Camera Labs

MIDNIGHT GMT 21 AUGUST 2009: POLLS CLOSED - WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congratulations to palakaboy who has won July's Assignment with a decisive 13% of the total votes. In second place is Q u e n t i n with 6%, followed by WestCoast, daisy, Nelepl and thestig2010 who all came joint third with 4% of the votes each. As always, congratulations to everyone who entered, especially our first-timers.

As always, this means the winner, palakaboy, has until the end of August to suggest a theme for September's assignment, along with any rules. You have until 31 August to do so, although sooner is always better so we can start thinking! As always, please let us know what the theme is in July's Q&A thread.

Gordon


MIDNIGHT GMT 31 JULY 2009: SUBMISSIONS CLOSED! VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE! POLLS CLOSE 21 AUGUST.


Hi everyone! Welcome to July's Assignment!

The theme for this month is "extremes", as suggested by Laurel who won the May 2009 competition. Be sure to read this whole message for the rules.

In Laurel's own words:

"Since July is one of the hottest months for us in the northern hemisphere, something that comes to mind is 'extremes'. As for post processing, anything goes!"

The rules!

1: You can only submit one image and it has to be taken during July 2009. Photos taken earlier will be disqualified!

2: All images submitted must be no more than 500 pixels on their longest side, although you can include a link to a full resolution version if you like. Flickr users must link back to the original version to comply with its latest rules.

As always, please exercise good judgement on what is suitable for the forum. See the Forum Rules for guides.

Please include a sentence or two with your photo describing what you were trying to achieve and if there were any particular challenges in doing so like, for example, any special exposure or lighting setup.

We're all enthusiasts here, so it's also great to see what equipment you used and the settings too. So please also include the following:

Camera Model:
Lens and focal length:
Aperture:
Shutter Speed:
Sensitivity:
Post processing:

Submissions will close at midnight GMT on 31st July 2009. The final poll will follow.

Please remember this thread is for submissions only. If you'd like to comment on any of the submissions or ask any questions, please do so in the July 2009 Comments and Questions thread!

Thanks and good luck!

Gordon

Extreme streetlight
This was taken in Spain at night with my wide angle. I wanted the streetlight to look almost like a sun in the dark night.

Canon EOS 40D
Sigma 10-20mm @ 10mm (16mm equivalent)
30Second exposure
F/4
ISO100
I brightened some shadows and added some contrast in Photoshop.
Original size (though compressed)

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Canon 40D | Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM | Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM | Canon BG-E2N | Canon Speedlite 580EXII |

This is my submission:



In my opinion, extremes don't always have to apply to things of a grand scale. Natures functioning, down to the smallest of details, is defined by extremes.

The photo was taken with an Olympus E-30 with the following settings:
ISO Speed: 200
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: f4.0
Exposure: 1/500

Thanks for Your consideration!
Link To Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24648553@N ... otostream/

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My Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/24648553@N04/
My Gear:
Olympus E-30
Olympus 14-54mm & 50mm Macro
FL-36
Lowepro Slingshot 200

Last Saturday saw “extreme” thunder and lightning. Come sundown a small sliver of light protruded from the clouds exposing a burst of light.

No PP all natural
Edit: new photo

Extreme viper. Extremely venomous.
Exp: .002
Apperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 210
ISO: 200
Camera Model: Sony Alpha 700
Post Processing, selected the viper, copied and pasted on black background.

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Sony Alpha 700, Minolta 70-210 f/4 and some other stuff

Experience it is , our ancestors got it the hard way , and we get it the easy way. we should always appreciate what they had to get through to make us live the way we live.


View it large please , it makes the whole difference in the world.

Camera: Canon 40D
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/5 seconds
focal length: 75mm
Sensitivity: 100 ISO

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A. Refaat
Canon 40D | 17-85mm IS USM | Fujifilm finepix S5800
My Flickr

Taken July 9th, 2009
Camera: GX-10 Lens: FA 100mm macro
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/800th of a second
ISO 100
Post processing includes Lightroom 2 (very slight increases in highlights+light and decreases in shadow+dark areas)

Meditating (stretching) before we had to start jogging. Taken around 7:09. So strange seeing a person so calm and then beings running frivolously for 2 hours. Sure proves people can be pushed to their extremes.

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Samsung GX-10, , SA 18-55mm
Canon 5D Mark II, 40D, EF 17-40mm f/4 L, EF 24-105mm L IS, EF 50mm f/1.4

www.flickr.com/glxlr

Apologies to Salvador Dali who must be spinning in his grave at this rip-off of his style!

Zero to infinity against the vault of the sky with the vastness of space beyond is about as far as I dare stretch this idea.



