is brilliant for doing that stuff.

What I find more impressive than your photos is that you convinced your lady to leave the house at 1am for "car shit" haha!

[S&H]

I had it set in Aperture mode, which stops me setting me ISO (from what I understand). I'll shoot manual next time and set it all. I think the ISO was like 3200 hence my problem. Tripod was used, but I couldn't find my controller. Haven't seen it since my shoot with Frenchie. But I set a delay on the shutter so that it would shoot 1 second after I pressed the button.

Setting your camera to Aperture Priority should not allow the camera to change the ISO for you. Aperture Priority only automates shutter speed while you control the Aperture. The ISO setting is always independant of the automatic exposure modes.

[benough]

On my Canon you can set the ISO on Aperture mode so I can't see why your Nikon would do the same.

Nah stay on A. You will only need to go to manual if your shutter speed on the lowest ISO cause your shutter speed to go to 'bulb'

From my experience with current consumer range DSLRs anything above 800 ISO and you will get noise.

The rule of thumb I was taught is always have the ISO as low as you can go and then bring it up if your shutter speed is too slow to the point where it stops blurring.

[S&H]

Will it must have some other auto ISO setting as it won't let me alter it. In either Aperture or Shutter priority modes. Like I said, I'm a noob with the camera.

That can't be. ISO is always independant of modes. You may have bumped it accidently or the camera is faulty.

[S&H]

No but I have several Nikon film cameras and a Fuji S5Pro DSLR (based on the D200) and their interfaces are similar to the D90.

[S&H]

It's probably the ISO sensitivity auto control. Did they even have that on the film based Nikons? I have no idea.

I'm sure the interfaces are similar, but are the features? Surely the differ depending up whether it's digital or not.

Have just turned of the sensitivity auto control and the override appears to have gone.

Yes, you are right, I've just googled this and found this:

ISO sensitivity auto control

This is where we set the AUTO ISO feature ON or OFF. Auto ISO magically bumps up the ISO as the light gets weaker, saving you a lot of time since you no longer need to watch your lighting or shutter speeds. Set this and just shoot, from daylight to moonlight.

"Auto ISO leaves the ISO alone until the shutter speed would get slower then the Minimum shutter speed set below. If the light (or your camera settings) would cause a slower speed, Auto ISO increases the ISO so the shutter speed remains at the slowest setting below.

Auto ISO keeps increasing the ISO as the light dims until it hits the Maximum sensitivity you've set, after which the shutter speed will be allowed to get longer than what you've set. "

Sometimes, automation just gets in the way.

Auto ISO is new one for me esp on SLRs.

[Pharkus]

Yup same thing with my shots that I found as well John. The various settings that you can manipulate for less noise is lower ISO (but you need longer exposure time), decrease aperture (which should increase size of the "hole" dunno what to call it, that lets light through) or as mentioned increase exposure time. You at least have a tripod so you can experiment some with a balance between the three. I've found that the bigger the aperture the more blurred the background, so I reckon you still have to balance this with the other two to achieve the desired result. I hope I'm making sense here.

But what a difference it makes to the pics if you are a photoshop expert!!!

[M4RK0]

Nice shots!!, Illektronik, can I ask you where did you bought your rear bumper with the quad exit?

Thanks,

[Frenchie]

I had it set in Aperture mode, which stops me setting me ISO (from what I understand). I'll shoot manual next time and set it all. I think the ISO was like 3200 hence my problem. Tripod was used, but I couldn't find my controller. Haven't seen it since my shoot with Frenchie. But I set a delay on the shutter so that it would shoot 1 second after I pressed the button.

As much as I liked your tripod I promise I didn't take >D

[Pharkus]

As much as I liked your tripod I promise I didn't take >D

If you do have it Frenchie, pass it down this way until I get my Manfrotto =)

[Byza]

Yup same thing with my shots that I found as well John. The various settings that you can manipulate for less noise is lower ISO (but you need longer exposure time), decrease aperture (which should increase size of the "hole" dunno what to call it, that lets light through) or as mentioned increase exposure time. You at least have a tripod so you can experiment some with a balance between the three. I've found that the bigger the aperture the more blurred the background, so I reckon you still have to balance this with the other two to achieve the desired result. I hope I'm making sense here.

But what a difference it makes to the pics if you are a photoshop expert!!!

... just remember that with a higher aperture, the longer the required exposure.... (easy way to remember... lower the f, greater the light in the shot and vise versa, higher the f, less light for long exposure required) also usually the higher aperture, the more accurate the image?? ie f9-11 is usually optium for neatrual shots of foreground/background clarity.. i am unsure how with a high aperture you achieve a blurred background... i found shooting at f5 for say 3mins with focus on subject, you wont have a very sharp backgroud due to the mentioned....

you cannot do any shot longer then say 1 sec without a tripod unless you are a human statue!!!

thanks to wiki....

"The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's degree of exposure to light. Typically, a fast shutter speed will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter speed will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure.


Diagram of decreasing aperture sizes (increasing f-numbers) for "full stop" increments (factor of two aperture area per stop)A device called a diaphragm usually serves as the aperture stop, and controls the aperture. The diaphragm functions much like the iris of the eye – it controls the effective diameter of the lens opening. Reducing the aperture size increases the depth of field, which describes the extent to which subject matter lying closer than or farther from the actual plane of focus appears to be in focus. In general, the smaller the aperture (the larger the number), the greater the distance from the plane of focus the subject matter may be while still appearing in focus.

The lens aperture is usually specified as an f-number, the ratio of focal length to effective aperture diameter. A lens typically has a set of marked "f-stops" that the f-number can be set to. A lower f-number denotes a greater aperture opening which allows more light to reach the film or image sensor. The photography term "one f-stop" refers to a factor of √2 (approx. 1.41) change in f-number, which in turn corresponds to a factor of 2 change in light intensity.

Aperture priority is a semi-automatic shooting mode used in cameras. It allows the photographer to choose an aperture setting and allow the camera to decide the shutter speed and sometimes ISO sensitivity for the correct exposure. This is sometimes referred to as Aperture Priority Auto Exposure, A mode, Av mode, or semi-auto mode.[3]"

http://i41.tinypic.com/23hqdma.png

[Frenchie]

Great info gents - looks like I really need to consult my manual again.

[Pharkus]

That's what I was trying to get across. Unfortunately brain was fried at work.