Multi-layer composition in Photoshop. Zero and Infinity symbols lifted from the internet, shadow effect created by duplicating the image, reducing intensity and adding Gaussian blur. Perspective effect by using Transform >> Distort. Confronted with a weird-shaped image I then added a further sky layer behind and reduced its density to project the frame forward.

All a bit OTT ... but I was struggling for ideas this month.

Canon G7 Powershot for sky picture... programme setting ISO 200, 1/500th @ f.11

The sun was setting and it's light was extreme! Too bright to even properly look through the viewfinder, and it resulted in some flare as well. Ended up with some pretty extreme shutter speeds as well, this one's only 1/5000th, but I took others at 1/8000th.

Camera Model: Sony DSLR-A700
Lens and focal length: Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G SSM @ 200mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/5000th
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Post processing: quick RAW processing, levels, decreased saturation slightly, a little crop and framing.

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

In the Mojave its gets upwards of 120F, on this day we hit 108F and in the afternoon the wind picked up and blew this storm over our heads however I had a key hole view of the sun setting under the storm clouds, there was a fair amount of dust in the air which added to the deep reds we see. You can also see some precipitation in the right side of the cloud formation, it was a moment of extremes for me. I only had a compact Digi on me but I thought it worthy to share with regards to the subject.

Having been in the heat all day with this change and I had quite a strong emotional reaction to Mother Nature and what she can bring, taken 01 July 2009.




Camera Model: PowerShot SD1100 IS
Lens and focal length: 6.2mm (38mm equivalent)
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/400th
Sensitivity: ISO 80

A contrast adjustment and resizing.

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Why isn't phonetically spelled the way it sounds?

Extremely Hot!

Lit using a smith-victor hot light, ambient lighting- a very cooperative, patient model (it was 80 degrees, ridiculously humid, and there were ants crawling all over here)... one might say she was extremely patient and extremely cooperative



link to large:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2473/371 ... b722_b.jpg

Canon EOS40D
Shutter: 1/40th
Aperture: F1.8
Focal: 50mm
ISO: 160

PP: Lightroom 2.3
Contrast, shadows, vibrance, highlight recovery, clarity, parametric darks, parametric lights, parametric highlights, parametric shadow split, parametric midtone split, parametric highlight split. sharpen detail

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Sony A850 | Sony Battery Grip | Carl Zeiss 24-70 Vario-Sonnar T f/2.8 | Sony 70-200G f/2.8 SSM | Lensbaby Composer Pro | Sony HVL-F58AM

Alienbees B800 (x3) | Alienbees Cyber Commander | CSR+ Receivers | Grids, Softbox, Gels, Manfrotto/Century/Avenger stands

www.flickr.com/frankiewithers
www.fkwstudio.blogspot.com
www.fkwstudio.com

Seems a stark contrast to the nice picture above this post but here it is...

Extremely Ugly!



Canon 400D
EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 at 47mm
25mm Extension tube
f/22 for 1/15s at ISO 400.

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Canon EOS 400D, EF-S 18-55mm, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, EF 50mm f/1.8 MK I, EF-S 10-22mm, EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM, EF 28mm f/1.8, EF 85mm f/1.8
Canon 430EX II, Manfrotto 055CXPRO3, Arca Swiss P0
Panasonic GF3, Panasonic 20mm f/1.7, Olympus 45mm f/1.8

MY FLICKR!

Flavours from the absolute opposite ends of the taste spectrum sometimes combine very successfully, I only took this picture so that I could suck the honey-soaked lemon afterward!


Canon EOS 350D 18-55mm kit lens ISO 200 1/2 sec @ f.22 on mini tripod. Available light with white brolly reflector to lighten the shadows. PP: Crop, resize.

Extreme safety in numbers. My take on extreme is that instead of one or two safety pins there are so many making it extreme. Sue.




Taken with my siggy
F 6.3 1/125 200mm shutter priority ISO 1600
pp Very slightly cropped and adjusted brightness.

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canon 400D
18-55 lens
tamron70-300 lens
sigma 18-200 os lens

All my photos are clickable
my flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27828538@N03/

Extremely big, loud, and close.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2575/3718839319_6d687299c2_o.jpg


Camera Model: D90
Lens and focal length: 18-105 taken at 18
Aperture: 3.5
Shutter Speed: 10 seconds
Sensitivity:200
Post processing: Saturation

Bonus note: Camera was resting on my knee while I was sitting on the ground. Dont have a tripod yet. So I use kneepod. haha

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Nikon D90
AF-S 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6
AF-S 60mm F/2.8 Macro
My Flickr